A Healthy Last Summer Hike

 Hi pals,

We haven't been into the sugar bush much this summer. We stopped going when the bugs were so bad, as it is rather swampy in places there and Lady didn't want to get totally eaten alive. Then Lady was away and the sickness came . . . . so on Sunday, we finally got back for a nice morning hike.

The path down to the big path really needs a good clearing but we made it down. 

Lady, who has been extremely stressed lately, has been doing a lot of diving into the wellness space. She tells us there is a lot of research on how being in nature reduces stress. She says doctors are actually prescribing time in nature to people now (which makes Lady sad that we have become so disconnected from the world at large as we have been come more connected in so many ways).  The best benefits are in person, away from traffic noise, but just looking at pictures can help reduce stress and increase health. So we present the following as ways to boost your health!

Well we know we felt better after our hike. We are hoping you all feel more relaxed and healthier. We will be sharing more in the bush as the leaves start to change (you may have noticed hits of yellow in some of the pictures). 

Wordless Wednesday - Summer Days

 

Travel Tuesday - Talk Like a Pirate and North to Alaska - Day 7 - Juneau

 Before we begin today's post - we join our pals in celebrating Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Now on to our travels. Our next port of call was Juneau. Here we had decided we would get up close and personal with a glacier.  We took a bus tour to Mendenhall Glacier. Here, I went on a hike, while my mom enjoyed learning about the glacier in the visitor's centre.

Mendenhall is half a mile wide and 1800 feet deep. Unlike Hubbard, Mendenhall is retreating quickly and it is estimated by 2050 you won't be able to see it from the visitor's centre.  It lost 3 miles between August 2021 and August 2022.

Hiking a bit closer

A memorial to a wolf. It made me smile. 

Nugget Falls

The colour of the glacier water up close

Icebergs floating between the glacier and the falls

Proof I was there!

On the hike out I saw this memorial stone and took a moment to remember a stranger. It says "A life well lived, and a man well loved. He never stopped exploring."

Proof we were the together! 

In the visitor's centre - I got to interact with a bear!

After time at Mendenhall, we went to Glacier Gardens. This garden was started in 1984 by Steve Bowhay and his wife Cindy. They picked a spot that a landslide had wiped out for their nursery business and over time have created this amazing, rainforest surrounded gardens. We were whisked up the mountain in the same type of people carrier as they use at Disney. Here are just a few shots from our stop there.

The garden is famous for the upside down trees that  have been turned into planters.

The rain forest

Looking down on Juneau

It was a lovely day in nature and unlike the bear hunt, we saw what we set out to!

Come back next week, for my favourite adventure - a day trip into the Yukon! (There may have been dogs involved . . . .)

Mischief Monday - The Problem with Steriods- by Lee

 Dear pals,

While I am not a huge fan of having a pill shoved down my throat, I get that my steroids are helping me.  I am still a little tippy, but overall I feel so much better. If you saw me now, you would hardly know how sick I have been. 

Give me food

The only real problem with meds is I have gotten my younger self desire for food back. I am not being picky and am eating a lot.  This means I am demanding food more often. Sometimes I am so excited to eat, I am not gentle when I take a treat from my Lady and a few times I may have made my Lady yelp.  She says I have roid rage. 

I have one more week on steroids before we start to see if I can wean off them.  Lady hopes I will keep eating, but maybe just a little more gently. 

Your always hungry gal, Hailey Bug

Nature Friday - Yellow

 Thanks Rosy and Sunny for hosting a place where we can all share nature.

In her old age (last week one friend called her old and another colleague couldn't believe she could possibly be as old as she is), she is gaining an appreciation for flowers. 

She likes when they grow wild,

Big bush on path to the lake

And she is learning to like to grow them herself. She really loves growing sunflowers. They didn't do as well this year. She had one at the side of the house that has gone to seed and she has this one at the front of the house that she patiently waited for it to explode open. 

Worth the wait!

My Neurology Follow Up - by Lee

Tuesday was a not so good day, as Lady took me and put me in the car for 87 million hours and made me drive through long traffic to go see my neurologist.

Once we finally arrived, I had to wait another 87 million hours for the assistant to come and take me to my neurologist where I was examined.

Waiting while Lady read a book

Then I was left for another 87 million hours while the neurologist and Lady talked.

Lady reports this is what was said. 

The neurologist noticed I was overall a bit better than when she first saw me. She noted that my back left paw is responding poorly like my back right. There is some discomfort in my back, so I likely have something going on. She said one thing at a time, and we can discuss back MRI later. To be clear, I am not in any significant amount of pain, just a little uncomfortable. 

The neurologist said she wants to try to take me off my steroids. So the plan is, for the next 2 weeks I stay on once a day, then I go to one every other day for 2 weeks. Then about a week after that I go back for a check up. Of course if I get worse, Lady can call and a new plan can be made.

She also said these sorts of things can take a long time to get better. So we need to be patient. This is not something I am good at and Lady is likely worse at it, so this will be hard. 

After they talked, my steroids and I were reunited with Lady, and we took the 87 million hour drive home. Phod and Man were happy to see me.

Happy to be home

So that is where we are right now friends. Thank you for your continued well wishes and POTP. 

your pal Hailey Bug

(Editor's note - the drive was about 1.25 hours, we had to wait 15 minutes for our assistant, Lee was away from me for about another 30 minutes, and the drive home was just under an hour). 

Wordless Wednesday - Harvest Walk

 

Travel Tuesday - North to Alaska - Day 6 - Icy Straight aka Hoonah

 Welcome to this weeks edition of travel Tuesday, where I am sharing the trip my mom and I took to Alaska in August. This week's title should be the bear hunt that wasn't. One of my dreams had been to see the brown bears. What better place than near Hoonah, which has the highest density of bears in the world at 1.7 per square mile. However, with our luck (and in part because of tourists on ATVs and side by sides) we didn't see one.  No seeing the bears has made a great story, and gives me a reason to go back some day. And while we didn't see bears, we still got to enjoy the beauty of Alaska.

Our guide for the day was Dale, a local, former marine who is now in law school. He is 1/4 Tlingit and we had a lovely discussion about native life and life in the wilderness in general. Fun fact, the Tlingit people were the last peoples to hold slaves in the United States and only stopped having them in the 1920s. 

Our guide - listening for bears

Dale clearly had mixed feelings about the cruise ship industry taking hold of his community. One of his first concerns was Hoonah, located Chichagof Island,  doesn't get its real name. It is called Icy Straight. So out of respect for the inhabitants of the area, I will refer to it as Hoonah. This town of about 700, 1300 in the summer, more than triples in size ever time a cruise ship arrives. We tourists really need to remember the impact our visiting has on these communities. 

To be known by the proper name Hoonah

I thought this was a cool pier

Join us as we head out to not see bears!

These are the roads we drove on

Our first stop was to a flat, where we spent quite some time standing quietly waiting. 

We did get to spend some time with this lovely eagle

Me not seeing bears, but still having fun!

Then we headed more into the island, stopping where other groups had reported bears, seeing all the signs of bears, but no the actual bears!

The salmon ran late this year

The bears generally just eat the skin of the fish. It has more of what they need to bulk up for the winter. 

Fresh poop!

Black tailed deer

This sort of thing took my breathe away!

While on one hand the day was a bit disappointing, on the other it was wonderful. We were able to enjoy the peaceful nature of this small community. 

Come back next week for another glacier!