Jellyfish and Fishin'

Love that "Live view" it came in handy on this shot.

Fish on!

As my partner, Jason, and I waited for a float plane to pick us up, we spotted some jellyfish. I grabbed my polarizer to cut down the reflections in the water and snapped several photos.

The jellyfish cooperated by posing at different angles.

Back to Wrangell

The jellyfish seemed to be posing as a starfish in this photo.

A Southeast Alaska waterway. I was supposed to fly back to Wrangell but Wrangell was completely socked in. So we landed at the airport in Petersburg. I walked over to the Alaska airlines ticket counter to see if I could catch a flight to Wrangell. But unfortunately the weather was so that not even a commercial jet could fly into Wrangell due to heavy fog. Eventually the wonderful Alaska Airlines folks invited me to catch a ride on a shuttle bus down to Banana Pt and from there to Wrangell with Breakaway Adventures. I was overjoyed.

Looking at the water and sky from Banana Pt.

I believe this is somewhere near Greys Pass as we were getting closer to Wrangell. Not long after this point visibility decreased to 100-200 feet all the to Wrangell. Happily we eventually made it home.

Marsha Peak Trip

Bob and I were anxious to do some kind of trip due to the pleasant weather after the 4th of July. We decided to take on Marsha peak and maybe a little more on July 6-8. We pulled out of the harbor a little before 8am on a lovely day.

Looking back at our wake.

I borrowed a canoe from a friend and ended up buying it a couple weeks later. When we walked the canoe up on shore I spotted a four leaf clover and snapped a photo as Bob checked our survival stash.

After paddling a couple miles across Virginia Lake and a couple hundred yards up Porterfield creek, we stashed the canoe next to the creek and began the serious portion of our hike.

Hiking

A columbine adds color to the shores of Porterfield Creek.

Bob snaps a photo in one of the lower muskegs that we would cross.

The last time I crossed Porterfield Creek near this location, things looked much different. The logs I had previously crossed had been washed away and there was a jumble of smaller logs downstream. Adding to the risk was the fast moving, icy cold water. After crossing the stream I took off my boots and waded about calf deep into the water. That was all it took. Sharp pains started shooting through my feet and then ankles, I quickly jumped back on shore and let the sun and warm rocks thaw my frosty feet.

Ridge Top

Due to the warm weather, I underestimated my water needs. Bob gave me a few of his final gulps and we were certain that we would at least find a stream or something. The warm dry weather had conspired against us and it wasn't until this point, high up on the ridge, when we finally found some snow and fresh water. We took a nice long break and watched a cloud form over Wrangell and Etolin Islands.

Bob hikes up a snowfield toward our eventual campsite. Marsha Peak is visible in the distance.

Bob flies a kite as the clouds grow ominous.

Safety

Soon after we had set up the tent a cloud started forming above us and the rumbling in the distance got louder and closer. We started dropping down the ridge to avoid any potential lightning. Here Bob watches the light show over south Etolin Island.

When dropping off the side of the ridge, I noticed a very unique spring. It looked like a drinking fountain coming out the side of the mountain. It was good water and very cold.

The winds were becoming gusty and we began to hear rumblings from the cloud above us. When I looked back up the mountain at it, the cloud had become a mammatus.

A Discovery

I've seen some pretty nice sunsets over the years but this was the first time that I have seen one with mammatus clouds. The mammatus were breaking up by this time but it was certainly a unique sunset. The dark clouds on the left hand side of the frame were bringing heavy rains to Woronkofski and southern Wrangell Island. People in town were being treated to a spectacular light show. Christina and some other neighbors were out on their respective decks cheering on the lightning over Woronkofski.

About this time we made a very unpleasant discovery. The wind died down and the mosquitoes came out with a vengeance.

Another sunset shot. On this and the previous photos, I did a lot of "healing" to make the mosquitoes disappear.

These were just the mosquitoes that were ahead of me. The main cloud of mosquitoes were behind me. At this point were were hustling for the protection of the tent. As Bob and I were preparing for the trip we were discussing the need for a tent. We finally decided that a rain fly would be advisable just in case we got hit with a squall. I almost decided to leave the tent but eventually decided that we should bring it. Whew! We were sure glad that we had mosquito protection.

Marsha Peak

One last sunset view. We were scampering up the hill to get away from the mosquitos.

The following day we attempted to eat a breakfast away from the mosquitos. We were not successful. It didn't take much coaxing to get us moving up the mountain. Our plan for the day was to hike up Marsha and possibly make our way toward Mt. Waters. Here Bob looks over the huge Glacier Creek waterfalls. These falls can be heard from a couple miles away.

Looking back toward Virginia Lake and beyond the lake, Wrangell Island.

It didn't take us too long to get to the top of Marsha. The scenery that awaited us was lovely! I didn't realize the Nelson Glacier was so large. The last time I was up here, we could only see about a hundred feet or so. As always, SE Alaska looks a lot different when the sun shines.

Rest Stop

We hiked along the fringe of Nelson Glacier toward Mt. Waters.

Bob hikes a ridge toward an old mine site (Groundhog basin).

Wish I had a newspaper. Although a newspaper was hardly necessary with the splendid view of the Nelson Glacier.

One of the corner markers for the Groundhog Basin mining claim. Wrangell Island is visible in the distance on the other side of the ocean. Well, at least on the other side of the channel.

Mount Waters

We took a break here so we could douse ourselves with sunscreen. The rugged pyramid shaped mountain in the background is Mount Waters.

Bob climbs a steep section of the Nelson Glacier toward a glacier on the opposite side of Mount Waters. Nice boots huh?

The route up Mt. Waters was steep with lots of little outcrops and boulders. It made climbing up a lot of fun.

Once we got to the top we surveyed the vast ice fields and glaciers below. About one and a half to two miles away I noticed what I thought was a mountain goat. But I quickly realized that mountain goats aren't dark colored and figured that I must be looking at a crevasse. After snacking on some sausage and cheese, and enjoying the nice sunshine Bob or I looked back over an ice field above Nelson Glacier, not far from where we had hiked just a little earlier. We instantly realized there was a bear walking toward our new packs! If that wasn't bad enough, we had both left food inside our packs! I looked up toward the "crevasse" I had seen earlier and realized that the crevasse was actually the bear a long distance away. (that dark dot in the snow is the bear)

The bear was trying to get down toward the main part of Nelson Glacier and was having difficulty doing so because of the crevasses blocking its way. This was leading him directly toward our packs. We were unable to see our packs and eventually the bear disappeared as it walked directly toward them. What happened to the packs??? We would only find out when we hiked down to them.

Fate of the Packs

Bob ponders the fate of our packs high atop Mount Waters. We both had new packs and we kept imagining that stupid bear tearing into them to get the little bit of food that we had left in them.

Looking toward Fredrick sound in the background. A small glacier fills the valley about a thousand feet below.

We decided to do a group photo before heading down the mountain and learning the fate of our packs.

Fortunately the bear decided to leave our packs alone. We followed his tracks across much of the Nelson glacier. This is a view of the old mining camp building. A refrigerator is still visible on the top of the old camp floor. I wouldn't mind having a camp here if I were a miner. What views!