More from Lost Lake...

 day hike to Lost lake, dogs take a swim and shake off.  loved this shot!!

 great time of year to be out there.  tons of wildflowers!!

 of course the lichen.  today i walked the bog with the dogs and saw mushrooms coming up.  no moose today though. no bears either though so that was cool.  cute baby gulls though.

 no calls from the Capitol today. i left a message but no word.  re-read a newer article in the Anchorage Press and that prompted me to write another letter and send it off to various folks who make these decisions.  i think many of them have forgotten why they got into fish and game.

 attempted to mow the lawn but it's pretty thick and the chickweed has run amuk!!  my garden plans were thwarted when i entered my shed and discovered a large wasps nest at the entrance on a pack i have in there...who knew they would attach to something like that.  chatted with neighbors and the men in the neighborhood plan to come over in the wee hours and pull it out and spray the hell out of it.  i'll have to make sure the dogs don't get anywhere near it tomorrow.  plan on a walk up patterson instead.

 still  behind on picture postings, but always fun to get current stuff in when i have it.  really a beautiful hike this day...we got totally lucky as the forecast was not for weather like this.

 today was a chill day here at home, laundry, rest and WARIS stuff.  i went to vistaprint and had some business cards made so that when i do things like meet the governor or leave a note for the director at the Sealife Center i will at least look the position of the head of a non-profit...they do say fake it til you make it right?  no matter how unprepared i feel it's best to put your best foot forward while you learn.  hopefully they turn out okay.  what's another $20-30 bucks?

 hopefully tomorrow i can get out for a good walk with Blossom.  probably best to leave Rio behind, if she'll let me.  anytime i leave her she gets pretty dependent for a few days.  i did hit the grocery store and she seemed fine when i returned.  This trip would have been way too difficult for her.  she's getting older.  looks great still but just doesn't have the stamina she used to.  she's breathing hard just doing the bog loop.  will need to do more of those quick morning walks with both dogs and then leave and take Blossom for longer walk in the afternoons.

 a bit of the flowers...they were everywhere!!

 tomorrow i will hit the pool no matter what...summers are terrible for gym time for me, but i do enjoy swimming and i am missing it in my routine.  it's always so peaceful and relaxing, especially if i go at the right times when it's not crowded.

 just polished off the last of the filtered water from my nalgeen...so tasty!!

 some guy wants humans, as the dominant species, to eliminate bears in urban Anchorage. the wild animals move about the mountains to the cities and don't know that they are now in the area of a dominant species.  the truth is the bears are the dominant species...if we want to dominate we must use tools.  every so often someone writes a letter to the editor calling for moose and bears to be systematically removed from Anchorage.  eventually we will drive them off i'm sure as we destroy all the open spaces within the city limits but for now i like that we are in a city that is shared by more than an skunk and rat.  it keeps life interesting and keeps us all on  our toes...it's good to be reminded that we aren't as dominant as we'd like to believe.

 all these migrant children...it is funny the anger over this.  in other countries i think people rushing across the borders from dangerous places are called refugees and not illegal aliens.  some of the cases need to be dealt with on an individual basis...are they refugees or are they illegal aliens?  i would think a mother would be pretty desperate to send her children alone across a border into the unknown...

 our culture is always going to need more people who are willing to work in the less desired jobs.  not to mention it may be good to infuse our population with some healthy genes from other nations.

 hit the governors picnic before i left for Seward.  when i saw him and his wife it actually took me a few to figure out who they were, they just had on volunteer shirts and no tags.  people just look different dressed down.  it was the camera's that made me realize.  seems like the homeless were happiest with the picnic, not sure what kind of turnout they had compared to other years, i've never gone before.

 chatted with my brother, Tom, for a bit today.  he and his family are on a road trip back east.  always fun to catch up.

 many of these pictures you see bugs flying about...we had little breeze most of the day and the mosquito/fly count was pretty high.

 happy we were in a cabin and not in tents out there.

 pretty flowers..eh?

