Whale bones

Do you remember the post about the dead grey whale found near Wrangell Island earlier this summer?  This unfortunate being.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go with a Forest Service biologist and some local high school students to collect the bones of this guy.  The students will eventually attempt to piece together the skeleton for biology class I guess and ultimately, the skull and maybe the other bones will be donated to our local museum.

Here is what is left, a pile of bones easily overlooked on a remote beach, the rest of the whale having been consumed by both aquatic and terrestrial creatures over the course of the summer.  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust although ash and dust are not very fitting metaphors for a creature that lived its entire life in the water so maybe atoms to atoms, energy to energy are more fitting.  The interesting aspects of the experience were the surprising weight of the bones, or more accurately, the surprising lack of weight of the bones.  For such a large animal, the bones were surprisingly light and fragile.  I don't know how much of that is due to 4 months out in the elements and immersion in saltwater and how much is because of normal anatomical characteristics of grey whale bones.  I could easily carry a vertebra in each hand and 4 of us were able to easily manipulate the skull onto a landing craft style boat.  The skull is very alien compared to another animal and was rather uninteresting as there are no horns or antlers or teeth as well as no features that resemble a "face" of any kind.

This is a photo of several of the vertebrae and ribs in the boat as well as the skull in the upper part of the photo. 

The most interesting feature to me was this one:

The "hand" of the whale hidden inside the flippers of a living whale.  It's pretty obvious that there are fingers bones and knuckles still left over the millenia of evolving into a whale.

And so passes the physical existence of this grey whale.

Update:  I was recently told that the whale biologists are interested in examining the bones of this whale as their surprising lightness and brittleness are not normal and may provide some clues as to the cause of this whale's death.  I'll keep you informed as I learn more.

Shrine of St Therese

These photos are from a trip to the Shrine of St Therese in Juneau earlier this summer.  I'd never been there before but Andrea was there and her photos and stories about it made me want to check it out.  Admittedly, what interested me the most about the shrine was the fact that she saw and photographed marmots there.  The shrine is on the beach at sea level which is far from where marmots are typically found up in the subalpine and alpine regions of mountains.  There have been a few sightings of them on beaches in the Wrangell area in the past but it is a very rare occurrence so the nature nerd in me really wanted to see marmots on the beach.  The marmots were cool to see and seem to live in a human made rock peninsula that leads out to the small island that the shrine/church is on making me curious to know if they came to inhabit the area naturally or if they were brought there by people.  Marmots are native animals to SEAK but as I stated before they are typically high up far from the ocean.

