Alaska day

October 18th is Alaska day. I celebrated by going to the Berry Patch cabin at Eagle beach. Mr. X was sick with a cold and had a presentation for work the next Tuesday so he opted to stay home in bed. Friday was a rainy day. I packed up some books, a camp chair and some goodies. I chose not to overachieve by cooking pizza over the campfire or haul the gear for dutch oven cooking and instead just have a nice relaxing day.

At the cabin, shortly after I'd burned through all my t.p. trying (and failing) to light the oil stove, I noticed that there were a dozen seals playing in the river just in front of the cabin. So I sat on the porch and watched them leaping out of the water, throwing their flippers in the air. I then turned my attention to my book and heating water for my hot cocoa. Only the best. Double chocolate with marshmallows.

An hour later I realized the rain had truly stopped so I decided to take the little loop trail from the Eagle beach campground to the Eagle glacier trail and around the backside of the Methodist camp. Mr. X made sure I took the bear spray when I left the house, but I forgot to take it on my hike. Biologists are saying that most bears are denned up already, so the precaution was mostly for human encounters...since the only people I saw all day were moms with toddlers, I'm pretty sure, it was okay the spray stayed in the cabin.

Almost directly behind the Methodist camp I found this toadstool. It was about ten inches in diameter and I was amazed that no one had come and crushed it yet.

I walked through the muskeg on the planked trail loving the red and orange colors of the grasses, the green and gray witch's beard hanging from the trees and the misty fog floating low in the sky. A perfect mix of fall. I crossed the highway back to the park and saw three eagles fighting for dominance; the two juveniles had to give up their perch. A couple of grebes paddled their way against the river current.

After my hike, I popped up some corn only to run out of stove fuel which meant that those chocolate covered graham crackers weren't going to be s'mores. When it got too dark to read my book, I packed my bags and headed for the car, satisfied with my trip "out-of-town".