We got out of bed a little earlier than usual because we wanted to head to Hatcher Pass. The weather was good, as forecast, so we decided to go. I had a quick breakfast (hand fulls of trail mix) and made instant coffee to go. I heard back from the seller of the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III that it was still available, so I emailed him an offer. We left around 7:20 in the Jeep.

I drank my coffee and had more trail mix while driving to Hatcher Pass.

We went up to Hatcher Pass and stopped at the rock field just on this side of the pass where we had photographed marmot and pika last time. I had a Clif Bar before going out to photograph. No marmots this time, but the pika were out. They weren't quite as cooperative as last time though. They seemed to go feeding and gathering at several different locations instead of returning to one feeding or gathering area. I was quite happy to get some really nice images, though, and all of the waiting gave me time to eat another Clif Bar. I just love the image, above left, with the little guy looking at me right at eye level. The image of one gathering food (above right) looks much better larger because all of the moss detail provides a nice environment. In the smaller version shown, the brighter areas of moss take my eyes away from the subject.

We left the pikas and went up to Summit Lake around 11:15. I had some more trail mix and another Clif Bar for lunch before photographing two different arctic ground squirrels, one of which we enticed to pose in front of some fireweed.

We left at noon and continued heading over the far side of the pass towards Willow because J suggested that we could phone a friend of hers who works with Bird TLC to see if we could photograph their great gray owl. I had another Clif Bar to round out lunch. It took quite a while to get in cell range, and when we finally did, J's friend didn't answer.

We stopped at the Houston Visitor Center and Chamber of Commerce building to ask where the Bird TLC facility is located. They didn't have an exact address, but did point me to a few roads that went along a nearby lake where they thought it was located. They also indicated that the Bird TLC folks didn't usually like walk-in visitors stopping by.

We drove down one of the suggested roads to look for the Bird TLC facility, but we didn't see anything. I thought it wouldn't be such a good idea to arrive unannounced, so we didn't try the other roads.

We stopped at a Chevron in Wasilla to fill up the Jeep and clean the windows.

We returned to the RV at 2:45 and J started to defrost the freezer and refrigerator. We put our frozen items in one of D & RAs freezers in their garage, and put the refrigerated items in a large cooler of theirs with some ice. I heard back from the seller of the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III, and he has a tentative sale this afternoon, and if it falls through then the camera would be mine. :( I started to fill the RV fresh water tank then photographed the birds at D's feeders. The light was nice and diffuse, but the birds were few and far between and I didn't get any good images.

I came back into the RV around 3:55. The seller of the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III let me know he sold the camera to the other buyer. :( I showered, downloaded images from today, then contacted the seller in NY of another Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III to see if it's still available.

I started making dinner around 5:45 of Lean Cuisine Chicken Alfredo (a skillet meal) and a salad. Lean Cuisine skillet meals are usually very flavorful, but this one was on the bland side, so we kicked it up a notch with some fresh-ground pepper and parmesan cheese.

J did the dishes while I did a quick edit of images from today. I had some Asbach Uralt while doing the first-cut edit in Capture One. It took a long time to go through all of the images that had made it through the quick edit in iView. I heard back from the NY seller of the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III that it was still available, so I emailed him an offer.