While the marmots were initially what intrigued me about the shrine, the shrine itself and the atmosphere of the area are what made this place somewhere I will go back to the next time I am in Juneau.  I won't discuss the shrine too much here but if anyone is interested in it, go to the website https://www.shrineofsainttherese.org/.  What I will discuss is my lifelong interest in Jesus Christ and artwork depicting him, particularly crucifixes and stations of the cross.  I am not a follower of any religious dogma and I do not consider myself a Christian nevertheless I am an admirer of Jesus and have a deep and profound respect for his story.
First of all, what is to follow is strictly my personal opinion at this point in time in my life.  I do not mean anything I say here as a judgement or criticism of anyone else's beliefs nor is this an attempt to sway anyone's opinions or beliefs. Places like this shrine affect me in a deeply spiritual and philosophical way despite not being a follower of this particular dogma and images of Christ crucified touch my soul.  Christianity has taken a great deal of abuse in our culture over the last couple of decades, some of it deserved, some of it not, and somewhere in this piling on, who and what Jesus was have been lost, trivialized, ignored, or outright mocked,  Personally, I do not think Jesus is the son of God in the Holy Trinity sense.  I believe this belief puts Jesus at a level that is unattainable for the rest of us thus setting a goal that we know we will not and can not attain.  It creates an inherent excuse in the sense that if Jesus was perfect as the son of God then what hope do we normal mortal humans have of ever emulating him?  It is like playing basketball but having to compare yourself against Michael Jordan or Lebron James as to whether or not you are worthy to call yourself a basketball player.
I believe Jesus was a man, a real man.  A man to admire and strive to be like.  A man who had the courage and strength to stand up for his beliefs of what he knew to be right.  A man who had the courage and strength to live the way he knew was right despite it making him unpopular and probably lonely, uncertain, and afraid sometimes.  He was a man who we all can be if we have the will and strength of character to do what we know is right like he did.  We all can be Christlike it's just hard and we too often take the easy way and then try to justify why that is okay.  The "right" thing to do in most situations is usually the hardest thing to do of all of the options that present themselves to us in any given situation.
As I stated before, I do not consider myself a Christian but I am a follower and admirer of Christ although I do not believe Jesus is unique.  I think that if we are fair in our analysis of humanity, we could identify many people who have the same qualities and characteristics that made Jesus the foundational persona of a religion.  Pat Tillman comes to my mind.
It has been truly detrimental to our society that Christianity has been attacked and removed from our culture.  Yes, Christianity is guilty of heinous horrible things throughout history but those things were perpetrated by the weakness of humans, not by the example of Jesus, and I cannot think of any other religion or mythology that has a completely peaceful and tame history.  (Even Buddhism has violence in its history and in contemporary times as well.)  We humans need something to help us in understanding the unfathomable complexity and infinity of the universe when we look up into the night sky or when we explore the depths of our own minds and spiritual dogmas are the shared method among all human cultures.
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is famous for his "God is dead" theme.  I misunderstood this for many years until I finally read into it more and learned that what he meant by this is that modern humans have turned from the idea of God as we have come more "informed" and "educated" and technologically advanced but still need and want some sort of God figure, some sort of all powerful substitute which has morphed into cults of personality leading to the rise of dictators, fascist regimes, and oppressive ideologies of other kinds.

I think the story of Jesus should be inspiring and embraced whether or not a person considers themself a Christian, afterall, Jesus was not a Christian. The loss of a spiritually healthy culture is, I believe, what has resulted in and continues to result in so many of the disturbing phenomena we are experiencing in our country today.  Life can be scary and uncertain, Death even much more so and without some sort of anchoring belief a person can become hopeless, depressed and nihilistic.  Of course religions and religious beliefs can be taken too far and lead to different types of awful tragedies but I believe that some sort of spiritual foundation is necessary for a culture.  Consumerism has been our culture's overwhelming foundation spiritually for quite some time with the continuous acquisition of things being used as a miserable substitute for a well rounded and thought out belief system.  Now, our obsession, fascination, and prostration to technology and social media is combining with this hollow consumerism to increase our despair and detachment from the spiritual world.
I had an unexpected conversation with someone this summer who asked me if I was an atheist in a manner that seemed to assume that I would answer that I was.  When I answered that I was not an atheist, that reply was quickly followed by what seems to be the rote follow up question to this answer - "So then you are agnostic?"  To which I replied no, I do not think of myself as agnostic either.  The person asking this question seemed surprised as I tried to explain briefly what I believe and why.  This person declared themself an atheist and expressed pride that their teenage child was also an atheist.  Personally, I don't care what people believe or don't believe but I enjoy thinking about why they might or might not think the way they do and my first thought upon this person's pride in their child's atheism was that this is no different than a religious person indoctrinating their child into their particular religious belief.  Although this person's child is very intelligent and very experienced with the world for a person of that age, I wondered how much freedom of thought and choice that child had to explore their own spiritual questions.  This parental pride in this belief to me is absolutely no different than a religious parent being proud of their child following that parent's belief system.  Atheists typically do not consider themselves religious but I can no longer agree.  Not believing in a higher power of some sort is just as much of a belief as believing in one, it is as much a belief based in faith as any other religion.  Many atheists use science as the foundation for their atheism since so many mysterious and "unexplainable" phenomena in the past have been explained by science to some degree at least.  I used to be one of these people until I realized that for every question that science might answer, it creates another question and when I think about the history of science, it is impossible to avoid the fact that science and scientists have been wrong innumerable times throughout science's existence.  The top scientists of their particular time used to think the Earth was the center of the universe, the Earth was flat, disease came from bad air, the Sun moved around the Earth, and on and on and on.  Scientists are also merely human like the rest of us and are just as susceptible to the influence of ego and bias as nonscientists and can have an agenda that they wish to push.  A statistical analysis can be manipulated to give whatever results a biased scientist might have, I learned this very quickly when I took a Statistics class in college which I then dropped not long after this realization in order to take a more interesting course.
My extensive experiences in the natural world have given me so many glimpses into other realities that I can't ignore them and keep trying to convince myself that there is not something divine and infinite and sentient in some way.  Not a bearded old man on a throne in the sky but a force beyond what our human filters can comprehend.

