amazing how many "steps" you get playing Nertz!!

 i am back from the kayak trek.  always a great time.  weather never seems to bother you once you are out there.  we had blue skies driving down to Seward.  the next morning, bright and early, we woke to cloudy skies.  our boat trip out was pretty great with some amazing humpback whale action.  they were close to our boat with Fairweather water Taxi...(great company we've found...plug)  our Captain, Brent, was happy and willing to let us have a good whale watching show on the way to Aialik Bay and Holgate arm in the bay, where our cabin was.

 most of the rest of these from today are from my little canon camera...the one i brought out when the weather was a bit less than optimum.  we were able to get in a pretty nice paddle friday afternoon after we arrived.  by friday night in the wee hours the rain started coming down.  it didn't stop at all for over 36 hours.  i mean raining hard for 36 hours.

 saturday the O's got out for a short paddle and were met up by our water taxi service. they were letting folks know that a weather advisory was on the way and they wouldn't be able to come get anyone on Sunday so pick up was either that afternoon or wait until Monday.  so bummed, but half our group had to take the early out.  that left us three girls to wait out the storms.

 we played a lot of nertz, which i had taught them. We walked.  Sunday, we attempted a paddle, but anytime we got out of our little cove the waves started to build on us so we just paddled around our cove.

 we were socked in..finally seeing the glacier again after 11:30 on Sunday night...

 Monday we woke to amazing beauty.  we packed up, loaded the kayaks and paddled to the glacier.

 the water was calm and the scenery spectacular.

 these are from various walks we took and from our watery paddle.  i'm still looking through all the other pictures.

 lupine always pretty.

 saw columbine as well, but my pictures weren't clear.  often you just get a few too many raindrops on the lens.

 did miss my puppies.  L told this horrible story about one of our co-workers pair of dogs that were playing while the family went to the grocery store and one got it's jaw caught in the other ones collar and one dog was strangled to death.  thank you L for freaking me out the first time i left my puppies.  all was well when i got home late last night and now i've been removing their collars at home so hopefully, that awful thing never happens.

 took them for a walk with friends today out at Powerline pass.  4 miles...they are 4 months old so that is generally how i advance the distance on their walks.  we also hit the grocery store today and i returned the kayak to the O's place.  they are pretty tuckered out tonight.  :-)  success!!

 i did get my step count in each day...on that Saturday i have to think Nertz rapid arm action was helpful in boosting my step count.  the game can get pretty wild so  i'm sure you burn calories.  also played solitaire quite a bit.

 always reminds me of relaxed weeks down at my Grandpa's beach house in Laguna Beach, CA.  we'd hit the beach and then return to the house and play cards or board games or whatever kids wander around doing.  then back to the beach.  so relaxed and care free.

 thankfully, we had the cabin to warm up in.  it has a propane stove so we had no issues with heat.  the outhouse is no longer functional.  i guess you can collect your crap.  we chose the beach route.  the joys of remote camping.

 usually from this viewpoint in front of the cabin you can easily see the glacier...not on Sat at all and only on occasion intermittently on sunday.  we were pretty excited at 11:30 Sunday night when the rain finally stopped and the clouds began to lift.  we finally lay in our bunks and looked out at the glacier.

 i'll have to seek out my old Holgate pictures and do a compare and contrast. the glacier has melted a great deal.  yesterday we pulled up on the same beach that i had pulled up on over 12 years ago...then we had ate lunch right in front of the glacier and played on the ice.. now the glacier has receeded far up the mountain.  it's kind of sad to watch the progressive loss of these great trails of ice.

 really awesome to paddle in front of them and just enjoy being in the presence of them.

 above is the front of the cabin.  these are public use cabins that you rent at a pretty reasonable cost.  no electric no plumbing, just a basic building with bunks and a heat source of some sort.

 here is the inside with the bunks.

 another walk on the beach.

 we were amazed at the rivers of water running down from the mountains.  quickly we became a bit nervous about having to attempt to haul our gear across them Monday for our pick up.

 just as amazing though after the storm passed the rivers quickly became trickles again.

 all day Sunday we saw no boats, heard no planes.  we were out there, just us.  nobody could have gotten to us through that storm even if we had a way to reach them, which we did not. interesting in this modern world to spend a day so remote and without any mode to call out for help.  thankfully, we did not need any assistance.  it does make you behave in a more cautious manner to a degree, realizing that help is far away and not coming.

 we had seen a black  bear on the beach Friday night when we had a campfire.  we ate s'mores and had drinks on glacial ice.  we collected chunks of bergy bits as we paddled to be used in coolers and drinks later.

 the river of water close to the cabin.

