The Rhino and Solstice

It's pretty rainy here.  Thankfully I have a golf cart on steroids at my disposal.  This Yamaha Rhino has been my safari vehicle here in False Pass the past several weeks.  On a side-note; This buggy is tough, it survived 100mph+ winds a few months back.  After being tossed about 100ft away from where it was parked the only real damage was to that broken-in door, causing all the glass to break and..  Anyway, so just now I was thinking, I should go for a ride.  Then I remembered I forgot to get gas earlier; Its kinda gettin low now...  See, you can only get gas here at 1:00pm at the Peter Pan dock, and it closes after the last person leaves.  Hm, just like the bar in Adak...  Anyway, this morning I met the guy that runs the fuel and ops at Peter Pan..He seemed like a nice guy.  He even told me I can go get gas earlier than 1:00... I was thinking, Like right now, cool?..."You can go at 12:59", he replied.. So needless to say, my short term memory hasn't been the best lately cause I forgot to get gas.  Now I have to think about how much gas do I really have, and i wonder how far can I go?  I guess I have some time to think about it.  it's still early at 7:30pm.  Which translates to about 5 more hours of daylight.  At least it's not windy! Happy Summer Solstice!!

Blue Lupine and websites that I have bookmarked.

If you find you have some downtime, go check out some websites that I have bookmarked, [in the box to the lower right of this page].  Especially check out the photo of  the 2 sea otters and other cool pics and info on a blog maintained by my friend Isaac in Adak at his his blog @ AdakBirding.com and then visit Alaska FAA web cams.  Click on that link, then scroll down to False Pass and you can see links to 2 web cams located about a 200ft away from the airport here.  Oh, and enjoy the the vertical panoramic blue lupine pic below.

Lupinus nootkatensis

False Pass- Panoramas

A Cherokeee 180 landing at False Pass Airport, Its a succession of the same airplane in 4 photos

(unknown name) mountain across Isanotski Strait from False Pass Village 

False Pass Harbor in Isanostki Strait, facing North, North East

Another view of the (unknown name) mountain with crab pots in foreground waiting to get wet this coming fall and winter.



I posted this photo a few weeks back. It's the view of False Pass Village taken from the Tustamena Ferry.  The old Peter Pan dock is toward the left of the photo.

Back in False Pass

Long story. Don't ask.

Flying from False Pass to King Cove; a 25 minute thrill ride!

The pilot arrived in the Cherokee 180 to pick me up in False Pass at about 10 am.  He was a very nice guy and seemed pleased to know that I was the only passenger bound for King Cove.  The resulting trip proved just that as it was undoubtedly one of the best flights I've had in 15 years in Alaska.  On the way we saw about a dozen bears and he gave me more than one opportunity to take some photos.  The scenery was amazing and he took the time to point out a few landmarks and made me feel very comfortable and relaxed.  I truly felt like I could trust his skills and will never forget that experience.  Below are a few of the better photos I took of the bears.  As you can imagine, it was a little difficult to locate and focus on a bear from a few hundred feet in the air cruising at flight speed.  But the pilot did a great job throttling down and turning the plane at the right time to give me some chances to document this experience.  Thanks Eric!
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Oh, don't forget to click each photo for a full size version.  The pics posted below have been scaled down for the web page.

I can see 3!  Click the pic if you can't see them.

This one and the following 2 are the same bear, zoomed in as much as I could.

It was kinda cool to see how it was just sitting there on that steep slope.

Sow and triplets!

It's hard to tell but this is a rock arch with a pond or something underneath.  It looked a lot cooler in real life.

Nice waterfall!

A decent end to an otherwise bad day. Wildlife sightings in False Pass.

The following is a short photo essay of my evening in False Pass, Alaska on June 08, 2011 around 9:30pm.  I suggest you try and scroll down slowly and take the time to read each caption one at a time, enjoying each photo before proceeding on the next.  Thanks for looking and please leave a comment if you feel so inclined.

So yesterday evening I went for a ride to the north edge of town and came across this nice little stream.  Tonight, I decided to go back and check it out hoping to see some wildlife along the way.

Once I turned onto the road that I was searching for, it wasn't long before I saw this Alaskan Red Fox (Vulpes v. alascensis) cruising across the road.

It really looked like it was on a mission...

I'd be surprised if it even noticed me.

This fox really seemed to have it's eyes, or ears, on something else.

I was curious.

All the sudden it crouched down.

It seemed to spot what it had been hunting.

I was surprised with how quick it moved as it pounced on something...



Dinner!!  It looks like a nice juicy rodent.

All of the sudden something else seemed to catch it's attention

Whatever it was, it seemed that it got what it came for then took off in the opposite direction.  Now I was curious again and proceeded down the road.  Until...

  

 

WOW! Awesome..I felt my heart start to race a little.

What an amazing creature!  An Alaskan Brown Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis).

I turned my little Yamaha Rhino buggy around at about 150yds, kept the engine idling and left the door open as I stepped out to start snapping away photos. 

This bear is exactly what I was hoping to see.  And it appeared it really didn't care about me at all, barely lifting his head to even gaze in my direction.

I couldn't tell if it was a sow or a boar but I anxiously looked around for any signs of cubs.

After it made a trip across the road and back, I saw no cubs.

It was hard to estimate how big he was (assuming now that its a boar).  But if I had to guess, I'd say maybe around 6 feet from butt to nose and maybe 4 feet tall at the shoulders.  That would probably be about 8-9 feet tall if he were to stand up on hind legs!!

He walked a little closer toward me but was still over 100yds away off the side of the road, still not paying any attention to me at all.

Just sniffing around for some grub.

Seriously, these 15 minutes was awesome for me even though it maybe felt like like double that time easy.

What a cool beast of an animal.  Even in this vast landscape he proved to be a nice mighty Alaskan Brown Bear.

He meandered up the hill then I lost sight of him as he vanished in the alder bushes.

  

Panoramic view of the False Pass Small Boat Harbor this morning, facing north in Isanotski Strait