Moose and other stuff...
Trip Start
May 05, 2009
1
19
48
Trip End
Sep 20, 2009
Healy,
Alaska,
United States
Friday, June 26, 2009
The three of us are at work in Savage Campground, and we love our job. It's fun and it’s healthy. We get lots of exercise, and since we are not able to run to the supermarket when we have a taste for pork chops – we plan our meals ahead, and we eat what we have. Consequently, we are eating to live, and not living to eat. Snacking is also at a minimum because while we are working we are out in the park talking to folks, and at the end of the day when at home we would be watching TV and snacking, there is no TV and we are too physically exhausted to lift the potato chip or whatever to our lips. Ice cream? Forget it. Oops, gotta go – someone just stopped out front.
Well, I’m back. You won’t believe this…Val and I go out front and there is a class C motor home with two ladies in it asking questions about camping at Savage River
Baby moose in our yard.
. They have no permit, and no reservation so Val sends them back to the WAC (Wilderness Access Center) or the Merc (Riley Creek Merchantile). While Val is talking to them a red pickup truck pulls up behind the ladies, and the people in the truck are straining to look around the RV so I think that they are just anxious to get around these ladies and on their way, but when the ladies leave the red truck pulls up to where Val is standing. It’s the people on site 15; the site right next to ours. They say, "There’s a bear on our site!" Val says, “Great! We charge extra for sites with bears.” “No really, we were sitting at our picnic table, and this bear walks up. So we jumped in our pickup and left.” As the story unfolds, we hear that some people over on the drive-thru loop saw it walking up that road and then into the woods. Chalk up another one for the grizzly that scares the crap out of people, and then just casually strolls on, chuckling under his breath at how funny humans are when they are scared.We have met a young couple from Rome, Italy (one of Val’s favorite places in the world), and they are just the best. Meet Luca and Stefania Minchinelli. Luca comes over every night and plays with me. He just loves me. He obviously is a very cultured man with excellent taste in canines. Luca works in the travel business, and Stefania works for a company that advises the Italian government on environmental issues
Bye bye
. Val shares with them her love for the Italian language, and her wish to someday be able to speak it. Luca and Stefania come over every night for a campfire and tell us about their daily adventures. Val says, “Bouna sera.” They respond. Val says, “Oggi e giovedi.” Wow! Isn’t that great? Well, no not actually. She said, “Today is Thursday.” They probably already knew that. They are having a wonderful time in Alaska. They kayaked in Prince William Sound, and a whale went right under their kayak. Yikes! Anyway, they stay for several days and help Val with her Italian, and when they leave we feel a real loss. Another interesting person is Jess. She is a marine biologist who works out of Anchorage. She works on fishing boats doing research. She is sometimes located at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Jess is here camping all by herself. What courage! She went for a hike and fell in a bog. Then it rained pretty much for the next full day making everything she owned wet. She tried drying her clothes by the fire, but then they were smoky and wet. Since the forecast was not good in terms of cold and wet, we had Jess bring her wet things over to dry in the trailer, and Dave gave her a couple of blankets to help keep her warm at night. Jess happens to be another beagle lover. Gotta love her.
Mother and baby
I was asleep on the couch this afternoon when Val said, “Oh, look Dave. There’s a mother moose with her baby, and they are standing right next to our trailer.” Dave came to look so I got up to see what everyone was looking at. Holy cow! I mean holy moose! They are really big. I mean that mother moose is huge. The baby is pretty big too as babies go. It’s way bigger than a baby beagle. I try not to make any noise but I get so excited that I let loose with one of my classic beagle howls, and wouldn’t you know it they exit the area. Val scoots outside just in time to get a picture of backsides going down the road. That’s ok because she got some pretty good shots of them from inside the trailer. Now if I can curl back up on the couch and resume my nap…
June 24, 2009
We woke up this morning to find that our vistas have collapsed, and we can only see as far as the tallest trees around Savage Camp. The sky is a uniform gray and has eased down the mountainsides covering everything like a gray-white ethereal blanket. Val decides to hold off on her 7:00 walk-about in hopes that the rain will stop, but 10:00 comes and no let up. Preparation is the key: first she puts on her wool socks, next her long underwear, after that she adds blue jeans, and then her rain gear pants
Luca and Stefania
. She puts on a turtleneck shirt, then her fleece, and tops that off with her heavy Campground Host jacket. Then she adds her rainproof hat, and finally her stretch gloves. She takes a plastic bag saved from her last trip to the grocery store to put the wet and expired camp permits in. She covers the clip board with clear plastic bag, and off she goes to work. Val says that her mom would be proud of her if she could see her now because when she was in high school she would not even think of wearing boots or gloves no matter how nasty it was out of doors. Back then it was all about being “cool,” now it’s all about being comfortable. Dave just came in from checking out the weather forecast on our mobile radio. It’s not good. Three to four inches of snow at elevations higher than 3500 feet. We are at 2780 so we could possibly get some of that white stuff. It will be in the 30’s tonight, but it is supposed to get up to 55 tomorrow. Break out the shorts and the sunscreen!
Your arctic beagle,
Remington
