Kaia's First Porcupine!

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Geo: 63.3917, -148.951

On our second day on the Denali Highway, Sean and I tried fishing again in the morning. After about an hour though, my reel had broken and we hadn't so much as seen a single fish in the clear water. So we gave up and returned to the van, having to bushwhack through the hip-high vegetation that grabbed and snapped at us with every step. (There are almost no trails in the Denali area. We'd like to feel more like explorers, but really, we constantly feel just a little bit lost.)

Kaia has to sit in the van while we fish or else she goes berserk trying to chase our flies, so when we reached the van, we let her out momentarily while we put our gear away. She bounded cheerily through the brush the way she always does, chasing her tail and eating sticks. Then all of a sudden, she ran back to us with her tail down and checking nervously over her shoulder, obviously having been spooked by something. My first thought was BEAR, but Sean peered into the bushes where she had been and declared "That's a porcupine!" I got Kaia safely into the van and then, with disaster averted, we enjoyed a good ten minutes observing this odd, rarely seen creature. What a cute face for such a dangerous animal!

The strange part is that over the next couple of hours, we found a total of six porcupine quills in Kaia's skin, all in random places. How she managed to get one in her back, one in her neck, one in her armpit, and one in her ear, we'll never know. I'm just glad it wasn't as ugly an encounter as it could have been—especially because at the time we were 90 miles away from the closest town, down a narrow, bumpy dirt road in the wilderness.

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Photos

Porcupine
Here's the guy who left a few of his quills in our too-curious dog!

Sean's antlers
If Sean were a caribou...

Rainbow over Clearwater Creek
Rainbow from the Clearwater Creek campground on the Denali Highway

Mushroom
Huge mushroom on the spongy tundra

Comments

[stephaniehight]

Great shot of the porcupine's face! I'm at a loss how the quills got so far over Kaia tho...but she was lucky, indeed. Starting Kingsolver's "Prodigal Summer," as I do every summer, and thinking of you. Eddie Bondo is a mite too real this t
ime around, but I'm trying to take it with a modicum of grace. ;) Traveling mercies and I am so enjoying your updates! Love and miss.

[Deanne]

What an adventure so far! I bet the porcupine incident had you a little worried. Hopefully Kaia doesn't dwell on it and will continue to enjoy exploring the great Alaska wilderness. Miss you guys!