Its Labor Day

Yesterday dawned bright and sunny, maybe the best day of the year. By noon MP had already washed all the windows and mowed the lawn and I figured if I didn't get her away from the house she might decide to repaint again...obviously she was missing the holiday intent. So I decide we'd jump in the Suby and drive Skilak Loop and get pics of the fall foliage for the blog.

Skilak loop is part of the old highway to Anchorage and used to be a mecca for road hunters like me. But because the federal government owns 90% of the state and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a ' multi-use' policy, its now a wildlife viewing area. So we stop and get some gas and of course a couple ice cream cones, after all I'm still fishing and my fall diet and training doesn't start until fishing is done. That cone was flat good, albeit a bit messy and sticky. We're a good 5 miles into the loop and we haven't seen a single wildlife and it looks like we're a bit early for the yellow fall look of the Aspen and Birch Forrest.

We came across this clear-cut and we got to wondering just what that was all about, why would the government slash up this beautiful place? New moose browse? Fire control?....mmmmmm. Well I think its because the viewing deal wasn't going so good, just to many darn trees in the way for good wildlife viewing. Now that makes perfect sense to a guy from the Washington D.C. office and certainly we have enough trees in Alaska that executing a few for a multi-use approach to land management is a reasonable solution.

But as we drove along the real reasons for such poor wildlife viewing became apparent. How in the world are you going to sneak up on the wily moose with your car ker-bang a chang-n off all these potholes, they can hear you coming for miles. I don't know how MP knew it but I had to agree, these aren't new potholes, as she said..." they're seasoned". I guess they just should have picked a road grader over a chainsaw, simple mistake.

So now we're 10 miles into the loop and still no wildlife, I'm beginning to think that maybe we're doing something wrong when we come across this sign. What a relief, we're doing everything right. We're staying on the road-bed, we're not loud and we haven't chased a single thing. But with views like this next picture who needs wildlife eh? This is looking west towards the mountains from Skilak overview, the trees have a hint of yellow and you can see all the way across the Cook Inlet to the snow covered volcanoes a hundred miles away. Gorgeous is all I can say.