Moose Rut

Happy Halloween to all of you.  I hope your front doors are loaded with darling trick or treaters and lots of smiles.  Here are few things I have been doing over the past few weeks. First we went to photograph the moose rut.  This is quite spectacular.  I hike and take pictures with the Adventure Group.  We travel to all parts of AK and hike the trails and take photos all lead by Dan.  Dan's wife is a "traveling nurse" and will be stationed here for 3 years so he hikes all day long.  We started down the Power line Trail and got about 25 feet on our way and a BIG grissly meandered not too far away.  He was searching out the last berries.  I was very uncomfortable being between the bear and the moose.  Dan told us were were fine.  Apparently he was correct since I am writing to you today.  These moose are BIG. The male weighs about 1600 pounds and the females weigh about 1200 pounds.  The male antlers can grow as big at 6 - 10 feet wide on each side of his head. Think of holding up that rack!  They can't get a rack reduction on a whim like we can!  These antlers fall off in the fall and the antlers provide food for beavers, and other smaller land rodents.  Nothing goes to waste in Alaska.  So the moose rut is a mating dance and they like to show their male hood for the female.  The second picture is how AK marks the hiking trails to the most popular spots.  These plastic grates really help on the hike up and down the mountain. When we climbed to the top of the peak we could see Mt. McKinley or Denali very clearly.  We could see the beautiful wondering river below us (last photo).  By the mid of day, the clouds moved in and the landscape shades turned muted shades of tan, browns and some green.  Fall is definitely here. The next pic is of these innumerable gray moths that have landed in AK.  The experts at the Nature Center said they are new to AK this year and we should expect hundreds of thousand of caterpillars in the spring. I hope to get some great pictures then.  My photo doesn't show how many of these flying moths were swarming around us but there were hundreds.  HOWEVER, you can see how many moths there are in my moose picture.  They don't seem to bother him much either.  The moose was very content to stay far away from us and move in the opposite direction as we were hiking.  These darling children were trying to catch handful of moths as they ran/walked/got carried up the trail.  They were so cute. And for all you Chicago Bear fans, here is an Alaskan fan.  Isn't she darling?  This jacket the dad is wearing has a built in baby holder (like a back pack) and the outer covering is his coat.  They are all together and keep each other very warm. Quite ingenious. I am sure it was created in Scandinavian countries.  They have the best cold outdoor clothing.  It was Red Ribbon Week (anti drug message week) and our school kicked it off with a guest appareance from Kikkan Randall.  Kikkan has participated in three Olympics and was the first women to win the World Cross Country Ski race.  She held that medal proudly.  She is from Anchorage and such a down to earth young lady, 26 yrs old.  She is sponsored by Subway which is on her headband.  She told me she pays taxes on her health insurance from the Olympic Committee and any money received from sponsors. Otherwise, everything else, clothing, etc, is free to her.  She is going for her 4th Olympic to try and win a Gold Medal.  We wish her lots of luck.  That is one of my classes that came to the assembly.  They are soooo cute.  Next is a very creative and individually made camper.  It is a truck with a hard top camper and then to get extra breeze and space they have put a tent on top of the camper.  Cleaver???? It is for sale if you are intersted.  Then on Saturday, yesterday, I went to school for a few hours and as I was getting ready to leave, I thought I would put the big papercutter back in place.  So I grabbed it (heavy) and pulled it towards my body and just then the handle flew up and bonked me in the eye. It hurt so I dropped the papercutter and fell backwards. I hit my head on the table then the ground when I finally landed.  It happened so quickly.  No stiches but very black and blue and swollen shut.  It has gotten much worse since this afternoon.  David wants me to put a restraining order  out for this run away papercutter handle.  Isn't he cute?  Well, I am going to school tomorrow and I am sure the kids will stare and make fun of me.  I am going to have to tell them I thought it was halloween and wore my costume early!  That is it for now.  I hope you all are doing well.

Enjoy,  Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.