Hard rain gonna fall.
Really dramatic back-lit hard rain falling on Bear Valley tonight. This lighting only lasted a couple of minutes. We've had our fair share of rain the past month.
click for full-screen.
Back to Denali, aka Biking with Bears.
Just back from another 5 day trip to Denali for our annual Alaskaversary trip which celebrates the weekend good friends from Wisconsin visited 3 years ago and we talked them into moving to Alaska. It's become a tradition to go back on the same weekend.
This trip Devany and I did a lot of mountain biking on the park road. We put the bikes on one of the shuttle buses and get off at the top of a pass, then ride down to the bottom and keep repeating that in both directions in the park. Gravity is our friend. We cover a lot of territory, but also revel in the silence and solitude we get by hopping off the buses.
The benefit to being on the bikes is the ability to sit and watch animals for as long as we want. We sat and watched a sow nurse her twin cubs for almost an hour one afternoon. The potential downside to being on the bikes is that curious bears that happen to be close to the road just might become very interested in you! When this happens twice on the same day you tend to OD a bit on adrenalin.
So come along for another amazing stay in Denali where the weather was incredible this year (last year we had 10 inches of snow) and The Mountain was out each day we were there.
Growing up fast.
This little one and her/his mom have been hanging out around the house all summer. Looking very healthy and getting ready for the approaching winter. Mom was noticeably limping last week, but she looks fine now. Yep, it's beginning to feel like the start of fall--some trees and bushes are starting to change color and it's getting dark at night.
Babies everywhere!
We are being overrun with snowshoe hares this summer. We've had as many as seven in the yard at one time, including lots of babies. I expect the lynx population is going to explode starting next year, so we should have lots of sightings for the next couple of years.
Cuteness overload.
There goes the sun.
It's been very rainy and cloudy here in Anchorage for the past several weeks, so we haven't had one of our glorious sunsets in quite a while. Last night was beautiful, but I was shocked at how far south of Sleeping Lady (Mt. Susitna) the sun is setting already. Granted, there's still light in the sky at 11pm, but the city lights are back and it's a reminder of things to come.
click image to view full screen.