3 hours of snow shoe bliss...

 great day out there.  my girl blossom is so adorable.  she likes to make herself forts under the pine trees.  she goes under the snow and prunes the lower twigs.  here she pops out...i tricked her.  i asked if she wanted a treat!  she did!!

 some of the trails had already been trod down a bit, but i got there at noon and there was not too many folks out there so still lots of fun deep snow.

 i just did loops around the north bivuoac trails.  not overly adventurous but still a decent work out and always pretty.

 thinking we got 12-14 inches of fresh snow...the trees were laden with the white stuff.  so pretty.

 it was still coming down a bit while i was out there.

 thought a few of the black and whites came out pretty sweet.

 trying to get little christmas treats ready for the monday walkers tomorrow.  did some baking these last few days.  will have to throw it all together tomorrow.  not done with all the christmas stuff.  probably mentally i am though . those last few gifts sometimes get hard to get done...laziness takes over.  i can only be productive for so long and then i just want to chill

 enjoy playing around on the pond with my snowshoes.  so i wrote a few words by walking around.  above is LoVE, not my best but it was my first attempt at a word on snowshoes.

 the skies cleared up a bit while i was out there.  so pretty.

 my second attempt was BLiSS.  did feel blissful out there.

 i cruised across the first boggy area and then headed to the second one. i ended up taking the mushing trail.  totally virgin snow so very fun to snow shoe.  also a bit more of a work out. i mixed it up with trails that had been passed over and others that hadn't today.

 went by myself.  well, with blossom too.

 i'm not a very good cheerleader.  i try  but i'm better at doing and action.  i'm like sheldon on "the big bang".  clueless what i'm supposed to do or say..."there there...". i can help you heal but i prefer not to listen to all the details and drama.

 a few more black and whites that i thought came out nicely.

 slept in a bit as i was hoping to be out there by 11am.

 when i got back to the car, after 3pm, the parking lot was packed full.  kinda odd to me as the sun was down and it was now going to get dark.  lots of skiers getting started.  perhaps they would just cruise up the tank trail and back. maybe they wanted it a bit packed down and that was why they waited.  not sure.

 blossom had a fun time out there.  she seems super tired after two days of really getting worked out.  i had ambitions of getting in my swim but that was not to happen.  i will try and vow to make it to the pool tomorrow.  i'm really getting the itch to get back to lifting weights as well.  always a great way to tone up.

 great sunlight out there.

 this is headed to the mushing trail.

 cool trees out there.  funky alaskan trees.

 figured there would probably be no mushers out there.  they usually groom it first and it was clearly not groomed.  it was just blossom and i too so i knew i could get her off trail pretty fast.  i could see both directions pretty far and kept a watch out.

 those dog teams go fast and if you want someone pissed at you be on a mushing trail with a dog off leash.  dog teams can't stop fast at all. it was fine.   no harm and it was totally worth it.

 another black and white.  actually, i think this was my favorite of the day.  little snowflakes coming down.

 went to an ugly sweater party tonight.  i didn't have an actual ugly sweater so i just wore a red fleece and clipped an ugly sweater to it.  i'd gotten an ugly sweater wine cozey when i was down in texas.  worked fine...it's now clipped to my tree.  hehe.

 afternoon sun.

 rio stayed home again.  don't think she wanted to get out in this snow.  she does like snow, but she has for sure slowed a bit.  seems content to stay home more of late.  part of me feels bad leaving her behind, but i also feel bad taking her when she looks fairly miserable out there.  i know she misses us, but i'm sure she's pretty happy to be on the couch.

 went a bit crazy with the sun, but it really was an amazing day out there.

 on the mushing trail.  looks like someone may have skied there the day before.  you can usually see the indention of trails past.

 didn't see any moose out there today.

 ugly sweater party was fun.  good crowd out and some fun ugly sweaters...will try and post pictures of that tomorrow.

 blossom let me break trail sometimes and she took lead other times.

 almost couldn't find out little decorated tree...it was so coated in snow...i shook it a bit so that it was easier for the animals to get too.  not much has been taken yet.

 looped around and headed back out to the main bog.

 i started seeing a lot more people once i got back to the main trails.

 the sun went down as i crossed back over.  i stayed out there and enjoyed the last bits of daylight.

 so while i waited and watched the sun, i made some snow circles with my snowshoes.

 and i wrote JOY.

 good bye sun...see you tomorrow.

 these are with my little powershot. the ones above were with my rebel.

 you can see blossom in her snow fort below, well her legs anyway.  hehe.

 dang that dog is cute!!

 the snow piled on this log give you some idea of the depth.

 my little powershot battery died while i was out there and i then discovered that the spare battery i carry around was also dead, i'd forgotten to charge the dang thing.  oops!!  just meant more lens changing.

 couldn't be my usual lazy self.  i did find my tripod and also the charge cord to my new kindle fire.  i even found that last boggle cube that went missing when i went to round island.  usually i would have tossed the rest of the game, but for some reason it was still sitting there.  the cube was in the duffle someplace and it rolled out as i got the bag out to prepare for my trip to Texas.

 we crossed the bog,  blossom breaks trail in these shots.

 she really must be tired.

i'm tired too!!  another big glass of water and i'm headed to bed.  goodnight

escape from the cottonwood den...

 okay...the cuteness factor may be too much for you to take here!!  i will save the baby polar bear from the zoo for the next installment. black bear cub cuteness and polar bear cub cuteness would put you into a cuteness coma!

 karen joined me for today's final monday walk of the season.  we cleaned up the remnants of the tree decorations that we put up earlier and from another tree that won't be accessible through summer due to  bog.  i'd hate for all that stuff to become litter.
karen had seen on her way up that mama bear was on the ground and the cubs were out in the tree.  i saw black in the tree, but was late coming.

