A Little Slower And A Little Easier

This morning I woke up eagerly looking outside to see if we had received more snow overnight, because I wanted to try out a pair of snowshoes that someone from work had loaned to me.  Surprisingingly we did not have any more than when I had parked my car in the driveway yesterday, and after checking the thermometer outside I realized that temps were above freezing, and that the snow we had on the ground to this point was going to be melting fast.

I quickly ate breakfast and packed my pack with rain pants, Yaktraxx, safety supplies, food, water, cell phone, camera and snow shoes.  I have been following a recent story from another part of the state where a young female jogger was killed by a pack of wolves.  Between that story and reports of bears up and moving around locally, my own personal safety is becoming more and more of a concern.  I carried these things with me on my hike today and kept them out and accessible:

....but I am becoming increasingly aware of the fact that I need to carry a firearm.  I did some shooting before I came up to Alaska, but do not have a lot of experience with guns and therefore have hesitated to purchase a handgun of my own.  We have a potential buyer for our house down in Tennessee and I was hoping to wait until my Mountain Boy makes it up to Alaska to either give me one of his or to help me buy my own.  But I have decided that if the sale does not pan out, and my Mountain Boy does not make it up here to be with me soon, I will have to make the move and go get squared away with one of my own.

I decided to explore a trail not far from home.  There is a trailhead on my road, but I also found another trailhead to the same trail while biking Out the Road on Glacier Highway last week.  After checking my trail book, I decided to walk down to the furthest entrance (about 3 miles from the house) and walk back on the trail (exiting it on my road).  In total the walk on roads and trails would be about 8 miles or so.

Pictures of my road

Glacier Highway, heading towards the trail.  My pack was fairly heavy, but I did a combination of walking and running on both roads, warmed up quickly and made good time.  The air temp was very mild, and within 10 minutes of leaving the house I was taking off both gloves and my rain shell and stashing them in my pack.  This left me with a base layer and fleece on top, two pairs of tights on bottom and a synthetic hat.  That turned out to be the right combination for both the outside temperature and my activity level.

Once I arrived at the trailhead I read a sign describing the trail.  According to the sign it had rough terrain, and after reading the full description I made the decision to stay on foot and not use the snow shoes.  I thought that there was enough snow, but also thought that if the terrain was rough it would not be conducive to snow shoeing.  And to be honest I was a little spooked about the thought of wolves and bears, and decided that if I ran into problems I would rather be on familiar footing.   

A beautiful snowy bridge just a couple of minutes onto the trail

I realized within 10 minutes on the trail that even if I had wanted to snow shoe I would not have been able to after all, because the snow completely disappeared.  And what was left was a spongy soft moss, fern and pine needle filled trail.  I was surprised that the snow had disappeared, but was not disappointed because I love to walk on these kinds of trails. Compared to the rock hard trails I am used to down south, these trails are wonderful to walk on - very easy on joints that have been beaten up with age, numerous injuries and a lifetime of physical activity. 

Most of this trail was along a ridgeline that followed the coastline, and I had continual opportunities to take pictures of the beautiful water, sky, mountains and islands that were visible.  I also heard the waves almost my entire trip today.  Peaceful.  And I loved it.

Although the trail, for the most part, was in very good shape, there were a couple of times when I actually did lose track of it.  Once I lost the trail for over 5 minutes and fell back on my old adventure racing trick - go back to the last point where you knew where you were.  Like a numbskull I left my compass at home hanging from a hook on a shelf in the livingroom.  Thankfully it did not turn out to be a huge deal, because when I lost the trail I did end up finding it again fairly quickly.  But I should know better.

There were downed trees and holes all over the area along the trail, and I found myself thinking often that these holes would make great places for sleeping bears.  It was a beautiful trail, but I was definately aware of my surroundings.

I am still amazed at how prevalent the moss is in the SE.  It completely covers everything in its path.

The bald eagle tree

For most of the trail I was 100 feet or so above the shoreline.  The trail was fairly technical (lots of up and downs, climbing over downed trees and roots, watching footing as I followed the trail along the ridgeline close to the edge and then further away) - definately more challenging than a couple of trails I have done recently that were fairly flat and wide open.  I loved the challenge.

After being on the trail for about an hour, the trail surprisingly took me down far enough that I could veer off, and easily and safely climb down to the shore.  I stopped for a few minutes to eat, drink and snap some pictures before climbing back up onto the trail. 

Eventually I found my way to this set of stairs.  I was surprised however, that I did not come upon these stairs at either the top or bottom, but actually someplace in the middle, and I had to climb and maneuver myself to get onto them.

I walked down close to the bottom of them to take a few pictures, and then climbed up over 140 stairs to reach the top.  As I got close to the top, I realized that I was not on public stairs - I was walking up and into somebody's back yard.

Hmmmmm.  How'd that happen????  I knocked on the sliding glass window of the house, smiled my nicest smile when the homeowner answered my knock and asked where the heck I was.  Somehow I had missed a turn on the trail only a few hundred yards back, which led directly to the trailhead I was looking for on my road.  I thanked the homeowner for the information, apologized for entering his property and told him that I was heading back to the trail.  He very nicely insisted that I walk around the house to the front, and walk down to the road.  Once I got to the road I realized that I was indeed only a few hundred yards from the trail. 

One last picture taken from the road on the way home

I was an adventure racer for six years. Over those years I have spent more hours than I could possibly even guess training in mountain biking, hiking and trail running.  And over the years I have raced in state parks, conservation areas and national forests in every state in the eastern part of the country.  I could tell you almost nothing about any of what was in those places - focusing on almost nothing but the trail 50 feet in front of me and finding the next check point. 

With my move to Alaska, my physical recovery from a knee injury that sidelined me for a good part of last year, and with untold issues that have left me a little battle-scarred, I was determined to take things a little slower and a little easier when I arrived here.   I have to keep reminding myself to do that.  So far so good.