Summer in Alaska

A beautiful glacier that we flew over in Lake Clark Pass.

Visiting our site which is on a mountain overlooking Lake Clark.
Oh yeah, this is awesome!
Flying in the helicopter on Kodiak Island

At our site in Katmai National Park.

Augustine Volcano

I am back on the Kittiwake. We motored from Homer out to Augustine Volcano (10 hour ride) to take empty fuel barrels and old batteries off of the island. Augustine is an active volcano and erupted in 2006. We have 5 GPS stations on it to monitor its activity.
The Kittiwake anchored at Augustine.


Augustine, as we fly over to check out our stations.




Slinging gear off of the boat
After a long day of slinging gear off the volcano. Nice hair!


A beautiful sunset as we come into port at Homer. 10pm and the sun is just beginning to set.


Augustine is in the Cook Inlet off the coast of the Alaska Peninsula about 70 miles southwest of Homer.

Chernabura (Shumagin Islands)

After installing Nagai, we motored 3 hours over to Chernabura Island. We had beautiful weather here and got the site done in a day.
Churnabura Island! Very remote, very beautiful.

Max with the hut
Here I am covering the tools so they don't get blown away by the helicopter.
Our site, very small, at the top of the island.
The helicopter shut down on the boat.

Chilling out, waiting for more supplies to be slung from the boat to the site so we can start.
Ally drilling holes for anchoring down the hut.
Oh yeah, looking tough on the Hiliti.
We looked down to the beach and wanted to go swimming, but then we realized we were in Alaska and not the Caribbean, so we decided not to.

Our tools, in black and white, looking out to the island across the water.
Doerte and I about to hop out of the helo.
Slinging gear


Jeff, the helicopter pilot also helps us with the construction of the sites. Yup, he's awesome!

The Kittiwake and Nagai Island (Shumagin Islands)

From Sand Point we got on the Kittiwake and motored 8 hours over to Nagai Island which is part of the Shumagin Islands. They are south of the Alaska Peninsula and right before the Aleutian Islands start. The Kittiwake used to be a crabbing boat and used to be called the Time Bandit, so it is the senior to the one on the show The Deadliest Catch. We were on the Kittiwake for 4 days. We were supposed to be on there for atleast a week, but the weather was good and we finished early.


Looking from the wheel house down to the deck with all of our gear.
The gang
"Ah yes, here we are."
Pointing to our current location
Tim, the engineer on the boat


Max and Doerte
Doerte, Max and I all ready to head out to sea.

Doerte checking out our route

Anchored at Nagai Island

Looking out the kitchen window

Tim and John fishing while we have some downtime. They caught some cod so we got fresh blackened cod for dinner! Yum Yum.







John, part of the boat crew, watching our progress from the wheel house.
John, the captain of the Kittiwake.

All our gear on deck
Here's our bunks! Nice and cozy. The waves and motor on the boat rocked me to sleep.
Rob, the helicopter mechanic having a cup a joe on the Kittiwake
Rueben, the cook. Lots of wonderful food. Steak, salad, bacon, eggs, fresh fish...pretty much had it all.

John, Tim and Max hooking the hut up to the helicopter sling.


Jeff peeking his head out of the helicopter to check on the sling load below.


And there it goes...


Max drilling at the site

Looking down to the water below from our site


It was super cold out there so I kept moving and worked hard to keep warm. The winds picked up at the end and snow was coming down so we had to leave and come back the next day to finish.
Our GPS monument built and beautiful looking out across the water.
Doerte at our hut. I drilled the holes for the rock bolts and anchored down the hut.


Max and I working at the site.

Sand Point (Shumagin Islands)

This is my first install of the season! I was so excited to be out in the field again. Sand Point is on Popof Island which is part of the Shumagin Islands. They are south of the Alaska Peninsula right before the Aleutian chain starts.


I was out for a week and we installed two GPS sites, built a repeater site and did maintenance on a current site at Sand Point. All the gear was staged off of the Kittiwake and we stayed on it for 4 days for the installs.


Looking out to all the fishing boats


There were bald eagles everywhere! This one was sitting on a post while we filled up the truck on the pier with gas.


Very beautiful out there. Looking out to Unga Island across the water

Max, Ben and I heading down to the dock to the Kittiwake.


Oh, Peggy Sue has seen better days...
Max and the little hotel dog. They got to be very good friends.

To the west was the mountainous terrain of Unga Island and to the North was the snow covered majestic Alaska Range across the water.
Hanging out ready to head to the site.

Max filling up the truck at the gas station. It was the same place for both boats and cars so we had to drive out onto the pier to get gas.



Here I am with Doerte checking out the equipment at the Sand Point site

Oh, it was a chilly one. Everything was frozen...hands, feet, bum...I had to dance around all day to keep warm.


Max and I looking tough in our Mustang suits as we are about to fly up to the repeater site on a mountain top above town. The suits are super warm. I felt like a huge warm orange marshmellow.


Here is an overview of where I was. The red arrow is pointing to the Shumagin Islands.

The April Storm and AK Team

Here I am super excited to be working again in Alaska! This is my 3rd summer with UNAVCO Plate Boundary Observatory.
Ryan, one of the field engineers jammin' out to some tunes while picking up supplies in Anchorage.
Kristen, our permitting assistant and our new manager Brian
The Chugach Mountains sit right above Anchorage. So beautiful. Anchorage definitely has a lot of trucks on the road. I have never seen a city with so many white trucks.
The winter storm! We got over a foot on April 25th. This was very unexpected, but it gave me a good flavor for life in Anchorage during the winter!
Looking from my porch to the snowy scene outside

Excited for the snow!
The apartment is two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a nice kitchen and living room. Very comfortable. I love it!
I love to sit in the chair, look out to the Chugach mountains, and sip my tea. So good!
Here are the Chugach Mountains after the storm looking out from my porch. They hid for at least two days and then the clouds lifted and revealed such a beautiful scene.
I love how the sun lights them up.

Mesa Verde

So, excited! Road trip to Mesa Verde!

Melissa, taking a self portrait. So nice!

Gotta have the fruit!

Fruit for the road, apple for Ally, orange for Melissa and banana for Megan.

Mesa Verde next exit! Only 45 minutes from Durango. We had to check it out.

Melissa and Ally at the entrance

Melissa and her good friend Megan from Oklahoma

A lot of Mesa Verde has been burned by natural forest fires in the last 20 years.

Stuck behind the slow pokes...Geeze.

Melissa, the photographer


So pretty looking out at Mancos.

Oh, we better be careful.

Super cool ruins from 1300 AD, right before the Pueblo Indians left.

Cliff Palace, you had to be a really awesome rock climber to live here!


The gals being tourists

A lot of the trails were closed because of all the snow they received this winter, so we road around and did all the short hikes to the cliff dwellings.

Lunch break!

Mmmm...yummy

Checking out the Juniper Berries, getting the seeds inside.



Oh, so sad...dead, burned, charred...


Posing in the dead forest

Trying to look tough


It was crazy how much of the park was burned.

Pearl, my beautiful Subaru with the burned trees

Smiling after a wonderful park ranger told us all about the Pueblo Indians.

Looking down into the kiva

Melissa chillin' at the ruins