FHC episode 1

 Now that school is back in session, the Summer Hiking Challenge is officially over. The Fall Hiking Challenge (FHC) has begun!

Since there are (so far) no live meetings for school on Wednesdays, it is still the perfect day to hike. For this first week, we chose an easy, repeat hike with a detour. Trail of Time at Mendenhall Glacier was our planned detour on the way to Nugget Falls.

I say "planned" because a little ways into the loop, we came across this mama bear and her cub. It is entirely likely that we could have quickly continued past them, but we turned back (actually backed away until we were out of sight) and decided to leave Trail of Time for another day. After talking to a park ranger, this bear is Nicky, from our first bear encounter in Alaska!

Near the visitor center, there was a pile of scat and a sign explaining the importance of studying scat. See? We're still learning! 

After learning about scat we continued on to Nugget Falls and spent some time playing on the beach. The falls were raging today, but the lake level has gone back down from the previous flooding.
Back at the visitor center with Mendenhall Glacier in the background.
The hiking gang is almost all here!
The Coho have started to return to Steep Creek.

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