Lichen, Fish, and Plane Crashes: Photo Dispatches From The Southern Brooks

Still being a new arrival to Iniakuk, I can't help but take my camera everywhere I go. Yesterday I did a lot of painting, but today it drizzled a lot of the day and I mostly hung out inside.
(I realize that saying I did "a lot of painting" makes it sound like I am an artist. Definitely not - I was painting window trim, and I have to tape prodigiously otherwise I'll make a mess even at that.)

I hiked up the hill behind the lodge. This is Caribou Moss, which is actually a lichen. 

I know this photo is a bit out of focus, but if you had been getting tormented by mosquitoes the way I was being tormented by mosquitoes, you would not have merely rushed the photo, but you also would have lost your mind. I'm not perfect, but I am much more Zen than you.

The lodge is at the head of the lake, where the small (and not very visible in this photo) river flows in.

I hit the ridge, and then continued to the summit of Mt. Halwaugh.

....where I received a grim reminder that flying in small planes is dangerous.

This crash was sometime in the 80's. Had he been 100 yards left, right, or up, he would've made it.

The view from the summit of Halwaugh north to the head of the Tobuk River and then further into the Alatna River valley.

The Arrigetch. nbd.

Looking back down the ridge I came up (I turn right off the ridge onto a trail to return to the near end of the lake, however.) The hike up and back down Halwaugh was actually a little bit unpleasant, due to very large, shifting talus. It was a bit like Mario Bros. - you could stand on a rock for about a half second, and if you keep moving, you'll be fine, but if you pause the rock begins moving downhill. Some of the boulders were really very big; it was pretty surprising that a puny human could cause them to move. If one rolled and pinned your leg, how would you get it off?

Also, I felt better about how long it took me to get to the summit, and about being a little sore the next day, when I found out that it is 4,000 feet of gain to get to the summit.

These guys are really tiny - a clump of four is about the size of a fingertip.

The trail through the Caribou Moss.

Though this stuff grows in Fairbanks, it grows much bigger here, and is pretty.

On the other hand, I don't think I would think it was pretty if I had to live on this shit, like Caribou apparently can.

No, I live much better than caribou, it's true.

John and Flo got back from their trip, and we went fishing on the lake on a gorgeous evening.

I hauled in not one but TWO beautiful Lake Trout. I estimate that this one weighed 70 pounds - the other had to have been at least 100 (these heroic photos of me are by Flo).

I let the handsome little feller go.

Less handsome, however, was this Northern Pike that John caught. Damned ugly, and stinky to boot, you might say.

Hellacious predators, these things.

Couldn't have it uglying up the lodge, so John let him go, too.

Motoring back.

This is at 11:40 pm.

Just to make a point, I flipped this photo upside down. See the spots in the upper frame? Those are ripples in the water.

One of the guest cabins, at midnight.

I've also been working hard. I'll take some pictures to prove it.