Cruising Kenai Fjords

Two days in a row without rain was, apparently, too much to ask. It began raining once again shortly after leaving Homer on Sunday morning. We drove about 180 miles, north then east, to the seaside town of Seward on the northeast side of the Kenai Peninsula. The skies cleared a little towards evening, as it had done the previous few days, but the rain continued.

And yet another rainy day dawned on Monday (August 16th). We drove the short distance to the Seward Small Boat Harbor - on the agenda for the day was a cruise through the Kenai Fjords and a portion of the Kenai Fjords National Park, which is mostly inaccessible by land.

We occasionally moved in close to shore looking for otters, seals, whales and puffins.
The fog and clouds provided an eery aspect to the landscape.
For me, the highlight of the cruise was seeing Aialik Glacier, the largest tidewater glacier in Alaska. It is a mile wide and extends four miles back to the Harding Ice Fields. At least I think that is what the captain of our cruise ship said. He was providing so much information that it was not easily absorbed if you weren't paying close attention, which I wasn't always doing! At this point we were still quite a ways away. The top of the glacier was hidden by the clouds and fog and chunks of ice were not yet visible in the water.

This little boat was about half a mile away from the glacier, along it's left side.
The Kenai Star was similar to the cruise ship Tanaina, which we were on. The smaller boat on the right is the same one as in the previous photo only it has now moved across to the right side of the glacier.

Towards the end of our short stay, the fog lifted briefly so that we could actually see the top of the glacier. Quite a few chunks of ice fell off (calved) while we were there. The sound when they broke away was awesome, rather like really loud, close thunderclaps. Not rolling thunder, but quick, short bursts. And it was pure luck if you got a good shot of the glacier calving (I didn't).

The Kenai Star is pulling away from the glacier. It is difficult to comprehend the massiveness of this glacier, even with boats in the picture.

Despite the rain and cloudy, foggy, overcast skies, the cruise was quite enjoyable. We saw several Sea Otters leisurely floating on the surface of the water, as well as some Harbor Seals and Steller Sea Lions. Several Humpback Whales were sighted and I saw one of them spouting water and got a glimpse of its body and tail fin as it was diving below the surface. There was also a mountain goat high up on a mountainside. Pictures were taken but most of them are either out of focus or so far away that the subject can't be distinguished from the water! Weather conditions were horrible!

Steller Sea Lions resting on the rocks.
We saw this black bear on the beach, not far from where a group of campers had their tents set up. They hadn't yet noticed the bear and one of the campers was waving back at us while we were trying to point out the bear to him.

The camper didn't have a clue there was any danger until one of the other campers finally saw the bear when it crossed over the top of the rocks. Luckily, for the campers, it headed straight into the forest.

Yes, the weather was awful (Have I said that before?), but our table-mates were a nice couple from Massachusetts and we had a good time talking with them and sharing adventures during the 8.5 hour cruise. The tour included a dinner of grilled Salmon and Prime Rib at Fox Island, and that was pretty good too!

Qld Comp Cont'

The team here at jjobrienclimbingare currently out of the country on a non-climbing holiday.Here's a post I phoned in from Bali. Someselected scenes from the Qld Lead Comp

Meanwhile climbers,if you need more style updates,I've been guest blogging over at redphoenixstyle.blogspot.com

An honor and an awesome responsibility, they havecatwalks of followers and a good post will push the google servers into the red.

Qld Lead Comp Who else found themselves getting all inexplicably nervous?A few quick asanas tosooth the jitters.

That would be me in the qualifiers.







There's room on the route for a Rastaman. Liam keeps the vibrations good. Haile man!



Climbing was not compulsory on the night. Elise came along to keep the vibe up.The dynamic Team Cujes in "Boulders and Nuts" gear from upskillclimbinggear.comLee and Sam Cujes have recently launched their slick newonline store with some fresh ideas about hardware and clothing. I still can't believe how cheap those Climbtech ascenders are!And the girls tell me the Boulders and Nuts halters are excellent quality.





Lee in the open finals. Something about you have to clip the draw from the black"X" and no higher.

Where I come from you clip if you can, you go if you can't. Rules! What are they good for...











Post comp noodle box - Eddie, Kaylee, Joe, and I forgot...Kaylee sports a kooky coolowl bag she bought at the South Bank market.



Loesje Fletcher,looking supercool under pressure,uses unfair advantage with Red Chili Caronas.

Guaranteed to win any comp, if the judges know anything about style.

Nate, my preciousblogstar, you know you are just here to push up my blog stats. Even the super styled

Elie Moubarakcouldn't bump you off the popular post top spot.





Skeleton Dolls

Sarah, my sister, makes skeleton dolls. She calls the Dolls From the Bone Yard. The skeleton is plastic but the rest is all handmade. She sells them at farmers markets and craft events in and around Las Cruces. If anyone is interested leave me a comment with an email and I will get back to you. Shown here are cowboys, Mexicans, witches, Cap'em Jack from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, nurses, and fancy ladies. She also does Doctors, angels, brides and grooms, hippies, solders, and fisherman. I couldn't get over how cute they were. She sells a lot for the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead which is about the same time as our Halloween.

