Alaska 4

Here are some more photos from Alaska. Click on any photo for a bigger view. As you might guess, there are lots of animals to see in Alaska. Many you will see in Denali National Park as you travel the one road and look out across the open tundra. You can see a long way and sometimes the animals look like dots that require binoculars, but other times the animals walk right past the car or Denali bus. You also see animals anywhere you go. You have to be aware of moose and bear (both black and grizzly) everywhere you hike or drive.

A couple of interesting things about bears and moose in Alaska. The general advise is bear = stop and raise your arms and voice. Moose = run! Rangers in Denali said they would rather meet a grizzly in the back country than a moose. They don't recommend bells on your pack to alert the bears because they say it just irritates your fellow hikers. They don't recommend pepper spray for most people because they say that usually they just spray it into the wind and incapacitate themselves.

Dog sledding and the Iditarod are very interesting. We saw dog sledding demos at the Iditarod headquarters in Wasilla near Anchorage, in Denali, and in Fairbanks. When the mushers go to hook up a team the dogs go nuts barking because they all want to go. "pick me, pick me". The racing dogs are not large and powerful, they are small and fast. The breed is mostly "Alaskan Husky", which is smaller than the husky you might have seen in the "lower 48". "Gee" is the command to turn right, "Haw" mean go left, and "Whoa" is considered only a suggestion to stop because if you fall off the sled the dogs won't stop. The 3 rules of mushing are, 1-hang on to your sled, 2-hang on to your sled, and 3- hang on to your sled.

In Denali, we hiked to a beaver pond and saw a beaver emerge from its lodge and swim in the water. Then, later, on the trail, we spotted a beaver in the woods and followed it to some freshly downed aspen trees that it had cut. We watched as the beaver cut through a 4 inch branch in about 2 minutes. Then he/she took two pieces of the aspen and dragged it through the woods and down the trail and to the pond. It was storing up limbs to place under the water for winter feeding when the pond was frozen.

We looked long and hard to see a sea otter. These are much larger than river otters and they spend their entire life floating in the sea. They dive to the bottom and get shellfish and then float on their back while they crack open the shells and eat the food. They are very cute floating on their backs and looking around. In Homer, we found lots floating in the ocean. One was very close to shore and we got some good photos.

We are heading back to Anchorage today (from Homer) and then back to Tennessee on Tuesday night.