more bears from the past...and the usual walks

lots of signs of plant life begining to prepare to erupt but not too much green out there yet. thought i'd toss in a few more pictures from old cd's. like to get them loaded into the computer for transfer to picasso or shutterfly sites. these are still more pictures from my week out at mcneil river. it was mostly cloudy and rainy so below is a rare shot with any blue skies. above is bear tracks at low tide. still pretty in a rain. it rained a small amount today. i slept well after my shift. i was super tired though. wednesday i took the car in early for it's 60,000 mile check, oil change, tire changeover. they are super busy there as it's tire changeover time. obviously, i wasn't the only person who was late getting the tires changed over. probably a good time though as if they weren't busy i suspect they would have been finding things wrong with the car and it would have been more expensive. is good to know the car is up and ready for some summer road trips!for sure woke on the wrong side of the bed that day. i'm generally not a cranky girl, but that day i was ready to trounce on anyone who crossed me. i did maintain despite my desire to go ballistic. i t took almost 2 hours for me to get home from the car place. the "courtesy" van took forever. i was the first one on the list and almost the last dropped off. i would have been the last except i spoke up when i realized the guy wasn't getting that my place was closer than the other persons. they lived all the way on the south side of town. my plan was drop off car, get a lift home and fall right into bed. when i got home i'd discovered i forgot to take the trash out and the dogs had gotten into it. poor beasts, i had a thing or two to say. i'm not a person who yells like ever so they dogs were all like, what up?!? hard to sleep that day so started my two nights tired. my concern was that the dogs would get sick from what they ate in the trash. when i returned from work yesterday...there was poop and pee all over the office. such a lovely way to end a 12 hour shift.....clean up! no yelling, it was almost expected after the crap they ate. just hoping there are no further dog health issues than that. we bogged it the next day. they seemed okay. it's part of being a dog owner. there are just going to be those days. more bear tracks.my two nights kept me steady, but nothing to insane. one sick baby. looking better. all those syringe pumps were making me crazy. one of the pumps seemed to be fussing with me at any given time. peds keeps me on my toes. no matter how long i work there, i am always a bit paranoid. guess that is true in the adult icu as well. it's a high risk career, you can screw up and there are some pretty serious repurcussions to a screw up in my job. lives are at stake. i think if you reach a point of feeling too chill in the icu's you probably should change jobs. i always laugh at people with other jobs that really just don't seem that stressful to me and yet they act like they are so over the top with stress. my humble abode for a week. all season northface tent will get some use again this summer. i'm not a gear person in general, but living and camping in alaska means having alot of gear. all season tent, backpacking tent, car camping tent. also a few different sleeping bags. various packs. worked with good and helpful crews at work which always helps. know we had a few giggle sessions in there as well. night shift always gets customer complaints as we can get noisy or seem noisy when you are trying to sleep. we have to stay awake and alert and we also have stressful jobs so it's helpful mentally for us to joke around and keep it light. so...lighten up. nobody sleeps in the intensive care unit and it's not a hotel so get over it!! if your kid or family member is critically ill, i don't really care if you can sleep...it's just not my priority. i was lucky as my family members all went home for the nights. one morning we saw these wolf tracks out on the beach. so wolf and bear tracks. kinda cool!juvenile bald eagle feather.mother grizz with her two older kids, probably thier last summer with mom. another roll of black and white film. used to be that i would plan for 6-7 rolls of film/day for these trips. the old camera's had the benefit of the ability to change out batteries. the new camera's allow you to take thousands of photo's and just weed through them later. with film you have to think a bit more before you push down that button to take the photo. also i remember my old film camera having no issues when it got damp. the professional photographer's fancy digital actually just stopped working at one point and she had to let it dry out in the cook cabin for a bit before it began to work again. got some fun shots of these bears though. always great to have such fabulous models! bear viewing trips are a bit pricey up here, but most people just toss the money at it and just enjoy the journey. at least with this the $500 float plane trip got me a weeks worth of viewing. plenty of people toss down at least that for a day trip of viewing.will be interesting to see what crap ends up on the beaches. they are saying kayak island, monteque island and parts of prince of wales will be almost a disaster zone from all the flotsam from the japan tsunami. crews are out doing research and clean up already i heard. i was talking to a friend about kayak island and how it probably would be a great year for finding glass floats out there, she said the place was crawling with researchers already.will have to get lots of black and white out at round island this summer. love black and white. hit the dog park today. i think blossom was happy to get some swimming in. the ice is almost gone at this point. i slept in til 