Sitka - Part 8

Sitka in lights.

Random pictures taken in my travels on foot after dark..........

Sitka - Part 7

The day did not turn out exactly as I had planned.

OK, the day did not turn out anything like I had planned.

When I walked outside this morning the first thing that I realized was that it was much colder out than it had been since my arrival in Sitka.

Next I looked out at the mountains, and saw that many of them were covered in a fresh layer of snow.

The mountain immediately in front of me when I set foot outside of the Hostel this morning.............

After going to a grocery store and buying donuts and coffee to eat and drink I spent about an hour or so walking slowly, taking pictures, taking in what looked like new terrain to me now that all of the mountains were completely covered in light snow.

I had planned on visiting a Russian cemetery and then walking across the bridge and heading towards the airport and the police academy.

I did not make it to any of those places.

I happened upon a trail head in the back hills of Sitka and adjacent to a residential neighborhood.

The trail sign told me that it was called Gavan Hill Trail, and another sign told me that it was two miles to the overlook.

The overlook.

That should have been my first clue that what I thought I was getting myself into was not actually what I was getting myself into...............

The entrance to the trail was very deceiving, and was compounded by the fact that three young women and two friendly dogs as big as small horses came off the trail just as I was planning on heading in to take a little walk.

I called LC to let him know where I was, the trail I was heading onto, and what the terrain looked like.

A little walk to take a few pictures............

An interesting sign that I came across fairly early while still walking on very flat, easy and wide open trail............

I was still walking on a combination of flat gravel trail, flat dirt trail and the wooden plank trails that are so common in Juneau when I took these pictures.

The trail was filled with wide open sky and beautiful small sub-alpine trees, and I loved the sight of wonderful snow covered mountains in the near distance............

After 10 minutes the trail began to close in, and turned almost exclusively into a combination of wood plank trail and wood steps.

I was very pleased to be on trail, and as much as I loved going out to the state park the other day, really loved being out here and feeling like I was truly away from people and truly walking in nature..........

Fifteen minutes later the trail began to climb.

And did nothing but consistently climb for the remainder of my time heading in on the trail.

Somewhere during this time I began to realize that I was not going to be walking on nice and easy and wide open and flat terrain.

Somewhere during this time I recognized what this trail was going to turn into and made an unconscious commitment to stay with it............

First my gloves came off.

Then my hat came off.

Then the jacket came off and got tied around my hips.

Lots and lots and lots of climbing and I was loving the effort........... 

Every once in a while I caught a glimpse of the water or caught a glimpse of.......yes........bright and completely clear blue sky up ahead, and that urged me on.

My heart raced with the continual climbing, and my breathing was labored, but I was loving every minute of the effort and the journey that I had unexpectedly found myself on.

Eventually I climbed high enough that the first signs of snow began to appear on the trail..........

The more I climbed the deeper the snow became.

It was new snow.  Fresh snow.  Fluffy and soft and light and.........new.........

It was somewhere around this point that I got a phone call from my boss.

I missed her call and tried to call her back two or three times but it went straight to voice mail.

I figured that if it was important enough she would call me back, and sure enough someone else from her office called me and we talked for a few minutes while I sat balancing precariously on the end of a root sticking up from the trail.

I was glad she called me because it was about something that I needed to tend to when I got back to work on Friday.

Talk about a change of pace for a moment though............

As I started walking again I was reminded of a similar moment I had on Mt McGinnis Trail in Juneau late last spring.

I had been climbing for a couple of hours straight, and all of a sudden I received a text message from work.

At that very moment I was standing in the middle of a 45 degree ice field high in the mountains wondering whether I had gotten in over my head or not (I had) and was scrambling to try and read the text message (which I couldn't without reading glasses but was trying to anyway).

Ridiculous turned to ridiculouser.........

I had given myself until 12 noon.

That was my drop-dead turn-around time regardless of how far I had travelled.

At 11:50am I arrived at this...........

Was this it???

I had no idea.

There was more trail but I had no idea how much more trail or where it went.

I walked past this little overlook for just another minute to see what was up ahead, and when nothing was apparent aside from a whole lot more trail and a whole lot more snow, I decided that this is where I would turn around.

I walked over the overlook, took in the beautiful view that was visible from this place, brushed snow off the little wooden bench, sat down and called LC to tell him where I was and what I was doing.

I was in a beautiful place.............

The view of the trail I had just climbed..........

The city 2500 feet (I looked it up) below me..............

Between picture taking, heavy breathing, and almost consistent climbing it took me 1 hour and 50 minutes to reach the overlook.

It took me 55 minutes to get back down to the bottom.

On the way up I had seen this trail sign indicating a connector trail that popped out at the high school.

On the way down I took that trail...............

Within a few minutes of taking Cross Trail I was in this.

It felt dark and ominous and claustrophobic and I almost immediately regretted taking the trail...........

