Up the Kwethluk, Part III

Days remaining: 3 days
New bird count: 21

Last set of Kwethluk trip photos. These are mostly from the ride down, where I attempted (mostly unsuccessfully) to capture the HOLY CRAP WE'RE GOING TO WRECK part of the river.This is at camp. I forgot to post it with the last post. Whoops.
Which way would you go?
So we shot through that gap on the right and had to double back along the channel. Wheee.
Three Step Mountain.
Oh my god! Elevation!
Trees! Spruce I think? Yeah, spruce.

Up the Kwethluk, Part II

Days remaining: 5 days

More pictures of my trip upriver. These are mostly of the SaRON camp. The purpose of the camp to monitor salmon and trout populations, but also supports other research including beavers and moose, as well as the science camp for teenagers that's happening this week.Bear poop! They had a bear come by the camp on Tuesday, and at this rate this is the closest I'm ever going to get to seeing a bear in the wild, so a picture of bear poop. Hooray!
Kitchen tent.
Lab and computer tent.
One of the sleeping tents.
This camp burnt down last summer, so it was rebuilt this spring. It's looking pretty good.
The lighting was kind of amazing when I was there.
Behind the kitchen tent.
Looking down towards the river. The camp is on an elevated plateau.
From here, the kitchen tent is on my left and the lab tent is on the right. To give you some perspective.
Inside the kitchen tent. I like the poison sign.
The ladder/stairs up to camp. I took the pictures above standing at the top of this.
A little springbrook off to the side of the trail up to camp.
This is the little offshoot off the Kwethluk that runs by camp. There is a path that goes out to the main river on shore, but if you have waders on, it's just easier to move gear by walking along the offshoot. The fence is up around the tarp is electrified, it's there to discourage bears.

I have one more set of Kwethluk photos, and that should get me through the next week. As you can see by my countdown, I only have 5 days left (4 if you're not counting today). After that, I'll be taking a weekend in Anchorage, and then back to California. I hope to have a few more entries about Anchorage, but after that, I'm not sure what to do with this blog after that...

So keep your eyes out for a few more entries at least!

Up the Kwethluk, Part I

Days remaining: 6 days

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go up the Kwethluk River to the refuge's salmonid monitoring camp. I was nearly denied this due to that stupid migraine, but our aquatic resources biologist had to make a day run with gear, and since we weren't staying the night, we figured it was safe enough for me to come up.

I didn't get pictures of the really cool things we saw (red-throated loons, beavers everywhere, osprey with a fish in its talons), but I got enough for a few blog entries. Here's the ones from the ride up.
Oh, man I took pictures of people! Weird!
My sweet ride up.
At Mud Hut, halfway through our boat ride up.
Zach and his creepy walrus/trucker 'stache.
Dustin having a Swisher Sweet.