Grand Tours, part 2

Just a few images on this one. I went on a door-to-door ski tour from my house last weekend. Got up, ate breakfast, walked out my door with Colin and Julee to the trailhead 2 blocks up the hill. We started off in the woods:


A little while later we were here:


It was hot out:


A massively wide panorama in google earth from the top of Sheep Mountain (double click on the weird blue "G" icon to enter the photo):


Julee descending Sheep Mountain:


Walking back to my house, nine glorious hours later:

Grand Tours, part 1

As the day of departure for Icy Bay quickly draws near (May 6!), I've been doing my best to get outside and recreate before I don't have another day off until August. The past two weekends have been grand here in "Little San Francisco." This is apparently one of Juneau's nicknames. Absurd! There aren't nearly enough hipsters up here for Juneau to grab that title. But, to the chagrin of hipsters everywhere, Juneau has much more to offer than their skinny jeans ever will.

Like this baby King Crab:

Barely a fish stick now, this little guy will be prized for his leg meat later on (more than most hipsters can say).

This Sunflower Star has nineteen legs. Need I say more?


A little over a week ago I went on a kayaking adventure with a few friends north of Juneau in Berner's Bay, a large inlet fed by a few big glacial rivers.



This time of year, the eulachon (a small forage fish) are running up into streams from the ocean to spawn, bringing in seals, sea lions, eagles, and gulls en masse to feast on the bounty. At one point we had at least twenty Bald Eagles circling overhead.

Mixed flocks of gulls (Glaucous-winged, Mew, and Bonaparte's) swarm to feed on eulachon:



Harbor seals take a break from snacking to pop their heads up and check me out:


Eagles and gulls working hard for the money:



This 3 day trip culminated with humpback whales surfacing and breaching all around us, a spectacle I was unable to capture with my camera. You'll just have to believe me!

Taking a break on the beach:


3 kayaks on a half-sized car:


Stay tuned for Part 2...

Time Travel Exists in Alaska

Herons and gulls in Juneau

Two weeks already? It feels like I got back to Juneau just yesterday. On top of that, it doesn't really feel like anything has changed here at all since I left a year and a half ago. The same folks are here, they are all still great people, I know how to get everywhere, the bus schedule is still the same. The thrift store moved to a new location, but, other than that, it seems like Juneau was frozen in time. It's as if Juneau was launched in to space and traveled at the speed of a light for the past 1.5 years, aging only a few seconds, while I stayed back here on Earth getting older. I never understood physics, but you get what I mean....

This Kingfisher hasn't changed a bit; he is still fishing the Mendenhall River next to my office, just where I left him in 2008.

I'm living in a great house on the hill above downtown Juneau. I share it with a marine biology professor.


All in all, it's pretty freakin awesome to be back here. It's a great change of pace from the Bay area. No traffic, my commute is 10 minutes (with lots of eagles along the way), we don't have to lock our door, and there are giant animals everywhere.


Humpback whale, you are so large.


Humpback whale, lunge-feeding, mouth agape.


Steller's sea lion, you are also large.


Large sea lions gather on rocks above the water where large whales feed below large mountains.

But let me take a minute to recognize the smaller, but equally awesome and overwhelming wildlife around town.


Great Blue Herons have spring fever, despite the snow.


Armies of Surf Scoters decimate benthic invertebrates by brute force...

While they may be small, they, too, hang out below large mountains...


Finally, let me acknowledge the small but ferocious murrelets, of which you will likely see many more photos in the weeks to come.


Marbled murrelets on the prowl, looking guilty.

More soon. Additional photos always available at http://jonfelis.smugmug.com/Alaska

Love,
Jon

British Columbia, will you marry me?

Well, I made it. Juneau. I know you were all desperately concerned for my safety and well-being; rest assured, all is well. The car, after a new alternator, battery, and 1800 miles of agonizing bliss through British Columbia and the Yukon, rolled on to the ferry in Skagway, AK, yesterday with the gas light on.

After crossing the coast ranges from Vancouver...

























...then following the deep canyons of the Fraser River (my new love)...



















...through the northern boreal forests...


















...and across the northernmost Rocky Mountains...


















...and back again to a deep arm of the Pacific Ocean in Skagway, we persevered.















Through rain and snow squalls, interrupted by dramatic oases of sunlight, down a road guarded by the Great Northern Oracles, my blessed car carried me to my new home.





















Left: Great Gray Owl. Right: Northern Hawk-owl.


There wasn't much time to stop and do anything, but what an amazing landscape! Check out some more pictures and cool panoramas from along the way in this interactive Google Earth window below (you need to have Google Earth installed on your computer for it to work).