3 and it was hell getting myself motivated. when i woke up i opened the back door for blossom. she took a few steps out there, discovered it was raining, looked annoyed and came right back in. as always, i find that this same rain is not bothersome at all when we leave via the front door with leashes in hand. dogs are funny.the seals come up mcneil river with the incoming tides.we saw several out there.picked up a cheap ukelele in order to attempt to learn it. will have to get the little cd out. the chords are different than the guitar so more difficult than i expected. my brain is in guitar mode. thought it may be easy to take camping and such. it's cute and small. not sure i'll master it. i've known some people who can pretty much pick up any instrument and within a few hours it seems they are happily playing it. i'm not quite that musical. mediocre at best, but happily mediocre. i am always super impressed by those who are just gifted like that musically. i don't play often enough, but it is nice to take the guitar on a road trip or camp out. was trying to remember a salsa recipe at the grocery store. that never works. need to make some sort of appetizer for a party tomorrow night. figured i'd just bring chips and homemade salsa...thanks quinton....his salsa is the best. not sure there is any place to heat food at this place and i'm kinda thinking i'm gonna be hungry. appetizers just aren't a meal, but i'm not sure if there will be anything but appetizers. lots of dinners out this stretch off, maybe hit a movie or two. we shall see. really need to get down and get hotels finalized for dillingham. see what cool stuff i can come up with out there. my birthday is later this month. i'll turn 48. yikes! felt my joints with this chill and rain today. so maybe i can predict the weather. will just have to be in tune with my joint activity. may try and hit jodphur loop tomorrow. it's been awhile. i fear it will now be mini lakes all over the trails. we shall see. the rest of anchorage has melted quite nicely this year. above is baxter bog and below is remnants of snow in my back yard. there is still a pile by the cat run area. need to get that fixed. the cats do enjoy thier little outdoor space, but can't let them out til it's repaired.one day we walked up patterson and over to cheney lake. always a nice neighborhood-park to park walk. it's great to live on this end of town and have several nice parks within walking distance.this lake is also melting pretty fast. a few from university lake today. nice that it stopped raining while we were out there.loved above picture. simple, yet so pretty!was wearing my new glasses for an hour tonight, just to check em out. not bad. won't have to wear them all the time, but they will be great for road trips. tourists are starting to show up in alaska. heard the cruise ships have began to arrive in southeast alaska. guess i will grab my book and hit the sack.

mcneil river bears...from a summer past!

went to mcneil in august of 2005. it's by lottery. it was my first and only time trying for it and i got in. best that i went alone or just with one other person. also helped that i went for the off season, the next to the last week before the season ends. not as many bears as peak, but that also meant we wandered a bit more seeking out the bears. i'm not good at just sitting in one spot all day. also i think the rangers were more mellow after an entire summer. at the time most of those rangers came back year after year. it was larry aumillers last summer in charge, he retired. i know i made an impression on him. he was there for 30 years and yet i was the only person who ever squatted over a bear scat and asked to be photographed in this position. turns out they all got a good laugh about that after we were all bedded down. them in thier little cabins and us in our tents. only 10 people are allowed to mcneil per 5 day slot. our week only 4 of us showed up. one of those was an alternate. preference goes to alaskan's i believe. the one guy was from the lower 48 and had tried for many years to get his spot. he was quite excited. we all were though. what a great opportunity. awesome bear watching. we got rather close to several bears, but never felt scared. saw alot of the first two bears pictured. the lighter one we called charley and i think the other one we called spike? can't remember. the darker bear had broken a leg but the rangers were happy that he was seeming to be healing and eating and all that. thinner than charley. was fun to watch the two interact. they would play fight, but you could tell charley was being easy on the other bear. comrades.these three pictures are backwards. 2 below charley stalks, catches and above eats. that is as fresh a salmon as one can get.didn't take many photo's today. got alot done though. had several errands to run. the dogs and i just walked in the bog.always have my camera handy, but not much caught my eye out there today. tomorrow the car will be in the shop all day. hopefully, it's all done before i head off to work. today i tried to get it emptied out so that i can try and get them to do a good wash out there. had to load the tires in there as well. i'm so late on my studs. many people do tire changeovers for studded in the winter here. so i actually have 10 tires for this car. i have 4 summer, 4 winter, a spare and a full spare for driving roads like the dalton and denali. it's not unusual. my element is dirty though. it's always a mess. some are neat car people, i'm not. looks tons better already though, excited to have it clean for a few days. put a few of my collected bumper stickers on the yakima as well. need to hose off the floor mats. really bummed that honda isn't making the element this year. they are all over the place in