Alaskan Cruise

We went on our Alaskan wildlife cruise the other day. It poured the entire time, and there were 10ft swells in the ocean - but it was still pretty cool. We had all our rain gear on and it wasn't anything as sketchy as "Deadliest Catch", so I figure we were pretty good. Ian however is not immune to sea sickness, so he was a little queesy through the rougher patches of ocean waves. I have some of the highlights from the trip here.

This is a dall porpoise that was riding along beside the boat for a while. There were really fast!

This is the humpback whale we saw.

A tufted puffin - they had the brightest orange feet (just like their beak).

Aialik Glacier - a tidewater glacier that we were able to see calving into the ocean.

Aialik Glacier

Ian was pretty serious. :)

Stellar sea lions

After the cruise, we were walking back up the docks and were able to see some sea otters eating a late dinner. We stopped and took a few pictures (maybe 600..)

A funny little sea otter

What a cutie!

We went to the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center, lured in by stories of how the animals are rescues, that they have a real focus on "research" and "breeding for reintroduction". It was a glorified zoo. I'm sure they do accomplish some good, but it's dissapointing to see a dozen elk penned into a small enclosure. It did afford some decent photography opportunities, so here they are!

Elk

Coyote. Apparently he chose to be there! He dug his way into the 18 acre (they were the only animals with a big area) grizzly pen. They decided to let him stay, and he seems to be enjoying it.

We watched him catch this mouse, play with it, and then decide to eat it.

Two of the three grizzly bears who shared the 18 acres with the coyote. You'd think that you wouldn't likely get to see bears in this large of an enclosure... but no no, they are trained. They come, sit, stand, pose against their little wooden log house (and look over their shoulder at you) all for pieces of a hot dog. So even though they have the whole complex they spend a lot of their time at the front doing little tricks. Ridiculous. The trainer left eventually and they did act a little more like bears then.

On the way back north from Seward to Anchorage, we stopped to see if we could find the belugas again, but no luck. We did see this ram dall sheep however, which was cool.

Here's another shot Ian made from the beluga whales:

Beluga whales!

We are headed to Denali National Park today.

Cheers!

Alaska Wildlife!

Well, we're in Alaska right now - Stewart, Alaska to be exact. Tomorrow we're going out on a wildlife cruise in the Kenai Fjords National Park, which should be really cool. We should see all kinds of animals on the cruise, but we've seen lots already. Everything in the north is so spread out, so there's a lot of open spaces for the wildlife to thrive in. I don't have too much to say, so I'll just show a bunch of photos I've taken in the last few days using my new camera. These, as usual, are barely edited, and greatly reduced in resolution. The originals are much bigger, better quality files (email me if you want a better copy of something).

Cheers,

Ian

Bald Eagle

Another Bald Eagle

Trumpeter Swans

Cygnet (baby swan) stretches its wings

Grizzly Bear (about 3 feet from the van) berry-picking

Black Bear munching on some roadside plants

Female Dall Sheep standing on cliff edge above the highway

Meghan down on the beach, watching a pod of about 30 Beluga Whales pass by (hard to see in this photo)

Beluga Whale with calf swimming feet from shore in the Cook Inlet

Driving North - WAY North...

You are now entering the Yukon Territory

Ya, the Yukon. Way north. After almost two weeks of great climbing in Squamish, with both Meghan and I getting a bit stronger, now both confidently leading 5.9 trad; and getting on some cool routes, including a 10-pitch (roughly 1000 feet) link-up of a couple of routes on 'The Chief', we got a day of rain. It started around noon, and wasn't really forecast to stop for almost a week, so we decided it would be a decent time to move on. So we started driving north. We headed up through BC, stopping in a few places along the way whenever there was cool stuff to see. At one point, we were just driving along the highway and 20 feet off the highway in a field we saw a bald eagle fighting with another large raptor (Golden eagle?, Immature bald eagle) over a deer carcass. It was an amazing sight. Of course, by the time I pulled out my camera, all I got was them flying away...

Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle (?)

We continued on, stopping at random places that looked cool, like this wildlife sanctuaries.

Another Golden Eagle?

Not sure what kind of bird this is.

