Part 8 - Alaska, A Journey, Not a Destination
Yes, I know that Barrow Alaska is Coastal, but if you have been following you know that it was worthy of its own blog. Click Here
The Klondike
My Emotional Connection
At some point in my early childhood, likely while living in Gainesville, FL and likely while having a single digit age, the image of a line of men carrying backpacks and pick axes ascending a 45-degree angled snow covered slope captivated me and became imprinted in my mind. The image is an actual photograph of stampeders making their way from Dyea over the Chilkoot Pass on the “Golden Stairs” with the goal of arriving in Dawson City, staking a claim and getting rich. Few, if any, of those stampeders achieved that goal.
I knew at that young age that a great adventure had taken place many years ago. I knew that there was a gold rush at a place called Klondike. But that was all I really knew.
The Forty-Niners
While there had been many gold rushes before the Klondike, most notably the one in California that spawned an iconic blue jeans brand and a namesake football team, none that I know of have quite as captivating a story as that of the Klondike.
The Discovery
In the latter half of the 19th century, there were men prospecting for gold through-out the American West and Northwest. Small finds made little impression on the outside world. On August 16, 1896, on Bonanza Creek (a tributary of the Klondike River) there was a major find. Word spread around the interior of the Yukon and SE Alaska and local prospectors began a quick movement into the area staking claims up and down Bonanza Creek and its gold laden tributaries.
By the time the first ship loaded with what today would be more than one billion dollars’ worth of gold landed in Seattle in the spring of 1897 all the good spots were taken. But nobody got that memo. The rush was on.
The Stampeders
The mayor of Seattle said, “f#@k this job” and resigned to go seek a fortune in gold. So did half the Seattle police department and most all the cable car operators. Jack London joined the fray before anyone knew who he was, his great stories “The Call of the Wild” and “White Fang” reflect his experiences in the Yukon. Many other notables including lawyers, politicians, actors, and businessmen threw their comfortable living away to seek fortune. As one writer described: the Klondike was “far enough away to be romantic and close enough to be accessible.”
There is no aspect of the story of the Klondike that does not fascinate and tickle the imagination. Famous people, organized crime, US/Canada/British border disputes, technological innovations for mining and transportation, entrepreneurship which includes strong women and strong natives and unimaginable tragedy all were a part of this great gold rush that was already over before the outside world became aware and stampeded.
There have been thousands of pages written on this subject so I will leave the rest to you.
When not filling in the blanks on my childhood Klondike interest, I was busy birding coastal Alaska along the way.
Birding Coastal Alaska - Skagway/Dyea
As we were exploring the ghost town of Dyea, which was an equal sister community to Skagway before the gold rush, we noted that savannah sparrows were in abundance in the fields. Now I know that savannah sparrows are neither unique, hard to find or particularly beautiful creatures, but when photographed against a backdrop of native pea blooms, I think they are quite nice. What do you think?
Also, in Dyea, while walking the cemetery for the 60 people killed on March 3, 1898 in a Chilkoot Trail avalanche, I managed my best Varied Thrush photo. I find this bird to be not very cooperative. Surprisingly the usually shy wrens were more accommodating. One even tried to spoil my photo by pooping on it, but I think I got the last laugh.
A Pelagic Trip?
We used our time in Skagway to take the Alaskan Ferry down to Juneau. I used this as a low budget pelagic trip. Birding coastal Alaska in this manner was not too bad, with some good sightings of Pigeon Guillemots, Marbled Murrelets, Surf Scoters, gulls and terns.
Modern Skagway and Dyea
Today, Skagway is a thriving cruise ship tourist town and Dyea is a field. Why, might you ask? In a preview of the next installment in this series, it can be explained by two words: Glacial Rebound.
Birding Coastal Alaska - Valdez
Black Gold
Valdez is another town that has a special place in my heart. Working half my career in the US Virgin Islands at an oil refinery that was largely designed for Alaskan North Slope Crude Oil, I was well aware of the complex path that oil took to arrive at our refinery dock.
Oil would be pumped from the ground and gathered in tanks which feed the start of the Alaskan Pipeline in Prudhoe Bay. At the other end of the Alaskan Pipeline is a set of large tanks at, you guessed it, Valdez, Alaska.
From there, crude is loaded on ships too big for the Panama Canal, so yet another pipeline transfer is required across the isthmus of Panama. In Chiriqui Grande, about 30 miles from my Panama home, it is loaded onto another ship before heading to the St. Croix refinery. Sadly, the St. Croix Refinery is out of operation and while there is hope, it seems unlikely to ever operate again.
Remarkable Beauty
Aside from this, Valdez is the most picturesque town that we visited on our trip. The way the Valdez Arm and Port Valdez dog legs into the mainland of Alaska and the striking majesty of the surrounding mountains gives the appearance that you are surrounded by high snowcapped peaks in a quaint lakeside village.
