Last Day In Kodiak

I woke up this morning to a downpour. My bike ride in was an adventure, and I had to spend about 10 minutes in the bathroom at work getting mud off of all my clothing. It still amazes me that my bookbag can be splattered with mud just from riding my bike to work. It continued to rain all day until I left, then it stopped.

Today was mostly wrapping things up at work, getting everything printed off for my portfolio and wrapping up projects and things. I did get to make a Remicade IV, which was very expensive. An error would have cost us $2700 on that one. Yikes!

After work I talk with John for a while about hunting, then met Sam and some Kodiak residents down at the brewery for some goodbyes. Then Sam and I got Subway and I returned one of my bikes. Walking back the sun finally came out, as if bidding me farewell from this rugged island.

These are Wes's favorite flowers, which are planted at the neighbor's house:

A Surprise Adventure

Work is winding down a bit. We called a pharmacy staff meeting over lunch; John bought us all lunch and I gave my final case presentation. I'm going to miss the people but I won't miss the bike ride :-)

So originally I was going to take Katie up Three Sisters today, but then she couldn't go, so my game plan was to do some errands and maybe walk around Near Island a bit. At 5:00, however, Josh (one of the hiking guides from the weekend Audubon hikes) texted me to see if we were still doing Three Sisters (I had given him our schedule of planned hikes in case he wanted to go on one.) So even though it was just us he wanted to go, so we did. When we got up there he drove past the trailhead I had used last time and said that we were using a secret trail which goes around the mountain (the North Sister) up to the saddle between the North and Middle Sister. I thought this was very cool. Indeed it was one of the most beautiful hikes yet. We hiked up a stream which magically turned into a hunting trail fifty yards up. How ridiculous.

But what truly was ridiculous was the prominent ridge lines of mountains stretching out before us, their sharp peaks lining up so you could just about walk across them if you were proficient at tight roping. We glassed two deer during this hike, including one that was bedded down 400 feet below us on the way down. We also talked a good deal about deer hunting on the island. Once on the saddle btn the two mountains, we hiked up the Middle sister in 10 minutes just so I could say I got another peak. The is the really rocky looking mountain in my pictures. The view of the Ocean and the bays behind the green-soaked mountains is hard to describe and impossible to capture in photos. I gave up trying after realizing that the only way to really see how beautiful it is, is to go there and look at it with your own eyes, which makes it that much more special.
After hiking down from Middle Sister, we hiked up the North Sister from the back (West) side. Josh bet that we could do it in 15 minutes since we did the other in 10. Then he starts blazing up this mountain. It was not small or gradual either. So for the first time I start to feel I need to slow down for sake of jelly-legs and deep breathing. I do just enough to give him about a 30 foot lead, but and the end am not too far behind him, though I am huffing and puffing pretty hard. He gives me a high five and says, not bad, 11 minutes. Completely uncalled for.
On the way down, one more adventure to cross off my list. My left boot had a malfunction. The whole sole came off, probably from all the sideways cutting I've been doing to get down these mountains, but none the less, it was inconvenient. But we made it down by 9:30. I'm guessing between 4 and 5 miles in 3 hours, including some extended scenery gazing. But some of those miles were pretty intense. What an awesome night.

The Pyramid Challenge - Accomplished!

Today I hiked the final mountain on my list: Pyramid! Katie and Esther joined me for this excursion into the unknown. It started out uneventful enough. The description from the trail guide was correct: it was in fact, a heart-pumper. You come to expect that on Kodiak though. I had a blast hitting the peak with Katie, and watching the two ladies ski on the ice flows on their butts at high speeds. Also testing out bear spray (you never know when you might see one :-)) and eating chocolate was fun. The area was beautiful and I saw some mountain ranges I've never seen before. It's gonna be another late night though, and we're taking tomorrow off of mountain hiking. I've only got a few days left here! I'm sad because I've made some amazing friends here. Work was fun as well.. the Pharmacy Tech
who has been gone for a few weeks came back and I have had a great couple of days getting to know Margie and appreciate her sense of humor. I'm also getting lots of Vancomycin practice, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on how you look at it. Time to relax so I can get some sleep. I thank God He led me safely down another mountain today. It was a beautiful trip.

Anton Larson Bay

So starts my last week in Kodiak! I took a couple days off this weekend to rest and recover from the breakneck pace that I've been setting, and to prepare for the breakneck pace I'm planning on keeping for this coming week! Today Kathy, a nurse from work, took a couple of us out to Anton Larson Bay to see the area and walk a trail or two. It was pretty, even though the clouds were creeping a bit. The drive was also nice, as you could see many of the mountains I have hiked from different sides as we headed towards another part of the island.

Another Alaskan Adventure

This AAA was quite the adventure. After work I decided to test out my new bike by riding out to Monashka and having another go at the mountain. This time solo. It was hard finding the right trail to go the the mountain, but after some backtracking I finally found the lake that shows that you are there. I named it Beaver lake because something has been chewing all the trees down. Anyways then I got to start the climb. Pretty steep, but well worth it. It was clouding up, or else the view would have been one of the best I've seen yet, but it was still a great view.

As usual you could see all the whole mountain range from the top, though this time it was of the north side of the island. You could see Three Sisters which I hiked last weekend and the wind turbines on Pillar which is above my house. You could get a great view of the ocean from up here as well, which includes Termination Point, the northermost point you can access on the normal road system.

The way down was turbulent. It started raining and getting dark, so I had some trouble finding the correct trail to take me back where I wanted to go. After a couple of false trails, which led me down thick hills on nasty little bear-trails, I backtracked and found the right one. Seeing Beaver Lake was a joy as I knew I was within a mile of the parking lot. I was way more tired than I thought I'd be though, so I took the next day off, putting off hiking Sheritan Mtn and Pyramid Mtn until a later time.

A Hidden Blessing

Yesterday I had a plan. I was going to hike my third high level difficulty mountain in three days just because it was nice. I thought it would be so cool. Unfortunately it was not meant to be. I got off of work early, and as I left my bike tire started to rub on something. Ends up something on the wheel assembly (my bike isn't really a high quality job) was not holding up to all my riding, and the wheel had starting rubbing up against the actually frame of the bike! Rubbing so hard, in fact, that the wheel was bent and warped like it had been run over. So long story short, I ended up getting a new frame for my wheel just so that I wouldn't return it in crumbled shape to the lady I borrowed it from. Well today I took it on a test run and guess what? I couldn't get it to stay tight and it started rubbing again. I had to walk my bike home and didn't get to go hiking again. So today was looking to be chalked up as a bad one.

On a side note, I met a cheerful lady at the community picnic sunday, who I had told about the canned/pickled salmon I had been given by someone on a hike last week. She had become incredibly excited and told me she would exchange me two cans of salmonberry jam for my two jars of pickled salmon. I had tried the salmon last night and realized it was not for me. So after my bike fiasco today, I sat with an unridable bike in my driveway and lots of things I still wanted to do the rest of the week. Then I realized I had forgotten my canned salmon. So I called up Eleanor and told her she could have it. She drove over and gave me a can of blackberry current and a can of blackberry/salmonberry jam. Then I asked her if she knew anyone who would let me borrow a bike for a week. She called two friends and within 20 minutes I was riding a replacement bike home from a really nice guy with an Australian accent. When I picked it up, he gave Eleanor rhubarb and a bottle of wine and she gave him the rest of her jam. Such is the barter system I've decided is used for everything in Kodiak. Hence my trip has been salvaged, and I've met some more friends who among the most generous people I know. The day has in fact not been wasted, and can hardly be considered a waste.

The Big One

Today I hiked Barometer Mountain after work. To my knowledge, it's the toughest climb of any of the mountains that are accessible by the road system. My new friend Sam took myself and Pam from work down in his van. Pam is leaving this weekend, so she really wanted to get this hike in, and it was a great day for it. Unfortunately, one of the first things you learn trying to hike trails in Kodiak is that you should bring an experienced guide with you so that you can FIND the trails. They are rarely marked and even with my map they can be hard to spot. We wasted an hour on the bottom of the mountain trying to find the trailhead to take us to the ridgeline. Finally Sam called someone who told us where to go and we started our ascent.

I thought yesterday was a steep hike, but this one took the cake. It was a CLIMB. I actually used hands and feet on this one, though it wasn't really dangerous. The directory says only attempt it if you are very sure-footed and it is a nice summer day. After some serious calf-burning we made it to the top, where a family of Ptarmigan was waiting for us. There was also a cross from a kid who I believe fell from the peak last year and died. We found a jar with a journal of hikers and we all signed it. Thankfully I brought a dry shirt which I changed into before we went down. I'm running out of mountains, but I think I'll take a day off after this one :-)