“Is that our buoy?” Terror. What is it doing there? It’s supposed to be around the rocky corner in a little nook protected from the… Continue reading
Ben Jones suspected he had found something special when he squeezed into a volcanic cave and saw pale wooden poles, some with ends shaped like… Continue reading
A spate of fine, sunny weather in mid-April was most welcome. Those clear skies, however, meant that the nights were still about crispy, and at… Continue reading
A glaciologist once wrote that the number of glaciers in Alaska “is estimated at (greater than) 100,000.” That fuzzy number, perhaps written in passive voice… Continue reading
It’s a safe bet that Aren Gunderson’s Toyota Tundra is the only one in Fairbanks that has had its bed filled with a Siberian tiger.… Continue reading
If you could have read that frost-covered fat-biker’s mind as he rolled toward McGrath, Alaska, “as if Velcroed to the snow,” you might have suspected… Continue reading
The Forest Service cabin was a sauna so I went outside, stood at the edge of the lake and listened. We had hauled in some… Continue reading
On these March nights, a male boreal owl has been singing from a wooden owl box near our home. The late biologist Dave Klein attached… Continue reading
February had an extra day this year, a cold and gusty one. Those gusts were enough to knock me off balance and make it temporarily… Continue reading
An old friend — a character not seen in these parts for a few years — showed up last week in Fairbanks. Ice fog. Ice… Continue reading
I found myself emotionally involved Sunday and felt the pending demise of the Detroit Lions with every dropped pass. I liked the story of the… Continue reading
For years, scientists have wondered why North America’s highest mountain is not a volcano. All the ingredients for volcanic activity lurk deep beneath Denali, which… Continue reading
The female woolly mammoth was 20 years old when she stumbled amid the grasslands. She fell in a cloud of dust, then gasped her last… Continue reading
While people are usually up for a good fight, things seem to get particularly heated this time of year. It’s cold, it’s dark, our team’s… Continue reading
On a slightly drippy day in late December, I wandered out to Point Louisa, right at a big high tide. Most of the folks I… Continue reading
Add another species to the list of organisms oozing over Alaska. A tiny gnat — one that in its larval stage sometimes crawls over its… Continue reading
