I was in Iowa for 10 days... saw many, but not all :( friends and family. Spent a lot of time with my nieces and nephew---a lot of swimming! Got a little horse time in. Went campaigning with dad. Visited a lot of babies of friends from highschool, college, and my first school. Went bass fishing! While I was in Iowa, Adam harvested his second black bear.... a nice sized one! The skull size wasn't as large as we had thought, but still a very nice bear.
Then Brandon and Deanna came up for 14 days! WE HAD A BLAST!!!
**Pictures are...of course... out of order. One day I will master this stinker of a blog site!
Matanuska Glacier
Two weeks prior to this hike, the trail was closed due to a griz and her cub on a moose kill. We pulled into the parking lot and a moose leg was on the ground by our truck. Then, while hiking, Brandon saw this moose fur and hoof in a pile of bear scat! Kinda gross... but mostly interesting!
The Harris family ready to go.... discovered that Tundra LOVES to ride on 4-wheelers!
Adam taking Tundra out of the mud while I get out of the hole!
Brandon found another hole
Hiking up Baldy
The crew out clamming
The result of clamming! YUM YUM
Go-go gadget arm!
Brandon and I fishing for reds in the Russian River
This beautiful owl popped up on us a couple times during a hike! Hi G-Ma K!! <3
All of those lil black dots surrounding his head.... yes.... mosquitos!
The racks we found in one afternoon!
Brandon and Deanna 4-wheeling a ridge..... in my opinion- On top of the world! :)
Those two lil dots at the top of that mountain....are Adam and Brandon. Deanna and I sat and watched them be spontaneous and bust out this mountain in a 1/2 hour!
The dot in the snow pile 2nd from the right is Brandon doing a snow angel!
No words to describe this glorious photo!
This was atop a ridge...... no trees in sight and eagle feathers everywhere. Perhaps an eagle's way of "making do" with what nesting options it had!??!?!? It did bring some sticks in from somewhere!
Tundra swans!
Taking a lil nap after lunch and before hiking back out
Sling-shot games.... the boys whooped me!
I didn't have my waders on and Adam REALLY wanted me to check out his greyling hole, so he carried be across.
One of Adam's 4 greyling... got away before we got a picture!
Our lovely cotton wood tree
And my lovely... I mean-- ridiculous. We are eating and breathing cotton right now!
Check out those purty nails!!! I took them to the conservation center where they saw griz, black bears, lynx, elk, caribou, moose, musk ox, bison, black tail deer, owls, and eagles that had been orphaned or injured and adopted in.
Just holding paws after a playing session!
The "dog-fish" that I caught... a type of shark. There were a couple others caught too!
We were also catching cod
A puffin... check out how glass-like the ocean was that day. It looked like a lake!
A seal visited us!
A griz at the bear stand Adam was hunting over
Adam had to maneuver the black bear from the stand to another field to harvest- all by himself!
A nice bear... black snout and all!
Tubing with the whole family in Iowa for father's day!
My bass on an amazing lil farm pond
Got her cleaned up for a short ride
I got to bottle feed a new calvy and Brandon and Deanna's!
Brandon's super nice grayling! WOOT WOOT
We had a flat tire... well two including the trailer tire
Our halibut!
So while Brandon and Deanna were here- they saw moose, black bear, eagles galor, King salmon, sockeye salmon, dall sheep, seals, an otter, jelly fish, razor clams, a coyote, a horned owl, ptarmigan, grouse, glaciers, and beautiful scenery. We took them salmon, grayling, and halibut fishing. We went clamming. We camped on, 4-wheeled, and explored the denali highway, where we found 4 caribou and 2 moose racks. We also went on a few hikes! They ate king salmon steaks, smoked sockeye salmon, halibut tacos, fried razor clams, red King crab, moose burgers and steaks, caribou dogs and sausage, and bear stroganoff. 7 of the 14 nights were spent in a tent. WE HAD A BLAST! :)
Next up will be my parents, arriving next Tuesday! :)
