WISE
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • 20th Anniversary Challenges
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog

WISEfriends Blog

Wanderings- Adventures at Carl Creek Part II

7/1/1998

0 Comments

 
By Janelle Eklund

​I obviously didn't pick the right spot for the tent. I woke with a stiff neck from a lumpy bed.  First thing I did after I got up was find a flatter spot and move the tent. I'm not sure if it was the lumpy bed or the walk we took last night that triggered vivid dreams of boulder avalanches.  The mountains were breaking apart and huge boulders tumbled down toward us.  We kept moving to avoid them.  One just missed someone.


The weather is still mostly clear and beautiful.  Some clouds came in last night and it looked like we’d get a bit of rain but they went on their merry way. Just a few scattered clouds all day and almost clear tonight.
 
Today we hiked up the slope behind camp to about 1,400'.  It was slow going which was fine with me.  Mary looked at different species of plants on the way up.  It was nice to go a little way, stop for a bit, and then go a little further.  When we got to our destination we had a bite of lunch enjoying the magnificent view. After lunch we tackled the first steep scree field to look for the elusive orange poppy.  Mary had been here before so the poppies had been mapped. Unfortunately for us this beauty of a flower refused to grow toward the top of the ridge where it was not so steep. They like being a third of the way down the unstable scree slope, happily living with the rocks, using their heat energy to survive.  We found a good population of them but a lot of the capsules had been chewed on by something.  Mary took lots of seed samples in hopes of getting some good ones to examine.  After getting samples by balancing on the steep slope I went back up the hill where we left our packs and took a siesta in the sun. Mary tagged some of the poppies and took a GPS reading, which took almost an hour.  It felt good to nestle down with the grass, the slope and the sun. The richness and warmth was lulling and peaceful.
 
We followed the ridge line up and then back down toward camp.  As we meandered through this vast kaleidoscope we encountered another population of orange poppy halfway back to camp.  Again, something was hungry and did a good job of chewing on the capsules.  We got some samples anyway.
 
Back at camp Mary made curry couscous with carrots and cauliflower, which was very tasty. She pressed some of the other plants she collected and keyed them out.  A beautiful night in the vast mountain peaked valley. The scene out our camp window frames distant white peaks skirted by closer peaks dressed for summer, cascading into a valley floor where the mountains spill a gleaming ribbon of a river. A half moon decorates the sky above.  The sound of the river lulls the still sunlit night.  A ground squirrel tells me it’s time to retire to the tent so he can retreat to his nearby house.
 
All is well and good. Peace envelopes the land.
 
From my light to yours-
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Who We Are

    WISEfriends are several writers connected with Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment, a nonprofit organization located in Alaska's Copper River Valley.  Most of these articles originally appeared in our local newspaper, the Copper River Record.

    Archives

    August 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2009
    September 2007
    August 2007
    May 2007
    May 2006
    May 2005
    March 2005
    June 2003
    September 2000
    July 2000
    July 1998
    June 1998

    Categories

    All
    Alaska Forum On The Environment
    Aquatic Ecology Camp
    Art
    Audubon's Christmas Bird Count
    Bear
    Birds
    Blueberries
    Camping
    Cats
    Changing Seasons
    Chosen Frozen
    Christmas Bird Count
    Clean-up Day
    Copper River Basin Symposium
    Copper River Stewardship Program
    Denali
    Donation
    Earth Discovery Day
    Fish
    Geology Camp
    Giving Tuesday
    Glacier
    HAARP
    Hikes
    Home
    Ice Fishing
    In Class Science
    In-Class Science
    Insects
    Interns
    Kotsina River Cleanup
    Lamprey Lecture
    Lecture Series
    Local Food
    Meadow Jumping Mouse
    Moose
    Natures Beauty
    Neighborhood Nuisance
    Nic'anilen'Na
    Oil Spill
    Owl
    OWLS
    Partnerships
    Plants
    Pop-Up Natural Playground
    Project Healing Waters
    Quinzee
    Redback Voles
    Re-Usable Shopping Bag
    Salmon Blitz
    Skiing
    Snow
    Snowshoe Hares
    Subsistence
    Tolsona Mud Volcanoes
    Tonsina River Trail
    Volcano
    Weather
    Wildfires
    Wild Plants Of The Copper Basin
    Wings Over The Wrangells
    Winter Fun Day
    WISE News
    WISE Thoughts
    Women Of Distinction
    Wrangell St. Elias National Park

    RSS Feed

Picture
About WISE
What We Do
Get Involved
Support WISE 

Contact Us
Policies​
Wrangell Institute for Science & Environment 
www.wise-edu.org
contact@wise-edu.org
(907) 822-3575
​WISE is a
501(c)3
nonprofit
​organization
 
​

Contact Us

Donate
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • 20th Anniversary Challenges
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog