Indian River

Today, instead of lazing around my apartment and possibly never actually setting foot outside as I sometimes like to do on a day off, I went hiking.  I had invited my friend Chris from work and his wife Maria to go with me a few days ago and this morning we settled on hiking along Indian River. 

Now, I knew it was going to be a long hike, but I had forgotten that it was 4.7 miles out... and 4.7 miles back to the car.  Luckily, it is relatively flat and with only moderate elevation gain towards the end.  I guess that's the lovely thing about a trail that mostly follows a river! 

Chicken of the Woods fungus

The hike, despite being really long, wasn't overly strenuous.  But definitely by the time we reached the end we were all ready for a break.  Luckily, the end of the trail also included a very pretty 70 foot waterfall.

And of course I blinked haha

The waterfall was a perfect place to stop for a snack before turning around for the trek back.  Chris also decided that it was a great place for a swim.  Maria and I thought he was absolutely crazy but oh well, he was the one that was hiking back with wet hair.

On our hike back we noticed that the salmon had moved further up the river in preparation for their spawning run.  They will begin running in earnest in about a week or so and that I can't wait to see! 

SALMON!!!!! They'll be running here in the next week or so and then the river will be completely full of them!

All in all, we went about 9.4 miles in just over 4 hours.  I'd say we kept up a pretty good clip.  My sore feet couldn't agree more!  Another successful day off!

Milestones or stepping stones?

A few days ago on the 15th, I marked the halfway point in my summer of adventures in Alaska.  I have now been in Sitka for two and a half months and have just under two and a half left in this wonderful place.

I find that this allows for a careful consideration of what I have accomplished so far and those things that I still wish to do with my time.

I have moved to a place I have never been to work for people I have never met.  I have made wonderful friends whom I hope to know for the rest of my life.  I have learned knew skills and managed to improve in two different jobs at the same time.  I have learned knew things that are useful in my daily life.  I have embraced the differences and begun to thrive on them.  Above all, I have grown.

I still want to summit Verstovia and Arrowhead and Bear Mountain and Mt Edgecumbe (the volcano).  I want to hike Indian River and Harbor Mountain and Gavin Hill.  I want to paddle all day and camp next to my kayak.  I want to see the salmon running.  I want to go berry picking.  I want to do do so many things in so little time.

I want to keep adventuring.

It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.
               -Andre Gide-

Sea Lion Cove

A few weeks back, I discovered a wondrous thing.  Something that only happens when a very certain set of circumstances happen to line up just so; the bosses need a break, there's no trips booked, and it's sunny. 

We shut up shop and embark on a company adventure!

Now, this adventure came as no surprise that morning, we had been planning it for a few days.  We had a picnic planned, a little bit of work to do on the way there, and all day for exploring.

This particular time, we were headed out to Sea Lion Cove on the northwestern shore of Kruzof Island (the one with the volcano).  It's only about an hour by boat but we had some chores to do on the way.  There was a4-night expedition planned for the for the following week and the boys needed some refreshers on their potential camping spots.  For the rest of us, that meant basking in the sun while we had sites pointed out to us.  And what beautiful spots they were.

Boats in the harbor.  Photo by Cailen

Photo by Cailen

Willow likes to ride up on the bow to watch for fish, not that she has ever caught any.  Photo by Cailen

Now, to get to Sea Lion Cove, we had more than a gorgeous boat ride in store for us.  We had a hike that had been described to me as "moderate elevation gain".  I now know that my boss is insane and has a really skewed sense of the word moderate.  It was pretty darned steep due to the fact that we had to get over a mountain (and back down it) to get to this particular cove. 

Photo by Cailen

 Our path first took us along an estuary on a trail that was covered in bear sign - both prints and scat - to a set of log stairs that went nearly straight up the mountain.  When we finally reached the crest, we discovered an immense muskeg (an Alaska bog) complete with lily ponds and soggy ground that extended the entire way between the two peaks. 

