Bears and Random Pictures

I was on my way to work this morning at about 7:30am, not far from the house and heading towards Auke Bay.

As I came around a bend on Glacier Highway I saw two young bears galloping from an overlook and heading for the road. 

I slowed the car down, and as I pulled into the overlook I watched these two beautiful animals run easily across the highway, climb up the embankment and disappear into the woods. 

It all happened so fast that I did not have time to pull my little digital camera out of a side pocket of my pants before they were gone......

I stayed in place for a minute - digging my camera out and hoping against hope that they might appear again.

Something caught my eye and I looked to my right just in time to see a third young bear climbing over the guard rail and heading for the road.  I fumbled to turn my camera on as he headed for the road.

Just as he got to the side of the road a car drove by, scaring him back into the parking area of the overlook.  He circled for a minute appearing disoriented and unsure as to which direction he should go - then walked back to the guard rail, climbed up onto it, jumped back down from it, walked back to the road and finally ran across the highway and into the woods at the same spot as his two siblings.

As this was all happening I continued excitedly to fumble with my camera, wishing it would take pictures faster than it did because I was missing all kinds of very cool pictures of this wonderful animal who at times was only twenty feet in front of my car.

Three bears first thing in the morning on the way to work. 

I called my Mountain Boy excitedly telling him what I had just witnessed........

I did not know what salmonberries were until my first summer in Alaska.

They are very sweet, easy to pick, found in every garden and on every trail in the Juneau area (we are constantly picking them during walks nowadays) and taste great (both by themselves, as well as with ice cream and chocolate syrup  :-)

The many rocky beaches we have in Juneau seem to compel residents to arrange the rocks into a variety of configurations that often seem almost alter-like to me.

Over the past six months I have taken many pictures of very creative towers and patterns in the sand.

One more taken at Eagle Beach......

My Mountain Boy and Jamie at Eagle Beach last night - their favorite wide-open and beautiful area.........

And my favorite tree stump.

Yes......I have a favorite tree stump.......

While we were at Eagle Beach last night it was high tide, and LC and I got the bright idea that we would walk out to the sand bar (that was completely encircled with water) and let Jamie off the leash to see how she would respond to our calls for her to come back.

We were both wearing rain boots and waded through the water logged grass heading for the sandbar, and within just a few minutes were in water close to our knees.

My boots were high enough.  LC's were not, and after swamping his boots with water we decided that maybe our bright idea was not so bright after all..........

We never made it to the sand bar, which is just as well in hindsight.

Jamie got away from me tonight on the walkway by our house and absolutely ignored our calls for her to come back.

She knows and understands what we are saying.  We know she does.

But when she wants to run she wants to run, and at those times chooses to ignore the commands she would normally follow so well..........

The small lake close to Amalga Harbor where we picked salmonberries last night in the rain.  LC already had soaking wet feet so a little rain did not matter.  After all, salmonberries were calling our names........

We walked for about an hour and a half on Herbert Glacier Trail after work tonight.

LC's knee held up OK.  And the salmonberry-picking-fool walked continually into devil's club to catch the ripe ones. 

He had a great time on our walk, somehow managed to prevent the devils' club from biting at him, and I had a great time with him.......

More pictures of the shot up rust bucket of an old car that sits surprisingly alongside the Hebert Glacier Trail.

Whenever I see this vehicle I wonder about the stories this car must have, and what the history of it is.