All Hallow's Eve

Sunny Saturday blog catchup before I head out to Bear Paw Festival (fear not, no bears are harmed, in fact, there are no bears there...normally, but anything is possible in Alaska) to pick up my new "welcome" bear carving statue thingy which I haven't quite decided what to do with, but I have always wanted.  Will post a picture tomorrow.

But first I have to pick up the blog, which is still somewhere back in October, on Halloween weekend.  First there was my attempt to carve a pumpkin, aided considerably by a Skype session to Saskatchewan with my sister and her in-laws who had gathered in a garage with far too many beverages and sharp objects for their annual Halloween pumpkin carving night.  My little fat cat, who is fascinated with all things potentially edible, started hunting the pumpkin immediately.

Fortunately it was too big for him to eat.

We got the first dusting of snow that day, so I headed out to to take some pictures, not being sure if I would be spending much time outdoors for the next several months of winter.

I started at my favorite coffee shop, the Sleepy Dog, which strangely shares a building and advertising space with a lawyer and a midwife.

The Eagle River was like glass.  I pulled off the side of the road, wandered down to the riverbank, and took a few pictures of my first "First Snow" day in Alaska.

Tranquil, serene, slightly crisp, it was all good things.

After enjoying a few minutes of quiet, I heard other vehicles pull up, and a frenzy of closing doors and unpacking began to happen in my quiet mountain scene.

Kayakers had arrived, to take one last journey down the Eagle River for the season.

There was Go Pro Guy, who was very friendly.

And random bearded dude kayaking in the snow in Alaska wearing a Viking helmet.  This is a perfect example of why I usually have my camera with me.

Soon they were all milling around in the water, Viking and all, and ready to begin their trip.

And they were off, leaving me back to my solitary snowy mountain morning.

It was at that moment that I looked down and realized exactly what I was standing on.  Camoflauged by the snow and grass and branches, I didn't realize at first that I was standing right next to what looked like a moose femur.  My mind flashed back to the sign I had seen earlier unnervingly not so far away.

"Large grizzly seen here 10/29/16, feeding.  Be aware!!!"

The joy of having this beautiful piece of Alaska all to myself faded ever so slightly and I decided perhaps now was a good time to get back to the car and move on with my day.  Well, it was about 200 metres later that I came around the corner and saw this.  I guess that large grizzly wasn't too far away from where I was after all.

I pulled over to let him figure out where he wanted to go, and watched him truck on down the road.  Hopefully towards higher ground and a long winter nap soon.

I still wanted to get my last winter hike in, even if it was just a short one.

The snow nicely filled all the empty seed pods into surrogate flowers for a day.

My favorite summer scene transitioning to white.

What I thought might be my last snapshot of this path in 2015 (but it wasn't, spoiler alert!)

And so a walk, a Viking, and a road bear later, I made it home in time to pass out Halloween Candy.  I was glad I had the pumpkin, because it drew kids in like a lighthouse, and I had bought waaaay too much candy that I was going to otherwise end up eating.

First Halloween in Alaska.  Totally didn't suck.