Notes From the Far North - Part Two

Their "summer office" is a boat in the far North...on the Yukon River. They study the Peregrine Falcons along the river each year, counting nesting pairs, then counting babies about two weeks later. Such a life, what a job! These are notes from my daughter and son-in-law. I am sharing them with their permission, so you can enjoy the beauty of this wonderful land!

 Root Glacier

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

Greetings from the Land of the Midnight Sun!

Thought you might like to see a few photos from our trip down to McCarthy, AK in Wrangell-St. Elias NP.  Our route followed the pipeline south and it was beautiful scenery the whole way!  The little town of McCarthy sits next to the little mill town of Kennicott.  Kennicott was the site of a copper processing mill high on the hills above Root Glacier.  It was no easy task getting copper out of the mountains here back in the early 1900s, but it the copper was such a high grade that it was worthwhile.  We decided there must have been some real tough characters who came here to work back then.  It had to have been a hard life.  We had a nice hike up to the glacier and camped in some pretty nice spots on this trip.

Kennecot Copper Mill, McCarthy, AK

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

We are getting ready to go back to the Yukon tomorrow to count peregrine nestlings and then we head home!  Hope you are enjoying your summer!

~Chris, Skip, and Abbey

Get out and explore!
Pat

Notes From the Far North - Part Three

Their "summer office" is a boat in the far North...on the Yukon River. They study the Peregrine Falcons along the river each year, counting nesting pairs, then counting babies about two weeks later. Such a life, what a job! These are notes from my daughter and son-in-law. I am sharing them with their permission, so you can enjoy the beauty of this wonderful land!

Bundled up and scoping out the valley.

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

 

A few more photos for you...

Musk Ox

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

Trans Alaska Pipeline

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

We spent the past few days driving up the Haul Road almost all the way to Prudhoe Bay.  The "haul road" was built to facilitate the building of the pipeline and get supplies to Prudhoe Bay.  It goes north from Fairbanks, through the Brooks Range, skirts the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on one side and Gates of the Arctic NP on the other, and on to the North Slope.  It is some of the most scenic countryside in Alaska.  I had never been up the Haul Road but Skip and I had both been to Prudhoe Bay so we didn't feel the need to drive into Deadhorse (end of the road).  We went as far as Sagwon Bluffs and had an amazing trip.  Again, our route followed the pipeline, only north this time.  There are lots of raptors that nest up here (gyrfalcons, peregrines, golden eagles, rough-legged hawks) and I saw 2 more "new" birds (Smith's Longspur and Northern Wheatear!!).  We saw wolves, musk ox, and lots of Dall sheep.  I'm already looking forward to going back.  But for now...it's back to the Yukon.  More later.

~Chris, Skip, and Abbey

Get out and explore!
Pat

Notes From the Far North

Their "summer office" is a boat in the far North...on the Yukon River.  They study the Peregrine Falcons along the river each year, counting nesting pairs, then counting babies about two weeks later.  Such a life, what a job!  These are notes from my daughter and son-in-law.  I am sharing them with their permission, so you can enjoy the beauty of this wonderful land!

Yukon River

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

Greetings from the Far North!

We just returned from 3 weeks of surveying for falcons out on the Yukon River.  It was a great trip, a little rainy but we stayed nice and dry in the Dream Boat (love that Dream Boat!!!).  Before this trip, we thought that the peregrine population was leveling off at about 53-54 occupied territories in our 160 mile study area.  We were wrong.  This year we found 60 occupied territories!  We were hoping to get one or two more territories, but 6 more was a pleasant surprise.  Just when you think you might know what's going on around here, you find out you really don't.  Needs more research, as we like to say!

My Granddog, Abbey

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

Big chunks of ice on the Yukon River

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

We tried a few new recipes this trip and the big hit was the fresh baked bread.  The first loaf was a beautiful Yukon Sourdough and the second was the super easy No Knead Bread recipe.  It took some guess-work to figure our the right number of coals for the Dutch Oven, but it all worked out fine.  We got some sourdough starter from our favorite little restaurant up here and made sourdough pancakes too.  Not as good as Sourdough Sam's pancakes, but still good.

Rainbow on the Yukon on a stormy night

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

We are going to do a little traveling around here before we go back out to the Yukon again in July.  More photos coming soon!

~Chris, Skip, and Abbey the Wonder Dog of the Yukon

Get out and explore!
Pat