Nothing like a finicky university instructor who changes his timeline for when things are due to free up ones Friday evening. What was due at 11:59 Friday is now due at 6pm.
So much for using my last Friday night of the term to finish up that take home final. Now I have to fit it in in the next few days instead! In the meantime, sleep, you are overrated and shall be missed.
The past week has been really great aurora showings due to some great conditions for G1&G2 level storms with KP6-7, but now that I’m working and taking a couple classes at UAF – CTC I’ve stayed in since I just don’t function well without sleep.
The aurora forecast looked decent for Friday (minor G1 with Kp3 expected) and though that’s not the amazing levels the week prior had had on, I planned to head out on Friday night. I picked up my friend Susan and we were planning on driving out to Delta Junction to try to get some reflection shots, but the sky light up before we left North Pole so we decided to head out to Chena Lakes instead.
We first went to the top of the dam overlooking the flood plain project at the end of the road where I got the first few photos. It was a bit chilly due to the wind which was also causing some rippling so we decided to move after being here for just a short bit. We finally ended up at a pavillion that looks out to the island and got some neat reflection shots, plus I noticed something swimming in the water and the fellow near us used his flashlight to look at it and told us it was a muskrat! I was still fighting with my camera settings at the point so I didn’t get a picture of it, but I’m fairly sure he did.
It seems like each season I have to relearn how to shoot for the season; this time I had some trouble with my settings and finding the ability to change them so I had to do a bit more post-processing on the first few photos than I normally do.
Stopped at Teklanika Overlook and saw this beautiful bird up in a tree. Â It’s amazing how “close” I can get with a ginormously heavy lens!
All images taken with Sony a6000 and a (rental) Tamrom 150-600mm
I’m fairly sure I would not have seen him if I had not seem my friend Susan shooting him. He was up very, very high.
Detail! I got great detail with that rental lens. His eyes as so pretty.
And it’s hard to see but I’m fairly sure his mouth is open here!
He flew from one tree to the next so fast that all I could capture was his butt!
This face! It will examine you watching him even from the tops of the trees!
What a gorgeous creature.
Did not get eaten by a bear today, though I was closer to one than I ever thought I would be. This beautiful large scary creature was on the hill right next to where we drove and I opened my window and he /she was RIGHT THERE. Not close enough to touch, but definately closer than 25 yards and enough to scare me so that I grabbed just a few pics and then rolled up my window and asked the driver to move the vehicle. Sony a6000 with Tamron 150-600mm (rental) a-mount to e-mount
Bear getting closer to the truck.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to ride along with my friend Susan and her husband Steve while they drove the Denali Park Road during the lottery. We drove in as far as Eielson and saw loads of animals and amazing scenery. As Susan says “Any day in the park is a good day!â€
I’ll admit I’m spoiled in my perception of the park experience since I started going to the park during shoulder season where folks can drive in as far as mile 30 where the Teklanika Overlook is at and I have only rode the bus after I’d done four trips during shoulder seasons and found how limiting being in the bus can be. I understand why the park limits road access to buses and agree with the policy to help keep the animals wild, the land pristine and the people safe. But it sure does limit how long and what you are allowed to look at.
Shoulder season and being in your own vehicle is AWESOME. The lottery, if you are selected as a winner, extends how far a personal car drive in and it was such a privilege to be able to stop and take photos of what we wanted and for as long as we wanted.
If I recall we saw: 2 Fox. 2 Bears . Many Moose. 1 Owl, a few eagles, I think, sheep that were far away essentially “white dots on a hill” plus ptarmigan, squirrels, grey jays and magpies. And the mountain was out in all her glory!! All in all I’m calling today a success.
Awesome time doing the Denali Park Road lottery for my first time. Thanks to my friend Susan and Steve for inviting me to tag along.
I’m really behind on posting photos, so this post only has pics from the “great bear adventure”
This is Bug the cat.
Despite all appearances Bug is not helping me with homework. In fact I think he’s making it harder. The problem with cats is that when they are bored, it’s hard to contain them in a kennel. In the last hour I’ve read 10 pages.
This is Bug the cat and he is definitively not helping.
I took the RV to Harding Lake for one night over the Labor Day weekend in hopes of finding some aurora at night and getting some time in on the lake in the kayak during the day.
Although I arrived sometime around 10pm, a couple hours later than I originally planned, the lights came out and put on a faint but almost full sky coverage and fast moving show for us for well over an hour. Because the aurora was everywhere that night I managed to get a few photos of my RV with a little bit of the lights above it too!
I went to sleep in the RV and as I looked out the window next to by sleeping area I could see the Big Dipper and the lights dancing for me as I nodded off to sleep.
I won’t be out in this thing come winter, but it’s fun while it’s still “warm.”
Cozy RV sleeping area
I went to sleep in the RV around 2am and as I looked out the window next to my sleeping area I could see the Big Dipper and the lights dancing for me as I nodded off to sleep.
This is Bug the cat.
Bug wants to be the center of attention at all times, including movie time.
Bug is nearly a movie star.
This is Cici, aka Cecilia Wee Beastie
Today she surveys her domain after “the Big Thing who moves things around” rearranged the living area last night.
Cici is by far the smallest mammal in our house and all the other creatures fear her.
After a long break without work I’m working at part-time job and taking a couple classes at UAF (after a 20 year break from college) so my weekday aurora-chasing days will be very limited for the next few months, however the lights will dance when they want to and this week has been really active. Â I took these two the early morning of Sept 2, around 2am, from my yard downtown Fairbanks. Â You can see how bright the street lights are which is why I tend to get out and “chase” when I want to escape the light pollution rather than shoot from my yard.
Thank goodness I needed to get up to go to the bathroom or I would have missed seeing this!
Saturday was a beautifully and just slightly cloudy day for a ride and rain was not expected until the early evening so around noon Michael and I rode to Hilltop for some brunch. We then continued down the road to Wickersham Dome where we got off the bikes to stretch our legs then came back home, going about 80 miles round-trip. We spent a couple hours riding, taking our time to enjoy the scenery along the way; I don’t think I will ever tire of looking at the gorgeous skies in Alaska.
Sunday was a gray day and I decided to make myself some homemade (vegan) pancakes with Alaskan blueberries I picked a week ago. It is a fairly well-known fact that I don’t like cooked fruit; pie is something I would only eat if there was nothing else left in the world to eat after the Zombie Apocalypse and even then I might find canned goods or chemical-laden dried good more palatable. There are a few exceptions to my “cooked fruit is bad†rule, blueberry muffins being one of them, so I thought I might enjoy blueberry pancakes. Alaskan blueberries tend to be tart and it turns out I don’t care for tartness in my pancakes. At least Michael enjoyed them!
First stop at Hilltop. Brunch!
Can you guess whose is whose?
The Imperial family that rides together…
Stopping to enjoy the scenery.
I took a similar photo in this same location when I rode out to Wickersham Dome Trail last year.
Across the street from Wickershame Dome Trailhead.
Gorgeous skies.
Self-titled.
The last frontier: big skies and few folk.
Second stop at Hilltop. Michael gets pie.
They looked and smelled delicious in the pan!
Photo perfection.
