close encounters

there has been a brown bear hanging around camp the last couple of nights... last night after making my rounds to be sure camp was all locked up i stop and chat with a couple of people that i work with. kyle the operations manager and denny who helps out with all kinds of special projects. the conversations starts out with me discussing the fact that i only saw a baby moose and no bear. we chat some more a bear safety and precautions taken, and begin to part our seperate ways to go to bed, when denny shouts "there he is!" kyle sorta thinks he is kidding, but sure enough there's the brown bear moseying up the drive way from the eddy. kyle quickly grabs the shotgun loaded with rubber slugs and hands it off to denny, certainly the most experienced of the three when it comes to shooting stuff.
so there we are denny, the real alaskan hunter armed with a shot gun chasing a bear, and me the hippie in hemp pants and pink shoes as back up with an air horn and some bear spray. i must admit the sight must have been a little comical. shot fired, but missed. the sound was enough to scare the bear off the property at least. the whole event was intense and exciting. being 20 yard from a brown bear can really getting the adrenaline pumping.
my weekend also involve far more tame wildlife viewing as well. on my trip to homer we say 14 moose, 4 bald eagles, 2 or 3 sea otters a seal, and lots and lots of gulls.
homer is awesome...having the rainfly blow off of your tent and sleeping uncomfortably in the cab of your friend's pickup truck is a little less awesome, but adventure none the less. fun times on the homer spit.

the wednesday/ thursady crew represent.

Butttwackers....totally not gay.
kind of a gray day, but the mountains were still beautiful.

another photo of cecil....i just love this mountain.
here i am hiking the cotton wood creek trail when i went out to the backcountry lodge a couple of weeks ago.
wild prickly rose....the petals are edible and a good sourceof vitamin c.
fireweed starting to bloom, soon enough it will be a brilliant red color.


lots on my mind recently. lot of figuring out will be happening over the course of the next couple of weeks. it's funny how life can show you signs if you are open to them. but without a key i don't know if i am correctly interpreting the symbols. time will tell. there are no wrong choices just the choices we make.