Mostly cloudy to overcast with rain falling mostly later in the day.
Rolling thunder woke me up shortly after 6am. At first I thought it was a wind gust, but the trees outside weren’t moving. It continued for a few seconds, and I closed my eyes to go back to sleep. I’m not sure if I fell asleep again, but if so, it wasn’t for long. Another round of loud and extended thunder boomed. This time, there was gusty wind and heavy rain accompanying it.
I pulled out my phone to look at the weather radar. It showed there was an impressive narrow band of heavy rain/hail that have moved towards Sitka in the period before the thunder.
By the time I got up later in the morning, the intense shower was long past. Following its passage, the clouds had broken up a bit. I think there may have been showers around, but they didn’t happen to fall where I was.
I headed over to Japonski Island this morning to walk the SEARHC forest trail to test out the track/elevation recording that had not worked so well yesterday. This time the elevation seemed to be okay (though still jumped around a bit), but the track stopped recording for a few minutes again. I think the issues may have to do with battery saving settings and what the apps are allowed to do when running in background (though that doesn’t fully explain it, to my mind).
I checked bird watch spots like Sawmill Cove and the Kelp Patch Pullout, where it was fairly quiet.
Driving by, I could see there were many gulls on the cruise ship dock, but I didn’t try to get a good look at them (nor was I sure if there was an accessible point where I could).
At least a half dozen whales were surfacing between Starrigavan, Harbor Point, and the entrance to Olga Strait. I think I caught the splash of a breaching whale as I was coming back to Harbor Point. It was enough to get me to pull over and watch, but I didn’t see anything more exciting than typical surface blows, with a tail or two showing during a dive.
After changing app settings, and ultimately downloading a new app that records a track and elevation utilizing both GPS and the pressure sensor, I decided to make another attempt. This time I road my bike on a loop down Indian River Road, up to the cross trail, and then back by the high school. The track and elevation were much better than my prior attempts of yesterday and today. However, the digital elevation model version of elevation for the track was smoother. I think for most trails, that will probably end up being the easiest route. The part of Mosquito Cove loop I had issues with may be the exception (and it’s just coincidental that it was the first one I worked on).
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