This is the only picture of the church itself that I like.  It is a pretty structure and the surrounding natural world combines with it to give it a particular humbling and tranquil feeling.  The ocean is to the right in this picture but nearly surrounds the entire area of land where this church sits.  We heard the breathing of a whale in the far distance and there was a fairly recent excavation at the base of a large rotten stump near the church where a bear had dug quite an impressive hole digging up a colony of carpenter ants living in the stump.  This is my kind of church!  The stations of the cross surround the church around the perimeter of this almost island and have a path connecting them where a person can walk from station to station and spend time contemplating the suffering and strength of Jesus as he endured his tortures.  Each station was a small stone structure with a small roof covering the engraving and a kneeling spot at which a person can show their respects.

I found this station description pretty funny I have to admit.  Good on ya Jesus!

The shrine area has several walking trails as well as a cabin that can be rented, a small gift shop, a caretaker's house, and this interesting labyrinth.

In this picture, you can see the manmade walkway where the marmots live and in the top right of the picture is the island where the church is hidden in the trees.  This was a Sunday and there was a mass in progress while we were wandering around.

Just a couple pictures of the columbarium which was something new to me but is a place where the cremated remains of a person can be placed.  This was a peaceful and pretty place just a few dozen feet away from the beach.
Apologies for the pedestrian and clunky religious philosophy in this post.  I thought about doing some extensive rewriting and editing but then obviously ultimately thought "Screw it" and hit the Publish button.  WWJD?

Mushroom Hunting

Here we are in that time of year that has increasingly made me feel like Alaska summers are an unashamed flirt and tease giving you just enough of the best to annually forget about the worst until all of a sudden it's the middle of September!  An Alaskan summer, or to be precise, a Southeast Alaskan summer, is typically upon you before it really feels like summer. Just when the sunny and warm days begin to outnumber the rainy and cold days, then BAM! it's the summer solstice and the awareness of the soon-to-be-shorteniung daylight hours creeps into your subconscious.  Winter is coming!  Thus begins a season when there is never enough time.  Never enough time to do all of the blueberry picking, salmonberry picking, thimbleberry picking, blackberry picking, cranberry picking, huckleberry picking, salmon fishing, halibut fishing, rockfish fishing, ling cod fishing, fossil hunting, sea kayaking, whale watching, hiking, camping, exploring, canning, pickling, home repairing and maintaining, home improving, bike riding, ocean swimming, reading, kite flying, mountain climbing, grilling with friends, and somewhere in there at some point, relaxing and sleeping.  Summer is the season when it's normal to be mildly exhausted at all times as you try to pack in as much activity as possible during the long days and short nights.  I can't imagine what it would be like to live far enough north to have days when the sun never set.  Those people must really be tired by the end of the summer!  My only experiences with 24 hour daylight  came when I was a firefighter for the Forest Service and got assigned to fires in the Interior of Alaska above the Arctic Circle.  It is strange to have worked on a fire line for 12 to 16 hours and then go back to your tent to get some much needed sleep when the Sun is still easily visible in the sky.  It is easier to not sleep than it is to sleep which presents the opportunity to get a lot done in any given day but cumulatively can result in a bone deep exhaustion that will at some point result in a day of sleeping for 16 to 18 hours.  Southeast Alaska isn't quite that extreme as we do get about 6 hours of real "night" in the summer but believe me, it is easy to pack a lot into a day!  And then, somehow, suddenly, it's mid September, almost a month and a half into deer season, 2 weeks into fall black bear season, coho season, moose season on its way, and for some of us, mushroom hunting season.

