Outdoors

A year after completion, the greenhouse built by Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has produced its share of successes and setbacks.

“The name is Taay Hít, which means ‘garden house’ in Lingít,” says Lindsey Pierce, master gardener and environmental specialist at Tlingit and Haida.

Also referred to as “the dome” because of its shape, the structure was assembled from a kit by local contractors last July. This year marks the second growing season for the greenhouse.

Cer Scott, also a master gardener and environmental specialist, said he was new to indoor gardening and overwhelmed at first. For him, one of the first challenges was deciding what to grow.

“We’re trying to decide, you know, should we grow things that are not as accessible at our stores?” Scott said. “Or should we grow things that people that are more, you know, wanted in the region, like cultural traditional foods. So we kind of did a mixture of both.”

One of the successes from this season included multiple crops of Swiss chard.

“We had several harvests and made a nice big lunch for the staff,” Scott said.

A lot of it also went to Smokehouse Catering, the tribe’s event company, who use produce from the dome in the meals they serve.

Tomatoes also did well, but basil was an especially big hit.

“It’s one of those things that it’s right next to the door, so when you walk in you get a waft of some fresh basil,” Scott said.

They had a few setbacks however, like pests and heat.

“We did have some cabbage here but we lost that unfortunately to some of the aphids,” Scott explains. “Aphids took over those so we just ended up pulling them to kind of help combat that.”

And a long stretch of hot weather earlier in the summer threw off the timing of their broccoli.

“While we were still trying to figure out the environment inside the greenhouse, as far as climate control, our broccoli ended up bolting. And flowering.” Scott explained. “It’s just their life cycle.”

“You can eat the flowers though,” Pierce added.

Scott and Pierce both completed the Alaska Master Gardener Program, and they agree that they have learned a lot in just two growing seasons under the dome.

“Last July is when it started. And it’s just been a ride ever since.” says Pierce.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Taay Hít, the name of the greenhouse.

Two people were rescued on July 27 after losing the trail during a backcountry hike near Ketchikan. The pair was unharmed.

The head of the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad, Jerry Kiffer, says the hikers were attempting a popular traverse through the mountains when they got lost in the snow.

“They were doing a Silvis to Deer Mountain traverse with a scheduled overnight over on Mahoney Mountain,” Kiffer said.

Kiffer says the hikers ended up on a spur trail to John Mountain by mistake and got lost in the snow as they returned to the main trail. Kiffer says the hikers called for help when they found themselves stuck in steep terrain.

“We had kind of sketchy cell phone connectivity with them. They had to get just in the right position to be able to get a signal, but they were able to get a signal out,” he said.

The rescue squad was then able to locate the hikers and lead them to safety.

Kiffer says the episode serves as a good reminder that the 14-mile trek is a challenging hike even for those with plenty of experience outdoors.

“That traverse is, I think, probably the most underestimated hike that we have locally. … That whole part of the trail from Blue Lake out until you drop down into Silvis, just use caution there. It’s not very well marked,” he said. “It’s very easy to get off the trail.”

Kiffer says it’s a good idea to let someone know where you plan to hike and when you plan to return, and to carry a GPS beacon like a SPOT. The Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad loans out SPOT beacons for free at the Ketchikan Public Library, the Alaska State Troopers post, and the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau.

Many Ironman Alaska athletes are scrambling after Alaska Airlines notified them that bicycles shipped through them may not arrive in time for the triathlon in Juneau, which is less than two weeks away.

In an email to customers on Tuesday, Alaska Airlines said that applies to bikes checked as baggage or shipped by Alaska Air Cargo. The airline steered athletes to the Ironman organization to find other shipping options.

Suzanne Rinehart is a college administrator in the Chicago area who’s been doing Ironman races for a decade. Now 51, she said she was looking forward to doing her last, full-length Ironman in Alaska.

“I invested a lot of training — it’s a little frustrating to think of all the training I put in,” she said. “And now I’m this close, and then everything kind of raveled and fell apart at the last minute.”

After she got the email from Alaska Airlines, she looked into last-minute couriers. The options are limited and expensive. Some require disassembling the bike. Alaska Airlines offered her an earlier flight to Juneau to beat the rush, but that would mean spending a lot more on accommodations, taking more time off work, plus extra headaches coordinating with her travel companion.

So she decided to cancel her whole trip.

“The bike thing was the last straw for me,” she said.

Mike Arabia is still headed to the race from southern California. He said he got quotes to ship his bike into Juneau through UPS and FedEx for around $1,000. But he was able to get an assurance in writing from an Alaska Airlines agent that his bike would arrive by Aug. 5 — two days before the race.

