Return To Alaska

 I have returned to Alaska, and it was a triumphant return!  Looking back at this past week makes me remember how nice my life is.  It wasn't sunny the whole week, but there were spots of sunlight, and we went to a few new places.  We kayaked in Red Bluff Bay, the first time I had done that.  It was a night kayak and off we went into the sunset.  There is a giant waterfall we paddled up to, seen in this picture of my fellow guide, Mike.

There were breaching humpbacks, flipping and trying to fly...

 We came in really close to the wall of the fjord near Margerie Glacier and I got a view of some nesting Kittiwakes...

 There was a really special Brown Bear that we followed along the shore for a little while.  he didn't seem to care too much for our presence, just ambling along.

 And mountain goats..

 It was sunny for our Glacier Bay Day and I took a small nap on the deck...

 There were puffins at South Marble island...

 Then we started to see Orca.  We saw Orcas in Glacier Bay, then another group in Idaho inlet (see below) and then again that night the same group just outside Idaho inet.  Three times for Orcas is amazing.  They were playing around skiffs and kayaks, very cool.

 We went to Port Althorp, which is near a place I had been before (George island) but still new.  It is on the coast, or just next to the coast, and full of whales, cool waters and as I turned around the bend and went out into the open waters....

 Puffins awaited me at a small rock out at sea.  Not just Tufted Puffins, but the elusive Horned Puffins.  I think they are cuter.  There were many of these kind and we got a nice long look at them.

 Also some sea otters in the kelp.

 Mama with baby...

 And a sea otter was eating a kind of Sea Cucumber.  This kind (the Orange Sea Cucumber) lives underground but sends up the fronds to collect things to eat.  The otter managed to get ahold of it and pulled it up and started munching.  We watched him eat for a while but he didn't mind the company.

 I like the eggs spilling all over the otters face as he closes his eyes with glee munching on the weird things!

A hike down Shangri-la canyon

I did a hike with my brother the other day, it was through a place I had described before in a blog post, but this time we brought a rope and climbed down all the waterfalls and got very wet in the process.  I made a video about it all, which is here:

Fishing with Dad

 I went up to Bellingham and went fishing with my dad.  We drove up to a place in BC, near Camloops, to fish out on a lake for trout.  Before we left, however, there was a nice little hummingbird sitting on a nest at my dad's place.  Lovely little feller.
So my dad is a great fisherman, he can catch fish if they are to be caught.  He caught the first and many more fish than I got, but I might have got the largest....!
We fished using flies, and in a way that I hadn't tried before, where the flies are very far down in the water and the fish cruise by and pick them off.

 Landing a nice fish.

 We weren't the only one out there fishing.  In addition to a few other humans, there was a nice and friendly Common Loon.  Since we were in Canada, the mascot of the $1 coin was watching over us I guess.  He came over to look as we caught fish and was expecting a meal out of it, I guess.  We waited until he left to release the fishes.



I went for a few walks around the lake and the surrounding lakes and there were tons and tons of birds.  Goldeneyes with all their ducks in a row...

 The tiniest baby Dark Eyed Juncos in the nest...

 A Tiger Lily... (not a bird)

 A Western Tanager!

 And Ruddy Ducks!   These were great and they held their tails so high and had such bright blue bills.  I like them.

 I'd never met a Mountain Blue Bird before...

 And the Damsel flies were making hearts!

 I also hadn't seen this Yellow Headed Blackbird.  Sort of self-explanitory

 And I saw a pair of Cinnamon Teals!  They swam near me and they are the cutest little duck, about half as big as a mallard.

 It was a nice trip.  I'd like to go back and focus only on birding, and camp out in many more places, maybe do a road trip all the way up to Prince George or to Terrace, where a friend of mine lives...

Kite-tube

My friend Danny invented the sport of Kite Tubing, a sport similar to Kiteboarding but a little slower, and I was involved in the first edition.  It is quite simple (and it might have been done before):  Step one:  Find an inner tube to float on.  Step two: fly a kite and pull yourself around.  Its a lot like sailing on a boat with no control.  I think it might be a nerd/hick cooperative activity, because it takes a nerd to get the kite and a hick to get the inner tube.  In this case, Danny provided both.  Of course, I flew a camera to see how it looks from above.  The other photos were taken by Danny on his phone.
 We floated across Greenlake three times and it was a blast.  I recommend this to anyone, but the trouble is, you need a good way of launching the kite without getting it all wet.  Probably the best way is to have a fishing pole.

 This last shot is over the eastern shore of Greenlake and it is nice to see how the path works around the lake.  I maxxed out the spool of line we had and I would have liked to go farther, but there are helicopters and planes that fly through the area sometimes and I didn't want to cause any trouble.

Birthday week

 I had a nice birthday.  We went to Glacier Bay and everyone on board wished me a happy birthday.  Also we saw a few things this week that were very nice.  I saw 11 bears this week, a few Northern Pintails (the real ones, not decoys) and two wolves.  Wolves!  Here is a picture of the first bears.  There was a cute little cub (3 cubs with this mama) that crawled over a log and nearly fell down.
Then there were the pinails.  I kayaked out in the Magouns and the ducks were dabbling around in the shallows.  We had to fight a bit of a headwind going up and saw the ducks and then came back with the wind and I flew the kite from the kayak.  It was nice.  After that, the whales came out and lunged and ate happily around us while we watched with a nice sunset.

 Then the next morning there was another mama with cubs.  I got to go paddle over to them right off and they were quite nice to us, chomping on the grass gently.

 Then we drove the skiffs during lunchtime to go over to our afternoon spot.

 and my fellow crewmembers and I had a nice time of it.

Then it was my birthday.  We went into Glacier Bay for the day and got a chance to see wolves!

The next day we went to the Inian islands, one of my favorite places and I got a few pictures of some cool things.  A sea lion on a rock...

 A sea otter in the water...

 Again...

 And an Eagle eating an Octopus...!

 more...

 And a  harbor seal that was super new-born. Look closely at the photo and find the baby's umbilical cord!

 Then we saw Orcas.

 A fantastic week.