And The Workweek Begins
It rained overnight and the forecast was for more rain. We decided it was a good day to sleep in...all the way to 6:30.
We had no hikes planned, so we decided to take the bus Eilson Visitor Center; have lunch; sign up for tomorrow's Discovery Hike and return. That takes most of a day. We left at nearly 9am for the bus stop and got there less than a minute before a bus arrived. It was the daily Discovery Hike bus driven by our favorite driver, Dale. Even though he is only supposed to pick up Discovery Hikers, he takes pity on us on this rainy day and we climb aboard. The road looks quite different in the rain and we don't get far before we find that the bears are back on the job. A sow and her three year old cubs are walking along the Teklanika River. That's a good start for a rainy morning. We later see a two wolves out on a river just poking about. Just after the Polychrome Pass, we got a good look at a Gyrfalcon perched on top of a rocky crag at road level. We assume that it is the same one we saw a few days ago harassing the Golden Eagle in the same area.
The first group, led by Ranger Omar (not to be confused with Driver Omar) g0t off for the strenuous hike and we went on to Toklat where our favorite ranger, Tina, came aboard. She's surprised to see us as we'd seen her yesterday and didn't mention being on the hike. We explained that we'd just bummed a ride on the Discovery bus. There was room on her hike which only had eight hikers, but we were unprepared for a rainy day hike and demurred.
On the way out to Eilson, we spotted another group of bears, another mother and two tiny cubs up on a hill and also a moose and its calf by a tiny pond in one of the valleys.
When we got to the second hike drop off point there was another bear, just where Tina had planned to hike, but she is a thoughtful and resourceful ranger and knew an alternate spot not far up the road where, it was hoped, there were no bears.
After dropping off the second hike group, it was only another couple and us on Dale's bus to Eilson which made for a pleasant ride.
We arrived at the visitor center and found about six other buses already there. Being a rainy day, it was packed inside, but we knew that it would clear out quickly. We stopped at the desk to sign up for tomorrow's discovery hike and there was room. It is another moderate hike led, this time, by Ranger Bob, who happens to be Tina's husband. The ranger at the desk raved about him as had Dale on our first ride out to hike with Tina.
That bit of business completed, we found a bench by a window to have our lunch. Being by the window was of no advantage today since the view was just the inside of a cloud. The visitor center was completely socked in. We had our peanut butter and jelly wraps (an unusual combination, but we'd not been to a real market for about two weeks and tortillas are the bread we have left...they actually make a pretty good PB&J). We were glad to be out of the rain.
After lunch, we caught the first bus heading back, which ended up being completely full, a much different experience than the Discovery bus. The highlight of the trip back was a wolf walking down the road in front of us and then along side the buses in the brush for about a mile before disappearing into the undergrowth. Just at that time we spotted the bear with the two small cubs again. Our wildlife sightings finished with the closest look we've had of Dalls Sheep.
We got back to Speedy in time for an afternoon coffee and tea break and a bit of relaxing before dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment