Hiking in Sitka

This turned out to be our most memorable hike of the trip. Our destination was diamond lake.

We had to take a gun because we were told the bears were really bad. I'm glad we did because I have never seen so much bear scat on a trail before. Of course the kids did a great job being really loud and goofing around so that we never saw a bear on a trail.

We took our time and picked berries as we went and found some fabulous smelling tree sap.

I don't know what wood the bridges were made of but they smelled like ...well...like someone was passing gas. Every bridge smelled like this.

We got to the top of a hill and at the bottom was this snow melt lake. We hesitated going on because we knew it would be a hike getting out again. I'm so glad we did because when we got to the lake, the boys decided they wanted to jump in! Bradley took his clothes off to his underwear and jumped right in...several times.

Clay was a bit more hesitant. He doesn't like jumping in where he doesn't know how deep the water is so he decided to walk in to the frigid lake.

Hooo, it's really cold the higher the water goes!