Dayne's Birthday

Sometimes it helps to be friends with the boss. I woke up on Wednesday, picked up a dispatch and saw that it was Dayne's birthday. I also realized he didn't have a day off for the week. So, I searched the dispatch and found someone to fill his spot. I called him and asked him how bad he wanted to work on his birthday. He wasn't exactly keen on it, so I asked him if he wanted to go to the Park with me. His immediate answer was yes! So we raced to the bus and got on the 10AM shuttle. I wish I could describe or take enough pictures to convey just what it looks like right now. The colors are so bright and varied, they appear fake. About two hours into the trip, we saw three dall sheep unusually close to the road. They were beautiful with the bright colors surrounding them. Further down the road, Dayne wanted to go fishing. He checked to see if he got off the bus and I continued on to the turn around, then I could meet up with him. I told him I was scared to hike that far by myself. So, he stayed on the bus with me. Good thing!! When we turned around at Eielson Visitor Center and started back we saw two grizzly bears, right by where we would have gotten off! We took pictures of the bears for over 20 minutes. Beautiful! We continued on and got off at Polychrome Pass to hike out to an Erratic, left there ions ago by a glacier. It took us over an hour and it was a little tough hiking with the squishy tundra and low bushes. We scouted out another route back to the road. This time we had to cross some braided rivers. I put on my chacos and brrrrr. That water is cold! We made it back to the road and only had about a ten minute wait until another bus came. It was a very nice way to spend a day off and to celebrate Dayne's 25th year!