We have been told that this great weather (sunshine and 60) is a never-before-seen phenomenon. I heard on the radio that nobody can remember this many dry weeks in a row.
TWTWS con't.....the Skagway Volunteer Fire Department (SVFD) is holding a fund raiser today. A carwash and BBQ. They closed off a block of 5th Ave. between Main and State St., put hose trucks on both ends of 5th and funneled cars in from Main. The trucks set their hoses to spray over the whole street so the cars get wet down as they enter, then volunteers hand soap the car before it passes the second spraying truck and emerges onto State sparking clean. This operation did not disrupt traffic since no one really has to use 5th instead of 4th or 6th and the tourists seldom wander off of Broadway.
I wrote all that this morning. Then Peggie got off work early so we decided to go for a drive. Sounds crazy since there is only one road which I drive 6 days a week already. But that means I get to see all the changes and wildlife and Peggie doesn't. So we drove the 65 miles to Carcross and she was just as amazed at the scenery as all my passengers are. Plus the changes in snow cover since we arrived is amazing. The only wildlife we saw was a porcupine and the resident dall sheep and mountain goats on Montana Mountain. On the way back Peggie commented that the battery on the camera was about to go, so I suggested we save it in case we see a bear. And we did. And it was on the edge of a large pull-out instead of on a narrow blind curve. We stopped about 100 ft away and took pictures (3) until the battery konked out. We continued to watch it grazing on the grasses as I moved slowly closer. I had to stop at the verge but it continued to graze closer. Finally, it passed within 6 ft of the front bumper, all the while showing no interest in us. We could see its teeth and the pink skin inside its ears! After about 15 minutes, during which no other vehicles went by, it went down hill and we left. Yes, we stayed safely in the truck the entire time. Scroll down for the best of the three photos.
5 comments:
How cool is that! It is neat to read the ho-hum quality of "resident dall sheep and mountain goats". I wonder if a bear sighting will be just as ordinary by the end of your spectacular summer. Great photo - what kind of bear is it?
Try to get Don to be a guest columnist so we can see what his days are like too. Please? If he doesn't want to do the keying, create an "interview" with him, maybe?
Sam turned 6 and all the kids are now officially out of school for the summer.
I kind of laughed at Bill's comment about the only wildlife we saw...I think a porcupine and resident Dall sheep are pretty cool. I'll post the pictures of that later. We'll try to interview Don or something. I suggested the other day that he write something and I would key it in and he thought he could do that. Time just gets away from us with work, laundry and sleep. Sounds kind of boring but actually we all seem to be coming and going at different times.
The bear was a black bear. The one we saw at Yellowstone was a grizzly. It was amazing to see it and amazing to watch it as long as we did. Don and Bill have seen bears before but no one is tired of it yet. There is one with two two-year cubs that Bill calls the Chamber of Commerce bears but I haven't seen them. And there is one with three two-year cubs on the Dyea Road but we haven't seen them yet.
The "resident sheep" really are just that. They live on that mountain and you can almost count on seeing them, usually too high up. Bears can't get old because the customers haven't seen them yet so the excitement stays fresh. We will continue to see new ones as new territory comes open. Grizzly bears are not as common here, so probably won't see any.
Great photo albums! amazing what a month can do
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