And the trophy buck of mushroom season is the King Bolete, Boletus edulis to get all scientific.

These are maybe the best of the wild mushrooms. There is something majestic (yes, majestic) about these mushrooms, they present themselves as stout, powerful fungi, the power behind the scenes of any ancient forest.  Each individual bolete seems like just that, an individual not just another mushroom.  Sounds strange maybe, but it is what it is and there is something about these fungi that makes me think about each one of them as I pick them.  I don't feel this way with any other mushroom species that I have ever picked and consumed, just the boletes.  I think it helps to be a weirdo mushroom nerd to understand what I'm trying to explain.  They can get very large, like nearly a foot tall with a cap the size of a saucer and the weight and heft of  a small forest animal. Even the smaller ones have a solidity and meatiness to them that gives you a lot of benefit for the effort.

I like this picture in particular because it represents the relationship between fungi and trees with the massive obvious tree in the background and the obscure humble mushroom in the foreground in the bottom right.  Mushrooms are just the fruit of fungi, like the apple of the tree it's just that we can see the tree that the apple is a part of but the "tree" that the mushroom is a part of is underground and vast.  Fungi are the nervous system of a forest and their mysterious and almost alien nature makes them seem like sentient beings to me.  I've also been reading and studying mushrooms a fair amount over the last few years and I keep learning fascinating things about them that make me view them much differently than I used to.  I've probably mentioned this in some past post but there is even a very possible and reasonable theory that mushrooms are directly connected to the evolution of the human brain, mind, and consciousness.  The name of the theory doesn't do the theory the intellectual justice it deserves but it is extremely interesting, it is called the Stoned Ape Theory.  An antiquated name for sure that deserves to be reworked in a way that would give it more mainstream attention and relevance.

It has turned out to be a phenomenal mushroom Autumn in this year 2019.  I have never found so many boletes of so many different kinds so easily and so ubiquitously.  All boletes are not edible or they at least vary in their quality as an edible wild mushroom so as with all mushrooms, be very certain of what you are eating as you could become very ill, die, or take a spiritual journey that you were not expecting!

 The above boletes are edible from what I have read although I have never eaten them myself as what I have read about them doesn't sound very appealing or worth the effort.  They are very pretty mushrooms though and this year they seem to be all over.  One of my mushroom books names this bolete the Brown and Yellow Cracked Bolete which seems to be appropriate.

This is another King Bolete that is a little past its prime but was a good sized one giving me a chance to demonstrate how big they can be.

A spiny hedgehog mushroom still emerging from the moss.  These are a particularly pretty mushroom although not edible but can be used to make a blue dye.

A pretty purple.

I just included these photos to show the amazing variety of mushrooms that have been easily seen on a quick walk on a local trail,  There are mushrooms everywhere this year and many that I have only seen in books before this fall.

This mushroom is a pig's ear or at least I'm pretty sure that is what this one is.  I know this photo doesn't give a good perspective of its size but it is a very large vaselike fungi.  This one was big enough to hold probably at least a half gallon of water were one to pour water into it.  I could have fit my camera inside of it!

An aptly named coral mushroom.  It looks like it could just as easily be growing on some undersea reef.

Is this some delicious, decadent pastry?  Some strawberry and chocolate dessert?  It does look good enough to eat and were it found in a bakery I would not hesitate to eat it but this one grows in the forest and is not edible.  It was an exciting find for me as it was my first encounter with this mushroom and where I found it, I found a lot of them!  That is one of the mysteries of mushrooms- from one year to the next you never know what will show itself.  These mushrooms are called Bleeding Hydnellum or Strawberries and Cream mushrooms.  The red drops on top are just a characteristic of this particular species.

It is too bad that these mushrooms aren't some delicious dessert fungus!  They look like you could just pop them in your mouth and enjoy a sweet treat!

Eagle Aerie

Aerie, noun:  the nest of a bird of prey such as an eagle or hawk

A massive, decades old bald eagle nest in an even more massive Cottonwood tree up the Stikine River.  This nest is used to fledge a new generation of eagles pretty much every year and is one of the prettiest and biggest nests I know of in the area.  This particular nest has its own currant arbor which adds a large degree of natural feng shui to this scene.  