I loaded the freezer (and my wallet) on a Silver Salmon fishing charter, where I won the daily derby and earned 2nd place in the season long derby. We took a full day glacier tour (aka Pelagic Birding Trip) although this one was not as budget friendly as the Alaska to Juneau Ferry.
We took some time and hiked around Port Valdez looking at plenty of wildlife and birding coastal Alaska. The self-guided tour of the Solomon Gultch Salmon Hatchery was most interesting. Watching the 10s of 1000s of pink salmon funneling into the hatchery tributary is quite a sight. Seeing the sea lions so overfed that they kill out of instinct only to realize that they have no room anymore seems cruel and inefficient, but there is no waste. The lifeless salmon flow back out towards the sea to become a forage for the awaiting gulls, eagles, crows and bears. It is fiesta time for the predators of Valdez.
Birding Coastal Alaska - Katmai NP
King Salmon
This excursion required booking way in advance. Even 8 months in advance we could not get accommodation at the National Park and needed to stay in the town of King Salmon. This required a commute by float plane each of our two scheduled days. Accessing King Salmon is only by air.
Upon arrival in King Salmon and checking in to the Antler Inn, I was happy to see that the inn keeper likes birds (let’s call her a bird watcher and not a birder). She kept her feeders full of seed which kept a steady supply of sparrows and finches around the place. Much to my joy, it included a not so common Pine Grosbeak. Sadly, I got no photos of this bird. She also fed a wild but permanently disabled red fox. I can’t remember his name, but he was really cute.
With plenty of daylight remaining, we hired a taxi on the only road out of town which connects King Salmon with Naknek. On the drive out, the conversation turned to birds (surprise, surprise, surprise!, does anyone get the Gomer Pyle reference?) Our driver knew the location of an active Gyrfalcon nest. This is one of the more coveted North American resident birds, in case you are not aware. Just a short excursion off the main road and we would have it. What a bonus! I was imagining how nice a tip he was going to get. Sadly, after a full 30 minutes of scouting and waiting, no sighting. We had to move on. I did tip him nicely for the effort.
Naknek
He dropped us off to walk the beach at Naknek in search of some special birds and with no cell service we had to trust that he would be back at our agreed pick-up time. You see, Naknek is a crabbing community and it was not crabbing season so there were no people, just crab boats in dry dock. His final comment was “watch out for the grizzlies, they come to the beach in the evenings”. Great! I really hoped I would survive birding coastal Alaska.
Not to be deterred we walked down the muddy beach a mile or so until we found the shorebirds. Target species were acquired, bristle-thighed curlew and black turnstone.
Brooks Camp
The next morning was a cancellation of our Katmai trip due to the weather. Torrential rain for the entire day kept us in our room. Ugh!
Finally, we boarded the float plane for our one and only day in the National Park. Upon landing, we were greeted by a grizzly that delayed deplaning. I am literally, looking through the open exit door to the grizzly walking 10 feet from me. That was a good start to the Katmai experience.
After our Bear Awareness Training, we made it to Brooks Falls and due to plenty of rain, had the observation platform almost entirely to ourselves. We watched several bears catching jumping salmon in their mouths or pouncing on them. It was a great experience that I would not trade for anything.
After about three hours either at the falls or on the trail to the falls, we returned to the lodge for lunch. They put out an amazing spread of food for a very reasonable price.
After lunch we went out again and walked some trails and looked for birds. One memorable time was when I saw a shorebird fly and land on this peninsula on the lake that was about 30’ wide by 150’ long. While the thought crossed my mind that a grizzly could walk out on the peninsula while I was out there, I gave it a low probability and proceeded. I got great photos of the black turnstone and then left the peninsula for the protected boardwalk. You guessed it, while walking back on the boardwalk, minutes after exiting the peninsula there went a grizzly out on the peninsula. Maybe that was not one of my best decisions, but it is a really good photo of the little birdie.
Final Thought
Birding coastal Alaska turned out to be a series of great adventures. Life in a 17’ Black Series Caravan in the Alaska wilderness is so peaceful and satisfying that I am already looking to a time when I can repeat much of this and hit some of the areas that I missed.
I second the thought that a Savannah Sparrow photographed against a backdrop of native pea blooms is quite nice. As is a Black Turnstone on a peninsula. Fun to read, as expected!
Joel, you have outdone yourself, once again. No doubt, this gets the blue ribbon—-again. This kind of writing, reporting and photography belongs in National Geographic or Natural History publications.
To add my two cents, Phyllis and I knew several of the Valdez and Prudoe Slope employees who had built the Alaska pipeline and ports in the 1970s because they retired in the banana port of Golfito, Costa Rica where we lived. They made good company and told lots of adventure stories about Alaska. I suspect all their fortunes are spend by now the way they were enjoying life in the tropics.