Category Archives: Kwethluk

Nature

Short, Sunny Window

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When I was a pup, my Montana father would tell me that we had to work hard all year. But if summer appeared on a Sunday, will should take it off to go fishing. Here in the more generous Alaskan rain forest, we can enjoy many more sunny days each summer. Sunshine is hard to find this late in October. But this morning, as the early morning clouds melt away, we have to head for our favorite mountain meadow.

            It doesn’t take the little poodle-mix and I very long to reach Gastineau Meadows where early morning sun is already firing up fading cottonwood leaves. The Covid crisis is still keeping school classrooms closed, but it doesn’t prevent homeschool families from filing onto Gastineau. Grand school kids stand in small circles around teachers who share lessons about fading plant life. Younger ones lie half asleep in sunshine as their moms’ fill berry picking buckets with ripe cranberries. 

            I panic when I spot two of the sun-soaked kids stretched out on the narrow trail. Then I lead my poodle onto the muskeg so we can keep a wide space between the kids and us. 

            While Aki catalogs the scents left by other dogs, I let the morning’s surprising sunshine warm my face and hands. If not for the need to leave the trail on the return trip to avoid contact with the sun-soaked kids, I wouldn’t have a care in the world. But it can’t be avoided. I just about have an alternative, somewhat dry path worked out by the time we reach the cranberry picking families. But the trail is empty. Thirty feet off the trail the sun-soaked kids have stretched out on a raised chunk of meadow, still stunned by the sun. 

Brief, But Strong Storm Light

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This is a confused day. We have to walk through ten feet of rain to reach the car. In a minute, the skies turn dry. A wall of sun-bright clouds illuminates Gastineau Channel, then returns to gray. 

We drive out to Auke Bay and walk through a light rain squall to the beach. Aki gets excited each time we pass another dog. They dance around each other and then move off in different directions. But she is excited as I am to walk across the beach to the sea.

I should focus my camera on a covet of newly-arrived golden eye ducks feeding along the beach edge. But I only have eyes for gulls flying beneath a line of summer-bright storm clouds. 

Shark Case

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We are on our way to a barren point. I can see the sea through a screen of spruce trees. Just before working through it to reach the beach, I almost stepped on a shark egg case. Shaped like a small, plump pillow, it is still soaking wet. 

            Not long ago, a shark fought out of the case and swam into the bay. Something pulled the then empty case out of the water and carried to this isolated spot high above the water. Aki and I must have scared it away before it could enjoy a little feast. 

Heavy Rain

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Okay. The trail is flooded. Every leaf is weighed down by rain. Aki doesn’t mind. She dashes up and down one of the few still-open trails, filling her memory with fading scents. She doesn’t notice that the surface of every little pond is shattered by rain drops.

            I wasn’t expecting anyone else on the trail. Then an old man and his young husky dog appear. As soon as I spot them, I move twenty feet off the trail. The hiker leads his husky twenty-five feet in the opposite direction. Aki dashes it to meet and greet the big dog. In response, the husky pup’ owner shouts out that he parked his bicycle a quarter-mile up the trail.

            Later, after finding our common trails flooded out, I tell Aki that we will head home. The hiker, now riding his bike, suddenly moves past us. In a few seconds he and his big dog reach the flooded trail. After chanting his desire for a floatation device, he dismounts and pushes his bike into the flooded trail. Aki and I use one of the few remaining paths to return to the car.

Standing its Ground

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Yesterday a nasty storm prevented me from giving Aki for a proper walk. Her other human followed her around our neighborhood. They were back in the house, soaking wet after ten minutes.Today, the rain held off for a few hours, enough time for a return to the woods.

            Rain forests, like the one we entered this morning, seem to dry out just minutes after a storm ends. But drops of water will still cling to red or yellow leaves. Each drop sparkles as it shrinks. In a few hours, the forest loses its beauty unless the rain storm returns. 

            The beach is still dry when we reach it. Battens of clouds cover Fredrick Sound or hang over the mountain sides. No clouds cover Shaman Island but I can make out two bald eagles perched on the top of island spruce. Suddenly, a murder of crows heads toward the eagles, driving off one across the channel. The other eagle refuses to let the crows flush it away.

A Few Hours of Sun Before Weeks More of Rain

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Careful government experts, men and woman who reveal information about sun and rain, expected me to wait until three in the afternoon before going for a walk. After three in the afternoon, the sky would clear. I’d walk with Aki along the Sheep Creep delta. The skies might cloud back up for in a few hours. Then the rain would return for another week. 

