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Published: October 21st 2008
Peak Two
From the Backside of Flat TopThe talk of this summer is the continuously cold weather, overcast and rain. The few days when the sun breaks through the clouds and pours onto the pale skin of scattering ants, people flood the parks, the trails, the water ways, and highways.
After a long winter of an average 5 degrees and 2 feet of snow, the thick overcast, as far as I am concerned, is greeted just as warmly as any other summer day would be in Tennessee (maybe even more so without the extreme humidity and unbearable waves of heat). After I have done my time in the office, I keenly escape into the outdoors with a light sweater. The ambitious sense of adventure has died down and left me with a true appreciation for spending my time as I feel most valuable. I have accepted that there is no quota to fill and I spend my time doing what I find to be the most rewarding for myself.
HIKKING AND FRISBEE I started the summer by turning down the invitation to play soccer with the Ninja Pirates for a third season and joined a weekly hiking group. We have done a
Suicide peaks
Rabbit Lake at the end of the trail. few extremely intense hikes and my stamina has been increasing as I realize that maybe the Smokey’s are simply rolling hills compared to these beasts of loose rock, steep cliff sides, and snow glissades. Our first hike, which was in the beginning of May, was up Flat Top. There was still so much snow that we were able slide down the side of this mountain. The following two hikes we went up Peak Three, where we also slid down. I have climbed 4,000 feet in a simple afternoon after work (Bird Ridge) and walked out to Rabbit Lake, which is overlooked by the Suicide Peaks--the lake was still frozen at the end of June. Through the rest of the summer we did Wolverine, Flat top at least 3 times with the group, Peak Three a second and third time, Big O’Malley, Rabbit Lake again to see the lake unfrozen, and a few others. I decided that we wanted to hike more than once a week and with either Julie or Sonia and have done flat top at least 6 more times, and Peak 2 (we didn’t venture too far because of bears). I suppose I should clarify that in Alaska
if you are not climbing a mountain, it isn’t considered hiking. All of these Hikes are Mountains; some of them are mountains on top of mountains. Another group plays Ultimate Frisbee a few times a week. I have really started to enjoy this and wondere why I never tried it in college.
DIP NET FISHING Dave Nicolai, a soccer buddy of mine, and his dad Matt Nicolai took me down to the Kenai Peninsula to Dip-net fish. There we met up with two of his dad’s friends. We left at 3 am that morning to catch the first run of salmon at low tide at 6 am. We drove across the sand, along the shore to a commune of cars, tents and four-wheelers set up across the beach. We parked right where the Cook Inlet met the Kenai River. Men stood in the low tide wearing chest waders. Their large nets with festive colored floats were extended several feet farther into the water as they slowly walked against the tide’s pulling current. An “emergency” commercial fishing day was declared and boats began to leave the river and enter the sea. Dave informed me that when
Lunch Break
Matthew and Dave bringing in the nets one of their walls of nets were in place, the likelihood of us catching anything was close to zero. There was a looming understanding of frustration in the air between fishermen.
I sat on a folding chair in a bed of rocks, sea shells, and black coal. Dave actually had to carry me across the mud flats to where they were fishing because I only wore knee high boots and the tide was too high. Since I am not yet a resident, I am not allowed to dip-net fish. However, I was assigned the task of “bonking” the fish on the head once they were caught. So, I sat relaxed, bundled with layers in the sun in my folding chair waiting for a chance to fulfill my purpose. The day turned out to be one of the few nice days we have seen (still below 60 f). It was even clear enough to see the opposite side of the mountains on the Cook Inlet. The smell of the ocean and the steady pace of the wading fishermen made the day a quite relaxing one. Gulls swarmed like vultures as fisherman cleaned their catch. They bickered over heads and squealed
over fins. Every now and then a Bald Eagle would fly gently over head.
We left with three salmon, two reds and a pink. That night we had them for dinner.
CAMPING Julie Cook, my hiking buddy, and I took the long weekend over the fourth of July to go up to Rolly Lake and camp. We got a late start and ended up having to settle for the over flow site (the joys of 40 hour work weeks). There is nothing like enjoying nature next to an RV larger than your apartment with a 24 hour generator that sounds like the engine of a small float plane. The first night we set our tent up in the rain. Then, we played cards in our tiny, two person tent until we were tired enough to sleep. The next day greeted us with beating sunlight and we spent the entirety of the day on the lake in our two person blow up raft. We both got sun burned and the 76 degree weather felt so intense to us that we actually went for a nice swim in Rolly Lake. We laid in the grass and soaked in
Campsite
Our sweet set up. the rare sunlight and fell asleep to the hum of swarming misquotes.
That night we had a raging fire that barely lit our faces alongside the consuming sun that stubbornly didn’t begin to fall until around 1:30am. The next morning we took a trail hike through root beds, rolling hills, and shrubbery to another nearby lake. It was so warm that by the time we got there I just wanted to jump in. After that we sat on a bear box and watched people canoe by while float planes passed overhead. On the trail returning back, a herd of tourists were close behind us with bear bells…a clearly useless tool for tourists in general, since they do in fact move in herds and carry enough sound on their own to scare off bears. Those bells are just another one of the treasures that allows you to enjoy the serenity of your “natural” environment, and they’re completely necessary on the camp’s only trail during the most trafficked weekend of the year. The little time we were at the camp site was spent cooking reindeer sausages and smores, reading novels, and relaxing in the sun.
It poured Sunday night and
Hikking at Rolly Lake
We took a trail out to another lake for a dip. I woke up completely soaked in my bag at about 6 am. I pretty much just rolled over and went back to sleep, what else could I have done? It was actually quite refreshing on the sunburn. We woke up a few hours later and packed up our things. The hum of a busy work weeks was calling us home.
Bike Fest:
In the middle of the summer, I joined a friend of mine and about 20 other spirited young and old individuals for Bike Fest. The yearly event includes about 30 miles of interconnecting, Anchorage trails, 5 bars, and 9 hours of a Sunday.
I also spent a lot of time cruising the trails in Anchorage with my bike on my own.
Over the Summer I was able to travel out to several Alaskan Communities. I will post separate blogs for each of these. Leave me a comment!
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Jeff Shattuck
non-member comment
Bear Bells
I have never heard of bear bells. Sounds a little like Hell's Bells. It was not clear to me if they are actually needed or just a tourist thing.