Fish Ladder Walk

We love doing our local walks with look outs over Schwatka Lake and the surrounding mountains. I call this the fish ladder hill because there is a fish ladder to bypass the hydro dam to allow King Salmon which have travelled all the way from the Bering Sea to finish their epic migration to spawn in some of the inlets above Schwatka Lake. Today there were 54 salmon through the ladder.

Grey mountain and hidden lakes

Schwatka Lake and our ski hill and Ibex Mtn (I think)

The float plan base and the dam in the far right of the photo

Yukon Cranberry Primer

Here in the Yukon there are two types of cranberries, regular (low bush) and high bush. For the first time this year I've found low bush cranberries. In the past all I could find were bear berries. Bear berries are not edibly delicious unlike cranberries.

Here's what I was looking for;

 And these:

 On the other hand, these are bear berries, they look a lot alike, but bear berries don't taste very nice and they'll give you the runs if you eat 'em.

 Bear berries in a big patch:

 

Now these here on the left are high bush cranberries. They are an amazing jewel of a berry with a large pit. They are very juicy and tart. They also have a distinctive scent, sort of musky.

The berries below are soap berries. They are sort of edible, and you might mistake them for high bush cranberries if you saw them on a plate, not their bush. The leaves are totally different for one thing. Soap berries are high in saponin and are used by First Nations folks to make Indian Ice Cream, a pink foamy concoction.

Saskatoons Ahoy!

It has been an amazing year for berries. I think it's been the weather and the fact that our neighbour has honey bees.

Haines Fair

We had a fabulous time in Haines with friends enjoying the South East Alaska State Fair. The parade was a highlight, including the marching band...