Back to Alaska

I got back to Alaska yesterday afternoon after an extended weekend in Detroit. First order of business: fix a washing machine that has stopped draining. Solution: pull a whole bunch of crap out of the drain pump filter. Final tally: 45 cents (one quarter, two dimes), one golf tee, tweezers, a necklace, old candy wrappers and a whole bunch of general muck, most of which was dog hair.

Did you make it past that gross first picture? If so, here are some awesome pictures from the flight back to Alaska. The water on the left side of the photo is College Fjord in Prince William Sound, with Harvard Glacier at the head of the fjord and numerous other collegiately-named glaciers all around. Unfortunately it's hard to make out in this picture, but Mount Marcus Baker (the highest point in the Chugach Mountains at over 13,000 feet) is almost directly above the toe of Harvard Glacier.

Hmmm.... Looks like it didn't quite show up in this picture, but Mt. Denali is on the horizon,

almost 200 miles away. The mountains in the foreground are just outside of Anchorage, 20 miles as the crow flies.

The Knik River Valley is in the center of this picture. During my second or third week of work I got to ride an ATV out to the point where the valley turns back to the left and disappears behind mountains in order to burn down an illegal cabin. Seriously. That was the best day of work ever.

I think that the glacier in the top-center of these mountains is where my friend Louis is doing the fieldwork for his masters. I love the fact that this scene basically shows the backside of the mountains that I can see from my house and it couldn't be any more wild.