Portage Hike....

 this was still summer...hoping to return for a bit of fall color.  could be cool.  better get cracking much earlier than i did today though.

 there was some confusion about the tunnel times so we hiked out to Byron Glacier before we did the second hike.  always a pretty hike as well.

 3 more days of work are behind me.  i get the flexible and team player award for the week i think.  haha.  first night was in peds...highlight was a young kid in isolation who was adorable until he decided to blow a big old raspberry my way.  nothing like MRSA to the face and mucous membranes.  thanks.  :-)

 next night was in the adult ICU where some unnecessary drama seemed to be playing out.  some people like to feel in charge and in control and they create more issues than they solve or maybe they create issues so that they can come in and save the day. i don't know.  i was getting a bit weary of the indecision.  my poor friend was in charge and had to deal with all the craziness.  eventually, nothing happened.  it went back and forth several times...i was going to the ER, i wasn't going to the ER, i was going to the ER.  in the morning the House Supervisor came and apologized to me.  i had looked at her earlier when all the drama was going on and i had said, i'm fine going where ever you want, but i don't want to be involved in this whole decision making process.

 in the morning as she apologized i just laughed and told her she'd gotten sucked into the vortex.  she is fairly new to the position and she knowingly said, it's a live and learn kind of thing and she learned...so we both got a laugh out of that.

 my last night i began in peds and then was sent to ER to take on holds with a fun ER nurse so we had fun. i was busy with my crew.  hr's in the 30's-40's, low bp's, iv's, blood....steady stuff.  we had fun though.

 that peds mom was probably happy to be rid of me..just kidding..i was a total blonde and we both were laughing pretty hard about my blonde moment before i left.  lets just say you don't need to waste breast milk when it's the kid getting the medications and not the mom.  i was talking to her about us needing to check which meds would be in the breast milk and she kept asking why her milk would be impacted...it took me a minute and then OMG...

 these are of Portage Glacier.

 the fall out from that tv show ripping on the nurse who gave a speech as her talent in the beauty contest continued through my week.  a facebook group formed and someone signed me up. it was actually fun to see postings from nurses everywhere showing off their doctors stethoscopes...i snapped a selfie and added it in as well.

 there are something like over 3 million nurses nationwide.  when you annoy a group that large it will rain down on you something fierce.  nice to have us all together and defending a profession that is often misunderstood. there was the lousy unapology and then a better attempt...probably more scripted by their producers to attempt to fix the fall out.  several sponsors of shows pulled their ads off...like eggland best and johnson and johnson in support of nursing.  pretty crazy how fast the internet and get a message such as this across.

 today i figured i 'd peek at the pic i'd posted to this group...there are quite a few betsys who are nurses out in the world.  it's not the most common name.

 anyway....i don't ever watch the show.  the personalities are annoying and nasty.  i tend to try and lean towards more positive shows rather than a bunch of chicks sitting around being snarky and bitchy.  i prefer a bit more meat in a show or in a conversation.

 some still sound angry over the whole thing. mostly, it just showed what idiots the shows cast is and it was laughable.  nice though that nurses took the time to support each other and lots of fun posts/photo's were out there.

 there was this cool documentary this guy had made with time elapsed photography of glaciers in North America.  i'd seen that this same photographer is currently repeating this in Antarctica and South Georgia Island.   i posted the blip on my page. it's great photography whatever you believe.  not that global warming is a religion though it seems like some treat it as such.  it's a fact...the earth has always had warming and cooling periods.  i hadn't meant to ruffle anyone up by posting it but some guy that grew up around us posted some link to an article from 1958 i think it was.  clearly this guy is of the opinion that man has no impact on the earth and ... the usual grind.

 made me laugh really....i mean if you have to go back over 50 years to find an article to support your opinion that is pretty sad.  science has grown and advanced and will continue to grow and advance.  i'm pretty sure we know more now than we did then. and in the years to come we will know more than we know now.  i did take the time to look over the article, which was really a speech i guess.  googled the speaker...not sure if i found a real reference to the guy. the only match for a name with the university that the author was associated with was not a scientist but a historian.

