Katie and Mortal Peril

Dave got the day off. Yeah! So we all headed up to his old stompin' grounds Girdwood, AK and the Alyeska Resort (where he used to work). We took a nice 2.5 mile hike (mostly flat he told us) to Winner Creek to check out the Hand Tram.

The hike was very up and down and up and down and up, up, up followed by down, down, down. But as you can see the views were spectacular!

Dare Devil Dave climbed down the rocks to give us this fabulous photo op. Dave has no fear.



And when Katie is with Dave, she has no fear! The Hand Tram is totally people motorized, pulling a rope to get this teeny tiny basket across this deep gorge. This took Katie a moment of serious consideration before we placed her in total and utter mortal peril .... & then she went anyway.



It was a long way down to the rushing water and hard, pointy rocks below.



Katie was all smiles when she got closer on the return trip. Her bravery exceeded all expectations, especially hers. Good Job Katie!!!!




What is this? What would this be??? Would this be fresh, wet bear tracks???? I do believe it is. And what was that sound??? Would that be the sound of another bear behind us, following the trail of the bear in front of us???? I believe that yes it would be. The park rangers will tell you that the last place you want to be is in between two black bears ..... so we gotta go!



Here's the picture of the bear that was about 100 feet behind us. Just a little closer than you want to be in the wild. Lucky for us, we were saved from being the lead story on the 11 o'clock news, thanks to Margaret. She was the first to spot the bear ahead of us even before we reached the tracks. She heard the bear behind us and in her cool unflappable manner just started talking away. If you don't have a bear bell to let the bears know that you are in their hood and they need to stay away, then you need Margaret. Her voice puts the bears on notice and away they go. Thank you for saving us from being a bear buffet.