Prince William Sound - June 25, 2009: Above: Midnight at Perry Island.  Below: Skiing on Culross Island.

Anchorage - June 26, 2009: I read an article in the Anchorage Daily News about a group of Anchorage adventurers planning a hike to Fire Island and back - 7 miles across "treacherous" Cook Inlet mud flats.  Doing this trip had been on my list for too long, so I figured I go and do the trip as a renegade hiker/ runner when the group was making the trek.  I figured it would likely be safer for my first time doing this trip to go with people that had done this crossing before.  This was a unique and fun jaunt, glad that I finally did it.  If others are thinking of doing this:  Know how to read tide tables.  Only go when there are extreme negative tides (-4 to -5 feet).  Know how to read tide tables.  And go with someone that has done this trip before.  Oh yeah - and know how to read tide tables.

We were able to find the remains of a barge that was flipped and washed 100 yards up into the woods by the tsunami of the 1964 earthquake.  The last picture in the sequence below shows a scar on a tree made on Friday, March 27, 1964 when the barge got wedged against this tree.  This 8.4 on the Richter scale earthquake was the largest quake ever measured in North America.

The first picture in the series below is significant to this year's 50th birthday of the State of Alaska.  One of the first laws the State of Alaska passed was the banning of fish traps.  Commercial fish traps consisted of weirs, nets and pens at the mouth of salmon streams that caught ALL salmon heading home to spawn.

I was a bit surprised to find this old hydro power plant that provided electricity to a nearby fish cannery.  So I scouted out the remains to see how it all used to work.  Here is a photo sequence that shows what I found ...

This is the air intake on an oven door.  The oven door was lying in the tidal zone near a fish cannery that was destroyed by the 1964 earthquake.  Three caretakers that were living at this cannery perished when the tsunami hit.  I found the "expression" of these holes eerie.  They resemble a face filled with fear.  When the tsumani hit this cannery I would imagine that the last moments of those that died here would have shown faces filled with fear.  Perhaps these holes still show their fear ... frozen in time.

Note: Facts for the above post were taken from Jin and Nancy Lethcoe's "Cruising Guide to Prince William Sound".  A great book!  I purposely do not identify where historical artifacts are located.  Historical artifacts in the Chugach National Forest are protected by federal law and should not be disturbed.

Granite Bay, Esther Island, Prince William Sound - Early June: Granite Bay on Esther Island is a place my wife and I wanted to check out.  It's a beautiful bay on an island that is known for nice ridge hiking.  This time of year the island's ridges are also good for cruising around on cross country skis.

1) Know WHO OWNS the property the wood item is on.  CONTACT THEM and get their PERMISSION to remove the wood.
2) Make sure the tree is DEAD.  Don't cut live trees.
3) Make sure you have a plan to USE ALL PARTS of the tree.  DON'T WASTE anything.

So with that said, here is a picture sequence of a dead burled spruce tree, killed by spruce bark beetles, that I found while skiing, salvaged and have been making various furniture items out of it.  In this case ... a bench:

 I had known of this burled spruce tree for many years.  But a year ago I skied by it and saw that spruce bark beetles had killed it.  So I decided to salvage it.