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| Sunset, with a sillhouted Mt. Edgecumbe, from our driveway |
Sometimes if can be hard to be excited about the arrival of Fall in Southeast Alaska. Fall weather typically brings more rain, high winds, the dreaded high wind/downpour combo, and darkness due to the ever decreasing daylight. Not surprisingly, I do not look forward to the arrival of these things, but Fall does bring its fair share of beauty, too, which is worth mentioning (and remembering!). For instance, we now get to enjoy sunrises and sunsets again because they happen during normal waking hours! The weather may be dark and dreary often, but sunsets like the one above add much needed color to our lives!
In contrast to the colors of the sunsets, we have the beauty of our mountains transformed from green to their monochrome white and black. Enshrouded in their blanket of white, the mountains are possibly even more beautiful than their summer versions. Sunshine shimmering and sparkling off white peaks with a deep blue sky overhead is a hard view to top.
Now, onto the exciting part of the post: our adventures in this fall landscape. A pen switch to Ben who has written about a couple of our recent hikes.
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| Looking towards the highest peak on the island while trekking up to Bear Lake |
Fall came and went in Sitka. It could be the
arrival of the school year, but fall seems to vanish before we can even get our
feet under ourselves. Thankfully though, fall passed with decent weather.
Decent, of course, is a relative term for Sitkans. But, the nicest weather seemed
to come on the weekends, which gave us prime opportunities to go do what we
love most- explore the wilderness around Sitka- Wunderbar!
Stating fall has passed seems like false
advertising. Fall, or really the weather that represents the time of year
known as fall, could be and usually does come with any season in Sitka.
Rainy, wet, and cloudy could be any day of the year and November is no
different in Sitka.
Now that November is fading away as fast as the sun is, the wet,
cool days are still hanging around. But, after this upcoming Thanksgiving
weekend, fall will officially feel over. We hope the weather will agree with
this idea and bring consistently colder weather. Snow in the mountains, a
frozen Swan Lake, and cross-country skiing on the cross trail- now that sounds
like winter.
We both have been busy working and keeping our
new home in order. We have a kayak rack outside the garage now in hopes to be
able to store one of our vehicles in the garage throughout the winter. Emily
has been working, staying busy, and subbing at nearly all the secondary schools
on the island. I continue to teach and work as the Student Government advisor.
Add Chena into the mix and we are keeping with a healthy, busy schedule.
With the approach of a hopeful winter, we have
started to prepare for our winter adventures. Adventures in the winter become
limited and harder to come by. The days are short, the mountain ridges are
windy and cold, and the snow makes for a slower ascent. But, with limited snow
this time of year, we can access the alpine in the same amount of time as it
takes in the summer, making our trips seem reasonable.
Recently, we decided to visit the alpine of Bear
Mountain. The mountain is a beastly one and trekking up it in the winter is
difficult. Thus, we thought spending a few weekends exploring the two sides of
the girthy mountain could give us good insight to the mountain alpines this
time of year.
Taking into consideration the snow depth and level, we opted for hiking the
far side of the mountain first. Our destination was Bear Lake, a
high alpine lake fed by mountain rain and snow. The trail meanders through the
forest and you eventually pop out into a low sub-alpine terrain. Since you come
out of the trees earlier than some of the other comparable hikes, we could
enjoy the gifts of being above tree line for an extended amount of time, which
was definitely desirable on the day we went. The clear blue skies filled the surrounding
area; consequently, we had to put SUNSCREEN on to protect our sun-deprived
skin.
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Break spot on way up
It had not been cold enough for the lake to freeze, so we enjoyed
the open waters of the lake with a layer of white snow and ubiquitous blue sky
above. The combination of it all led to nearly perfect reflections off of the
lake.
The hike also allows you to peer into the island’s mountain spine,
or high rocky mountain line, which separates the island. The spine of the
island is filled with rocky, snowy slopes of mountains. Many of the rocky
mountains were visible from our lunch spot by the lake.
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Erin and Ben, arriving at Bear Lake for a quick lunch--with limited daylight now, there's not much rest time!
  As the terrain goes up and inward, away from the sea, the presence
of winter is more evident. We marveled in the wintery scene and were reminded
of what still can be accomplished in winter’s grasp even with the short amount
of daylight.
Not being totally satisfied with only seeing a portion of Bear
Mountain, we explored the opposite end of the mountain the following weekend.
The forest lasts for a significantly longer amount of time compared to the
other side of the mountain. The trees terminate near the base of a bowl that
funnels down from the peak. Being relatively close to the summit, we hiked our
way upwards to the rocky ridge that leads to a precipitous pitch, which finally
leads to the summit.
As we trudged and posted through the crusty snow that laid on the
slope facing the low-lining sun, we came closer to the desired ridge. Sweat
dripping down our faces and backs, we appropriately took a break. Chena, our adventure seeking pup, stood next to me in alert
position. In a moment, she dashed on the snowfield that separated the ridge we
were on and the final hillside before the summit. Her ambitious leap and
following haul up the steep slope in snow convinced me that she desired
something on the far hillside.
I scanned the hillside and saw nothing. I looked again as Chena
continued to gallop upwards, when all of a sudden, a movement caught my eye. I
watched for a moment and saw two goats scampering up the hillside. I turned to
Em, and Matt and Jessica, two of our adventure friends accompanying the trip.
“Goats, Goats” I yelped in attempts to not be too loud and scare
them off. Realizing my caution to not scare them made me consider our
approaching pooch.
“Chena, Far enough!” I yelled. Chena seemed conscious of my
request, but the desire for chasing big, white, fluffy goats outweighed her
reasoning. We are still working on that.
“Chena!” I raised my voice and brought out my scolding teacher
look, “Chena, far enough!” This time it seemed to work. She got within 50 feet
from the goats until finally aborting her attempts.
As Emily arrived, her 20/20 vision came into play. She noticed
more goats scampering along the hillside, slowly moving towards the desired ridge
of ours. We stared into the white hillside trying to decipher how many goats
were there. By final count, we counted and could see twelve goats at once.
The goats were aware of our presence but slowly, and one-by-one,
walked the ridgeline directly to the peak. From our angle, we saw the goats
walking the ridgeline with clear, Omak (reference Mary Ann will enjoy) blue
behind them- a nearly quintessential mountain goat image. Our images could not
grasp the true beauty of the scene.
We found our way to the ridgeline and saw the twelve goats
circling and standing on the peak of the mountain. We decided to leave the peak
for the goats, they deserved it. Sometimes being a part of nature is better
than any summit. We enjoyed our lunch on the razorback ridge and descended
down, leaving the goats behind.
Thanksgiving is around the corner, which the Buck parents will be
joining us for. We are excited to host and show them our new home for the first
time. And with Thanksgiving nearly here, an indicator for the real overtake of winter, it is
exciting to think of the future adventures Sitka has in store for
us, as long as we take the time to explore.
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