Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Caton Island Adventure

The next five blogs are all about my adventure this June, 2012 on Caton Island in the Aleutians. I served as the EMT 3, RN for a group of roughly 30 people (counting both boat crews). While nothing medically exciting happened (thankfully), it was an interesting time and I met some great people. Send me an email at EpiHi89@gmail.com if you have any questions, comments or corrections. Thanks to many of my co-workers for sharing pictures!
634 miles Southwest of Anchorage is Cold Bay
- most took a direct flight.


Not me - I flew from Anchorage to King Salmon, changed planes and flew to Port Moller, then on a supercub to Nelson Lagoon and finally on to Cold Bay. Never a dull moment...

Port Moller is a cold storage and seafood processing plant - it reminded me a bit of Pelican and some of Larsen Bay.
I was surprised at how flat it was - until you get to the volcanoes

Thankfully they invited me down for "mug up" and didn't leave me sitting on the runway...
Once in Cold Bay it was a 50 mile boat ride to Caton. The day we went out (11 of us) it was flat calm and beautiful.
The boat on the beach shows this area isn't always so friendly
The Sam B and the tug with all of our supplies

Our home for the next month. Caton has had a variety of residents including Aleut's, a cattle ranching operation, an air navigation station ran by the Navy and lots of birds.

Looking to beach the barge


The next day. The weather wasn't very pleasant but they were able to unload the barge and start building tents.

Platform for the kitchen

I think this picture speaks for itself... :)

The finished camp

Second try on the satellite...

Loading everything back up again
Back in Cold Bay - no, it didn't work

Our future home?

WWII church

Monday, June 25, 2012

Wildlife on Caton Island

There were a lot of birds on Caton - I think it's a time to get a bird book...
This beautiful Eagle was telling us he or she didn't want us in the area (even though we were a long ways a way on the beach)

I wonder how the seagull on the perch is holding on...

Jellyfish
Sea Otter?
Harbor Seal?

Fran called these "Eddie Bauer" ducks...
Oyster Catcher! They are characters!
No voles were injured during this photography session - he or she was let loose to go breed 100 more voles before the end of the day (there was no shortage of these critters on this island)

Raven's nest (do you see 3?)
Three immature Eagles hanging out...
Sandhill Cranes - they are characters too!
Ptarmagan - they're just obnoxious.
And Loud.
Especially between 2 and 4 in the morning!!
Baby Dungeness crab?
We let him go to grow big so we can eat him in a few years.
Can you see the Ptarmagan on her nest?
Is this a sandpiper?
 Are there different types of sandpipers?
Kickin butt and taking names
(yes, we left the area)
Puffin!
They told me the name of this bird but I can't remember...
This picture was actually taken in Valdez - I had to include it because it's a baby Oyster Catcher
There are never enough pictures of eagles

This set of sandhill cranes kept following us...
It was like a scene from "The Birds" - seagulls everywhere...

Views from Caton Island

By the time I had all the pictures from those folks who wanted to share I had over 8gb. That's a lot of pictures! Here are my favorites. Yes, several are of the same mountains - but I found it interesting how they change in different light.
Do you see the hand?



From the beach below the camp
Barnacles on a buoy


Evidence that there used to be cows on Caton


Four volcanoes in a row






I had to put one picture in showing that it wasn't
sunny every day we were there!


Steam blowing off the beach on one of the warmer days
(from the kelp)


A long liner that came in after a storm

Fred took these pictures at midnight