Summer is coming to an end in Alaska

After a couple of month's of great riding weather, the season is already starting to turn. Last weekend I began to notice yellow leaves appearing in some of the low areas. In most places, the Devils Club--a white flowered, thorny weed, has already lost its white and is turning to fall faded green.

A week later, whole trees are already going to yellow. The fall weeds have bloomed and there is now a lot of red stuff showing up in the low lying areas. In another two to three weeks, the fall colors will be quite noticable all over. It snowed on the high mountains during the week, and they now have a covering of snow at the very tops.

The temperature has dropped from the mid to high 60's in the day to mid to high 50's. Nights are 40's now. There is a fall feel to the air. We had cold and steady rain pretty much all last week--and its predicted through Tuesday.

The riding season really goes fast here. I am a die hard, and will continue to ride my motorcycles until the first snow hits the highways. (about mid-October). A lot of people put their bikes away by end of September. It looks like I wont be wearing the mesh jacket or the fingerless gloves to many more times. The liners are ready for the jackets and pants--but hopefully not for a couple weeks.

Most of you will say it beats the sweltering temps that you are encountering in the lower 48--and I will totally agree with you on that. Just a little information about Alaska summers--and the quickness of it.

Another sign of fall coming on: Last Friday night 9/2/11--I had a large mother moose and her two year old little one come to visit my yard. They spent about a half an hour walking around my fenced garden area--trimming leaves off the trees and filling up on them. A neighborhood cat watched them from the other side of the fence and actually stalked them as though to attack them. The cat changed its mind when it got within five feet of the mother, then ambled off to the other side of the driveway and watched them from on top of my fence rail. It was rapidly getting dark, and the mother and her little one went over into the main part of my grass and bedded down for the night. I could look out my bedroom window and see her eyes light up green when I shined my flashlight on them. I took some pictures of them eating the trees but I had a low battery indicator--also tried to take a couple pictures of them bedded down--but the camera went funny on me. Have not had a chance to get batteries--so will try to retrieve the pictures. If I get them--I will post them.

This is the first moose encounter on my property since I moved in 11 months ago--but I have seen this pair a couple of times along the road.

Neighbors tell me we also have bears in the woods here--but I have yet to see one in my yard.

That's quite a sight to enjoy in your own back yard! :clap: Color me jealous.

Just an update.

It is really nice to see the beautiful fall colors that a lot of you are posting. It helps to extend the short summer/fall season here. When I lived in the midwest, I went out every weekend on long rides to view nature's beauty.

I managed to get you folks some AK pictures in the last 3 weeks or so--but the next batch will have a white color to them.

This morning, 36 degrees when I left at 9:00 AM. Had to scrape ice from my car windows. This weekend the rest of the leaves fell down in my area. There is still about 5%--but they will all be gone by the next weekend.

I am still riding--but that first road covering snow is now about 3 weeks off.