Even though my mom comes to visit fairly often, it's pretty rare that I get "alone" time with her. It's hard to grab one-on-one time when there are grandkids in the equation, so I decided to take a vacation day to hang out with her. I was trying to think of something fun to do that would also allow us time to catch up on life. And I somehow managed to talk her into going on a hike with me!
She was pretty hesitant about the fact I kept saying "hiking", so I promised to take her to a trail that was nice & flat. I originally was thinking Eklutna Lake because I remembered it being pretty flat, but it dawned on me that I hadn't been back to Eagle River Nature Center since our big backpacking trip in 2008. I thought she would appreciate all my stories about backpacking more if she saw the place we ended up! So ERNC, it was!
It is bear country and the bears are starting to be active, so we dutifully read the bear interaction signs at the visitors center and I brought along the bear spray. Of course as soon as we started down the trail we ran into a pair of ladies walking dogs that had seen a momma bear and cubs on their trail. They helpfully showed us where the bears were and we went in the opposite direction!
Yes, I know bears can travel, but we live in Alaska and bears being around is a bit of a fact of life. You can be sure that I never let more than a second or two pass without making noise though! We definitely got all of our catching up in - though at a higher volume than usual. ;)
Otherwise, it was a lovely day! It had forecasted rain, but we lucked out on the weather. It was a little cloudy, but otherwise a beautiful day! You can see the snow is melting away and the green is slowly working it's way up the mountain. It's a little behind the rest of the country, but spring is definitely here!
We stopped at the beaver pond overlook, but didn't really see any beaver dams. I think the pond is leftover from old beaver activity. The sign said there was a dam below the overlook, so I walked down to take a look. Either I am the worst dam spotter ever (ha!) or they have been overgrown. Mom decided to stay on the trail and not go trailblazing with her daughter. Such a rule follower!
We went down the southern part of the Albert Loop Trail with the goal of making it over to Eagle River. The path is pretty well maintained for early spring, with several bridge crossings and only a few muddy spots.
Mom patiently waited for me every time I stopped to get random, but interesting nature photos. Though in hindsight, she may have only been patiently waiting because we were in bear country. Hmmm... I'll just pretend it's because she loves my photography so much. ;)
We ended up not quite making it to the river. The loop had a cutoff from previous years due to erosion on the trail and we ended up paralleling the river for longer than we expected. We got a later start than expected and I didn't want to wait too long to head back, so we gave up once we realized the "river" we thought we had spotted in the distance was just a pond. :(
When we looked later, we were so close to the river! But we didn't know that from the very simplistic map of the trail system. I fail as a geologist for not bringing a better map. That's what happens when I don't get any field time for several years, apparently!
Either way, it was a great day hanging out with my momma! She might ask a few more questions before she agrees to any more hikes with her daughters, but that's pretty reasonable I guess... I had a blast - got to go outside on a great day and hang out with one of my most favorite people. Win-win! :)