Old Womens with the dogs

Sunday, the morning after my deer hunt, I awoke feeling a little broken down.  My legs hurt from hiking and my arms hurt from biking.  And I was, and am still, all covered with devilsclub spines tacked on while busting through the brush.  I actually slept until 9:30 AM which is about as late as I can ever remember sleeping in.  

So I was feeling beat up.  Like I had gone mano a mano with Mike Tyson and a lead pipe.  I also knew that the best way to recover is to exercise.  Not doing something hard, but a light hike was in order to help the legs and arms recover.  There was nothing I could do about the devilsclub spines.

And so I recruited Stuey to hike with me and the dogs up Old Womens Mountain.  He suggested Barometer, Sharatin, and even Kashaevaroff, but I talked him down.  I only wanted an easy hike.  And so away we went.  We did not even hike to the true summit of the mountain - I was content with just getting to the flag pole. 

A beautiful hike in the sunshine.  Dogs happy, Stuey happy, and me too!

Patrick

Opening Day Deer Hunt

Saturday was the opening day of deer season.  So on Friday night John and I climbed up into the mountains to camp so that we could wake up in deer hunting country.  John is new to Kodiak and while I hunted deer with him once last summer this was his first Kodiak alpine camp and hunt experience.  And this year we went to a place where I had never even been before - total terra incognita.  Generally when I go hunting it is to a place where I have done quite a bit of exploring beforehand and know the trails and routes etc.  But not this time.  So it was to be a shared learning experience.

We also used bikes to shorten our approach to the mountain and this was another first for me.  After the bike ride there was the 3 mile hike up through the forest with no trail to the alpine.  The mountain was totally socked in with fog and I was worried that come morning we would not be able to see enough to even hunt deer. We had to use a GPS to find our way up through the trees and to even know where we were on the mountain.  But eventually we got to the near alpine where we had planned on camping and set up camp.  John cut and split wood while I set up the tent, wood stove and camp kitchen.  Then it was red beans and rice and time by the roaring wood stove before bed.

At dawn we woke to clear skies and no fog.  So after a quick wood stove fueled breakfast we broke camp and rushed off to find deer.  And right away at the first bowl we saw deer and 2 bucks - one looked huge.  Then of course the fog socked back in.  Eventually we got to where we saw the 2 bucks but the big guy was gone and the other buck was just a fork and too small to harvest.  

We continued to hunt and explored all the bowls on the mountain.  There were deer everywhere but no big bucks.  By early afternoon we were getting ready to take a nap and planning on another night of camping when we saw a big buck well within range.  John shot him and so began the hard work.

After that it was all a slog.  After cutting up the deer we had to climb 500 vertical feet back up to the top of the mountain and then begin our 3 mile trip down to the bikes.  After adding the camping gear our packs were heavy, and there was plenty of devilsclub to make the hike interesting.  We reached the bikes 4 hours after leaving where we shot the deer.  And then the trailer we had rigged behind a bike to carry the meat broke under the load.  It was looking bad, but John fixed the trailer and it did not break again.  After another 2 hours of biking we finally made it back to our cars.  Hard hunt complete and successful!

Deer season begins!

Patrick

Dog walks, sunrises, and even foxes

It's July and everything is very green and the evenings extend until almost midnight.  But the fireweed is starting to bloom and I noticed that the pushki plants have bloomed and are starting to die back.  Tonight I'll be climbing up a mountain to camp in anticipation of the first day of deer hunting season tomorrow.  So fall is coming.  It'll brown before too long and the pesky lawn will stop growing.

These are some pictures from recent dog walks, and the morning sunrise view as seen from my kitchen.  The fox is one I saw most days in the same spot by the side of the side of the road when I was driving back and forth from Chiniak.  I told Stuey about him and he was never there when I drove by with Stuey.  But last weekend when ferrying cars for our Heitman Mountain hike Nora and I saw him, and I showed this photo to Stuey to prove that he actually did exist.  

Patrick

Stuey's Challenge Complete!

Yesterday Stuey and I climbed Barometer Mountain and completed the Adjust Your Altitude Challenge.  Before the hike Stuey had the opportunity to go to Long Island on a boat ride and I was encouraging him to take it.  It was hot and I had memories of Nora and I climbing up Barometer last year when the temperature hit 86 degrees (click here for post).  But Stuey had his heart set on finishing the challenge and so off we went.  

Looking up at the mountain as we drove by the airport makes for a daunting site.  It looks so steep and we were headed for the top!

At first the trail meandered through the trees and it was shady and cool.  But all too soon we left the old gravel WWII road and headed up the steep, brushy trail directly up the mountain.  And I did get flashbacks to last year's climb.  It was hot and there was no wind in the brush.  Stuey was not happy and even opined, 'I should have gone on the boat'.

Then we left the brush and there was a breeze! As we climbed the breeze got more and more brisk until I was worried I'd lose my ball cap.  Climbing with a cool breeze is not bad at all, and we made good time to the summit.  Near the top the trail is a little sketchy and there are scary drop offs on all sides, and I was feeling a touch of Acrophobia.  But not Stuey he was chipper and excited to be almost at the top.

And at the top it was glorious, or, as Stuey put it, 'it's so beautiful up here'.

On the way down Stuey discovered the ripe salmonberries and, as a consequence, did not even mind the brushy lower section.  He was busy picking berries on the fly.  I gave him a ripe 'Russian' berry (a yellow salmonberry variant that prefers the shade), and he exclaimed, 'that's not ripe!' I realized he had never had a Russian berry.  Once he tried one he agreed that they are way better than the 'normal' bright red variant of the salmonberry.

All too soon we were on the old military road in the shade winding our way down the last bit of the trail.  We could hear the cars on the highway.  Stuey gave me a high five.  He had completed the challenge.  

On the drive back he asked if we could do it again this summer.  So today when I turn in our scorecards I'll get him a new one.  The AYA continues!  Patrick

Low tide in the Bull kelp bed

Yesterday afternoon Nora and I explored the kelp beds by Miller Point at low tide.  Nora used the inflatable kayak while I went on a stand up paddle board (SUP).  It was flat calm, and the kelp was all spread out on the surface.  Looking down into the water you could see all the fronds, and bull kelp bulbs reaching for the surface.  In places there were rocks with huge barnacles on them.  We tried to avoid grounding on those rocks!

We mostly did our own thing and paddled around exploring with very little talk.  A quiet moment of time out on the cool water on a hot afternoon.

Patrick

Kashevaroff in the heat of the afternoon

Yesterday for the first time in 3 weeks I did not have to drive out to Chiniak for work and I got off work at 1 PM - whooooo hoooooo!  So the kids and I climbed Kashevaroff Mountain.

This is another of the Adjust your Altitude challenge peaks so the 3 of us got to check it off our lists.  For Nora it is 2 down and 5 to go while for Stuey is 6 out of 7 and only has Barometer Mountain to climb to finish the challenge.

It was a hot and sunny afternoon and there was some turmoil on the brushy and windless lower sections of the trail.  Stuey declared it the worst trail ever and asked, 'why can't it be cloudy like yesterday?'  

Of course once we got to the alpine he changed his tune and declared, 'this is beautiful!'  And so it was and he even agreed that it was worth the long, hot and windless lower section.  Another perfect day in the alpine.  Patrick