Swimming Upstream

Climbing trails up the mountain or swimming up stream against the current take extra effort and conditioning of the body, mind and spirit.  In the first month (August) of being in Alaska, I navigated up a trail that followed a mountain stream filled with migrating salmon swimming upstream where they will spawn and die. 

A colleague of mine, Wendy, joined me on the hike.

Wendy showed me where to pick wild blueberries while pointing out some interesting creatures along the way.  Below is a slug very fat on blueberries! You can see how blue it is!!  

During the whole hike the stream ran beside the trail overflowing with fish swimming against the current.

Now it is the beginning of October and just a few are still swimming up stream and most have went to meet their maker. The stink on the river is a little better because as the season closes they all die and it starts to smell like rotten fish flesh. Yuck!! The birds love it though!