            But today, the skies lacked patience. At nine in the morning, the clouds melted away. Crisp sun flooded Gastineau channel. The beach trails were soon bare. We expect clouds but found sections of the beach still covered with scatterings of fish bones. 

            We took a long, circular route around the delta, coming near to gulls nests, and ducks. Twice, a hundred gulls exploded into the air, flew in a circle around us, and returned to the delta. For a few seconds, over whelming light transformed the gulls into transformed gods.

Better Sky Views

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It’s almost too late in the season for harvesting wild berries. Already the leaves of blue berries and high bush cranberries have turned red, yellow, or orange. We can’t expect to find berries on any of these plants. In the past years, on ground drained by Fish Creek, we have discovered ripen low bush cranberries this time of year. This morning, as Aki catalogues meadow scents, her other owner and I hunt the creek muskeg for bitter-sweet cranberries.

It should be pouring down rain on the muskeg. But the weather is dry. There is a pale, high layer of marine clouds above the mountain ranges. This would usually wipe out the detail of clouds and sky. Today, we can enjoy a subtle grey patchwork in the sky.

We hunt the muskeg but can only find a dozen cranberries on the meadow’s surface scattered like forgotten waste.

Dry, But Grey, With Flashes of Sunshine

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I was prepared to walk through heavy rain. It seemed the only way to reach Gastineau Channel. It could be like yesterday when strong winds drove heavy wain into the rain forest. You see such things a lot in September. But this morning, no rain fell. I left behind my rain pants but made sure that Aki wore a rain-safe wrap. She tends to shiver during heavy storms.

            We dropped off of Chicken Ridge toward Gastineau Channel through a dense, but dry fog. I wore a facemask but would never come close to another walker during the trip.  As she always does during the first part of a walk, Aki stopped often to catalogue other dog smells. This gives me a chance to study leaves fading from summer green to autumn reds or oranges, then pulls me away just after I snap a picture of it. 

            The little dog and I stumble on a small birthday party being carefully celebrated near the humpback whale sculpture. A handful of senior citizens have formed a circle that leaves six feet between each of them. They all wear high quality rain gear and masks they made at home from scrapes of cloth. The little dog and I keep the whale between ourselves and the party and stumble on a seal fishing the channel. Ravens, gulls, and ducks watch the seal do its thing and then fly away.

            Further down the beach, the little dog and I find an eagle. It’s perched on top of a bare tree, watching a Stellar’s jay land in an adjacent tree. The jay stays for a few seconds and is then replaced by a large raven. The new pair of big birds stare at each other and then fly off in opposite directions. 

Together Again

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Yesterday afternoon, our plane could barely land on the Juneau Airstrip. Clouds from a heavy fall storm almost force us to fly on to Anchorage. But we bounced and slowed on the runway and were soon deplaning at the airport. Forty-five minutes later we left the airport while calming down the nerves in our nostrils after being tested for Covid. Then we started a mandatory quarantine. 

            This morning, while the town was enjoying a brief brake between heavy rain storms, Aki and I took the car out to a remote trail where we could walk without risking any contact with other humans. As it turned out, we would have lots of contact with wild birds. The dog and I fell into the old ways—watching out for each other. 

            Most of the action took place along a little creek, where it crossed it’s tidal meadow. More than a dozen bald eagles huddled together along the creek bank, eating salmon scraps. Ducks and gulls hung about them, ready to grab anything that floated away from the eagles.

            Suddenly, a pair of belted kingfishers dashed over the eagle’s hangout, chanting intimidations before diving for food in the creek. A raven drove off one of eagles. Two merganser ducks sulked off. The other eagles fled. When the kingfishers flew to another section of the stream, Aki and spotted a black-billed magpie, acting like it had just driven off the other pesky birds. 

With Aki in Quarantine

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Back in the rain forest, two thousand miles away, Aki and her dog buddy Cedar are probably cuddled in a corner of Cedar’s house. A storm soaked them both during their morning walk, but it won’t prevent them from dozing. Down here, while I follow a trail offering views of Puget Sound, I can’t help thinking about the little poodle-mix. We will meet up tomorrow afternoon in Juneau.

            She will panic with excitement at the Juneau Airport when we meet. She’ll wait impatiently for my wife and I to submit to mandatory Covid tests and then grab our suitcases. Aki will lean against me as we get a ride back to the house. She’ll follow us as we unpack while a pot of tea brews in the kitchen. Then, as happens each time we reunite with her in the house, she will slink in her little cage and hide.

            Normally, Aki and I can work things out during our next daily hike. But tomorrow Aki’s humans will be quarantined for at least a week. I pray that we can find another way to make up with the tiny, if also powerful little dog.