Day 81: Independence Day in Moose Flats

July 4, 2014

Happy 4^th of July everyone!! It was another beautiful day in Alaska. Do you get tired of us saying that? Not anymore tired than the days of complaining about the weather. Anyway it was another sunny blue sky day with a high temp of 79 according to our outside thermometer. It was still cool enough this morning to need the furnace for about 30 minutes.

We didn't plan an outing today because we assumed everything would be crowded with the holiday weekend folks. The campground is full again tonight. Interesting to us, is that based on the people we have talked with and the poll the Ranger did at last nights talk, most of the people here are Alaskans and most from within about 150 or less miles of the park.

Today's plan was for a good breakfast outside on the picnic table and then either a bike ride or hike. With the breakfast taken care of we opted for the bike ride today. It was an almost 9 mile ride to Moose Flats and back. We had ridden part of this trail earlier. It was a partially paved, partially boardwalk, several bridges, a little concrete and mostly packed gravel trail. We did a little geocaching along the way. The trail again went through very nice greenery with ferns and all sorts of blooming plants, including bunchberries, devil's club, fire weed, cow parsnip, forget me nots and many more. There were very large spruce trees and huge cottonwood trees. The cottonwood “fuzz” is filling the air and at places it was difficult to avoid breathing it in especially if you are biking up a sharp hill and panting a little. The locals say it is snowing cottonwood. There were of course pretty lakes, wet lands, bogs, and glaciers. We didn't see the resident bear today.

Moose Flats

We checked the fish platform again today and saw 2 fish we think were salmon late this afternoon. The salmon run has not yet reached Williwaw. Maybe soon.

We did get a better picture of an American Dipper

Otherwise we prepared some barbeque chicken, new potatoes, peas and ice cream for our July 4^th celebration. We spent the rest of the day in our lounge chairs outside reading and relaxing. A great way to spend the holiday. We know some of you will be at the fireworks shows tonight but here in Alaska even though a few people try - it really just doesn't work.  The sun is just too bright and there just isn't any darkness.  Hope you had a wonderful day.