Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Lions and Tigers and Bears….

P6300001 Well, more like deer and moose and marmots, but at least we finally got to see some wildlife along the trail. Hiked the Ptarmigan Lake trail, an 8.6 mile round trip hike, a good portion of which was uphill to get to the lake. It was another beautiful walk, and we arrived at the lake tired of the climbing but knowing our return trip was mostly downhill. Hadn’t seen anything but pretty scenery, and just as we got to the lake, noticed something moving. It was a marmot, and it quickly came up to the trail and got very close to Jim’s feet. It sniffed and licked some rocks, then scurried off across the snow by the lake. He was awfully cute, and we were excited to finally see something besides other people on a trail.

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Yes, there was snow and ice still covering half the lake.

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As we were heading back, Jim looked over into the woods and saw this moose just grazing on some leaves. He ignored us and went about eating, even though Jim kept trying to get him to look our way for a picture. Other than this one, the rest are great shots of his back end.

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Then as we continued walking, a deer came out of the woods and onto the trail. She was very skittish, though, and ran away as we walked towards her. This was the most wildlife we’ve ever seen on a hike, and with the weather being near perfect and the scenery spectacular, made for a really enjoyable way to spend the day.

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