 some guy from up here apparently bound and shot a family of 7 in Texas, one girl survived by playing dead.  of note was that he was raised Mormon...of note to me.  bad seeds are everywhere, can't predict anything.  it was members of his ex-wifes' family.  i'm sure his class mates from high school up here are pretty shocked, by the reports they all said he was a fun, nice guy.  of course, i do recall that many people growing up would put on this front of everything being perfect in their lives when actually their real lives were a mess. i'm sure that happens all over, but i grew up Mormon so that was what i knew.  a few people really shocked me when the truth came out. i'm sure it was the case with his old high school  buddies up here.

 the scenery just kept improving the more we hiked.  what an amazingly beautiful place.

 a K-9 dog MP is recovering from his stabbing wounds.  he got his guy though.  poor pooch...it's what those dogs do..always amazing to me how versatile dogs are in their many abilities and interactions with humans.

 flipped back and forth between black and white..i always love the B&W's

 typical summer news in Alaska, body found here, body found there.  so many accidental deaths, many of them preventable...always sad.  that is part of Alaska though.  people take risks, don't wear the proper gear,don't have the right information or don't listen.  it's all part of the daily news.

 i'm quite behind on my newspaper reading. was doing a bit of catch up...just discovered another pile.  i don't want to miss little bits though in regards to the walrus.  i really should see if i can get someone to just watch news sources for opportunities and news that we can share. i heard about that Anchorage Press stuff from someone on facebook.

 Tanya took a few for me with Blossom.  it was fun to be able to chill with Blossom out there. i think she liked the snuggle time. she curled up with me each night...which she never does here.

 hopefully i can get some stuff accomplished tomorrow.  bank account would be great, work on web page also would be great.

 or a nice long walk followed by a swim.  i have a few more days of vacation and i am happy to just do nothing on these days but relax.  i feel  like i've been running so much this summer and it's good to just chill a few days.

 one direction we had views of Resurection Bay and the other soon we got views of the lake.

 loved all the big puffy clouds that day.  we had sunshine for our walk out as well.

 we debated whether to take the shorter winter route back down. short but steeper by report.  we ran into this woman who said she was 70 and had no issues with it.  i do love running into 70 year olds who are still out hiking.  of course, her little dog wasn't as friendly. Blossom went to say hello and the dog about took a chunk out of her nose. the lady didn't have a leash for her dog.   who walks in bear country without a leash on hand...but we ran into a jogger on the way out who had no leash or collar on her dog. just seems a bad idea on what can be a fairly high traffic trail.

 the day we hiked out was so nice we opted for the 6 mile route just to enjoy the day and stretch it out.  the views were lovely and the walking a steady down. it took 4 hours to get up the first day and less than 2 hours to come back down on the last day

 lupine with a lake in the distance.

 the dogs were in Heaven out there though, even though they were so beat they could barely move when we got back to the cabin. haha.  they were happy pups!!

 maddie swatting at the bugs.

 they were everywhere. i told her i was trying to transcend the bugs.  not sure i was very effective.  i can't stand those flying buggers.  especially when they are buzzing in your ears. i'm always afraid one will go down my ear canal and get stuck in there. that would really make you nuts...

 pretty purple flowers. the flowers change as you get up in the tundra.  nothing grows as tall out there.

 i should head out to the matanuska glacier friday...that could be fun.

 the dogs in black and white.

 loved these pretty and delicate little tundra flowers.

 tarns...little lakes...bigger than ponds i guess...though it seems tarns are just found in higher elevations. i like the word tarn though.

 lichen...another common thing in the higher elevations

 that is Lost Lake though.

 i have wasted another day...not really.  got through all my pictures, did a lot of WARIS stuff, none of it on my bigger to do list (bank account and web page) but still, it's all important i guess.  still feel inadequate at times, but overall...hopeful.

 i always forget what these are called..really cool little flowers. Tanya knows all the names it seems.

 another picture of these cool tiny flowers...what are these ones called?

better go crash for the night.  hope my neighbor doesn't get himself all bit up by wasps.  he doesn't want them biting his kids or eating his tomatoes in his green house.
thankful for...1.  family 2.  not getting stung today when i walked into the shed 3.  the opportunity to learn despite being a kinda old dog. :-)