I’ve got a few days off from work, so I’m roaming around Alaska (finally!). Tuesday and Wednesday I ran our SeaArk up river from the Million Dollar Bridge to Chitina, stopping at Baird Camp and Canyon Creek camp along the way.


McCarthy is about 65 miles up a dead-end road.

The only public access to the town is over a foot bridge, and either a mile walk or a paid shuttle bus from there. Friday night I walked into town and had a few beers at the local bar. I camped along the river near the footbridge. Saturday morning after a simple breakfast, the pups and I made the 4.5 mile walk up to the abondoned town of Kennicott. This area was purchased by the National Park Service in the mid 90s, and so far they have done very little with it except for closing up the buildings.

It was a nice walk though. The day was perfectly sunny and warm.

Well, we have a lot of time on our hands out here in wild Alaska. What to do with it all? Build bombs of course! Tonight I’ve been experimenting with several designs. The first design is a PVC pipe, sealed on both ends with epoxy, and filled with shotgun powder and ignited with cannon fuse. The glue is still drying on that. Since I couldn’t wait, I decided on another design that doesn’t require glue. You use aluminum tubing, and crimp the ends tight after filling with powder. It proved very effective. The shrapnel was found ~ 20′ from the crater. You can download a movie of the exlosion here. The file is ~ 7mb, and you will need quicktime viewer. Enjoy.

This is an image I’m putting on the Eyakfish website. I think Keith took it while at our camp. Very cool!

Best Mom ever!

I thought I’d share some pics of my home-away-from-home.

Here’s my cozy tent:

And my handwashed laundry, hanging in the sun:

Anna and Oscar’s side of the tent:

And the office side of the tent:

I have a solar panel and deep-cycle battery setup that allow my laptop to charge, and I installed a wireless network around the island. It makes a peaceful place to work for sure! I’ve been setting up a website for the Eyak Environmental Department. You can see my progress at Eyakfish. It’s not at all fancy, but I think it will be better than no website, which is what they’ve had.

What can be better on the 4th of July than an action movie in Widescreen next to a raging fire, in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness? We couldn’t think of anything better last night!

Today for a change, Joe and I crossed the river and took the pups for a hike along the old railroad bed that connected Cordova to McCarthy back in the copper days. We hiked about 5.5 miles upstream to Haily Creek and back. It was a really beautiful day. Even the mosquitos were enjoying it!