Exploring God's Creation and a BEAR!

Today was the perfect day, the kind that makes one fear he may fall in love with Alaska. Blue skies and sunshine for the entire day: almost unheard of until today. Highs rose to around 70 and the sun is still blazing forth as I write this at 9pm. I started my day out by listening to last week's sermon from LCCN on Consumerism. Walking down the the Visitor's Center for today's big hike (6 mile roundtrip but a 4/5 on difficulty), I realized I was the only one who showed up besides Josh, the guide. He also informed me that he had to go to work at 1, so would be leaving early. Seeing as the trailhead was 12 miles outside of town, I suggested we throw my bike in his truck so I could go the rest of the way up after he had to leave, then endure the ride home on such a majestic day. Arriving at the trailhead, we did meet a girl named Jessica, who was waiting to go hiking with us, as well as 3 middle aged folks from Kodiak who were hiking to the top on their own.

The mountain was Kasheveroff. It made you feel like you were really hiking in Alaska. It was a fairly steep vertical trek. Jessica, Josh and I took the lead and blazed up to the 2 mile mark in about an hour, which was almost all uphill. The view was amazing, but our guide had to leave, so we bid him goodbye and waited for the other group to catch up. When they did, we took the final road to the top. Most of the way it was a 4-wheeler trail, which then turned into a stream trail which turned into a large slope of snow, which gave way to a rocky slope to finally reach the summit. All around the view was amazing from the top, revealing a wide open landscape full of vegetation and snowy mountain crags. Alaska is truly beautiful, but it is a really harsh type of beauty. You feel as though you don't belong there, but as a visitor you can be inspired and amazed by God's creation. It is motivating and refreshing, but when you are done soaking it all in, you realize that you still have work to do elsewhere, and you can't sit up here and spoil yourself with this glory forever.































From the top you could look around and see all the highest ranges from that side of the island, as well as all of the towns and bays. With binoculars I could see my house 12 miles away. It was getting late, however, and I wanted to get to a nearby coffee shop/sandwich place called Java Flats before 3pm when they close. We started the descent and went about 3 times as quickly as we did going up. Jessica and I were down in front because she also had to be at work by 3. She was a college senior who is working at the Marine Research Center on Kodiak for 2 months on a scholarship studying Blue Crab behavior. We were just walking along and talking when I heard her scream. I looked up just in time to see a juvenile Kodiak Bear about 30 feet in front of us on the trail. A young bear, but not young enough to be with it's mother (thankfully), it still reached about six feet while standing on two feet (according to Jess). I only looked up in enough time to see it bounding down the trail on all fours and hop into the weeds to disappear. My heart was racing because they are much bigger and more rugged than you would think and we knew we were in its territory. We talked in loud voices and waited for the rest of the group to catch up before we made it down to the parking lot (only about 300 feet away from the bear spot). After the hike I still had 12 miles to ride to get back to town, but it was a beautiful day, so I didn't mind too much.

I stopped at a place called Java Flats a mile from the trailhead. I had heard good things so I went in. The coffee shop had everything, and everything looked amazing. It is one of those places I could see myself going every single day, if it wasn't 10 miles away. A ranch burger on Jalapeno Cheese Bagel with Watermelon iced tea hit the spot for some reason. The peanut butter hot chocolate and home brew coffee also looked (and smelled) amazing. Prices weren't bad either. The 10 miles back were pleasant and gorgeous. I stopped at a couple of rivers to see if the salmon were running yet. Word has it pink salmon will be filling these streams up in a week or so. Fishing for them is not to get them to bite, but rather to try to snag the hook into their mouths, but they will be in so incredibly thick that I may even try my luck. I think this ride is where I got my terrible lobster sunburn today :-)

After resting at home for a few, I just could not get over how nice the day was. Ignoring a blister the size of Sarah Palin's house, I got Taco Bell and rode another 5 miles up to Fort Abercrombie, an old Defense post on the coast, built in WWII in response to the Japanese threat. They had 8mm guns and bunkers, which were cool, but nothing compared to the majesty of the ocean and rugged rock formations jutting out into the sparkling water. A couple of free spotting scopes are on the coast for bird and whale watching. What a neat place. I took lots of pictures, and hiked another mile or two, then rode my bike back to the B&B. That makes almost 12 hours of exploring today. I'm pooped. But it was worth it.