Bear With Us

Ok, it was a small, adorable bear, but a thrilling encounter for us just the same!  We camped at Exit Glacier campground outside of Seward, and walked to Exit Glacier from the visitor center.  This little black bear was foraging around the visitor center and crossed the trail right in front of us (and a couple dozen other thrilled hikers :)

Here's a close up of Exit Glacier; probably the most accessible glacier in Alaska.

This sign we're standing by marks where the edge of the glacier was in 1999, when Rick and I visited Alaska for Rick's research.  The distance that this glacier receded in the past decade is impressive.  Rangers stated that the weather has been so warm that the glacial outflow is currently at flood stage.  Here's a point that I'm totally with Sarah Palin...Drill Baby Drill!  Drive Baby Drive!  Whatever it takes to promote global warming while I'm stuck in this wretchedly cold climate!  (Just kidding, sort of)  By-the-way, a danged bug flew in my eye in this photo. 

Gemma is typically reluctant to expend any energy on physical activity, so to get her to hike, I went ahead and hid individually wrapped pieces of chocolate along the trail for her to find.  I hid them by things I found to be interesting, then Gemma had to tell me why she thought I hid them where I did.  This photo shows a tree that had fairly fresh bear scratchings on the branches.

Enjoy!

Michelle