Flower for the Day The Beginning - Crocus

Its hard to believe that my crocuses began blooming in February. It looks like

a little sun can make you bloom under the right conditions. The crocus is in the iris family.

They seem to come from out of nowhere,

In several different colors. Awesome.

spring

rivulets racing through  sun-sparkle fading snow-crust  crocuses poking

Copyright © Krow Fischer | Year Posted 2009 

Jan's 80th

On February 11 the family celebrated Jan's 80th birthday. We are looking forward to many more.

Back Row: Chris & Meg, Danny& Lee, Gordon & Kelli, Blake & Adam

Front Row: Don & Jan, &Will

Don's Blog From Point Barrow to Point Hope

Leaving Point Barrow we sailed west along the coast.  At Barrow the marginal Beaufort Sea becomes the Chukchi Sea. The name Chukchi derives from the Russian Chukatka Peninsula. The southernmost limit of the Chukchi is the Bering Strait which connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean

We passed Cape Lisburn on the Lisburn Peninsula. It was first seen by Captain James Cook who wrote on August 21, 1778, "The southern extreme seemed to form a point which was named Cape Lisburne". Currently it is a part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Forty miles southwest is the village of Point Hope. 

The waters from Point  Barrow to  Point Hope are fertile grounds for sighting bowhead whales and walrus. As we sailed we saw several bowheads on the surface. Watching the bowhead tail breech the water is a thrill creating a lifetime memory.

Even more exciting was when we spotted a walrus.

Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) are large flippered marine mammals that live mostly in shallow waters above the continental shelf. They spend most of their lives eating bivalve mollusks off the bottom and are long lived social mammals. Walrus tusks, their most prominent feature are elongated canine teeth. Males have significantly larger and longer tusks. This walrus is probably a female. The tusks are used sometimes for fighting between bulls and more commonly for helping these huge mammals to pry themselves out of the water onto the sea ice or the land.

A walrus mystery: I obtained this item in 1969 when I lived in Anchorage.

It is a walrus oosik. The oosik is a native Alaskan name for a baculum or penis bone. The bone is found in the penis of many placental mammals and primates including walruses, seals, polar bears, gorillas and chimpanzees. Th oosik is located above the male urethra and aids in reproduction by maintaining stiffness.

This bone is not found in humans. I gave my son, Lee the oosik from a black bear which he has used, after polishing, as a drink swizzle stick.

Top Cover for America - 1970

Between 1967 and 1970  I was on active duty at Elmendorf Air Force Base  in Anchorage. We were a TAC base and our motto was: Top Cover for America. Before we left in June of 1970 we went north on a trip with our friends Bill and Helen Spangler to visit Nome, Point Hope, and Fairbanks.

Mainly what we did was laugh. This picture was taken in Fairbanks on our way back. I think it is the only photo I have with me in uniform. The seal skin is on a shelf in the basement of the lake house.

One story: In Fairbanks we rented a car and toured the city and its surroundings. It was near to the longest days of the year and we ended up checking out some penned-up re-introduced musk oxen when our car died. I ended up calling the Otolaryngologist at Fort Greeley who got up and saved us in his huge van. He had really good raucous music and we hooted and howled and laughed as it was early in the morning and we were all totaled. 

Don's Bog Nome at Last II

Here are some images of Nome from 1970 when I had last been there with Jan and another couple.

The streets were gravel.

A few of the sidewalks were 'boarded'.

The sidewalk on Main Street was put in when I was passing through town in 1969. The road is unpaved.

This is the same sidewalk 49 years later. Looks like it is ready for replacement. Behind Dan is a bust of Amundsen, the same as the ones in Gjoa Haven and his hometown in Norway. Above is the Alaska state flag with the North Star and the Big Dipper.

I have more than enjoyed writing my trip photo essays but alles gut muss zu ende kommen.

Its on to the next adventure.

Don's Blog Nome at Last I

After leaving Little Diomede Island we sailed south through the night along the coast of Alaska. Several hours north of Nome we stopped at a 'gas station' off of Teller Alaska and a barge filled our fuel tanks.

 As we came to Nome our ship could not go into the harbor because of the wave action. 

We got off Le Boreal in Nome as we had gotten on the ship in Kangerlusuaq Greenland - on large orange covered life boats.

Nome (Siqnazuaq) is located on the southern coast of the Seward Peninsula on the Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. I had been to Nome in 1969 and 1970. This is the street along the shore at that time.

With Jan and our friends Bill and Helen we explored the city.

Its hard to believe that the "kid" shown here was a USAF Major who was protecting your northern border at Elmendorf Air Force Base. The photo shows how much of the city garbage was handled in those days. It was deposited onto the ice and when the spring 'break up' came it disappeared out to sea.

