Bird to Gird

My friend Y (why not? there's one in his name) wanted some exercise and there were heavy clouds on the hillside, so I suggested a bike ride from Bird Point to Girdwood.

As luck would have it, the sun was shining south of Anchorage. Here are a few shots that caught my eye.

 

The other white flower in the top picture is cow parsnip.  Here's a close up with customer.


And below some visitors at the monkey flower organic cafe.



The phrase finder has a long entry about the phrase 'the bee's knees.' Here's a tiny excerpt:

Bees carry pollen back to the hive in sacs on their legs. It is tempting to explain this phrase as alluding to the concentrated goodness to be found around a bee's knee, but there's no evidence to support this explanation. It is also sometimes said to be a corruption of 'business', but there's no evidence to support that either.

 Maybe they mean the front knees.

The trail from the rest area at Bird Point to Girdwood takes the path of the old road.  It was the worst and best part of the trip south.  It had great views, but was two laned, no shoulder at all, and curved up and then down.  Now there's a speed track down by the water, and the bike trail that replaced the old road is wonderful.  But it is uphill and downhill both directions.  It's about 6 miles each way. 

Columbine

Getting Close To Girdwood - Y's the white speck on the trail

A raven flew noisily onto the second from the top branch, followed by a bomber squad of swallows.  There's one very close to the raven just on the right of the trunk in the top photo.  It almost looks like a branch.  You can see it's not there in the bottom shot. Presumably they had a nest up there.  They kept returning.  Later a second raven joined the first. 

I'll try to get part 2 up later - with a few shots of the Girdwood Forest Fair.