“I’m going to have to cross my fingers and hope that this agent that I chatted with … is correct,” he said. “And that my bike makes it there before race day.”

Like Rinehart, Arabia’s unhappy about the last-minute communication for a foreseeable problem. It’s too late now, but affordable, third-party options for shipping bikes are available with more notice.

“Shame on Ironman. Shame on Alaska Airlines for not coordinating early,” he said.

Ironman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Alaska Airlines said they’ve been communicating with the Ironman organization for the last year with a goal of getting important travel information to athletes. The airline said its email to customers about bike capacity was a backstop, “in the event they had not heard from the Ironman organization.”

Other athletes do appear to be opting for some of those expensive shipping options. Ken Hill owns the shop Juneau Bike Doctor. He saw a thread about the bike issue  on Facebook and offered up his shop as a shipping destination and storage spot for athletes sending bikes ahead of their flights.

“The phone’s been going crazy and our Facebook messages as well,” he said. “I literally can’t step away from my computer without it piling up.”

Within 24 hours, he said 30 to 40 people took him up on the offer. He said he expects bikes to start showing up on Monday.

Travel Juneau, Juneau’s destination marketing organization, has been working closely with the race organizers. Executive Director Liz Perry said the race organizers and airline are working together to smooth things out.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Alaska Airlines did not respond to a request for comment. The reporter failed to make a request.

A Fairbanks man is recovering from COVID-19 after getting seriously ill during a 12-day wilderness rafting trip on the North Slope.

Seventy-seven-year-old David Hamilton is an experienced backcountry traveler and was part of a group floating the Canning River earlier in July. Hamilton says another member of the party had COVID-19 but didn’t know it until they were out on the remote river.

“He was pretty miserable there for a few days, and we did everything as far as following protocol, masking and distancing and so on,” he said. “But I got COVID out there.”

Hamilton says he’s fully vaccinated and boosted, but he also has asthma, and he quickly became very sick.

“Pretty tired, wiped out, achy, had a bad headache, a really bad cough, couldn’t stop coughing,” he said. “And my blood pressure went off the top too, so I knew as was in — I had to get out of there.”

Hamilton used a satellite phone to call 911 and began communicating with an operator.

“She asked what’s the nearest town, and I said Kaktovik, and she says how do you spell that,” he said. “Then she said is there any roads, or can an ambulance get to you, and I said ‘No, Kaktovik is about 150 miles away and there’s no roads at all out here. I’m in the middle of nowhere Alaska, on the North Slope on a gravel bar on the Canning River.’”

Hamilton says the operator gave him the number for North Slope Borough Search and Rescue, which sent a helicopter out of Utqiaġvik that picked him up and flew him to Deadhorse.

He said that a medevac plane landed about 10 minutes after he got to Deadhorse, and within an hour and a half he was at the hospital in Fairbanks.

“It was just slick,” Hamilton said. “It was just really highly professionally done.”

He emphasized the value of his $125 per year medevac insurance.

“If you ever had to pay for one of those, it would just bankrupt you I’m sure,” he said.

Hamilton says he’s testing negative now and has largely recovered. He says he’s been doing wilderness trips his entire life and plans to continue.

Soon-to-be seven-year-old Isa Santiago splashed through a tide pool at Bishop’s Beach Friday morning. She shrieked excitedly when she spotted a dark pink sea star glued to the rocks, surrounded by dark gray and green stars.

Isa and her family made the four-and-a-half-hour drive from their home in Eagle River to tidepool during one of the lowest tides of the year in Homer. Her mom, Kyra Santiago, said she started planning the trip nine months ago.

“I looked at tide charts months in advance to be able to book Airbnb [and] make sure we got here on the lowest tide possible of the season,” she said.

Friday’s tide was especially low, at –5.3 feet, only topped by a low of -5.6 in June. Homer only sees tides this low a few times a year.

Biologists like Katey Shedden say it’s a great time to see critters who live at the bottom of the ocean, where they might normally be hidden under 25 feet of water.

Shedden is an environmental educator at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, which put on last week’s tidepooling events.

On Friday, she led a group of bundled up kids and adults along the long, sandy beach to the intertidal zone — where the sand meets the sea — to look for critters.

The first lesson: Be aware of where you’re going and respect the fragile ecosystem.

“Our main thing we want to pay attention to is where our feet are,” Shedden told the group. “There are lots of critters like anemones and even nudibranchs and sea cucumbers that have really soft bodies that would not be able to survive if you step on them. So it’s really important to pay attention to where your feet are going.”

The colorful starfish and anemones were the biggest hits Friday. One member of the group said they even spotted an octopus.

Chad and Pam Landes were visiting from Topeka, Kansas. Friday was their first time tidepooling.

