First and Ten: Bison Along the Al-Can Highway
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Tag Archives: Alaska
Water Pump: The Alaska-Canada Highway
We’ve made the drive up or down the Alaska-Canada Highway (The Al-Can) six times along various routes. At times, it can seem like a journey into the past, especially once you get north of the U.S. border. Wildlife viewing can be astonishing. On one trip we counted over 30 bears. Owls and other birds of prey, elk, deer, moose, coyotes, foxes, both grizzly and black bears (sometimes with cubs) and bison are all likely encounters, and although we’ve never seen wolves, we’ve heard their wild howls from our camp. There’s good fishing, too, if you’ve got the time and can suss it out. More unusual are the old-fashioned gas pumps you might still encounter – the kind with the glass bubble on top. And once you clear Vancouver, everything slows down. People have time to talk, and are happy to do so. Campgrounds are spare but well-maintained, and there are plenty of places where you can simply pull over and spend the night. From late spring through mid-summer, the further north you travel the longer the days become till by the time you reach Alaska nighttime has all but disappeared.
Go. If you’ve never made the drive, set aside the time, make a budget and go. The Al-can is surely one of the world’s greatest behind-the-wheel adventures.
Seward Summers: Spawning Sockeye Salmon… and a simple philosophy to incorporate into your life if you are single but ready not to be single
If you are single and want to keep things that way, start by making certain that you have only one really nice place to sit in your house. Have only one good wine glass in your cupboard, one decent dinner plate, one nice place setting. Strive, also, to have single-subject art – a lone person in any photographs, one carved bird alone on a shelf, only of any souvenirs or keepsakes. People will get the message.
If, on the other hand, you wish to communicate to the universe that you are desirous of and ready for a commitment to another person, populate your home in pairs. Two fine bourbon glasses, two equally comfortable places to sit, pairs of items on shelves, paired subjects in paintings, photographs and other artwork, a second bath towel that is every bit as luxurious as the one you yourself use. And when you find a special pair of beautifully crafted chopsticks, purchase a pair for yourself… and a second pair. The mere act of approaching life in this manner will begin to prepare you for an other person.
And people will get the message.
Seward Summers: Red Bear, Texture, Last Summer
Seward Summers: Springtime Girl
Seward Summers: Bubble-net Feeding Humpback Whales
Moose roast and root vegetables in a bath of mushroom broth, red wine, cream and fresh herbs slow-cooking in the oven, pumpkin cheese cake setting. Lots to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving Day… and every day. Barbra and I hope all is well in your world.
Seward Summers: Sea Shower
Seward Summers: Copper River Dipnetting
Iconic Alaska. Hike in along a canyon trail, then down a steep, more narrow trail to water’s edge. The river’s chalky, clay-colored glacial till reveals nothing. But the fish are there. Upwards of a million Sockeyes will ascend the Copper, and that’s after the commercial fishing fleet has taken a similar number from the sea near the river’s mouth. Armed with a net on a big hoop attached to a 15-foot pole, you find a fishable perch along the canyon wall and ease the net into an eddy. If you’ve timed it right, huge schools of fish are passing in front of you within feet of the shoreline. It doesn’t take long till you feel the morning’s first solid thump as a Red hits the net. If you’ve got the patience and don’t pull in right away, you might feel another thump, and then another – three fish in one scoop. And you feel a connection with people who have been fishing for salmon this way for thousands of years… grateful that there’s a place where it can still be done, not another person in sight except for the companion you’ve hiked in with. You get the feeling this isn’t going to last… which makes you appreciate it all the more. Iconic Alaska.
Heading Home: Grizzly Bear Crossing Harding Ice Field
The hike to Harding Icefield is a little over four miles up a mountain trail, more or less following a ridge above Exit Glacier. Patches of snow, wildflower meadows, birds, bears, maybe other wildlife along the way. There are many vast landscapes in Alaska. The view out over the Harding Icefield, the great mother ice lake that feeds Exit and dozens other glaciers is… otherworldly. We were on a rock outcrop overlooking part of Harding’s eleven hundred square miles. I was preoccupied with alpine flowers when Barbra noticed a trail across the snow-covered ice. It didn’t make sense. Till we spotted the bear.
Moving on from the photos we took in Mongolia, I’m now going through “Alaska Summers.” Some of these catalogues predate our trip to Mongolia. As I come upon images I really like – such as the above composition – I’ll share them here and on Instagram. jackdonachy, if you’re interested in following there. I also put most of these photos on Facebook – Barbrajack.
I like this photograph for the way it recalls a quote by Bob Dylan that describes Barbra, and me, and maybe this bear, and maybe you.
I was born very far from where I’m supposed to be, and so, I’m on my way home…
On a Frozen Sea
I’ve enjoyed going back through photographs from our four years in Arctic Alaska. Although there are a number of additional pictures I’m reasonably happy with, the truth is that most of the images we made in those years constitute memories rather than art. As self-taught photographers, we still had a lot to learn about light, and how cameras interpret light, and composition, and optimal camera settings, lens choices and technique. Moreover, the images we made in those early days have a somewhat random feel about them as we hadn’t yet developed a vision for how we wanted to shoot and what we wanted to make images of… what stories we wanted to tell. We’d love to go back and revisit those scenes, and from time to time we discuss the possibility… but as Frost warned, way leads to way.
When we left Point Hope in the spring of 2014, we traveled to Mongolia where we lived for the following two years. We’re looking forward now to revisiting that collection. So, we hope to see you “in Mongolia!” JD
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