eklutna lake

i woke up late today and took the girls for a walk in the bog. i think rio is limping from the walk the other day. when we got back i decided i'd head a bit north and take a hike in eklutna. the lake is glacier fed and i think supplies our city with some water. the setting is quite pretty and there were some fall colours. the trail starts as an old, old army road. i didn't read about the trail til i got home..couldn't tell it was ever a road, but did see an old car that has fallen off at some point and had wondered how any car had ever gotten up there. now i know. it's a fairly wide trail, but couldn't tell it was a road. the trail is supposedly 2-7 miles..depends on where you go. there were 2 benches on the main trail and then it splits. i really didn't feel like hiking higher...the trail is pretty steep grade at times. i suspect my buns will be sore...(they arent' the buns of steel sort..haha..). i have a nice blister on my baby toe from coming down so i'm happy i turned back after just over 2 miles of going up. i'd had some lovely views though i know the views up top must have been even more spectacular...oh well.

the trail is called twin peaks and there they are with some fireweed i think in the foreground. blossom was wishing there was some more water. i guess if you take the trail to the left..it does lead to more water. she did fine and i brought her water gulpy with...there was a creek right before the car for her to lay in. she had a great day and is sleeping happily now.

love watching all the leaves change. just last week these were probably green.

used the timer and took a few pictures of blossom and i overlooking eklutna lake.

just had to add a few more fair pictures...well above isn't a fair picture. i got a surprise bouquet of flowers the other day. my mom's widow, rudy, sends me flowers on occasion...just out of the blue. very sweet. we chat on occasion. i have meant to call him and also playing phone tag with my friend quinton...he beat me to the punch with flowers. rudy, not quinton. quinton moved down to wyoming with his partner. boo hoo for me. i miss him. i'll try some phone calls tomorrow. was planning to do it today, but forgot to plug in my cell and there was no battery power. anyway...pretty flowers, eh? there was a flower display at the fair yesterday. i walked in and smelled all the lillies. those are actually my favorite. i could smell them for hours.

above is a cute goat from the fair and below is a very ugly turkey. i'm sure his mother loves him.

i couldn't not put a ferris wheel in the fair collection. i was just super tired by the time the pictures loaded and decided i was done for the night. finished watching "sophies choice". excellent movie, probably won't watch it again, but it was well done and the story was well written. selecting one of your children for the gas chamber is not a choice any mother could make and ever cope with. in the end both kids died anyway...would it have been better to just let them both go? of course, there was always the hope of survival and in those situations the smallest of hope is all one can hang on to. all seems pretty remote when you are looking at pictures from a fair i guess. we have such happy lives, but for so many others who have shared our earth life was not happy, it was filled with torment. i pray no one i know will ever know such horror. a life is long and things change.....

for now...in alaska, anyway, life is still good and happy and i am grateful for this.