Photo by Cailen

Photo by Cailen

 The trail then descends down the entire other side of the mountain with tree roots and rocks as steps.  By this time, the provisions that we were all carrying for our potluck picnic were getting quite heavy.  Thankfully, we were soon rewarded with the beauty and serenity that is Sea Lion Cove.  Throughout the entire hike, we didn't see another person.

Photo by Cailen

A fire was quickly built and lunch was prepared.  We pack a pretty good picnic, if I do say so myself.  Curried chicken tacos with all the fixings.  Chicken queso dip and chips.  And homemade scones.  Ya, it was delicious. 

After lunch, we had an hour or two to explore and play before we had to start heading back.  We were trying to catch the tide on it's way back up (so the boat would be floating again).  As this was rather near the solstice, we had daylight until about 10pm when we got home. 

Tide pooling and general shenanigans ensued.  Seth and Connor went swimming.  Cailen and I wandered with our cameras.  And Willow ran circles around us all. 

Photo by Cailen

Photo by Cailen.  I can't even remember what she did to make me laugh :)

Someday, I hope to be this good at yoga...

... Or this good...

...Right now, all I've got is Tree.  :)

These happen to be some of the coolest rock formations that I've seen up here yet.  The way they were eroding was so pretty!

Mt Edgecumbe at dusk.  Photo by Cailen.

The Wilderness Explorer, sister ship to the boat Mom and I were on last summer!

Mt Edgecumbe

This is my buddy Cailen

It's amazing how much this place looks like the Oregon Coast!

Limpet shell

Cartwheels are a must on any beach!

On the hike back to the boat.

All in all, I'd say that the day off was a wonderful time had by all!  My knees hated me for a week or so (until I hiked Verstovia, then they really disliked me), but it was worth it.  I only wish that I could get back out there easily.  On the bright side of that, it's very remote and private; we had the miles long beach completely to ourselves. 

Oh!  And on the way home, we saw FOUR humpback whales and a Minke whale!  And some sea otters! 

Verstovia

I know that is has been absolute ages since I last posted something and I'm sorry to all of you who check this regularly to keep up with my adventures!  So, over the next few days, I will try my darndest to catch up. 

So much has happened in the last few weeks.  I've gotten to solo guide a few of my very own trips, the entire crew was given a day off for company day of adventuring (blog about that tomorrow as it is getting late tonight), I've made some new friends, and tried my hand at hiking Mt Verstovia. 

Now, I say tried because out group didn't get all the way to the top on our first attempt for a variety of reasons.  The mosquitoes were out in droves due to the significant lack of any sort of breeze, we had started the 3 hour hike at about 5:30 pm, and my knees weren't holding up too great (we had hiked Sea Lion Cove about a week before and that had annihilated my knees and since I had worked the entire week, I hadn't rested my knees yet). 

We did however, make it up about 2,000 feet to the viewpoint.  Keep in mind, this is 2,000 feet in only 1.2 miles.  Needless to say, it's a bit of a rough go.  But the view was worth it. 

View of Mt Edgecumb and Sitka from Verstovia viewpoint

 I can only imagine how amazing it would be on a clear and sunny day!

When we finally got back to the car, we discovered that I had parked in front of one of the biggest salmonberry brambles any of us had ever seen!  And with berries everywhere!  Needless to say, we picked a few hat fulls of the lusciously sweet, yet slightly tart, berries and ate them all on the short drive home.

Eventually I will try Verstovia again and I will make it to the very top to the a 360 degree view. 

Who wants to join me?? 

Heat Wave

First of all, so sorry that I haven't posted in awhile!  I've been waiting on a picture from one of my friends and I finally have it now, so I can post. :)

Second, last week we had quite a heat wave in Southeast Alaska.  New record highs were set in many places; Juneau hit the mid to high 80s, Yukatat set new records three consecutive days, and Sitka hit a whopping 77 degrees Wednesday last week.

What do people without air conditioning do when it hits nearly 80 degrees and out average summer temperature is about 62, you ask??? Well, we swim.  Anywhere we can.

