Month: September 2018

Tormented Valley, Yukon Territory – Search for Gold

Tormented Valley, Yukon Territory

Lakes and rock formations of the Tormented Valley in Yukon Territory, Canada.
The road from Skagway, AK to Carcross, YT runs through many landscapes.
But none stranger or more potent than Tormented Valley with its brilliant green lakes.
Bedrock here is encrusted with lichens or many colors and textures.
Add a cold wind, and this can be a forbidding place.

Tormented Valley-Yukon Terr
Tormented Valley-Yukon Terr

But today the shining gold aspen trees against dark green spruce and pine made Tormented Valley seem more like open-air vault for landscape riches. See tomorrow’s post for golden hillsides.Wild autumn colors: Quaking Aspen trees. Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Quaking Aspen-Whitehorse BC
Quaking Aspen-Whitehorse BC

Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) leaves flutter in the wind, an adaptation that helps them withstand strong winds—giving in rather than fighting against the breeze.
These thickets of trees are colonies that all sprout from the same roots.
The individual trees don’t live much more than 100 years, but some aspen root colonies are believed to live many thousands of years, perhaps as much as 80,000 years.
Also may be the largest organism on earth, spreading over many miles, although not verified.
For now, I’m thrilled to see their golden quaking leaves on every mountain and roadside as we travel through the Yukon Territory.

On the road with brother in law, Tim Troll, my adventure pal.

 

 

Apricot Sunrise Reflections – Keku Islands

Keku Islands-Keku Strait-Alaska
Keku Islands-Keku Strait-Alaska

Apricot Sunrise Reflections – Keku Islands. Kake, Alaska.
Serene, yet expectant, a sunrise of high promise.
The sea remains calm, but seen from above, the rocky Keku Islands streak across the surface of Keku Strait as if racing in blurred speed.
I want to return to this landscape rich with seals, humpback whales, marbled murrelets, and salmon.

Salmon: Eating the Landscape

Bright Coho Salmon - Eating the Landscape
Bright Coho Salmon – Eating the Landscape

Bright Silver Salmon. Juneau, Alaska. August brings Coho Salmon, aka Silver Salmon, flooding back to the streams of Southeast Alaska.  Glistening, powerful fish, I love wading out to fly fish or spin fish in the saltwater channels.

Follow the lives and deaths of salmon if you want to trace the paths of nutrients & energy in Alaska ecosystems. Salmon feed everyone-humans, bears, gulls, eagles, shorebirds, other fish, insects, crabs. EVERYTHING.

And salmon die in the streams after spawning, bringing nutrients to forests and other streamside plant communities.

I thank the salmon when they give their lives to me. Eating these salmon unites me with their lives and the endless circle of my generations and theirs. The salmon and I are one with the landscape.

Auke Lake Reflections

Auke Lake Reflections
Auke Lake Reflections

Auke Lake (Áak’w in Tlingit, literally ‘little lake’). Juneau, Alaska. Beyond the lake low black line of hills, the Coast Range mountains rise above Mendenhall Glacier.

This one day of mirrors and mountains and water remains one of my best memories of Juneau.

Transfixed by Wonder Light. Icy Strait, Alaska.

Icy Strait Sunset-Southeast Alaska
Icy Strait Sunset-Southeast Alaska

Transfixed by Wonder Light. Icy Strait, Alaska.

If I had been driving in a city, I might have abandoned my car to gaze at the light of gold in Icy Strait.

Fortunately, I simply walked to the stern of the Wilderness Explorer where I remained until my return to earth.

Far into the brilliance, a fishing boat slipped across between the black edges of the terrestrial world.

On an @UnCruise.

Willow and Ice-Walker Glacier in Alsek-Tatshenshini Wilderness

Willow and Ice-Walker Glacier
Willow and Ice-Walker Glacier. Alsek-Tatshenshini Raft Trip in Wilderness.

Willow reflection with ice of retreating Walker Glacier. Alsek River watershed, Alaska. As wild and pristine a place as I’ve found.

Glaciers are strange beasts—grinding rock from the landscape to create the black streak of rubble-covered ice in the background. Yet the white ice & green water reflect colors of purity, heavy with fine flour from the glacier mill, but with almost no organic carbon yet.

Willows are one of the earliest plants to grow on bare silty gravel uncovered after thousands of years under ice. They add nitrogen to the soil, favoring other plants.

Climate change is accelerating changes in this pristine landscape. This lake didn’t exist in 1984. Walker Glacier was a few meters from the Alsek River. By 2013, the glacier had retreated 800 meters. The new lake was 750m wide and 1800 m long.

11-day rafting trip on the Tatshenshini & Alsek Rivers with 10 friends through 3 Canadian and USA national parks that combine into largest designated wilderness in world.