But thankfully that trail only lasted for a few more minutes before I hit wide open gravel road.

Wide open gravel road meant civilization was up ahead, and as happy as I had been to get away from civilization I was equally happy to safely find my way back to it...........

A very surprising and completely random find on a rock on the side of the trail.............

Not long after I took this picture the trail that I had been on dead-ended and I had to make the decision whether I wanted to turn left or right onto more wide open gravel road.

No signs to indicate anything.

Great.

I began instinctively to turn right (initially figuring it had to lead SOMEWHERE) when I stopped for a moment to re-evaluate.

Kind of like measure twice and cut once with wood - think twice before making a move in the woods.

And when I stopped I could hear traffic sounds leading from the trail to my left.

Turning left I hit the high school within 10 minutes, then black top, and eventually found my way back to town (coming in from the back side of Swan Lake Park).............

The sign at the trail head said 2 miles to the overlook.  A tourist book I have says three miles to the overlook.

Somewhere in between those two numbers is probably the actual.

As much fun as I had this morning (into afternoon) it is time to fess up.

I did a few things right and a whole lot of things very wrong today in my decision to walk on Gavan Hill Trail.

What I did right:

1.  Called LC to let him know where I was and where I was going, and called him again when I got off the trail and back to civilization

2.  Carried a cell phone

3.  Wore layers of technical clothing that I took off and put back on as needed

4.  Did not get wet (including getting sweaty)

5.  Took my time going up, but even more importantly in slippery conditions took my time coming back down

6.  Found a hard wood stick part way down off the mountain to use as an extra balance point

What I did wrong:

1.  Was undernourished and under-hydrated for such a strenuous climb

2.  Had NOTHING with me in case something went bad - no first aid kit, whistle, compass, head lamp, firearm, bear spray, kabar, extra layers of clothing, food or water

3.  My cell phone had only 3 bars when I went into the woods and was down to 2 bars before I got to the top.  I ended up turning my phone off for the almost-hour it took me to get down just to save the battery

I had a very great time on that mountain.  But I should have known better.  I did know better.

A great, awesome, lucky day.............

One last picture taken of the boat harbor close to town later in the day..............

Sitka - Part 6

Yesterday morning I left the Hostel and decided to walk to Sitka National Historical Park, which is one of the oldest national parks in Alaska.

Rather than describe all of the amazing history that is tied to both the town and to this park, here is a link for more information:

http://www.nps.gov/sitk/index.htm

I had no idea how far of a walk it was to the park, but it did not really matter.

The temperature was mild outside, it was not raining or snowing, and I was greatly looking forward to getting away from town for a while and having the opportunity to perhaps walk on some trails.

I got only a few hundred yards from the end of my road before I felt compelled to stop and look and picture take.

I unexpectedly found this fish hatchery so close to the boat harbor that I have passed many times since my arrival here in Sitka...............

A much larger fish ladder than the ones that I am used to seeing in Juneau..............

I never get tired of discovering new things.

I cannot descrbie how exciting it was when I was an adventure racer to find a little orange and white flag in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the mountains in the middle of the night.

And I cannot describe how exciting it is to walk past a beautiful boat harbor many times a day for five days straight, and then walk only a few hundred yards in the opposite direction and unexpectedly find the scenes I found above.

The spirit of an adventurer..............

Once I walked back to the road I saw the sign for the national park and walked along the road prepared for either a long walk or a short walk, and either one was OK..............

After only another very short while I came across this old and very beat up building.

I read some of the signs on the outside of the building as I was passing by and saw that it was related to the fish hatchery and also contained an aquarium.

The outside of the building was very.........humble.

And although I was curious to see if the building was actually open and actually contained information and exhibits related to fish hatching (?) and aquarium stuff (?) I was much more interested in being outside, walking on trails, communing quietly with nature.

Nature was calling to me.  It was silently screaming at me.

And so I kept walking - away from fish hatcheries and away from Sitka and away from people............

People I know in Juneau wondered aloud before I left to come here, whether I would be bored spending so much time in such a small SE Alaskan fishing town.

Because I have been travelling on foot and therefore moving slowly enough to see and take in EVERYTHING, and because there are so many things to see and feel about this town, I have not been bored for even one moment that I have been here.

Part of the reason is because of this...............

I am not sure if water and mountain and pine tree pictures all look the same to everyone who is reading this blog.

My oldest son Sean down in Tennessee told me that they all look the same to him.

But my child is a young, upwardly mobile, urbanite who does not see what I see when I look at these pictures.

Maybe he will one day when he is older, or maybe they will all still look the same and his interests and passions will continue to be different.

Regardless, the water looks different to me in Sitka compared to Juneau compared to Ketchikan compared to Petersburg compared to Haines.

And so do the mountains and so does the sky..............