 the black bear popped out not too far from us, saw us and then started to scratch his back on a downed tree.  we called out, mostly to get the attention of the folks tenting down the beach from the cabin.  we never ran into the bear again, but we did keep bear spray handy and our air horns.

 loved the various colors of green.

 it's pretty no matter the weather.  you just have to take weather in stride.  you can't control it.

 hopefully, we have decent weather for our bear viewing trip out at Hallo Bay.  i was finding myself debating canceling it today.  they just seem so odd, the folks who run this place.  i'm still hoping that all will be fine once we are out there with the guides.

 testing the water out for crossing...like i said by Monday morning this was just a trickle

 not much washed ashore of note.  love the sound of the waves dragging across the rocky beach though.  i'll have to try and post one of those video's.

 this little pond above the beach had been bone dry the night before on friday...now it was totally full and a force of water flowing out of it so strong we tossed rocks that were rapidly sucked down to the ocean.

 many dry out attempts while we played cards and ate whatever snacks appealed to us

 off for paddle...looked great in our bay despite the steady rain.  at one point there did seem to be a brightness coming through as the clouds lifted briefly, but they didn't part.  we kept thinking the rain would break....but it really never did.

 so happy we had a cabin and weren't in tents. that is a drag.  i've totally been there.

 always love adding the kayak into the photo for perspective.  below you can see our cabin from the water.

 we opted to paddle in the rain just cause.  we were there and we wanted to paddle.

 we woke up early the next day, packed up all our gear.  loaded the kayaks with anything that wouldn't be damaged by the water and went for our paddle.  we then landed the boats at the other end of the beach in the area of our pick up.  the water taxi was planning on a 2-2:30 pick up.

 it was reassuring that morning to wake very early to the sound of an engine...the first we'd heard in over 24 hours.  it was a plane.

 Happy Solstice by the way...the sun is officially down for a few hours but it's still light out.  now we will have a slack time and then we will begin to lose about 5 minutes a day until we get down to our darkest day during winter solstice.

 sea star which probably had been tossed onto the beach during the storm

 a few more whale pictures from the ride out to Holgate on day one.

 will have more pictures for you over the next weeks. still gotta look at them.  good night

thankful for:  A.  safe travels to/from B.  safe paddles  C.  happy and healthy dogs upon return home...loved my dog greeting...felt so loved.

i change my mind all the time...

 this moose picture was pretty popular on facebook so i'll let her be the lead photo.  i snapped this on the way home from work..that building behind the moose is work.  they are amazingly hard to spot for how large they are.  that and i was driving home from work so this was after i'd worked all night and then stayed late to get my annual evaluation done. i actually wasn't supposed to drive this way home and had to turn around due to road work.  it's my usual route and being tired i just went the way i'm used to going.  this means i drove right past this moose the first time and only saw it as i returned to work to take a different route home.

 back to mushrooms....

 obviously i didn't get that roadie or overnight in that i had thought  i might do this morning.  freedom to change my mind is part of who i am and how i live. i did begin to get stuff out.  i got started on the yard and then got myself motivated to do more.

 i went after the chickweed.  as i was ripping it out it occurred to me that people say the grass is always greener on the other side...it probably appears that way but in truth it only looks greener as the chickweed has totally choked out the grass and that is what you are seeing.  the grass is actually faring poorly as the chickweed is stealing all the light and nurtients from the soil.

 so much for that scenario.  if you dig in a bit you will find that the grass on the other side of most fences is dead and the weeds have taken over...or else it could actually be astroturf, just made to look green when it is actually fake.

 upon closer examination the grass over on the other side of the fence is gasping for it's last breath in misery.  that is the thought that came to me as i raked out the chickweed and stepped on dog poop that had been hidden underneath.  made me start to long for winter and frozen dog poops that would never be so rude as to attack the grooves of your shoes.  bring on the frozen dog poops!!

 instead i had the mental debate as to where i should go for my walk as the day got later and later.  i finally decided i'd head up to glen alps and walk the powerline trail.  i figured it would be easy enough for rio and that there would be plenty of water for the dogs.

 the place was beyond packed and there was road construction on the way up.  it made it all a bit deceiving.  the parking lot was nuts so i just turned around and had to wait behind the construction again for my turn.  as i drove down the hill i noted that bob, tanya and maddie were headed up towards glen alps. i pulled over to text them that the lot was full to the gills and that i was headed to prospect to try that out.

 they decided to join me so after i got my car in the last spot i waited for the next spot to open and the dogs and i saved a spot for them.  so it worked out lovely.  we all got to get out and take a walk together.

 even better as the grass up there was taller than we were and i would have been nervous and foolish to take that path alone anyway.

