walked the dogs in kincaid then headed out towards hatchers. saw all these guys along the side of the road as i was taking ramp towards hatchers. lots of those greater white fronted geese and many canadians as well.
of course i believe the white fronted need a better name. they are more striped fronted. above the canadians landing. love to catch birds in flight or coming/going. so cool looking to watch them completely engage their wings.
the lazy photographer strikes again and i never got out of the car to take these. just leaned over blossom sleeping in passenger seat and snapped out the car window.
i'm sure i just never noticed these guys before...so unobservent some days. they are cool looking though so i'm sure in the future i will look a bit closer when i see a bunch of what i assume are canadian geese.
overall it was a nice day. all i got accomplished in addition to my walking and driving was a load of dishes and a load of laundry. back to work tomorrow night. one must always take full advantage of lovely days. it was supposed to be snowing up at denali and it was snowing at hatchers so probably best how it worked out.
some of these white fronted geese landing.
a group came in while i was there.
not bad for out the car window. not sure why i was so lazy about this...probably didn't want to get rio all hyped up.
the loop at jodphur was slushy snow so a good butt work out. it could also be that i have somehow bruised or strained something attached to my right ileum of my hip. very tender. not too bad if i have my pack putting pressure on the spot, so oddly, hiking not too bad, but taking a few steps away from car quite tender. finally took some ibuprofen. hopefully that helps.
look at that stretch!! killer!
i have often envied birds. i can be hiking from the bottom of the mountain up and those guys just soar overhead and get there so fast. looks like fun the way they ride the various winds too. not in an...i'd love to jump out of planes with a parachute kinda fun though.
nice to see these guys all get along out there. didn't see any snow geese at this location. while i was out walking today i did see and hear a sandhill crane pass over. not quick enough with the camera.
landing gear, check, flaps, check...
another high school classmate passed away. every so often i get these tiger newsletters. it always had the list of passings. last year when i looked at the obituary the guy, who had been very popular in high school, had jumped from a bridge. not sure why greg nemo died. always sad even though i keep in touch with very few from high school...you are somehow always tied to this group of people, especially when you went from k-12 in the same school system.
these are a few from the river coming out of hatchers pass. should have tried the timer on this river shot below...of course, after sitting for a bit that little pain was much worse walking out of car to look over bridge. so perhaps i can use that as the excuse rather than just being lazy.
the melt down can be pretty...mostly it's just sloppy and a big old mess. i do try to find a few things that aren't so ugly to focus on...makes breakup go so much quicker.
view looking back at the matanuska valley from hatchers pass.
the clouds were getting thicker and thicker. i walked up to the parking lots with the dogs, but the snow was falling heavier and it was just me out there. the few sledders and skiers i'd seen when i arrived had all been leaving. it was close to 6pm.
with all the snow and the clouds it's tough to differentiate between what is trail and what is deep snow that will suck you in. i kept following the ski tracks cut into the snow for cross country skiing.
perhaps i'll get another chance to head up here before the melt...it doesn't appear to have begun melting up here anyway.
this was as i was leaving, getting harder and harder to see.
these are at the knik bridge on the way back. i pulled off for a few shots...again i didn't get out of the car.
the chunks of ice just looked cool.
now from today's walk in kincaid. i took the jodphur loop. no sasquatch footprints sighted this year...but this is the loop where they were. not many out there. not really skiable at this point. down to the dirt in places and in other places big puddles or small lakes i guess are forming.
this works for blossom and even for rio at times, but not so good for ski's.
nice to see the earth return, dirt, pinecones and needles...oh and some mud too!!
the trail is packed down all year so it melts last.
beautiful blue skies in town today.
this was the largest obstacle on the trail. rio and i ended up going on the hill to the left. i tried to circle around on the snow, but my first step was a sinker. my foot went in to my knee and i almost lost my boot in there...my foot was a bit wet but nothing bad on a warm day like today...we must have hit the 40's again.
this is what trees look like that have been snacked on by moose.
there is always this one tree that gets decorations added through the winter. they had it pretty full of ornaments this year.
always the cool circle around the sun...the sand hill flew through this circle which would have been a cool photo, but not to happen.
pond where the white fronted geese were chilling by road
those same icicles but further up. liked the colour of hte rocks below.
that spot to the left on the lower part of the picture is actually a bikerider, hard to see him.
didn't see anyone speeding out there today!!
another shot of independence mine from a distance.
i think this is the biker again. he was setting out as i was getting to my car...so i guess i wouldn't have been alone after all.
they just groom the road and around the mine in winter.
more sun dog activity.
guess i shall go pay bills and crash for the night. good night.
first picture skiers, second picture is the biker.
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