Good afternoon. I have not posted pictures in a long time. I have been busy playing now that school is out. I thought I would share some of my competitions and hiking trips. As you all know, and probably very tired hearing about, our Bear Adventure on Admiralty Island starts this week. I can hardly wait. I will definitely post when I return to Memphis on June 13.
Then about 1/4 mile down the path was a barking dog. The owner pointed to the Eagle in the tree right next to the bike path. Gosh, what a wonderful way to start a beautiful day of bike riding.
This rock reminds me how small we are in our universe.
As we hiked we noticed a lot of bear scat and moose scat. We decided we are going to become "poopologists". We see so much of this stuff we might as well be experts.
Dew Mound Lake was very very cold. You can see some of it was still covered with ice/snow. It is pretty remote back here and nothing but the sounds of birds and mosquitoes. The mosquitoes don't bother me as long as I am hiking with someone who is much sweeter and tastier. Thanks Beth for attracting the pesty bugs!
The Animal Rescue Center was at the Nature Center showing off some of their favorite animals. This is a Horned Owl and he was very interested in the bugs flying around. She taught us that owls heads don't really rotate 360 degrees but a mere 270 degrees. This rotation is important so they can see in almost every direction without moving their body to give its prey a heads up.Their eyesight is so keen but so is there hearing. They can hear miles away because their ears on not placed the same place on their head. One ear is set slightly higher up than the others which is why they tilt their head to hear even farther. A mated owl is very territorial where as a nonmated or teenage owl fly far to search for company and mates. The claws were so sharp you couldn't want to be a ground rodent because those claws would have you snapped up in one fall swoop. Their grasp is about 200-300 pounds of square inch of crushing power with these talons. Run for your life if you a little cat or dog! A human fist has about 60 pounds per square inch of crushing power.
Our next guest was a bald eagle. This mature female was rescued over 16 years ago. She was pretty beat up and since recovery has been a "touring eagle" for schools and nature centers. The average lifespan of Eagles is about 20 years or more in captivity. Her eye sight is so keen she can see over 8 miles and look at her talons. They are big and he said her grip would crush the skull of a rodent or small pet. The female is about 14 pounds or about 6 pounds larger than the male eagle. The wingspan is about 66 inches on average.
Her wingspan was about 70 inches according to her keeper.Eagles are powerful fliers as well. They average about 40 mph when gliding and 30 mph when carrying a fish - preferably a salmon. When diving for fish their speed can be between 70 and 99 mph. I hope I am never mistaken for a large fish!
When it is mating time, the Eagle returns to where it was born and they mate for ever.
This puts the size of this female Eagle in perspective with her keeper.
Next was the Gold Nugget Triathlon. It was my second year of participating and it was easier than my first year. I improved my time by about 10 mins. I swam a bit faster and had a little assistance with my sport bra this year. Last year no one would help pull down the back of the bra on my wet body. I lost a lot of minutes in my transition last year. This year I beat my transition time by 4 mins. The bike ride was wonderful on Elmandorf Air Base. It is not everyday you are riding a bike and a fighter plane flies over your head. Then a few minutes later an Air Force Cargo plane goes overhead. They are both loud. The run was much easier this year. I did train a bit by running mornings in Florida. It was fun and right now I am saying, "I will volunteer not participate next year." If I can get Jenna to join me next year I will run it one last year. All my friends are having friends join them. Come on Jenna, come do a triathlon one time with your mom!!!!
Sheryl, Beth (roommate),Niki, Vanessa.
We are all teachers up here in Alaska.
The Gold Nugget is the oldest all Women's triathlon in US. It began 39 years ago and only had 24 participants and 6 mom/daughter teams. This year there were 1550 participants and 240 mom/daughter teams and 12 grandmother/mom/daughter teams! The registration was filled (1550) in 20 mins this year. It is very popular and they only take 1550 ladies. You must be ready to push your computer buttons when registration opens at 10 pm at night 2 moths before the race. Come on Jenna, let's do it on the 40th anniversary. I am sure the tee shirts will be spectacular.
Then when school finished, we hiked Hatcher's Pass. It surprised me that there was still snow thigh high when we got there May 28. I guess it is so high up it takes a while for the snow to melt. We were accompanied by so many ground squirrels and their "chattering" to each other was a bit annoying. The red roof house was one of the newer barracks for the gold panners. There is still a gold mine still working up there. It is private and you need to schedule a tour to see it. But anyone can hike the area at anytime. We would have gone closer to the buildings but we did not wear our snow gear this day. 
This is a fairly fresh moose scat pile. It is said to test how fresh you pick up a piece and throw it at your friend. If it sticks then it is really fresh. Niki said it was just kind of fresh. I guess it didn't stick!
. Then yesterday to prepare for our Bear Adventure (kayaking and hiking to view bears) we decided we should hike Bald Mountain. Baldy can been seen from my back porch. It is 2800 feet elevation and about 7 miles. We went up the tundra side of the mountain instead of the gravel path. I find gravel very unstable when hiking. The tundra was spongy and we had very sure footing. We found a few flowers starting to bloom. There was still plenty of snow shoots. In fact, we saw a group of people sledding down the snow areas.
This peak, which we did not hike, is known as Black Tail ridge. Some people were coming down from here and said there was a moose but otherwise no other wildlife. We were a bit cautious since it is bear season. There have been several sightings of bears in town going through people's garbage and trash.
So this is what I have been up to for a month or so. I look forward to seeing everyone once I return in a few weeks. Once again, David and I have an extremely busy summer planned. Then it is only 190 more days until I return to Memphis for good. Until then, I hope you all had a safe and fun Memorial Day Weekend. We had sun shine and about 70 degrees. We are up to 22 hours of day light. It is so bright at midnight. In fact, the little kids were still playing outside at midnight the other night and being very vulgar and loud. I called Eagle River Police to ask them to go inside and bother their parents rather than keep all of us awake. Then it gets like dusk from 1:30 am - 4:15 when it starts getting bright and sunny again. My roommate, Beth,can't sleep well with this light so she has placed black paper in her windows. It doesn't seem to bother me. I have never been in Anchorage this late, or into the summer. It is quite beautiful. David, are you sure you don't want to move up to here? How about retiring up here?
Until my next blog - Bear Adventure in June. Hugs from Nanuq of the North, Sheryl