“There’s no tide in Kansas,” Chad said, chuckling.

The couple was sloshing through the tide pools in tennis shoes — feet wet, but faces sporting big grins.

Chad said he liked the starfish, but didn’t want to touch any of them.

“I didn’t mess with it. I’m not as curious as my wife,” he said.

Pam, on the other hand, snapped photos of starfish and picked one up, using what Shedden called the “three-finger technique.” With her thumb, pointer and middle finger, Pam gently grabbed a star and tried to lift it from the sand.

The star resisted, she left it alone. But its neighbor was less resistant, gently releasing from the seafloor when Pam bent to pick it up.

“I’ve only seen them in aquariums,” Pam said. “To actually be walking out here and seeing it firsthand and exploring this whole area is just amazing. It’s so much fun.”

Payton Tobin, a Youth Conservation Corps member, is interning with the Wildlife Refuge for the summer. He tagged along with the visitors, pointing out various sea critters and listing off facts about them.

“I’ve just been helping look around, see if I can find anything interesting to show the people, answering any questions they may have and giving some fun information about the critters,” he said.

Tobin’s studying computers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. But he has tidepooling in his blood: his mom, Debbie Boege-Tobin, is the marine biology professor at the college in Homer.

His favorite, like many of the other adults at the event, was the somewhat rare six-rayed sea star. He said sea stars are fascinating because they can regenerate their arms and grow back from almost nothing after being attacked by a predator.

But Shedden, the environmental educator leading the outing, said while sea stars are cool, don’t overlook the barnacles.

“They’re so hardcore,” she said. “They are the toughest of the critters and they’re everywhere. “

For the first part of their lifecycles, she said, barnacles float through the water, looking for spots to anchor down. When they do, they hunker down in their little shells and send their feet out to collect food.

Barnacles are usually hidden beneath the sea in the intertidal zone or found covering rocks, pilings and buoys. Shedden said when the tide pulls back, tidepooling is a great chance to explore and see them up close.

“They’re so cool. I’m stoked on barnacles,” she said.

For Isa Santiago and her 13-year-old brother Lucas, Friday was all about another critter altogether. Isa said she liked the pink starfish – pink is her favorite color – but it was the anemones that felt like “gooey soap” that caught her attention.

Lucas concurred.

“They’re like a big blob – or they could be small – with tentacles coming out of the top,” he said. “Sometimes, when you poke the base of it, the tentacles go back inside. But if you touch the tentacles part, you may feel a little suction, because it sticks on to you.”

Lucas said he thinks it’s “pretty cool” that when a little fish or other creature swims through the water next to an anemone, the anemone will shock it, pull it in and eat it. He said he definitely wants to go tidepooling again.

And that’s exactly what Kyra Santiago, Lucas’ mom, hoped her kids would say.

“This is great to be able to just see living creatures in their own habitat and learn the etiquette of how to treat the sea and [about] conservation efforts,” she said. “These are all the kinds of things I want our kids to be able to grow up with and see.”

Peas planted this spring are ready to be picked, but it’s not too late to start a second crop. And carrots due for harvest this fall likely need some thinning. With both plants, the shoots, tips and leaves are edible and delicious in salads and sauces.

Master gardener Ed Buyarski’s crop of peas was planted outdoors from seed in early May, then covered with agricultural fabric to protect the sprouts.

“We’re standing in front of my pea patch with all these alder sticks coming up out of it, which are my low-budget pea trellis,” he said. “The peas are blooming and very quickly. In fact, I noticed there are some little tiny peas I’m looking forward to eating.”

Buyarksi prefers the varieties with edible pods, like snow peas or snap peas.

“In my youth I planted and harvested and shelled peas, which is tedious,” he said. “Tasty, but tedious.”

In addition to the pea pods, the shoots, tips, leaves and even flowers can be eaten.

“Of course if you eat the flowers, you don’t get peas,” Buyarski said.

Peas are cold-hardy and can be planted even as late as mid-July for a fall harvest. Which is just in time for the carrots to come out of the ground.

“Our regular harvest for carrots for storage is usually after the first frost, so late September, October. I’ve harvested them into November,” he said. “It’s best to do it before the ground freezes because it’s a lot more convenient that way to get the carrots out of the ground.”

Buyarksi recommends direct-sowing carrots in late April if conditions allow, then covering the bed with plastic sheeting over hoops while the weather warms up. They will need to be thinned to about an inch apart as they grow.

Whatever gets pulled while thinning carrots can be set aside for salads and sauces. As with peas, the leaves and shoots of carrot plants are edible, too.

When Buyarski finds himself short on basil or other greens, he’ll chop up carrot tops, pea shoots or kale to make pesto and chimichurri. He says that every batch is different.