Hiking in Alaska!!
Have I mentioned yet how lovely Sheli is?!! Most sunday mornings she meets with a few friends and they go off hiking, this Sunday we were invited along! :)
There were 6 of us which was a nice sized group that would make enough noise to keep the bears away...yes there are bears in the woods and they do .... in the woods, we know as we came across several piles of 'scat' on the trail we walked along, it seemed like bear highway!! Anyway, we were driven to the start of a section of trail called the Turnagain Arm, it was about 3.5 miles through wooded slopes, sometimes steep but mainly fairly easy going, the occasional gap in the trees gave beautiful views across the mudflats (apparantly very dangerous, like quicksand) to the mountaind beyond. It reminded me a bit of the lake district except that the water was sea and therefore tidal as oppose to lakes! We had taken precaution against midges by putting plenty of spray on but as it was a damp day they weren't too many about. Sheli however had taken precautions against everything!! She had a can of bear spray which I believe is like an extremely powerful pepper spray as well as a hand gun which she later says she rarely goes anywhere without!! Its so strange to see guns everywhere, seems like everyone has them, especially the police!! We didn't see any bears just a few prints and lots of birds i dont recognise!!