the nuisance bears at the end of the road

in sitka there is a little sanctuary called "fortress of the bear" they acquire "nuisance" bears from sitka and other parts of alaska and they teach them some manners. for starters eating out of the garbage is not very good etiquette & stealing fisherman's caught fish is not very nice.
they have found these bears downtown sitka, at sea mart, in backyards eating everything.

even though they are nuisance bears they are so so cute, i've always had a thing for the under dogs & the rebels.

this guy "baloo" dug this hole for about 10 minutes then just shimmied right in a took a nap.

this big guy is 4.5 years old, when the fortress caught him he only weighed about 10 lbs. now he weighs in at a whopping 850lbs and stands 8.5 feet tall and not full grown yet.

he was a little camera shy and his buddy only poked his head out of a little room he was in for about 2.3 seconds. we got to the fortress right at about nap time so they were all a little sleepy.

there was a mini horse that was well fed and it's belly almost dragged along the ground.

new baby goats, only one week old. i think they look like weiner dogs, i just can't take them seriously.

"toby" who is a girl bear (so i will call her truvy, way more girly) showed off all her sweet tricked for us. she climbed up this stump and waved at us. truvy totaly stole my heart.

when she got to the top she started smelling around in the air, it was so awesome. i wanted to curl up in her fur coat. in sitka there are 120 brown bears per 100 square miles, scary huh.

spencer caught just the end of her wave, so it looks like she is taking a bow. we loved her.
that's it folks. the end of sawmill creek & the end of the 14 mile road system in sitka. it was such a beautiful day. lightly misting through the cool crisp air, little islands off in the gigantic deep blue, mossy oak surrounding our world, we've found a little piece of the shire here in sitka a little piece to store away in our hearts to keep forever and always.

xo. liv