Eagle River Nature Center

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Danielle and the girls went to the Eagle River Nature Center for a hike. They had a great time. Eagle River is about 10 miles north of downtown Anchorage and the nature center was about 12 miles off the highway back in a valley. Danielle really liked the Eagle River area (there are quite a few folks at work that I have met that live there). Because of the valley in which this town lies, in the winter time, there are two months in which Eagle River gets no direct sunlight!! One of the loop trails was closed because of the bear activity in the area.

Apparently, there is a good size salmon run in the Eagle, which draws a good crowd! The girls saw salmon spawning while they were hiking. They could have watched them for hours. The females were turning sideways to carve out a redd (nest) to lay eggs. There was a “chosen male” salmon present waiting for the female to lay her eggs. While he was waiting a few other smaller salmon where there trying to get in on the action and both the larger male and female took turns chasing the smaller ones away. The girls did a great job hiking and caught some great views as well.

When I got home from work we decided to take a bike ride (Gabbi and Jacqui)/run (Danielle and Bill), since the rain earlier in the day and the forecast of a chance of rain caused the homeschool rock climbing to be canceled again. Gabbi and Jacqui really wanted to show me a playground that they had found earlier in the week. We had a nice run and enjoyed playing at the park before running back. I could not believe the amount of energy the girls had, with all they’ve done today!!

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