 bob and maddie introduced me to the fun art of fireweed seed tossing.  this time of year the fireweed seeds out.  it's like the dandilion only better.  all this cotton fluff goes everywhere when you shake it.  tanya had maddie collect some to get more fireweed in their yard.  mostly we just had fun shaking the stems and filling the air with fluff.  good thing none of us have allergies or severe respiratory issues.

 i'm sure if i'd tried harder i could have gotten some totally cool pictures of it.  sometimes it's best to focus less on the camera and more on life though.  we are never too old to giggle.

 when i got back to the parking lot my phone rang so i ended up sitting out on the back of my car talking to my brother jeff.  it was the only place the reception was good and he's in boston so i figured it was a great day to sit out there and talk.  in addition to enjoying our conversation i got to watch all the activities in the parking lot.  as it turned out a very handsome young guy was parked nearby.  too young for me, but over 18 so fair game for gawking.  hehe.  so lovely scenery to chat on all accounts.

 saw horses out yesterday.  on the day i took this picture the horses ended up just in front of us which really helped rio to walk much faster than usual.  saw them again saturday but that was just at the end of the walk so it didn't help in rio's speed walking.

 yesterday i did the mushing loop out back to the main trail and back. hadn't been back there for a bit

 when i was almost back i ran into this older guy who walks out there with his little dog.  we chatted a bit. he was asking if it was my car with all the bumper stickers on the yakima.  he was telling me he thought it was and that he had a bumper sticker he's been meaning to get me for it.  we ended up chatting a bit.  i love to talk to random people in alaska especially. i can pretty much chat with anyone but these older alaska sorts have been a lot of cool places often and are really interesting.

 i've been many of the same places.  i mentioned that i'd been to nome this summer and he lit up.  he for sure has some connection out there.  lived there for a time, has stuff still stored there.  he wasn't able to go back this summer as he's going through cancer treatments. so fun to be able to let him go to nome for a few.

 loved these mushrooms.  it was raining pretty hard by the time i got to these guys.  they were way out there on the north bivouac trails.  big and cool looking.

 this old guy did surveying work and he got here in the 60's or before.  i'm always open to hearing everyones alaska stories.  it's just a pretty amazing place.  it wasn't that long ago that this place was even more remote and life was always a challenge.  it still can be, especially in the more remote places.  obviously i'm in the big city so not too rough really.  everything was remote back then though.

 this is a lichen on this tree.

 this was on that super rainy day.  the dogs both look wiped out and less than happy with their walk in the rain.  not sure either of these dogs would have loved ketchikan as much as baby huey did.  he had to adapt to living here and not having water around all the time.  i could tell it confused him a bit for awhile.  that and he never got used to driving over 60 mph.  you never hit those speeds on that island in southeast alaska.  that dog would go into a full on panic attack anytime my car got over 60.  for some reason that was the cut off.  didn't matter what car.  my friends husband thought we were nuts and wasn't buying the 60mph thing.  he thought maybe it was just my car that did something.  one day we were in their car so we told him to take it over 60....poor huey.

 another walk out at little campbell lake.

 i am getting closer to being caught up in the pictures..must be time for me to get a few more fun summer hikes and trips in...i can't catch up.  haha!

 rio takes a break from walking.  it has for sure cooled down.  we are staying in the 50's to 60's.  dropping lower at nights for sure.

 may have to get some toxic chemicals now that i've ripped out much of the chickweed and spray my lawn.  not sure how long it's gonna stay nice.  maybe if i do it in the fall and then early spring i can kill off some of it and not have this issue as badly next summer.  mowing the lawn wasn't all that easy. that push mower needs some work.  i really should get the real deal or just hire some nice handsome young men to do the work and be eye candy.  i notice a theme.

 loved the light coming through the trees.

 there is a rainbow in this one.  i took it from my back deck.

 it was a win win kinda day though  if i get motivated to do anything work related like yard work i try to just go with it.

 the dogs seemed quite happy to chill on the deck while i worked.

 blossom was thrilled to be able to walk with her buddies today.

 and lucky for her i found loads of tennis balls hidden under the chickweed.

 these are not colours i'd want to paint a wall but they sure are pretty to see when you are out walking.

 the big orange ones steal the show.  there is so much variety though you find yourself looking all over.

 random fall leaf.

 see another sort of shroom.

 blossom on another rainy day.

 i think i have documentaries from net flix to watch this week.  could pop one in tonight.  they are at least kinda short.  i keep thinking i should do some online shopping, but i get tired and that hasn't happened.  oh well. nothing pressing.  just birthday gifts...no wonder i have no friends!!  haha!!

 quick cat nail trim.  i keep them handy here in the office.  my one cat is polydactly so all those extra toes take extra time.  he sure has cute feet though.

two posts in one day.  well, actually it's now tomorrow.  good night.