We also made a bit of a side trip to Takysie (ta-Kai-zee) Lake, where a huge osprey population come to feed. We rented a canoe and took it out on the lake, and got to watch them in action. They soar overhead, scanning the lake for fish swimming too close to the surface for their own good. Once it spots its prey, it enters a steep dive, crashing into the water, often emerging with a fish cluthed in its talons. Quite a sight.

An osprey circles, searching for prey

Taking back off out of the water, unsuccessful on this attempt

Continuing on, we started up the Cassair Highway, driving north through western BC. On the advice of some random strangers we'd just met, we took the detour west from the highway out to Stewart, BC and it's sister city (hamlet...) of Hyder, Alaska. We were treated to beautiful mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls along the highway on the way there.

Hyder is home to a wildlife viewing area, known widely for the great viewing of predators that come to feed on the salmon as they make their way upstream. Black bears, grizzlies, wolves, and bald eagles frequent fish creek, above which a long boardwalk has been erected for viewing. The salmon had only begin to run when we were there, so all we saw was one black bear, a few bald eagles, and a beaver, but it was still pretty cool.

Hyder is only accessible by the one road through BC, and as such the Americans decided it wasn't even worth the effort to put in a border station. Make sure you have your passports with you though, because the Canadian side of the border is manned, and you could get yourself stranded (though the border guard seemed kinda bored, and was more interested in casual conversation that the usual official questions).

The "Wall of Tears" on the drive to Stewart

Bear Glacier

A beaver who had built his dam adjacent to the wildlife viewing platform outside Hyder, AK

Bald eagle posing for the photographers, not realizing it was a little too dark to get really good shots

After that little adventure, we headed back to the Cassair Highway and continued north up to it's terminus in the Yukon Territory at the Alaskan Highway. A immature black bear was nice enough to have his lunch right next to the highway, allowing me to get a couple of great shots with my new camera. The scenery here is also very pretty, with lakes, mountains, and unspoiled wilderness everywhere.

A black bear having some lunch beside the highway

He didn't seem to mind the camera (don't worry, I didn't even get out of the van to get these shots)

Lakes, wildflowers, and mountains

We're currently in Whitehorse, YT, where we'll spend the night tonight. Tomorrow we continue west to Haines Junction, YT, where we'll head south on another side trip to Haines, AK; home to the Chilkat Bald Eagle preserve, among other things. Should be fun.

Ian

Updates from Squamish

I decided to do a "catching up" blog post of primarily pictures. Here are the best shots from my camera for the last couple of weeks, complete with captions.

San Francisco: The hills were crazy intense in the van - I was thankful Ian was driving!

Sea Kayaking was a blast - the weather held out for us.

We went in a tree on Meres Island. Ian was scared...

They were pretty big trees though!

One of the many starfish we saw while kayaking - I thought they were pretty cool!

Ian showing off his stuff.

Ian showing off his stuff, again.

But it is some pretty good stuff!

This was our booth in Victoria where we sold photography at the market. It worked out really well, and people quite liked the photos. I do think it's worth noting that the very first picture to sell was a picture of my Grandpa Mullin's farm.

There is one small change in the picture vs real life - any guesses?

So I turned 26

at the top of the Chief - a big hike/ rock climb in Squamish. I hiked up early so I was able to watch the sunrise from the top. I had a great birthday!

Complete with a turtle cheesecake and strawberries - Ian believes it impossible to celebrate a birthday without cake.

We've been getting a bit of climbing in lately - this is a climb we did today called Easter Island, a 5.8 trad climb. That's me standing at the top (for everyone who is stressing right now, I'm of course clipped directly into the bolts and totally safe).

And me getting ready to come down on rappel after leading a 5.8!

Ian and I at the top of another climb (Penny Lane, 5.9). The bright yellow helmet is a new addition to the gear - my old one broke, so MEC replaced it under warranty and I decided to get a different style that fits my big head better (as Ian would say 'an orange on a toothpick...')

So that's the update via some photos. Life is going well in the van and we are really enjoying Squamish. There's a fantastic rec centre complete with hot tub, steam room, diving board and lap lanes (all for less than 5 bucks!). The showers are pretty nice too, so we've been enjoying that. Ian claims he has been starving (possibly to death) for the last half hour while I wrote the blog post, so we should head off and get some dinner. Cheers.