“My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature.”
— Claude Monet
Monthly Archives: June 2021
High Tide
The southwestern village of Kwigillingok, which lies on the Bering Sea coast, within the vast Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, is seeing some of the worst flooding anyone can remember. Flooding is not rare at Kwigillingok, but the severity of Friday’s high tide has reached a new threshold.
Buildings within the village are on pilings, so water did not breach any structures, but time does not appear to be on the village’s side.
The melting permafrost is causing land subsidence, which has made the village very susceptible to flooding, especially at high tide. The flooding then speeds up the melting of the permafrost even more, causing a harsh cycle.
Several homes are slated to be moved due to the threat of erosion, but the entire village is now contemplating a move to higher ground.
Photos credit: Jesse Igkurak/Alaska Public Media
Play ball!
Film Friday:
No cruising Nome
The cruise industry has put Nome in dry dock for the 2021 season. The city was hoping to get five cruise ships in this summer, but the Harbormaster, Lucas Stotts, confirmed this week that the industry has pulled the plug. No blaming the Canadians this time, however. The ships that visit Nome also dock at Provideniya, Russia. Like Canada, Russian ports are closed to tourists for 2021. No alternative was found, so the season officially ended before it began.
I think it is safe to say that the tourist industry is looking forward to 2022.
The Midnight Sun Game
The 116th Midnight Sun Baseball Game took place on Monday night. The first pitch for the annual Solstice event was fired off at 10pm. The game is played in its entirety without the use of artificial lights.
The seventh inning stretch usually lands around midnight, with the playing of the Alaska Flag Song. It’s quite the event, and brings out the largest crowd of the season for the Panners.
Growden Park was looking pretty good after some off season renovations, and the Goldpanners are fielding a decent team this year.
The Alaska Goldpanners have hosted the game since 1960, and have a dominating record of 47-14. In 2020, with the Goldpanners in hiatus, the game took place with a men’s league team losing to a Legion All-Star team. The game has never seen artificial light, and it has never been rained out.
On Monday/Tuesday, the Panners defeated the Everett Merchants 3-0.
Fun Fact
Last Thursday, Death Valley had a high temp of 128F. That was still closer to freezing, than the record low for Fairbanks at -66F.
Thanks to AlaskaWx for that little tidbit.
How awkward
The sun rose in parts of eastern Alaska on Sunday morning, before it had set in parts of western Alaska.
Happy Summer Solstice
The photo above, which I’ve posted on here before, was taken at midnight on a hike out to Tolovana Hot Springs. At the top of the pass, I took this photo, before dropping down into the hot springs. Most people trek out here in the winter months, by ski, dog sled or snowmachine. We hiked out in June, and it was a slog, but we had the springs to ourselves, which was an incredible few days. Very fond memories.
Fairbanks, in case anyone was curious, will see 21 hours and 49 minutes of daylight, with the rest of the 24 hours being filled in with civil twilight.
The camera, for the above photo, was an old Canon Canonet; the film I believe was Fuji, probably high speed.
May your days be long and filled with sunshine.
Happy Solstice
Mail Run
Film Friday:
The Yukon River mail run, leaving Eagle, Alaska around 1906. Currently, only media mail still travels this way within the state.
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