Mountain biking on Pillar

 

Yesterday Nora and I mountain biked from the top of Pillar Mountain down to 'Deadman's Curve' on Rezanof Drive.  This is one of the most technical mountain bike trails on the mountain.  And Nora rocked it.  

I will admit I would rather be doing the easier trails closer to town or out by the Buskin, but lately those trails have had issues with bears.  No one wants to surprise a bear on a brushy trail!  The 'Deadman's' or 'windmills' trail is much more open and with no food sources nearby there are far fewer bears on that end of the mountain.  

We did walk the super technical parts of the trail, but I bet it will not be long before Nora is riding the whole trail.  And it is super good exercise - a great way to get ready for ski season!

Patrick

Abbreviated Termination Point Hike

 

Yesterday the kids and I did some hiking and mountain biking.  Nora and I did a quick climb up Bear Mountain where we went skiing back in March (click here).  Nora commented that she'd 'pay a thousand bucks to go skiing right now'.

Then all of us took the dogs to Termination Point.  We decided to check off Termination Point on the 'Foothills' Adjust Your Altitude Challenge list.  For the AYA challenge you only have to go out to the ropes  and rudimentary shelter on the first beach.  It is a FAR shorter hike than going all the ways out to the actual point.  And that's a good thing because we were not up for a long hike and I am fairly sure that I could not have convinced them to do the whole hike.  So thank you AYA for having shorter options to check off!

After the hike we took the mountain bikes up Pillar Mountain and biked the alpine trails.  There have been some bear issues in the bushes on the lower trails so we stuck to the alpine areas.  I showed them some of the trails I do and Nora pointed out the trails she has been doing.  I was SUPER impressed with their abilities on some of the more rugged trails.  It looks like mountain biking might just be our Fall sport.

Patrick

Mountain biking on the 'Yellow Brick Road'

Yesterday Stuey and I went for a mountain bike ride on the 'Three Pillar Point' trail that goes from the end of the road at Anton Larsen Bay.  I have not gone mountain biking on this trail in 20 years.  Back in the day it was a very rough and muddy trail.  ATVs had created huge mud holes and you had to walk most of the trail.  But around 10 years ago the local trail group ITN hardened the trail with geo block (click here for more info) and built bridges over the streams etc.  This dramatically improved the trail - so much so that local trail users dubbed it 'the yellow brick road'.  The trail became almost too 'sterile'.

Since then the trail has degraded and there are some maintenance issues. It is certainly no longer the 'yellow brick road'.  Geo block clearly does need occasional maintenance!  But in general the trail is much better than it was back in the day.  For extended sections the geo block has worked really well and the grass has grown up through the matting - these areas used to be twin deep tire rut sections.  The trail feels much like it did back in the day except there are far fewer mud bogs.  There still are a few bad places and clearly some preventative maintenance is in order.  But all and all, riding the trail is a far better experience than it was 20 years ago.

Patrick

Dog Walk

Wednesday afternoon I went for a hike up Old Women Mountain.  Stuey and Nora had other things to do - so it was just the dogs and I.  It was pretty hot and at every puddle in the trail the dogs stopped to lap at the water.  Up on top the ravens were dive bombing us and Brewster would try and chase them.  I think the ravens enjoyed this game.  

Later, after the hik, the kids and I all went paddle boarding with the cousins at Lake Gertrude in Fort Abercrombie State Park.  The water is pleasantly cool and it was a good way to cool off after a hot hike.

Patrick

Garden Update

 Last night we had new potatoes cooked with lots of butter for dinner.  This meal is the main reason I grow potatoes because you certainly can't buy new potatoes.  I think the potato starch changes or something within hours of digging them up - new potatoes are sweet and turn into mashed potatoes all on their own.  Mmmmmmmmm!  I 'robbed' my potato plants by serrupticiously digging around the stems of the live plants.  No plants died to make my dinner.

The garden is seriously booming - carrots, salad, and even the beets are ready.  Best of all the raspberries are ripe and it looks like this year there is a bumper crop.

Patrick

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