John Simac, Lee Tegner and Camp Schurman

Ed Hrivnak is a pilot and a writer (New Yorker and Operation Homecoming) and last September he took a special trip to Mount Rainier for two friends. Normally, this sort of activity wouldn't be too big of a deal (Ed flew many of the maneuvers behind the photos in my book), but his two friends have a special connection to Rainier and this trip could be their last chance to get up close and personal with "The Mountain." Here is an edited version of that flight and those men.

“I can not begin to express what an honor it was to fly John Simac and Lee Tegner around the mountain in September, 2007. As a climber and rescuer, the stories I heard from them during the flight were truly amazing. John talked about his first Rainier climb in 1932 and the body recovery of Delmar Fadden in 1936; Lee talked about being strapped into the open door of a plane while making cargo drops to the Camp Schurman hut in the early 1960's. Both reminisced about camping on the summit for a week, playing football and eating watermelon while teaching young Explorer Scouts the skills of mountaineering.

John had mentioned a flight to see the mountain six months ago realizing that at age 93, he may never see “the hut” and Mount Rainier up close again. After months of scheduling conflicts, we finally had a day that worked for all three of us.

The weather that day was absolutely perfect. There was a light wind and clear skies which made for stable air on the NE side of the mountain. This would be great for viewing Camp Schurman and the Emmons Glacier. You see, John and Lee both volunteered to build the Camp Schurman hut. Both spent many years on Mount Rainier's slopes. Both volunteered with Mountain Rescue for over 50 years. Both had given so much and I wanted to honor that.

We took four laps around the north and east face of Mount Rainier, Little Tahoma, and in particular Camp Schurman. No one was around that day; it was just us, the mountain, and the hut. After all I'd heard, I decided to pull a maneuver that would give them a clear view. I took the plane to 11 K and then dropped the flaps, pulled the engine to idle, and gently rolled in for closer inspection. We quietly glided over the glacier with the hut to our right. Then John spoke with a tear in his eye, "Seeing that hut again brought back a flood of memories that I can't sort out at once." Lee, with a smile, said, "we had a hell of a time on this mountain."

As the plane descended over the Winthrop Glacier, we watched large open crevasses pass beneath us. I looked over at Lee and John and noted that they were both lost in memories that I could only imagine. I wonder if there is anyone alive today who has volunteered more time on the upper mountain of Rainier as John and Lee. It was a privilege to pilot them for what might be a final view of a place so special. For me, I hope someone will do the same when I am 93." -Ed Hrivnak

Ducklings on Elbow Lake

We saw a lot of neat and interesting things on yesterday's kayak adventure on Elbow Lake on the Gunflint Trail. Probably the most entertaining (and definitely the cutest!) sighting was this group of ducklings that we saw on the opposite end of the lake from the boat landing. They must have been hiding in the brush along the edge of the lake when we first went by because we didn't see them until we were heading back to the landing. They sure were cute as they swam along the bank close to shore. This sighting along with the Loon earlier in the trip really made the day special. We also saw a bald eagle perched atop a giant pine tree and a goofy gull that was flying around in the distance the whole time we were paddling. There are always fascinating things to see when you spend time on the water and today was no exception!

Confusing Relationships

This past Friday, Charlene, a new-found "Shuder" cousin and her son came down from central Michigan for a visit with me and one of my first cousins. We got acquainted, shared some information, had a good time, and got a bit confused.

Our common ancestors, Nancy Jane Lavering and Isaac Shuder, were related to each other before they got married. As I attempted to explain their relationship and determine our relationship it just got more and more confusing. We finally did get it figured out though, I think. Nancy and Isaac were 1st cousins once removed, and Charlene and I are second cousins once removed, as shown in the image below, which can be read by clicking on it to make it bigger:


The problem I have with the standard relationship charts, is that you have to know your relationship to your common ancestor as well as the relationship of the person you are trying to determine your relationship to. Now, if I'd had the basic information for those ancestors and their children entered into the genealogy software that I use, which is Legacy, it wouldn't have been a problem, but I didn't and still don't. Actually, I did have it entered a couple of years ago, but that's another story. Anyway, Legacy has a neat feature that allows you to display and/or print a fancy chart mapping out these things. It's really a nice chart, but I couldn't use it. . .

Examples of the Standard Relationship chart can be found at:

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gentutor/chart.html


• http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hornbeck/chart.htm

A rather nice, slightly different chart with a pdf file available for download is at:

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kordyban/chart/relationship_chart.html

** Update July 31, .. **

What is a First Cousin, Twice Removed? is an article in the Genealogy.com Learning Center that provides some helpful information on relationships. The Learning Center is a very good resource whether you are just starting your family search or even if you are a more advanced researcher.

