Absolutely wonderful here today. Bright sunshine -just about 8 hours worth and cool. When I took Squirt out the first time this morning it was a brisk 3 degrees (according to the weather station we have encased in snow).
We had an incredible day today and I want to digress from the story a tad. We will go back to September tomorrow but today we are in Novermber. We got our first snow the week before Halloween and our second snow the Sunday before the holiday. I think this snow is waiting for Spring thaw.
Over the past few weekends, we have been hiking on the Glen Alps trails in Chugach State park. http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/units/chugach/ The trails are well groomed and Squirt loves to run down them (at least the 30 feet until his leash runs out). One of the trails we frequent takes us to Power Line Pass. (Guess how it got it's name.) Upon reaching Power Line Pass, when looking West on clear days, there is a spectacular view of Denali (in my opinion though, if you are close enough to see Denali and it is clear, there is no bad view) and across the valley there have consistently been moose. To see the moose, binoculars are normally needed.
We have discovered we need a backpack when hiking. That way we have binoculars, water, camera, GPS and whatever else we can think of. In fact, we leave it in the car a lot of the time ever prepared for wildlife viewing and hiking.
The house is still a clutter (hate to ruin the surprise but remember we digress from the timeline today and actually do have goods). A tough decision - sunny, no wind or clouds - go hike or work on the house and laundry. After approximately 2.5 seconds of internal debate, I said "Let's Go!" After all, we have all cold and dark winter to work inside. Today we had to bundle up (which adds 15 minutes to prep time for leaving). Even though the sun was out, it was still 13 or so when we left . (I think I need new hiking boots if we are going to do this a lot.)
Since we haven't been out to the trails since it snowed, we opted to leave Squirt at home today due to not knowing trail state and because the moose are coming closer to town now and they consider dogs to be wolves and may attack. After bundling up we take off and drive a couple of miles to the to park. As we turn into the lot, there's a new bear sign - "Power Line Pass moose carcass and brown bear Nov. 1. Stay on main trails" . There were other comments but I had seen enough to know not all bears were following the rules this year and hibernating yet. Best be on the look out.
We park and are off heading towards the pass. As we go along, I look for animal tracks. See lots of dog and the occasional moose print. Of course, I think I see a bear print but I also believe it is due to reading the above mentioned sign. Arriving at the pass we see about 10 moose across the valley. A couple here, five over there, one loner, etc. Denali and Foraker are looking exceptional, as always. We head down the pass and take one of the off shoot trails which leads to the bottom of the valley and to a bridge. That is our goal today. To watch the water and ice in the stream.
We get about 100ft and meet up with a young gentleman saying there is a moose almost on the trail and we can't go past. As you would expect, I say "Cool" and head around the bend. Sure enough, there is a young cow grazing about 30 feet off of the trail. She is good sized but nowhere near as big as the one we almost hit driving to Alaska. She knows we are there but we aren't moving toward her and she isn't worried. Along comes another young gentleman asking if she is aggressive and we didn't know. He never stops and walks right by here which then encourages the other younster to follow. We stay put to watch (and prepare to take evasive action).
Then it gets interesting as another man with his two dogs (not on leashes) comes down. He waits for a while and then moves farther along and the moose ears go flat with hair standing up. This isn't good. She actually turns towards him and he stops with the dogs. Luckily, he makes it by slowly without incident and we decide to try. Of course, that is when she decides to come ON the path. She didn't stay long and we took pictures and then left her alone as she moved off toward the dense brush. After all, we have invaded her house. (We were getting cold just standing there watching anyway.)
We got to the bridge and after taking a few more pictures and headed back up the really ugly incline. (Going down is a breeze - but it always is.) I have to stop for air every 10 steps or so which makes the trip back a little longer. (I do great on flat ground but toss in a couple of steep hills and I suffer!) The moose is gone and we get back to the car with no issues. Ready to go home for a bite of leftover pizza and water. Oh - and the recliner!
We are seeing more and more moose in town now. I really enjoy this aspect of living here. I think to the locals, it is like having a deer in the yard but as I would never tire of watching deer, I doubt I tire of watching these huge creatures.
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