No grue. no bears, neither.

All is well. I am at the Riley Creek Mercantile, a shop / laundromat / shower place just inside Denali National Park, waiting for my 4-5 hour tour of the park by bus - it would be 6-8 hours during normal park operation times but after yesterday the services drop off sharply for the end of the season. I am dressed in many layers and I have water, peanut butter sandwiches, and chocolate (M&M's, specifically). I have the watch cap I knitted myself on the plane to Anchorage through the tour of the Arctic Circle, and my good warm mittens that I knitted before I came here. All should be well.

I was going to hike a bit this afternoon, but it's raining like hell and they're predicting possible snow. This may make Mount Healey - or, heck, any other path - dicey at best, so I also have a copy of Mind of the Raven (a study of the birds, not an espionage novel!) and a ball of qiviut which I am making into a scarf for my mom. If it is too wet to hike, I will sit in the ranger station (which is still open) and knit and read.

Took a bus ride through much of the park yesterday. We saw moose (one bull, four or five cows), caribou (several herds - one bachelor herd, one mostly females but with one male), and a couple of grizzlies (two sows, one large cub). no wolves but that's no big surprise. Didn't see sheep either but they're tricky to spot at best. Maybe today or tomorrow, as I have a horseback safari scheduled for tomorrow. Who knows?

Despite everything,

still haven't been eaten.
( At Two With Nature: Why I Chose The Bear Bell )

batyatoon, I thought of you on the trip through Denali. We had to get through a place called Polychrome Pass. Daughter of the Rainbow, indeed...