I would like to take some of my tree climbing gear up there someday and find out what the view from inside the nest looks like!  I'll be sure to take pictures when I do!

Pretty Harbinger of Doom

Living in the northern latitudes has its positives and negatives as do most things I suppose, and while 56 degrees north latitude isn't an extreme northern latitude, we still experience many of the same phenomena.  Summertime in all parts of Alaska brings long days, days in which a person can have packed in a full day's worth of activity before noon and end the day feeling like you got two days rather than just one.  These long days are earned though, earned by persevering through those short, dark, stormy days of winter.  Even though the official beginning of winter comes in late December on the winter solstice, here in SEAK it feels like winter has been around for a couple months before its official beginning and while the passing of the winter solstice marks the beginning of increasing daylight, it takes another couple of months to really notice the lengthening days.  Mid February is typically when the days are noticeably longer bringing a beginning sense of excitement and relief for the coming spring although the experienced Alaskan knows to not let their guard down until March has passed and sometimes April, and sometimes to even be a little cautious about May!

It would seem that the summer solstice in June would be more of a joyous occasion than the winter solstice - Midsummer, the longest day of the year, long days and pleasant nights - but the summer solstice already has a whisper of winter in it.  Seasonal Affectedness Disorder, SAD, is a condition usually associated with winter, the winter blues, but I think there is also a summer version of SAD.  The passing of the summer solstice is insidious in the sense that you know that this means the days will soon be getting shorter and it never fails that there will be someone you encounter who feels the need to verbalize this with some "I would love to slap you upside the head" comment like, "Well, summer's over, winter will be here soon" or "The days are getting shorter, winter is on the way".  Just when it feels like summer has finally come for good and you can let your guard down and just enjoy the warmth and sun, that thought of shortening days opens the door to an awakening but very groggy sense of desperation.
Then the 4th of July comes and then goes and that groggy desperation fully opens its sleepy eyes and starts to get focused.  Soon after the passing of the 4th of July comes deer season, then soon after that moose season, then much too soon after that winter comes walking down the road shaking the leaves from the trees.
But, it is still only July 3rd, no need to think about winter quite yet although I have just worked myself up and that desperation is now fully awake and is poking me in the shoulder asking when I'm going to cut more firewood, when am I going to do the wood stove and chimney maintenance I need to do, when am I going to go up the Stikine and get my yearly sockeye?  Winter is coming!!

Why am I droning on and on about winter on the 3rd of July and trying to ignore that growing desperation?  Because the fireweed is blooming!!  Damn you fireweed!

What is fireweed?  It's this awful wildflower.

Epilobium angustifolium, the Harbinger of Winter.  That is not what its scientific name means, it's my name for it.  It is a pretty flower and is a native flower that can grow in huge numbers across open areas, along roadsides, and in old forest fire burns which is what gave this plant its common name.  Fireweed honey is particularly delicious and the leaves and flowers make a tasty tea high in Vitamin C.  But, the first appearance of its flowers can bring a sense of foreboding - when I first saw them last week next to a road skirting a very scenic and peaceful lake offering a view of Virginia Peak in the distance and a compliment of beautiful yellow pond lily flowers on the lake's surface, the first stirrings of this poem came to my mind.

Please be warned - there are a few profanities coming up as this is a tongue in cheek poem attempting to convey the feelings those first fireweed flowers brought out in me.  Just a few F bombs, nothing too vile!

FU Fireweed

Fuck you fireweed

Summer has only just begun yet there you are

petulant pink harbingers of autumn so soon

foretelling of summer's coming end.

There you stand so tall and proud so soon

after the solstice passing as if the knowledge 

of the waning days wasn't lurking there in my mind.

Thoughts of winter's pallid bite lie there in your blooms

so vibrant and alive in the summer sunshine. 

Fuck you fireweed

for intruding upon my summer's pleasures

and my willful ignorance of another winter's inevitability.

