Kachemak Bay State Park Map

07/28/2023

Here's a satellite animation of Grewingk Lake over the past 7 years - a way to see the glacial retreat, and also the big change in the river upstream of the tram.

So far this year has been a less dramatic retreat year than most, hence there's little lake ice. I wonder if the glacier peninsulas protruding out will fail later this summer, or perhaps even in the fall.

05/09/2023

Another map up on a wall in public!

05/21/2022

I've been totally negligent in updating this page - I have been doing things on the map, but typically not in the FB mindset. However, I recently received draft lidar (laser elevation mapping) output from DGGS covering the Grewingk area, so I've been working on integrating it into the map, as well as just browsing the many interesting things this reveals.

One step is to make a "hillshade" which is a way of displaying elevation data so it looks 3D, and integrating that into a continuous hillshade I have for the whole map area. When you're zoomed way out it doesn't look any different, but it will add much improved shading texture to the map when people look closer. I just took a series of screenshots zooming in on the Woz valley, where you can see the edge of the new data and how much better it is than the statewide IfSAR that is still all I have for many places.

11/01/2020

Grewingk Lake appears to be mostly frozen as of Halloween 2020. There is still open water around the islands near the outlet of the lake, and of course at the outlet itself. There's something odd going on at the north edge of the glacier face - possibly very large calving events from the dead ice sliver that has been hanging over the glacier for the last few years, so maybe unsafe.

09/16/2020

Sept 30 2018 there was a photo taken by the Sentinel 2 satellite, which takes freely available photos with a resolution of 1 pixel per 10 meters (about 33 feet). It proved a very useful photo for my mapping efforts because it was late in the year so I could see the edge of glacial ice - it's the main source for where the glaciers are on the map. In 2019 there was no equivalent photo taken - never clear when the satellite was overhead late enough in the year. A few days ago we got what I think will be the photo to use to update the ice edge. Here are a few comparisons showing changes between the two (not all are in the area of the map, at least yet...)

06/13/2020

Some amazing digital map artistry - well worth scrolling through the whole thing to see beautiful visualizations of imaginary rivers and roads...

My all-time favorite map-based data visualization was created in 1944. Harold Fisk, working with the US Army Corp. of Engineers, mapped the length of the Mississippi River. What sets his visualization apart from others is that he maps the river through time, and manages to do so in a way that is bot...

05/15/2020

The latest hurricane brewing in the Atlantic?

No - this is actually a tiny storm system, only about 10 miles wide - I've not seen something like this before. I wonder if anyone was NW of Flat Island on Tuesday when this happened? I doubt it was that big a deal, but looks like the weather was a lot worse in that little system than the sun the rest of us were experiencing.

04/12/2020

We had three days of extremely low tides - they were forecast to be quite low, but a high pressure pushed them even lower, all the way down to -6.4 feet, only a few inches short of the record.

I went paddling each day, looking for rocks and other details relevant to the map. This was pretty productive - there are a number of rocks that I added, and other updates as well. Also a lot of fun - neat to explore, and lots of wildlife. There were the usual sea otters, seals, sea lions, and various sea ducks. And I had an incredible encounter with harbor porpoises - about twenty of them off Little Tutka, in glassy flat calm conditions, all around me as they hunted.

02/05/2020

Working on a version for the Homer Chamber of Commerce, and thought I'd try a little stronger shading than I've used in the past. Opinions welcome...

01/26/2020

I'm finally working on bringing new details into a finished map. This means handling each of many layers that I've manipulated - here is one, shown by itself with no other context. Do you see what it is?

01/15/2020

Another one! This includes Olson Mountain, Winn Nature Center, and the controversial trail up from Bear Cr. to Dorothy. How does this look? I think there are perhaps even more trails groomed on Olson Mt., but otherwise this is everything I know about.

I'm really not sure about that weird loop on the Bear Cr. trail - it seems people use it based on Strava? Does anyone know that bit?

What do I have wrong / missing?

01/15/2020

Here's another piece I'd love feedback on. There's a lot of complexity in the Experimental Forest / Baycrest Trails. My understanding is that the one I marked in blue is under an agreement with a landowner that only permits use in the winter.

I also hear that there are some no trespassing signs on the Homestead trail. I've marked this trail as "major" - a thicker black line, except where it runs on roads. Are people continuing to use that section with the signs?