Don's Blog The North West Passage

This clip is from Mike Beedell - photographer, adventurer, naturalist, and friend. The song performed by Stan Rogers has been described as Canada's unofficial national anthem. 

https://youtu.be/-fxOY-hsxlE

Don's Blog The Lonely Muskox

I hope that you will enjoy one more personal adventure on this expedition. One of our favorite people on the trip was a harmonica player named Mike Stevens. We all received harmonicas and Mike attempted to teach us how to play them. For his performances on the mouth harp Mike always wore a hat which he thought made him play better. On the last night Mike wanted us to give a concert for the passengers and crew. As our topic Mike chose 'The Lonely Musk Ox" on Herschel Island.  I wrote the lyrics and was the lead singer. We had 2 minutes and 50 seconds of fame. Let me just say that fame is evanescent as well as fleeting. The song was a surprise and the lecture hall was lined on each side with harmonica players. We were all costumed as musk oxen.

https://youtu.be/tTZ1EIJPM9o

THE DREAMER

WENT TO THE ISLAND

THE MUSK OX WAS THERE

STURDY AND LONELY

AND COVERED WITH HAIR

HE'S LOOKING FOR LOVE

OH WHERE HAS IT GONE

NO MUSKIRT IS COMING

FOR PASSION OR PLAY

HIS DESTINY IS WAITING

IN THE RAIN BY THE BAY

STANDING AND DREAMING

OF THE RUTS OF THE PAST

STANDING AND WAITING

FOR THE WHALES TO BE SAVED

STANDING AND WAITING 

FOR THE CLIMATE TO CHANGE

LIKE THE MUSKOX ON HERSHEL

OUR DREAM IS SO SHARP

OF HAVING MIKES HAT

TO PLAY OUR OWN HARP.

THIS COMES FROM THE HEART!

Lyrics by Don Sessions

September 2017

Don's Blog Little Diomede Island and the Bering Strait II

The site of the village of Diomede in the Bering Strait has been used for more than  3,000 years as a hunting camp. The village is compact and on a steep hill. 

Zodiacs brought us to shore. The weather is routinely cloudy and rainy.

As part of their subsistence lifestyle they harvest fish and blue crab and hunt beluga whales, walrus, seals and polar bear. These polar bear skulls were covered with green moss as was everything.

The mayor of Diomede was friendly and articulate.

This  large bore drill is for the winter ice.

It is a tight knit community.

The walkways are sturdy with hand rails - a challenge even in the summer.

The trip through the North West Passage from Greenland to Alaska is winding down.Tomorrow we arrive in Nome.

Don's Blog Little Diomede Island and the Bering Strait I

After sailing past Point Hope we came to the Bering Strait. It is 51 miles wide at its narrow point between Cape Dezhnev which is Russia's easternmost point and Cape Prince of Whales  which is the westernmost point of the North American continent. It connects the Chukchi Sea (Arctic Ocean) to the north and the Bering Sea (Pacific Ocean) to the south. The international dateline runs between the two Diomede Islands which leaves the Russian side 21 hours ahead of the American side. Danish born Russian navigator Vitus Bering entered it in 1728. The Diomedes are two little dots on the map between the words Bering and Strait. 

On a personal note, south of Point Hope is the town of Kotzebue. In 1969 as an Air Force surgeon on loan to the US Public Health Service I went from Anchorage through Nome to Kotzebue with a nurse and an anesthetist and we did thirty tonsillectomies on native pediatric patients in three days and happily with no complications.

The two Diomede Islands are located in the middle of the Bering Stait between Siberia and Alaska. 

Little Diomede Island, formerly called Krusenstern Island, is American and 2.4 miles to the west across the dateline is the Russian Big Diomede Island. This panorama shot from Le Boreal shows the village of  Diomede in the southwest corner of the island. It is also called Inaliq meaning 'the one over there'. The highest point on the island is 1,120 feet.

Big Diomede Island - west across the Bering Strait and across the dateline.

Little Diomede has a permanent native population of a little over 100. They live a subsistence lifestyle. On the morning of our visit  a group of drum dancers came aboard our ship by Zodiac and provided us with the most authentic show of our trip. The drums that they brought were covered with whale stomach sinew and provided a sharp breathtaking beat to accompany the dancing and singing.

In high school athletics the Diomede Dateliners compete with the Point Hope Harpooners.

Don's Blog Point Hope III

Sad Note: As I write the last few photo essays of our Northwest Passage Expedition yesterday I was shocked to hear that Dan West my travel buddy (on this and other trips)  and friend for close to fifty years passed away Monday while on a trip to the Dominican Republic to swim with humpback whales. He was one of a kind and the suddenness is overwhelming.

Point Hope  III

Because of where it is located on the northwest Alaskan coast Point Hope has been embroiled in many emotional political controversies. In the 1950's Professor Edward Teller was said to have proposed exploding a small atomic bomb off Point Hope to create a deepwater harbor. Cooler heads prevailed. 

