Nikolski (Aleutians)

Here are some photos from Nikolski (One island west of the island of Unalaska). The wind is pretty intense here! More like Nederland on steroids. It took two 12 hour days and lots of wind while installing the GPS, but we “gottr done”.

Vsevidof (right) and Recheshnoi (left), two volcanoes, sit above the town of Nikolski.

Our GPS site sits on the top of this hill. It’s about 3 miles from town and makes for a crazy quad ride when the wind and rain is howling. It really sucks when you forget something in town that you need at the site. Lots of trips up and down this guy. The air force used to have radio towers up on the hill, so there are some roads leading up there. There is an environmental crew up there now removing the underground septic tanks and old oil tanks.

Nikolski used to be a private ranch until the 70s. When they closed the ranch they left it all to the native corporation. Now there are wild horses and cows roaming the island. Pretty cool stuff. I don’t think the cows are aggressive, but I let them have their space.

Max and I flying through the air as we get blow off by the wind.

The view from our lodge looking out at the volcanoes. These accommodations were cush! We got stuck on weather hold for 3 days, but that was fine with me: a wonderful cook, leather couches, lots of tea, good books, internet access...

Here I am drilling a hole for our GPS. It’s my first time drilling! Wahoo!

This old plane sits beside the runway welcoming newcomers when they land at the airstrip.

Steve and Max double-timing it. (That’s my post in the middle).

Waiting on Steve to come up from town with the few things we need to finish the site.

Vsevidof at sundown (10 or 11 pm).

Dutch Harbor (Aleutains)

Here are some photos of Dutch Harbor (Unalaska). This was our jump off point to Atka and Nikolski where we did 2 GPS installs and 2 maintenance sites. We do have a site in Dutch that we did maintenance on. Lots of fish, lots of boats, lots of bald eagles, lots of beauty! We were here in the Aleutians for 2 weeks!

The Russians “discovered” the Aleutians mid-1700s. This is the oldest cathedral in Alaska! They had a lot of influence on both the architecture and the natives here. Many Aleuts were used for their hunting skills to get seal skins and sea otter fur for the Russians. We bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for the same reasons…fur!

Lots of crab cages. Mmmm...king crab!

This was this dude’s loot. He would sit here for hours and munch on the yummy scraps from the super expensive hotel restaurant in the background. You could see him out the window of the restaurant munching on the leftovers while you were eating your meal.

Oh yeah, it’s a party at the dumpster! I counted 13 bald eagles while I was taking the photo. I didn’t get too close for fear of pissing anybody off, ha! These guys are huge!

Smile, you’re in the Aleutians!

Beautiful Dutch Harbor! Blue skies! We lucked out!

Dutch was the largest defense outpost in the Aleutians in WWII with 10,000 people. It was bombed by the Japanese in 1942 triggering the relocation of all the Aleuts to camps for 3 years where 10% died from unsanitary conditions (abandoned canneries). Afterwards when they returned, many of their homes were ransacked by the soldiers. The Aleutians were a big part in the Pacific Theater, but many don’t know about the bombings, the occupations, and the relocation camps. Many think of it as the “forgotten war”. Also Attu and Kiska were occupied by the Japanese for a while. These little pillboxes are all over the island and are where soldiers would sit all day and scout for the Japanese.

Ally on the lookout at this pillbox!

Dad, this one’s for you! Huge Coast Guard boat and helicopter in port. All the "coasties" as they call them were really partying at the hotel we were staying at. I had to wear earplugs to get any sleep.

Soldotna

Here are some photos of our install in Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula. The install was a deep braced monument, so the holes were drilled about 30 feet into the ground. The drilling took 3 days: broken drill parts, wrong equipment...the drillers were pretty grumpy, but I tried to lighten the atmosphere by offering to pick up some donuts for them when we went into town.

Shuyak (Kodiak)

These are photos from our last maintenance sight on Kodiak. Right after we got off the plane from Akhiok we ran across the runway to the helicopter that was waiting for us. We loaded up and flew to this little island north of Kodiak. A park ranger, Kevin, came with us to check the sight out. It's pretty sweet because they have a ranger station out on Shuyak that Kevin built during his 12 summers on the island. Kevin (ranger) and Tom (pilot) chilling out

Doerte and Max checking out the GPS receiver.

Picking up batteries from the beach and bringing them up to the site

Doerte checking out the beach. There were huge bear tracks right where she was walking. It looks like the bear took a little dip in the water. It was a beautiful day for a swim so he probably enjoyed that.

We dropped mail off to the rangers out at the station. They are there all summer on the island maintaining 4 public use cabins.

Four-Peaked (left) and Mt. Douglas volcano across the Cook Inlet. I flew over Four Peaked last year during the time it was venting. The USGS wanted us to go document it since we had the helicopter out at Augustine volcano.
Our beautiful site!

Kevin and Max being dropped at the site while we fly down to the beach so we can send up batteries that were dropped off by a float plane earlier in the week.

Doerte and the State Park Ranger hanging out waiting to get on the helo

Flying to Shuyak Island

“10-4 good buddy. Mission accomplished. We’re coming home!” Ha Ha.