 the funny thing is too...if you are so set to believe that you are right no matter what thousands of scientists around the earth have researched and agreed on...then perhaps you should wait and see what the photography shows...even in Alaska we do have a few glaciers that have continued to grow, not every glacier in the world is receding with the same zest. the guy may put his cameras on a glacier that turns out to be advancing.

 as a walrus advocate i get mired in the global warming debate.  i want to save the walrus, walrus live a good percentage of their lives on the sea ice. the sea ice is thinning and decreasing thus making lives of the walrus more difficult and their future less bright.

 this future was made even less bright as news came out yesterday that at least 25 walrus were found on a beach at pt Lisbourne ( point or cape...).  it did appear that they had been shot and their heads were cut off and they were left to rot on the beach.  these were not killed for meat, they were killed for their skulls and their ivory.  i am very upset each time i hear of these events and frustrated knowing that for the ones we do find there are probably many more illegal walrus kills that we will never discover.  there are miles and miles of beaches in Alaska and you can not monitor all of them.  for someone to kill off 25 walrus shows a real lack of concern for getting caught.  how often have they done this and not gotten caught.

 the area is now a crime scene and hopefully, this time they are caught

 i'm fine if there is a legal hunt and that ivory is turned into crafts so that nothing is wasted, but more and more i wonder if there shouldn't be a way to trace each trinket to be sure that it was actually killed in a legal hunt and the meat utilized.  seems to easy to have no idea what the history of any trinket really is and you are totally having to trust the seller, whoever it may be, that the ivory is legal.

 just trying to do my part to get the information out there so that more and more these events don't go unnoticed and perhaps if we make enough noise about it, there will be less poaching.

 a little tarn with the glacier in the background

 Rio again was really whining and howling when i got home today. once i'm home she is all fine... thinking she just may be more ready to get some walks in than i thought.  i may just need to wear her out more so she's less anxious. was thinking the old girl would enjoy some retirement. always felt a bit like maybe it was mean of me to make her walk so many miles.  it's not like you see loads of mastiffs out on the trails going for several mile walks.

 today, Blossom and i took a late afternoon walk out at Reflections Lake.  it was pretty and it was a lovely walk .

 first we headed to make a run up Arctic Valley. lots of snow up there so i thought that would be fun.  we got a ways up and then i saw a black bear on the side of the road so i stopped.  no pictures though.  i think Blossom saw that bear the same time i did and started barking at it.  bear booked pretty fast into the woods...no picture

 TO enjoys some of the last salmonberries of the season.

 the snow level was really pretty low out there as i drove home from work this morning.

 the guy i was "giving" report to this morning was a bit annoying.  it was more that he just was firing questions at me. it was all over the place.  so i just stopped trying to give him report and tried to answer these random questions.

 lichens

 and mushrooms

 this is the back trail between the Homestead Trail and Rovers Run.

 they did some trail work on it this summer and i had wanted to check it out.

 mushroom patch

 the mushrooms this year were a bit slim.  some years are better than others.

 leaf caught in a spider web.

 i always enjoy all the mushrooms this time of year...perhaps next year will be a better year.  i'll just have more fall color shots this year

 on the WARIS news front.  stickers and a handful of calendars are both on the way.  didn't want to order loads of calendars and be stuck with them but if you don't order at least a handful it will really be more pricey.  will try and take some orders and get those mailed out, then i still need to work on my own annual calendar. probably go cheaper on the stickers and try to push to get those out more...expose walrus to the world.  it's time to make the world fall in love with walrus

 can i do it?  we shall see.

 more lichens

 i'll catch on the local events another night.  it's already 2 am and i do need to try and get on a more normal schedule.

 sheets are all changed so that should make for a sweet sleep.  season 8 of big bang theory arrived today.

Blossom in the woods.  thankful for:  nurses..what a great group of people., reflections, always a favorite and embarrassing moments and people who will laugh with you.