August 30, 2005

We have continued hanging around the condo quite a bit, but we did get out on a few more adventures. I made it back down to Campbell Creek once and caught one small silver. It was early in my trip and I held it in the net, admiring how pretty it was, looking at how unusually small it was. For whatever reason, I decided not to clean a fish and I released it back to its herd. The water was much clearer and back to normal levels. There were at least a dozen fish hanging in one of my pools, but only the little one bit. I worked my way up to the most popular pool and was astounded at the number of fish just hanging there. I watched as several people fished the pool. I saw a couple of snag hookups, but no fish. Finally, the guy on my side of the pool left and I took his place. I threw all around the fish, but got no interest. I was surprised when something hit my line. I reeled some more and it hit again. Salmon don’t hit multiple times. They will either take it or they won’t. I set the hook and reeled in a nice trout, the biggest one I have caught on Campbell Creek. It was still less than a foot long, but it was still exciting. I lifted my line to show it to the guys on the other side of the pool and of course it came off and swam away.

We took a hike along Turnagain Arm. The state parking area is very nice and the trail heads up the mountain along a nice stream. We followed the trail up about 900 feet vertically and had a beautiful view from a point called Table Rock. It was a little windy and cool, but we hung out there for awhile. On the way back down, we followed the trail toward Anchorage a ways. It was a nice walk in the woods, but there wasn’t much in the way of views. The day really reminded us of fall in Ohio. It had that cool sunny day feeling and some of the plants are changing colors. We did find a few late hanging raspberries along the trail and enjoyed them. Even Kris, who normally despises raspberry flavored things, was enjoying eating them fresh. We saw a couple of sheep on the hike, but they were pretty far off - (ok, they were official mountain lice).

We enjoyed that hike well enough that we decided to see what was down the trail the other way. We went back there yesterday and had a thrilling walk. Heading south on the trail, we quickly found ourselves in some exposed areas. This provided lovely views, but we were not seeing too much of them as we were really focused on where we placed our feet. The drop from the trail was steep, rocky, and long. About half way across the first exposed area, I was surprised by a large pile of bear scat. It just didn’t seem like a good place for a bear. Even worse, it would be a bad place to run into a bear. Normally, you would just yield the trail to them, but there would have been no where to go to get off the trail. The trail returned to wooded areas, but it occasionally poked out along the ledges.

We found lots more bear scat. It was obvious that the bears had been eating a lot of berries. It seems early for them to have converted their diets to berries as there should still be plenty of salmon around. My mind began imagining a excess population of bears in the area with the weaker, more desperate bears hanging around in the high grounds eating berries after being run off by their bigger salmon eating counterparts in the valleys. The last thing you want to run into in late summer is a bear who isn’t getting enough food to prepare for the upcoming winter.

We crossed a muddy area and found some very clear bear footprints in the mud. It had rained the night before, so we knew they were fairly recent prints. It was clearly a small bear, which then gets you worrying about young bears who are still under the protection of their mothers. Further down the trail, we found a chunk of fur from some unidentifiable critter. A bit further, we found a pile of guts from a small animal. It is kind of odd to find guts since most predators like to start with the soft stuff. We stepped carefully over it and looked around. Another good way to run into trouble with bears is to get close to dead animals that the bear has stashed away for later consumption. They have a tendency to think you are trying to steal their food. Clearly this wasn’t a kill that was cached for later consumption, it was just a messy kill.

We went quite a way down the path, but it was getting late and we were getting hungry. We turned around and headed back to the car. We made it back and the only wildlife we saw was a large hare. It was just one of those hikes that keeps you on your toes and makes your imagination run a little wild.

We continue to look for jobs. I have identified four positions that sound like fun. Kris has about 5 or 6. She has already been rejected for the state job she interviewed for. They found someone with better experience. She was a little disappointed, not so much about the job, just that rejection is never fun.

This evening we went on another bike ride with the Arctic Bicycle Club. It was at the upper end of Campbell Creek, an area that we have ridden a little before with the group. It started raining just as we got there and of course it quit pretty late in our ride. It made the roots very slippery, but neither Kris nor I fell. The trails were wet and muddy and everyone got pretty dirty. We saw one bull moose only about 10 yards from the trail. He looked up at us as we rode by, just staring as if we were the strange looking ones. It was a fun ride.

Our cat is still a problem. We gave up on trying to convert her diet to a hypo allergenic diet. She didn’t like the food from the vet. She wouldn’t eat ham flavored baby food. She really likes this crappy stuff so we decided that we were more concerned with her weight than her throwing up, at least in the short term. We have been trying to feed her as much as she will eat, but she still eats quite a bit less than a ‘normal’ cat. With a trip coming up, we are concerned about what her status will be at that time. We did hire a cat sitter and she came out to get oriented. We would hate to leave her with a major problem cat.

I better post this and get to bed. It has been dark outside for a while, so it is probably pretty late.