I didn’t get out of Fairbanks until 10:00 last night, and after driving fifty miles with the moose rutting season beginning and the conditions dark, rainy and foggy I decided it wasn’t worth risking either the life of a moose or the Subaru, and pulled off the road for the evening. Spent almost two hours reading through e-mails and catching up on news that I downloaded while in Fairbanks — thanks to everyone who wrote, it’s definitely nice to find out what’s happening back at home. The saga caused by my lack of wool socks was especially amusing — the Fairbanks K-Mart luckily solved the sock dilemna, so hopefully everyone can once again sleep soundly 😉
The intention today was to only do a short bit of hiking, but after starting out I spotted five caribou about two miles away and decided to go and hang out with them. Without realizing I was doing it I started giving them names, and after a couple of hours Scooby and Darlene had gotten comfortable enough with me around that they wandered to within about twenty-five feet. The big bull that was leading the group, Melvin, was a bit grumpier, and refused to let me or any of the other caribou get too close to him.
Tomorrow I’m going out for five days of backpacking, starting near the terminus of the Muldrow glacier and heading towards Wonder Lake. The fall colors have gotten even more spectacular, so unless the weather turns really bad it should be a memorable time.