Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Fall Beauty







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. 
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.

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.


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.  


Ben, Jessica, and Matt 
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.

Stopping to look at the mountain goats

Mountain goats on the peak of Bear Mountain

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.
Emily and Chena enjoying lunch on the razorback ridge
Clark family

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.    







































































No comments:

Post a Comment