A bit of this and that

SKAGWAY, AK..June 25 This is one of those brown bears. He (we're assuming it's a he) showed up in a turn-out on the road coming back from our hike on Carribou Mt. (Read all about it on Lydia's blog: lydiahinshaw.blogspot.com). He was wandering among the dandelions and other plants eating some of everything like it was a buffet. He looks friendly enough.
This fellow was strolling between areas of greens just off the road in another turn-around. Looks like a well fed rascal but he could move very quickly as we saw when a piece of paper blew out of the weeds nearby and he pounced. It was a very good visual lesson on why you don't run if you come across one of these guys - - black or brown.
So here's lydia hanging out on the side of the trail which we had to scramble / climb up like a ladder to get to. Funny, but there was a much easier way but we had missed it. My thoughts once we got up to an area which was a bit level weren't on "how high can we go" as Lydia and our friend Kate were debating but more like "how the hell do I get down." I have a sort of reverse thinking process: while everyone else is speculating how far or how high we can get my mind is thinking about all the fun we'll have trying to get down. This type of thought process runs counter to Lydia's thinking quite often which makes for occassional lively debates.

We don't have any pics from our hike to Upper Dewey Lake yesterday. The trail gained 3,000 ft. in 3 miles which is about a 20% grade most of the time - - up and down. This is the same hike where 5 weeks ago - - as Lydia termed it - - I 'turned turtle' when I broke through the snow crust and tweaked my left knee. No injuries this time, but as one of our co-workers noted "must have been quite a hike 'cause your butt sure is draggin' Nothing like a few words of encouragement as you slowly make your way up to where we work / live. Of course we could have saved a bit of ridicule by driving the mile to the trailhead but then you have to find a parking spot, etc. so we just walked.