Joys

Buckbean at Lower Lake

View from Sam McGee Trail

Working, hiking, biking, yoga and socializing keep me living in the moment, mostly.  After work at nine pm, my daily delight is to walk my circuit UP to Lower Lake or bike UP the southern Klondike road toward the pass.  By then I’m always emotionally tired from all the people I talk with inside the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park/Alaska Geographic Museum Store and I’m just ready to be alone.  The trees, flowers, mosses are all the company I can handle.  They ask nothing and give me great delight.

Okay, so Bill was a little hesitant in his owl costume at first.

Our “Owl Be There” team for the Kluane Chilkat International Road Relay was a hoot.  Bill flew up from Seattle and we were joined by new friends, Leo and his son, Alex.  Willing to wear a brown cape and owl eyes on their helmets, they proved themselves as crazy as Bill and I are.  I’ll never forget the encouraging wave I received from my team mates each time I biked past them.  The squawky duck horn took up the action a notch, too.  Another bizarre touch was the US Customs agent who looked at my passport and said dryly, “Lady, do you know you have an owl on your head?” *

I've always got to add a bear photo, right?  I saw these triples breastfeeding last year and now they are GINormous.

Other highlights have been weekends with my friend, Yukon Jim, in either Whitehorse or Skagway, socializing with friends my age and various Interps from the Park, hiking up the Sam McGee Trail in the Yukon with Joy, watching July 4^th fireworks on the boat with Cindy and Helene.  In Skagway we have weekly concerts at Seven Pastures. 
 

Helene wondering about Cindy and me.

Blue teeth from the blueberries at Lost Lake.  Selfie with Bruce and Sara!

Quiet moment after the 4th of July

Once the relay was over I started climbing trails for the Duff Trail Challenge.  Karl Von Halle helped me get my worst one out of the way;  that was AB Mountain which requires as much arm strength as leg work.  Not only were there many vegetable belays but also a fixed rope used to haul oneself up over the slick rock.  Next week I’m off on the Chilkoot Trail, probably alone.  After that comes the SE Alaska Fair with Jim, Glacier Bay with Meadow and hiking each weekend to meet the Challenge. The Floozies will be back on the road, too.

Skagway from AB Mountain with Roxie keeping guard

* Laura Anderson wrote a poem about our bike event:

KLUANE-CHILKAT INTERNATIONAL BIKE RELAY

When raven krooaaaks and light spins gold,

And dew is cold upon the ground,

And the day is ours to hold,

And the whirring wheels go round,

And the whirring wheels go round,

Alert and warming her bright wit,

The owl upon Charlotte's head doth sit.

When determined cyclists pedal past,

And bear lifts her gaze in wonder,
And the crow hath called ahead 'go fast,'

Cold rain fog, do not fall under,

Cold rain fog, do not fall under;

Alert and warming her bright wit,

The owl upon Charlotte's head doth sit.

-sincere apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Owl"
http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/alfred-lord-tennyson/the-owl-4/