Joslin Rendezvous :: The Homestead

If you had been a young man eager to begin a new life back in the early 1900s and you saw something like this photo below, would you have invested several years of your life trying to make a go of it?





South of Murdo in Mellette County, South Dakota

Twenty-five year old Virgil Newton Joslin did just that in 1916. Tired of working for other men he was determined to have a place of his own. He took up homesteading in west-central Mellette County, South Dakota, almost on the eastern edge of The Badlands. His first abode on the homestead was a dugout in the side of a hill. About the same time or shortly thereafter, his parents Luther and Phoebe (Elliott) Joslin joined him on the homestead. Two years later Virgil married Mary Matilda Hutcheson and he built what he called a “tar paper shack.” It was 12x16 feet, constructed of boards and covered in tar paper that was normally used for covering a roof before the shingles are put down.



Soon a son, Irwin, was born. In 1922, the tar paper shack was replaced by the beginnings of a “real” house - a concrete basement. A few years later a daughter was added to the family and then two more sons – Ruth, Jim, and George were all born in the nearest "large" town, White River.



A barn was built. A dam was constructed across a stream and a pond was dug. Virgil and Mary worked hard on their homestead. His parents helped as much as they could. Virgil still had to work for other men to help feed his growing family.



The dream house was never built. The family was caught up in the wrath of Mother Nature. It started with a prolonged drought. Irwin tells about the conditions in the early 1930s in his memoirs:

“For two or three years there was not enough rainfall to produce crops. Then the wind, which always blows in South Dakota, began picking up the dirt from the dry fields and we had dust storms. They might not have been as bad as in the Oklahoma dust bowl, but I recall them lasting for 2-3 days and the fine dust was everywhere...It literally blew all the dirt out of the fields as deep as it had been plowed.”

“In addition to the drought, depression and dust storms we had plagues of insects. Beetles overran the place once and ate anything green that was growing. Another year it was grasshoppers – the big kind that fly. They were so thick that, at times, when they flew over they made a shade like a cloud. they ate everything – even the dried bark off fence posts that had been in the ground for years. They also ate pitch fork handles because of the salty taste of perspiration from our hands.”

“During these times my father did as everyone else did, and kept borrowing money from the local bank and giving livestock and farm implements as collateral. The taxes on the land couldn't be paid in these years either. Everyone hoped for a better year – next year. but it came too late for most of them – their resources ended. My father finally had to just turn it all over to the banker and let the land go back for unpaid taxes. Then we left the homestead.”

In 1928, Luther and Phoebe Joslin had moved to Missouri where a daughter lived. Virgil and his family remained on the homestead until sometime in 1934 when they moved to Martin, South Dakota. A Sheriff's sale held at the homestead in May 1936 raised $2219.31 all of which went to the state. Soon thereafter, Virgil and Mary and the four children moved to Turkey Ridge, Pulaski County, Missouri not far from where his sister and parents lived.



In October 1986, 50 years after the family left Mellette County, South Dakota the four children of Virgil Joslin “revisited” their homestead. Over the years they returned several more times. George and his wife Lorene made a visit there in September of last year and learned that Mellette County was going to have its Centennial Celebration this year. Descendants of the early homesteaders were invited to return. George and Jim began planning the trip and invited me to join them. I'd heard so much about “The Homestead” that I just had to see it for myself!





I was standing a ways south of where the basement house was located, looking to the north. George was trying to determine where the barn had been – he's standing a little right of the center of the photo.





Hardly a trace of the buildings remain – just a few pieces of concrete where the basement house was dug out. Fred is walking down into the hole where the basement was. It is partially filled with debris and junk. When they were here in 1991, they could still see the square walls of the basement, which have begun to cave in.





Looking to the west from the location of the house.



The pond that Virgil dug out. It lies to the north of the house, below the hill.



The view to the East.



And, looking toward the south.

I was quite surprised to see so much green grass, especially this late in the summer, but it has been an unusually wet summer in South Dakota this year, unlike some areas of the country that are experiencing a prolonged drought. It does look inviting. Coming from a land with an abundance of trees and lakes and streams, I enjoy visiting these “desolate looking” places but I would find it difficult to live here. The folks that do have my admiration even if I do think they are a bit crazy!





The Joslin Clan – standing - Richard (descendant of Luther's daughter Phoebe), Me (descendant of Luther's sister Malissa), Tim (son of George), Babs (daughter of Irwin), Joann (daughter of Ruth), Fred (husband of Sue), Sue (daughter of Ruth). Seated are George, Ruth and Jim (children of Virgil). Irwin passed away in 1990. Ten people came from six states: Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri and Virginia!



Photographs taken August 20th and 21st.



Update August 30, ..: Sue has additional photos of the visit to White River on her blog. Also, see her post The Homestead Tour.