And that is exactly what my friends and I did, several days in a row.  As soon as we got off work it was a mad rush to change and then try new swimming holes. 

First was the rope swing out towards Herring Cove.  It's this massive rope, probably 9 inches around, attached to a tree about 15 feet above the ocean.  Took me about 15 minutes to talk myself into actually swinging on it, but I'm sure glad I did! 

Not exactly my most flattering photo ever, but proof that I did do it!

A few days after to rope swing was the day that the mercury topped out at 77 scalding degrees.  After moving boats around all day and paddling, we were all ready for something cold.  All my coworkers, their significant others, their dogs, and I trooped the 2 miles up to Heart Lake (there's a picture of the lake in an earlier post) and blissfully swam in the snow-melt fed mountain lake for a good hour.  It was lovely. 

While I don't enjoy working when it's so hot out, I do indeed love how joyous a feeling it is to submerge into cool water after a long day. 

Fingers crossed that it gets hot again soon!

Good karma is...

A sunny day off in Southeast!

So far, almost every day that I have completely off from work, it ends up being cloudy or rainy or something less than ideal.  But Sunday was the exception!  It was a glorious weather day.  Sunny, just little puffy clouds, and a high about 64.  Can't find a thing to complain about.

Ever since going out to the Fortress of the Bear that first time (it was raining), I've been wanting to go when it's sunny to see them play.  So that's what I did.  They were so cute.  They spent most of their time in the water and, with all that fur, I don't blame them.  It was really warm out.

Om noms on some salmon

Oh don't mind me, just playin' with my tire....

...and sitting on it

I must be missing something, tires are apparently very comfortable naptime spots.  Who knew?

We're cute and we know it!

After spending some time with the bears, my friend Cailen and I decided that we should go on a hike.  Neither of us had been up the Thimbleberry Creek trail yet so we decided on that one.  It had moderate elevation gain and is very well maintained, making it a perfect hike for an afternoon.  We saw a bunch of lupine just starting to bloom and salmonberry bushes transitioning from blooms to fruit.  Hopefully I'll beat the bears to some of the salmonberries once they are ripe!  The trail makes it's way past 2 small lakes (Thimbleberry and Heart) and continues one to become part of a much larger loop system, but we only went the 1.8 miles to Heart Lake.

Banana slug!!!!

Bear Mountain above Heart Lake

All in all, I'd say it was a great day off and I can only hope that I get lucky enough to have another day off be just as gorgeous! 

PS - if you want to view the pictures bigger than they show up in the posts, just click on the photo and it'll become a larger slideshow that you can scroll through!

A "swell" boat ride

Today wasn't horrible, the weather was nice and I had a good day at work and got off early and got some chores done.  But it was also a day when I didn't get to paddle. 

So I decided to take it upon myself to make it better.  And how did I do that?  I found a way to get on the water. 

We had a half day tour that one of my bosses, John, had to go pick up with the boat late this afternoon.  He knows that I don't get on the water as much as I'd like and that I always enjoy being out on the ocean, so I called him and asked if I could tag along on the boat ride.  He let me go and while it was only a short 20 minute jaunt to Middle Island, it was also the highlight of my day.  

 The weather was pretty good; no rain, light breeze out of the southeast, and mostly cloudy.  There was quite a really big swell though; probably the result of some big storm hundreds of miles away.  It could have been pouring rain and I wouldn't have minded (ok, maybe a little bit), but something about being off shore always improves my mood no matter what. 

I really like how this turned out.  Someday I want to get this printed on canvas (one of those ones where the picture wraps around the sides so there's no external frame)!

Mt Edgecumbe

Part of the Cheichi Island group

The iPhone takes surprisingly good quality pictures! Now, we did see multiple sea otters but we were moving to fast to get a good picture.  Though adorable, they are rather skittish of small boats slowing down near them.  This is most likely a behavioral trait that's resulted through the traditional hunting of sea otters by the native peoples from small watercraft.  They're still beyond cute though!  Hopefully I'll get a good picture of them someday.  Add that to the goal list!