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).