posted: August 31st, 2016 |
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This page begins with August 28th, my 69th birthday. On the previous page I said that maybe I would take a photo of the Riker Mount of chitons and show it - well, here it is. You know, back when I collected these and did this I kept a catalog of what these specimens are. Each of them has a number on the back of it, but for the life of me, I cannot find the place where I wrote down the scientific names that go with the particular numbers and now, after 40 years, I cannot remember the names of any of these specimens. Oh well, you probably don't care anyway. After the photos of the Riker Mount there are photos of what are probably Hess Mountain, Mt. Hayes and Mt. Deborah, in the Alaska Range near Delta - around 88 miles (142 km) away from our house. Then there are three photos of the birthday cake that Kazuya made for me. Then we jump to August 29th and the highlight of that day was a treat - the Aurora Borealis! After that, we take you back in time to August 13th and 14th and adventures on foot from our house. How we forgot to include those photos earlier, I do not know. Better late than not at all?   Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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Begin August 28th |
  Here are the photos of that Riker Mount that I said I might get around to taking, back on Page 2 in Row 9. All of these are Chitons, except for the Walrus Whisker on the right side, which is labeled Kulukak Bay. The first image is the entire Riker Mount and the second image is a shot of just the three left specimens in the second row on the right. |
Aug28_2_Chiton RikerMountCropRC |
Aug28_3_Chiton RikerMountCropRC |
  Here are two more shots of specific portions of the Riker Mount. These were not cropped out of the larger photo, I actually took photos of specific areas of the display. It amazes me that after all of the work that I did to create this display I do not remember even a genus name. Granted, I did do this 40 years ago, but.... |
Aug28_4_Chiton RikerMountCropRC |
Aug28_5_Chiton RikerMountCropRC |
  In the early evening (7:30 PM or so) of the 28th, Kazuya and I walked up the road about 500 yards or so above our house and were treated to this amazing view of the high peaks of the Alaska Range near Delta Junction, Alaska. As the header information states, this view is of an area about 88 miles (142 km) away! The first shot most likely shows Hess Mountain (11,940 ft = 3,639 m). The second shot is probably Mt. Deborah (12,339 ft = 3,761 m) and the third shot probably shows Hess Mountain on the left and Mt. Deborah on the right.
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Aug28_01Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_02Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_03Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
  The first two shots in this row were taken from very close to the same spot, after we walked farther up the road to see if there was a better place to view from. We also wanted to see if there was a place along here where we could see Denali (Mt. McKinley) from (there was not). The first shot was taken at 7:47 PM and the second shot at 8:01 PM - note the difference in the length of the shadows along the edge of the road. The third shot shows, from left to right, probably Mt. Hayes (13,832 ft = 4,216 m), probably Hess Mountain and probably Mt. Deborah.
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Aug28_04_ AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_18_ AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_05Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
  The first shot here probably shows Mt. Hayes, the second shot is probably Hess Mountain and the third shot is probably Mt. Deborah. These are some tall peaks! All are over 3,500 meters! |
Aug28_06Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_07Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_08Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
  In this row, the first two shots show Mt. Hayes, the second one zoomed-in more than the first one. The third shot is Hess Mountain. (Probably to all of that!) |
Aug28_09Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_10Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_11Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
  In this row all three shots are probably Mt. Deborah. This is not an everyday sighting from this location! I mean, this is pretty special. |
Aug28_13Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_14Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_15Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
  This is probably Hess Mountain. Then, the second shot shows, from left to right, probably Mt. Hayes, probably Hess Mountain and probably Mt. Deborah. |
Aug28_16Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
Aug28_19Crop _AlaskaRangeRC |
  After that mountain viewing we came home and ate some of my birthday cake! Pretty amazing, eh! Kazuya made that. It was delicious too. |
Aug28th_01_ BirthdayCakeRC |
Aug28th_14_ BirthdayCakeRC |
Aug28th_21_ BirthdayCakeRC |
End August 28th, Begin August 29th |
  A friend in Oregon sent this package of fruits, vegetables and other goodies for my birthday. This photo shows just some of the fruits and vegetables! |
Aug29th_001_ PresentFromSandyRC |
  Around 11:30 PM on the 30th the Aurora Forecast was saying that there would be "High Auroral Activity" so we walked about 300 meters up the road to where there is a pretty good sized clearing to see if we could see any Aurora. We did! We didn't take tripods with us and we shot at exposures ranging from 5 - 15 seconds. Considering that, it's pretty amazing that you can make out the Big Dipper in the first photo on this row! The only thing that has been adjusted (Photoshop®) in all of these photos is the "Levels". Isn't the second shot amazing?!
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Aug29_01Levels _AuroraRC |
Aug29_04Levels _AuroraRC |
Aug29_03Levels _AuroraRC |
  In the center shot in this row you can once again see the Big Dipper. |
Aug29_08Levels _AuroraRC |
Aug29_10Levels _AuroraRC |
Aug29_09Levels _AuroraRC |
  Here is the Big Dipper again in the center shot! |
Aug29_12Levels _AuroraRC |
Aug29_15Levels _AuroraRC |
Aug29_16Levels _AuroraRC |
End August 29th, Back in Time to August 13th and 14th |
  Sorry, but now we're going to go back in time. I do not recall why these shots did not get stuck in where they belong, but they didn't, and they are worth seeing! On August 13th we walked down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline below Love Rd. - 1 mile or so from our house. Those finned things on the pipeline supports act as kind of refrigerator and keep the permanently frozen (permafrost) ground below the pipeline frozen so that it does not settle or anything. The second shot shows a Lomatogonium rotatum. Please note that this one has 4 petals.
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Aug13th_016_ PipelineLoveRdRC |
Aug13th_021_PipelineLove Rd_LomatogoniumRotatumRC |
Aug13th_017_ PipelineLoveRdRC |
  Here is another shot of Lomatogonium rotatum - note that this one has 5 petals - and then two shots (taken on the 14th) of the 12 oz. yogurt container of Lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) which we picked along the pipeline yesterday in about 20 minutes. So delicious! Smaller than a cranberry, but also more delicious, not quite as sour and worthy of being made into jam! |
Aug13th_024_PipelineLove Rd_LomatogoniumRotatumRC |
Aug14th_002_ LingonberryRC |
Aug14th_004_ LingonberryRC |
  On the afternoon of the 14th we took another long walk from our house and found this amazing patch of Bunchberry plants (Cornus canadensis) and fruits. WOW! There are a lot of these, pretty much everywhere, too bad that they are not edible. |
Aug14th_009_ BunchberryRC |
Aug14th_010_ BunchberryRC |
End August 13th and 4th, End August 2016's Photos, Begin Miscellaneous Links |