alaska. perfect dog car. hopefully, they will just revise it and bring it back by the time i need a new car. this one is just at 60,000 miles anyway. hopefully, i can keep it in the future as a dog car even if i get another car just for running around and going to work, sans dogs. got lots of garden work done. my body is feeling that. as the snow melts back i rake and pull the overgrowth. not looking forward to a rematch with the chickweed. would love to pay someone to come in and make my yard look fabulous...but don't like the idea of paying for it. blossom chased her frisbee while i raked and rio lounged on the deck in her old dog bed. will have to hit costco for some new dog beds and rotate out the crap ones from the car and back deck. it's an annual thing. rio likes a bed on the deck. she is so spoiled! fun to see her enjoy the sunshine though.have the pet sitter arranged for the big trip this year. hoping i can get the neighbors for the denali mountain trip and some friends for the kayak trip. my brother and his wife are coming up for a week so i think they have finally settled on a week to pop up and then i may try and see if i can arrange another kayak trip for the end of august and then it will be time for a drive north and back to winter! this summer is packed with fun activities. i know by the time winter rolls around i'll be ready for a break! these are not sasquatch tracks....these are bear tracks. pretty easy to distinguish a bear track in the mud out there.tons of eagles out at mcneil river. this is a juvenile, i think it takes a few years for them to get thier white heads. where there is salmon there is eagle and bears.apparently the japanese tsunami is starting to take it's toll on our beaches in the form of pollution. no plan was prepped for clean up. they were talking about kayak island, a place i've been, and how much crap is washing up there. kayak island is out of cordova and it's a place that tends to get alot of ocean trash due to its location and the currents. it would be a good year to head out there if you are hoping to collect glass balls i'd guess. who knows what else you might find out there this year. could be a problem for the wildlife, all that crap. the japanese are also interested in helping us get our gasline up and running. due to the tsunami, they have closed several of thier nuclear plants and are in need of alternate fuel sources. they may be willing to invest in our gas exploration in trade for gas. these are from the air flying in i believe. you can see mcneil river above and below you can see a few bears on the beach.we passed a few cool flat islands as well on our flight from homer. small plane with very limited weight. we were all unpacking and repacking in order to make our weight limit. those little planes can only hold so much. for this summers trip, we each have 300 pounds, that includes our own weight. i enjoy float planes and i've been on many over the years. flying is just part of living in alaska. i'll be on float planes and ski planes this summer. a local volcano, augustine. in the distance i think that may be iliamna volcano. next one closer to anchorage would be further up from iliamna, called redoubt. they are alphabetical heading north which is how i finally figured out how to remember them. the rest are in black and white. these were all taken before i got a digital camera. a professional that came along had all the fancy digital gear, though it was pretty wet at times and her's stopped working for a time. our little film camera's did good and the battery was easy to change out. many places i go there just isn't any place to recharge batteries. i have a solar charger so i'll have to make sure that is reved up before i head off on my treks. tomorrow i will try and get online and make our hotel reservations for dillingham. also want to see if i can get us out to wood-tikchik park for the day. may not be possible, but worth a try. happy to have the dogs sorted out for that week. it will be spendy, but worth it as i know i won't have to worry. my new glasses have arrived. will keep them in the car after tomorrow for night driving or road trips. not sure i'll have much time this summer for roadies. i do enjoy them though. my schedule will be all flipped around in june and july. will have to watch the calendar closely. don't want any calls from work saying why aren't you here. eek! will be fun though. i'll be feeling broke by the end of it. travel in alaska isn't cheap. water taxi's, float planes...it all adds up. trying to get more pictures loaded onto the shutterfly account. so many pictures. still alot that i need to scan though my printer/scanner is a goner apparently. had to laugh as i went online and looked up the error code that appeared on my printer. it didn't look good. i saw a you tube about fixing a canon printer with error code 5010 so i thought i'd check it out. the guy started on this step by step of how to open it up, blah, blah, blah....then he says to grab it and chuck it across the parking lot and proceeds to toss the thing off the upper deck of wherever he was and it smashed into a million peices. wasn't expecting that, but i'm taking that as a bad sign for the future of my printer. have had it for several years so that seems about par. maybe someone else can breath life into it.gotta wake up early and get the car in to the shop. they want it there by 8:30. i generally wake up and feed the dogs by 8 so my plan is to just go to the shop after feeding the dogs in a state of semi alertness and then get a ride back and sleep for a few more hours. gotta work tomorrow night. hopefully, i can get some more yard work done since i'll be at home without transport. can walk the dogs to cheney lake perhaps.hope you enjoyed the bears of mcneil river.