 we both stopped to check on the way back down the road and this is what we saw.  mama bear was on the ground with the other cub and this little one was slowly making it's way down the big tree.  it looked a bit nervous.  blossom started barking and i eventually moved the car to a better location.  that whole don't want to be the bad dog owner thing.  i did get to see the baby get down the tree though!!  so adorable.

 the little one made cute little calls to mama on it's way down the tree.

 ears back is probably when blossom noticed the bear and started to bark.  dang dog!  right now she's barking at a neighborhood cat.  she is not perfect...though pretty dang close.

 several folks out there with camera's so i'm sure there are way better pictures of this and the other cubs trek down the tree...but i'm quite happy with my little group of photo's.

 saying a little prayer on the way down, taking a look at how far down still to go

 and almost down.

 still tough to let go of that safe haven that they have lived in this whole time i'm sure.

 once down they did have fun in the snow and moved into the woods.  several walked up the road to follow the bears a bit.  i figured that was probably enough for one day.  not sure if they will return to their den for a few more nights or if they will just move on.  always learning more about bear habits and activities. i never would have thought they'd be sleeping in hollow trees.

 also learned that it can take awhile for their metabolisms to wake up and for them to be actually hungry.  you'd think they'd wake up starving, but they have to wake up their whole system.

 here the family ambles off together.  so many new things to learn and explore.  animals in the wild have a steep learning curve.  so fun to have these guys so close to home and i look forward to watching this tree in the years to come.

 will put in several from yesterday that i ran out of room for.

 someone did snow circles down there on the beach. i could see them clearly from the trail over the beach here.

 much more artistic than my attempts.  looks like just boots, not snowshoes for these.

 turned out to be another beautiful day today.  felt hot out there.  always amazing how "hot" 40 feels at the end of winter.

 i'm still debating a run to denali tomorrow.  not too excited to do the drive alone.  might be too much for my leg too early.  not much luck finding a place to crash with the dogs.  may have to spend some cash to do it.  there is some call for snow too so that is another thing to think about.  the road is open though so quite tempting.  not too many more opportunities before they open up for the season.

 the dogs on the dunes.  blossom always enjoys it here.

 the snow is melting and making little rivers in the sand.

 not the bear tree...or is it.  now one must wonder, which trees are housing little sleeping bears.

 the dogs enjoy their time at the beach.

 blossom has never seemed to mind the cold waters.  she is pretty dang happy actually.

 always love lowell point.  great beaches.  my dream alaskan house would be here...though the tsunami risk isn't very appealing.  hmm.....

 some signs of life on the shore...though actually i sense both of these are not doing well. the sea star was flipped over and the jelly just lying there.

 don't think i posted any of the sea otter though the ones i got were way to far out and the guy was sleeping so really nothing you are missing.

 have always loved this whale mural across from the sealife center.  big fan of wildlife murals anyway.

 these signs are all over town.  the rv parks and parkland are located in the tsunami zone.

 amy and lucy out walking on rovers with us the other day.

 didn't get my camera out on the trail today much.  here is karen down in the snow.  we crossed over and it was getting kinda soft out there...we avoided the areas over known lake/ponds.

 my only zoo picture from the day.  most of our zoo enclosures are pretty sad really.  they are small and these 2 polar bears live out a pretty pathetic life circling and circling.  happy to see the new little guy will be able to move on to hopefully a better zoo situation.  learned a bit about zoo life and all from my days as a volunteer zoo keeper at the los angeles zoo.  i went through their keeper training program and then was a volunteer keeper for several years.  most zoo's are always striving to improve enclosures for animals so that their lives behind bars are less dull.  our little local zoo does serve a purpose and does have animals for the most part that are acclimated to our weather.

 i do prefer to see animals out in the wild, but that isn't always possible for everyone and sometimes a zoo is the best place for education to begin.  our zoo here also plays a role in assisting animals like the baby polar bear.  takes a lot of care to keep a baby like that healthy until it finds a good home.  the cub was having fun and seemed to enjoy the screaming kids. i just felt bad as the poor guy needed another bear cub to play with.

 while at the zoo the volunteer at the baby polar bear enclosure mentioned that the snow geese were out at potters marsh.  since i was halfway to potters marsh i went ahead and went there.  above is a seagull of some sort.  they are all returning quickly to town.

 the snow geese will only be here briefly.  fun to get a good look at them . i texted friends that the birds were here.  karen went over later than i did and said a few sandhill cranes also stopped by.  so fun to have those guys coming back too.  i love the cranes call...so unique.

 there were probably over 100 snow geese when i got there. i do remember seeing some big camera's around potters when i was headed to seward but i didn't see what they were seeing that day.  hard to miss today though as they were everywhere.

 saw some canadian geese as well so they are making their way back here as well.

 alaska becomes a birders paradise in the summertime.

 it was a great day as far as wildlife goes for me.  so fun!!  the bear activity was awesome.  i'll have to try and get myself moving tomorrow and get to denali unless it totally looks like crap.

 most of my bird in flight photo's were deleters but i did get a few that i liked.  always love pictures of birds in flight though.  just more grand with their wings all spread out.

 don't they look pretty!

 so welcome back to alaska, snow geese.  enjoy your stay in anchorage and safe journeys to your final destinations.

 birds are pretty amazing in how they travel miles and miles.  we get those arctic terns up here and they travel all the way to and from antarctica.  simply astounding!  oh to see what they have seen and been where they have been.

so i'm exhausted from a day of fun.  hope you have enjoyed these pictures as much as i enjoyed taking them.