​It'd been three years since we last visited May Lake. We left the house at 7:30am, picked up sandwiches in Oakdale, had lunch on the ridge overlooking Tenaya Canyon, caught some fish and were back home to Turlock in time for dinner!

Thanks to our fogged-out experience at Whalers Cove in 2022, we were determined to fish from an area that was served by planes that could fly in inclement weather. We ended-up choosing Glacier Bay Country Inn in Gustavus (Gus-day-vus) because Alaska Air has daily 737 service to the Glacier Bay airport.  My dad Jim, his friend Charlie, my borther-in-law Colin and I had a grand adventure! The weather was amazing, the wildlife viewing was excellent and the fishing was generally the best we've had in several years.  Take a look at some of the sights and awesome wildlife we saw!  And thanks to Captain Steve of Taylor Charters for putting us on the fish! We each got our keeper king this year!

Please view the full photo album to see ALL of the amazing things we witnessed on this trip. 

After taking an eleven year driving hiatus for Garry Hayes' geology trips, Laura and I returned to one of our favorite places on Earth with newly-minted 10yo, Zephyr. We perfectly threaded the weather needle and had moderately chilly nights that warmed to the low 70's in the afternoon. The students were exceptional and asked lots of great questions and had tons of great observations. It felt good to be back helping students make sense of the geology around them out in the field! Be sure to check this site for updates that include 360 images and more 3D models. In the meantime please have a look at the 250+ photos and descriptions in from our five days in the region in the Photo Journal Album. 

A great mini winter break vacation the week before Christmas to sunny San Diego! Laura, Zephyr and I explored the San Diego Zoo, Wildlife Park, USS Midway and spent an afternoon sifting for tourmaline at the Oceanview Mine, near Temecula. We ate great food, saw a few friends and had a blast at the San Diego Zoo and Safari Parks.  Traffic wasn't too terrible either!

Garry Hayes' class field trip across the Coast Range to visit the San Andreas Fault System... revived after a 3 year hiatus. We saw some great things at our stops along San Luis Reservoir, Hollister, DeRose Winery and Pinnacles National Park. The link above wil show you all the pics and locations. 

The first post-Covid shutdown family gathering! Not having seen each other for three years was like stepping out of a time warp to see kids growing and my generation become a bit more, um, senior. 

I forgot to post the photos from this hike. We had an amazing time hiking through snow flurries in late October in the high country. Glacial Polish was something else!

Check out our epic adventures to Mt St Helens, Olympic National Park and.... the Tillamook Air Museum among other stops. I'll likely make a few Twitter Threads about the places we visited, but here are a few highlights in photos. There are 450+ in the entire photo album :-). 

Mount St Helens as seen from the Truman Trailhead area.

View from Hurricane Hill in Olympic National Park

Imbricated River Cobbles, Elwha River.

Ghost Forest submerged after great Cascadia Quake. 

Meanwhile, back at the WC Lodge, staff were determined to get their current guests back to Juneau and get us to the lodge should the flights not be able to depart once again. In years past this would have been accomplished by WCL renting a sight-seeing catamaran for the 3hr, 90mile trip up Chatham Strait. However, due to COVID, many of the catamaran options were understaffed or undergoing maintenance which prevented WCL from procuring their services. WCL solution was to cram the guests onto the 6 fastest fishing boats in the fleet and make the run themselves while hoping for calm seas. Those boats left at 8am and were headed to Juneau. We expected we'd have to take those boats back too, but, just when the odds seemed impossible, the clouds opened and we were able to FLY out of Juneau and make it to Angoon within 35 minutes of take-off.  We landed in a sunny oasis of perfect weather and glassy waters on what should have been Day 2 of our fishing. Since the fishing boats and captains were still in Juneau, we could do nothing but enjoy the weather and sun by exploring the shoreline and kayaking. After 30hrs of being stuck in an airplane hangar the fresh air and clear skies were a great way to forget that half of our fishing days were gone. ​

When we did get to go fishing, Captain Kevin was great as always. We caught our four halibut in relative short order the first day, but salmon were tough to find. The silvers just weren't in yet, a remnant of the drought years three and four years ago. Our second and last day of fishing had us brave rough seas. We missed our halibut limit due to throwing back some smaller keepers that we thought would get bigger as the day progressed. But alas, seas sickness and fatigue overtook half the crew (Colin & Charlie) and our day ended with a paultry catch. In the end we each ended up taking home 35lbs of processed fish. Usually our three day trips surpasses 100lbs each. But, oh, the memories.