A cold hand brushes my neck when I see you there

feigning innocence, reveling in heat and light

while I shiver and vasoconstrict with frigid thoughts

May the hornworms feast on your foliage 

and the bees rob you of your pollen

while the days get shorter and shorter and shorter

Fuck you fireweed you beautiful terrible omen

I hope that wasn't too terrible.  My poetry may never have been the best and now it is also burdened by a thick layer of rust.  Fireweed is very pretty and appreciated but it truly does bring with it a psychological component and a bit of a reminder of just how short summer can feel reminding one to not procrastinate summer things for too long.

This is a hornworm feasting on fireweed leaves.  It is called a hornworm because of that reddish hornlike thing on its posterior end and is not a worm but the caterpillar stage of a hawkmoth.  They are very fond of fireweed.  

I guess that's enough about fireweed.  My apologies for the heavy handed poetry and the F bombs but I hope it was worth your time!

Ho Hum, another whale

A recent trip out on the water during a hazy but otherwise beautiful afternoon to harvest kelp from one of the many kelp beds not too terribly far from Wrangell provided the opportunity to identify a new whale.  I have done much less boating this year than usual but it seems that the few trips that I have done have led to some memorable encounters and experiences.

Meet Khaleesi.

This is a new humpback to add to the photo book that I have been compiling over the last few years bringing the number of whales identified and photographed to 25.  If there are any Game of Thrones fans (aka nerds) reading this, I have to say that the name was not my idea.  Andrea is as big of a Game of Thrones fan as I was until the last season ruined everything for me but I like this name and she got the best tail photo so the honor of the naming was hers.

This whale was travelling alone along a shoreline periodically lunging partially out of the water as it scooped up schools of feed fish.  A solo whale meandering in close to shore then further away and sometimes changing direction is not an easy whale to follow so after 30 minutes of photos and nerding out, I decided to motor on to the kelp bed unless the whale did something more interesting.  I literally said something like, "Unless this whale does something interesting like breach I'm going to start the motor and head out" and then this happened.

Seconds after I made that statement, the whale breached a few times and then began to slap its tail on the water for a few minutes before moving on.  I feel pretty confident in saying that these are my best whale pictures yet.  So much depends on being in the right place at the right time sort of luck and making the efforts to be in that right place at he right time.  Thank you to this whale for being the magnificent being it is and for presenting us with this opportunity!

What an amazing place this place can be!

Here is an update to this post regarding this whale that is worth reading on for:

Andrea posted her pictures of this whale on Facebook and probably Instagram and a woman in Juneau contacted her to let her know that she had seen and photographed this same whale in Juneau in 2009 when it was a calf.  The Juneau whale nerd was very happy to know that this whale was still active and said that it had gotten darker since 2009 but it is most definitely the same whale.  If you look at the pattern of dark lines on the left fluke there is no doubt that they are the same whale.  The pattern on the right fluke isn't as distinctly similar but the dark spot is the same.
Here is her photo of it in 2009:

Did you notice it's nickname?  Kelp!!!  Andrea and I came across a whale named Kelp while we were out harvesting kelp!  I shit you not!  Isn't that just cool?  It's one of those things that just make me wonder about all the things we don't know and how much we have wrong that we think we know.  For every answer there are 3 more questions that result.  Is naming a whale Kelp unusual or special?  No, not really, kelp is common here in SEAK and humpbacks sometimes use kelp beds to help them corral feed fish for eating but Andrea and I encountering a whale that just happens to have been named Kelp while we were out on a boating trip specifically with the goal to harvest kelp is unusual and special.  All of the circumstances required to line up for this encounter are approaching infinite I would say.  The ocean, even the part of the ocean comprising the Inside Passage of Southeast Alaska is pretty vast, there are 24 hours in a day and many days in which humpbacks are here but we just happened to cross paths with it on that specific day, at that specific time, in that specific location.  There is something divine about that to me.  This encounter combined with the fact that I was seconds from leaving unless this whale "did something interesting like breach" makes me feel connected to the world in a way I would have to spend a lot of time trying to describe.  Humble and grateful sum it up though.

Okay, one last update about this whale.  I have an account on a whale website that tracks whales all over the world and lets people submit their photos in order to add to a growing database as well as let the contributor learn more about their whale.  This whale has also been photographed and documented in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii on January 15, 2015.