A hugely interesting.......something........resting on the rocks by the edge of the water...........

Found on my walk along the side of the road parallelling the water, while heading to the park............

Surprisingly, and somewhat disappointingly, my walk was very short.

There were a couple of vehicles parked in the parking lot, but as I stood outside the Visitors Center trying to decide if I wanted to walk inside first or walk outside on the trail first, I saw no-one around.

The first of many totem poles that I saw yesterday............

I walked inside the empty building, quickly looked around for a moment to get the lay of the place, and then turned to the front desk and spoke to a smiling and very cute park ranger.

He told me that I was welcome to watch a 12 minute video on the history of the battles and eventual Russian conquest of the area, and even though I was the only person in the movie theater I did indeed watch a great movie that helped to put the park, what I was about to see on my walk, and the history of Sitka into context.

Since he was closing the center to go to lunch for an hour I decided to walk on the trails and then make my way back to the Visitors Center after I was through.

With handy-dandy trail map in hand, that I took a cursory look at before shoving into my pocket, I headed onto very open, well groomed and easy-to-walk trails....................

The first thing that I found was a building that housed original totem poles that were in various stages of disrepair, but were now being housed in an effort to preserve them.

I had been told by the way-cute park ranger that all of the totems on the trail were reproductions that were carved and erected during the Depression Era (CCC workers).

These totems on the trail are repaired and repainted on a regular basis...........

The totem poles in this building were of various lengths from approximately 10 feet to approximately 40 or 50 feet, and were only visible through lit cages.

They were all laying sideways and separated on individual stands. 

They were obviously worn, obviously weathered, obviously old, and all absolutely stunningly beautiful.

One small piece of one of the original totem poles............

All of the trails were well maintained and wide open.

Easy and quiet walking on an easy and quiet day.............

Only one bridge in the entire park, and a view of the river.

A river for catching salmon at other times of the year............

A small monument dedicated to Russian sailors that died at this place................

And the view of the water from the Russian monument............

Picture taking and blogging fools take pictures of just about anything.

When I was in Haines I took pictures of some kid and his ratty worn out shoes.

When I am in Sitka I take pictures of..........wood.

There was obviously a lot of tree trimming and cutting and trail maintenance that had taken place recently, and along one trail there were huge amounts of wood that looked just like this.

I saw the artistry in the rings and shot the picture............

And then I found a large rock by the river to sit on for a while...........

Rather than simply following the Totem Pole Trail I (of course) wandered all over the place while I was out there.

I took various trail off-shoots just to see where they led.

Because this is a relatively small park I quickly learned that all the side trails eventually hooked up with the main trails.

I was in absolutely no hurry to be done with my trail walking, and I know that I double backed onto trails very often as I wandered.

I found all kinds of things that ridiculously kept me entertained while I was out there - interesting tree roots, the trailer park that bordered the park, the river, the mountains, the information signs along the way, the odd ravens and eagles that I saw flying from one tree to another, the odd person or young family that walked by, the really funny bulldog who ran up to me and obviously thought that I was funny looking as well because he stood there staring at me curiously for at least two minutes before his owners called him back................

After wandering around for a couple of hours I did eventually and finally happen upon the Totem Pole Trail.

I wanted to see all the totems, but I also knew that once I hit that trail I was heading back towards the Visitors Center, so kept the best for last..........

A very zoomed in picture of the bridge I crossed the other day.........

A view of the city from the shoreline at the park............

Yet more of the many many islands that dot this waterway..........

When I was close to the Visitors Center I came across these young boys with their plastic bags, noisily and happily picking up trash.

There was not a lot to pick up, but it was nice to see them out there anyway, happily and willingly volunteering their time and enjoying the day..........

Some pictures taken inside the Visitors Center.

I did not spend a lot of time there, but greatly enjoyed the colorful displays and exhibits describing both native Alaskan and Russian history in this part of the world...........

After leaving the state park I headed back towards town, and unexpectedly saw this hand painted sign for the first time.

I am going to have to check it out before I leave.............

I spent a lot of time walking yesterday - at the boat harbor close to town, along the water and road heading back and forth to the national park, and on trails while out at the park.

Being outside is when things manage to make a little sense for me.

Being outside on trails, in the woods, on the water in my kayak (and the last time I did that - or rode my bike - was quite a while ago. Why is that???).  And then things make a little sense..............

Yesterday evening I went to the downtown library to listen to a couple tell about their mountain bike adventure.

She was in her mid-50s and he was in his mid-60's and this past summer they spent 2 1/2 months riding the Continental Divide - from Montana to the Mexican border.

About 150 enthusiastic people crowded into a section of the library to hear this very interesting couple share stories and pictures of their wonderful adventure.

It was a great way to spend an hour last night, and I am very glad I was here in Sitka to hear them speak..........

One last picture of a young family and their dog taken out on the beach near the national park.......