The major recent controversy  has regarded offshore oil drilling. 

In a traditional Inupiaq parable Allinnaq was banished to the moon for raping his sister. Many feel that the hunger for oil is a return to moral decay and a threat to their subsistence way of life that they have experienced in the past. In 1871 commercial whalers arrived in the village to hunt bowhead whales for their oil. At the time there were 4,000 inhabitants in Point Hope and many starved to death because of the exploitation of the whales. According to Point Hope's Mayor, "They almost killed the whole village".

The current controversy has heated up because of the resources both given and promised by the oil companies.After many years of argument, against the wishes of the hamlet, the Shell Oil company was issued some federal permits to drill offshore in 2012. Surprisingly in 2015 Shell announced that the drilling was not worth it and the company left the area for the foreseeable future. We shall see.

Back in Point Hope in 1970 we continued to meet wonderful people. This beautiful lady proudly showed off the coat that she had worn when she attended the presidential inauguration of Richard Nixon in 1969.

This is one of my favorite images of Jan walking the village. By the evening we realized that there were no restaurants in town. For dinner at the Mission House we ate Pilot bread and peanut butter.
It was all we had.  It was part of the adventure.

At the time  the Chukchi Sea pack ice on the shore of Point Hope did not whet  dreams of arctic exploration. It was a time when I was completing my USAF assignment at Elmendorf Air Force Hospital and getting ready to move the family to St Louis to join the faculty at Washington University Medical School.

But there is nothing better than romance under a whale bone canopy.

That had to be a Jonah whale.

The next morning we were at the Mission House when we heard our plane coming in. Since we were out of food we ran to the air field carrying our duffel bags filled with some new treasures from the villagers. I actually went out onto the runway to make sure we didn't miss our plane to Fairbanks.
Note: The next Blog is out of order.  It is above as "From Point Barrow to Point Hope"

Don's Blog Point Hope II

The hamlet of Point Hope was delightful. Bill is on  the observation tower scanning for bowheads. There is a polar bear hide drying on the rack with the fur side down. Behind him is the pack ice which melts by August.

The cemetery at Point Hope is surrounded by bowhead whale jaw bones. In order to bury  someone

the villagers have to wait for summer for the ground to thaw. Because of this the bodies were buried all around the village area. This custom changed with the arrival of the missionaries and all of the bodies that could be found were re-interred in this cemetery.

The villagers of Point Hope have survived through the millennia with subsistence hunting and fishing.

This is partly due to the nutrition offered by Maktuuk which is a combination of whale skin and blubber. 

Maktuuk is rich in Vitamin A and Vitamin C which is most important for a people with limited access to fresh fruit and vegetables. When I took a bite of Maktuuk it had the taste and consistency of tire rubber. Most of the villagers brought up on blubber have had their teeth worn to nubbins or have lost them.

Don's Blog Point Hope I

 From Utqiagviq we continued along the coast sailing by the rocky cliffs of Cape Lisburne and the Alaskan North Slope village of  Point Hope. The Inuit name, Tikagaq, commonly spelled Tigara (see map below) means forefinger. The village sits on a long thin peninsula shaped like a pointing finger which juts out into the Chukchi Sea historically bringing whales close to the shore. Originally called by Russian explorers, Mys Golovnina, the cape was re-named by Captain Frederick William Beechey who wrote on August 2, 1826, "I named it Point Hope in compliment to Sir William Johnstone Hope, of a well connected sea family."

Forty-eight years ago I visited the hamlet of Point Hope with my wife and another couple. We flew in to the airstrip on a small plane on wheels in May of 1970.
 

We were unprepared for the visit. At the time there was no habitable hotel and no restaurants. Many of the white poles sticking up in the view by the air field (below) are the jaw bones of bowhead whales. It is always a lonely feeling when you are dropped off in a distant place and the airplane lifts off.

I had made arrangements  for us to stay in the Episcopal Mission House next to the church. Luckily for us no one else was staying there. We picked up our duffel bags and dropped them off at 'our' mission house. 

Although we arrived unannounced and unexpected we were met immediately by friendly villagers.They were happy to see us and no one asked why we had come. Some children adopted us. Here we are coming out of the mission house. I'm to the left and our friend Helen and my wife Jan to the lower right.

The children showed us around the village. One of the first structures we saw was this traditional Saad house made from bowhead whale bones and covered with sod growing grasses. That is the electric line coming off the pole. An umiak open skin boat is on a framework to the right.

 

The houses were interesting in the details including the guard dog on the front porch. 

These are caribou racks on the roof with heads still attached and on the far side is a moose rack.

Our young guides walked us all around. In the background you can see the pack ice of Maryatt Inlet.