Some of my friends and I have decided to hike on Fridays on some of the local trails now that school is out.

Our first hike was yesterday.  Warnings were posted that bears had been spotted and that one black bear was curious enough to even approach large groups.  Although we came across two piles of fresh bear scat we were not able to catch a glimpse of the bear.  Our group of 8 mostly children was very noisy.   We did get to the see the cute bird pictured above dance for us. Well it probably wasnt' for us, but we enjoyed seeing it anyway. 

 

This little whirlpool held the children's attention for quite some time.  They would throw little sticks into it and watch them get sucked down in a little pile below.

We stopped for lunch on the banks of a river.  The  beach was silty and soft.  Each of the children were covered in fine dust by the time we left.