Category: Nature

We did it! I am proud to say the Haunted Trail of Fears 2025 is officially in the books. All that is left is to haul it all back out of the woods, let it dry and then pack it away until next September. It is practically impossible to add up the number of effort hours this event requires as it extends well over 10 months when you add in all the project planning, prop building, assembly and tear down. Add in all the incredible help we get (including my brother Ron who spends weekend after weekend down here leading up to the event itself). Long hours starting early in the morning and rarely ending before well into the next day. This is what we live for here at Life Intrigued’s Haunt Department so through it all we are wearing big smiles (unless absolutely too tired to make those muscles move ha). Overall, I can proudly say it was a great success. Rain did move in on us the last night, but all but two guests made it through the nearly a mile haunt completely dry (even the two who didn’t make it out of the valley until the rain started had a great time as the drizzle coming through the tree canopy upped the eeriness in the dark woods). I’ll be posting some pics and likely videos from the event in future posts. For today, Brad is going to bring you one of his adventures from the northwest while I try to give the body a badly needed rest before starting tear-down tomorrow.

Take it away Brad…(note, Brad is still on his latest assignment)

Regular Wildlife Intrigued readers may remember a birding adventure Jan and I took out into the Atlantic Ocean in unstable seas (here).  We were chasing a “must see” bird; one of those “life” birds that are usually only seen on nature shows.  You know the ones, where the producer has a huge budget and dozens of cameras and weeks and weeks of time to sit and wait for the money shot.

A year ago, we were on a 65-foot boat out in the Atlantic that was bobbing like a cork on rough seas (4-6’ waves) for almost three hours.  I had taken a double dose of Dramamine and wished I’d taken a third.  Jan was getting bounced around and bruised from the fiberglass benches we were seated on.  I couldn’t see anything because of the zero-visibility fog we were sailing through.  The sky was various shades of dark grey.  I vowed I’d never get on a boat that was less than 500 feet long ever ever ever again when it is out of sight of land.

And I haven’t, except for a quick tender trip in Hoonah, AK, but that was for only 100 yards on flat calm water.  The last ship Jan and I were on was 1,083 feet long when we sailed from Alaska to Vancouver last August.  That ship had some great nature programs on board given by The Ship Naturalist Robert Raincock (find him here or here).  He was very popular helping to point out various birds, whales, and pinnipeds (seals) as the ship cruised the Inside Passage south from Alaska.  BTW, what’s the difference between a boat and a ship you may ask?  We were told, in no uncertain terms, that ships carry boats.  Clear enough to me.

Our morning started with a slow and careful cruise into Glacier Bay National Park.  We wanted to be sure to see glaciers while we still have them; we were not disappointed (may be a future story).  Margerie Glacier is one of the few glaciers that is still advancing in North America, even though it detached from the Grand Pacific Glacier in the 1990’s.  This 21-mile long glacier is about 1.25 miles wide at the waterline and 250 feet tall.  In other words, it is roughly 7 times the length of our ship and nearly half again as tall above the water.

Hit the jump to learn about our new +1 enjoying the Alaskan waters.