Labor Day dawned nice and sunny, so I decided to hike up Bear Mountain. I have only been up Bear Mountain twice before, once in late June or early July 1995 by way of Beaver Lake up to the summit ridge (but not the summit), and the second time just a little way up beyond the treeline in August 2004.

I borrowed the neighbor’s car to drive to the Beaver Lake trailhead. I wanted to do the Beaver Lake loop while hiking, so I took the slightly longer route along the lake shore to where I planned to leave the trail on the way up I just had a short section of shoreline and the cross-muskeg section to do on the way down. There were quite a few other people that I passed while headed up between 11am and noon, but I came down fairly late and did not see anyone else.

It took me a half an hour to get from the trailhead to where I left the trail. From there, it was about an hour and 15 minutes more to the treeline. I took a pretty good pace, pushing about as fast as I was comfortable with on the steep terrain. I took several short breaks, but tried to limit them to only a couple of minutes. Once I reached the treeline, I slowed down a bit and enjoyed the scenery. It was late enough in the season that there were not that many flowers blooming, so I was not too distracted by them.

I ended up taking roughly the same route as I had in 1995. From about 3500 feet up, things were much different, however. In early summer, the upper elevations were still covered by a single large snowfield. This time there were a few much smaller snow patches, with significant sections of rock and gravel.

It was in these upper sections that I found interesting alpine plants (see also: Bear Mountain Asters, Bear Mountain Saxifrages, and other Bear Mountain flowers). I also saw several tufts of Mountain Goat hair and some Mountain Goat tracks. When I looked down the other side of the ridge, I could saw three Mountain Goats resting on the snow well below me. (See my natural history notes from that day for more observations.)

It took me quite a bit less time getting down, though I do not remember for sure how long. I think it was about 2 hours from the 3500 foot level back to the trailhead, but it might have been a little longer.

Beaver Lake trail was in good condition. Getting up Bear Mountain was steep and fairly muddy in places. Route finding is relatively easy (for a back country route), as there are qiute a few flags marking the way. That said, it’s a very steep and strenuous hike with little more than a game trail to follow. I would not recommend it for those who don’t enjoy that sort of thing.

Last Friday I had about three hours and decided to hike up Mt. Verstovia trail. I had thought about going kayaking, but after seeing some migrating geese, I remembered it was migration and there was a chance of seeing migrating raptors. As it turned out, I did not see much in the way of birds, but it was a good hike, all the same.

I took a steady pace up with only very brief breaks. This allowed me to make Picnic Rock in about 1 hour and 10 minutes without feeling too bad about it. Once there, I spent 45 minutes or so at the top, before heading down. The return trip took a little less than an hour, as I jogged part of the way.

On the way up I passed 6 people (three pairs), but I did not see anyone on the way down.

The trail has held up to this Fall’s rains fairly well so far. The only trail erosion I noticed was above the treeline, and it was not too bad. A couple of information posts have been added, one claims to be at an elevation of 1000 feet .7 miles from Picnic Rock, the other is at Picnic Rock and says the elevation is 2550 feet (which is correct, according to the maps; see photo at top of this entry). The first post is between the first and second viewpoints, and I’m a bit skeptical that the summit is only .7 miles from the first post. I would guess it was at least a mile, and maybe more like a mile and a half, but judging distance on a winding uphill trail can be challenging. I know there was a fine string that someone strung up the trail earlier this summer, I suspect it was for measuring distance, so maybe the .7 miles is accurate and my sense of distance is off.

Connor and Rowan have been saying that they want to hike up of a mountain, and after hearing about 4 and 5 year olds climbing Verstovia, I decided to take them up at least part of way and see how they did. I told them we would not go all the way up, but we would see how they did. When we arrived at the trailhead and had parked our bikes, Connor were ready to start up the trail when Rowan informed me that she was not going to go. She had wanted to go earlier, so I am not sure why she changed her mind, but maybe that’s just the way 4 year olds work sometimes. I finally got her started by telling her there was a surprise for her on the way. That perked up her interested and both Connor and Rowan talked about and tried to guess what it might be as we went.

Perhaps 10 minutes or less up the trail (at a normal pace) there is a small alcove-like place alongside the trail where Goblin Gold moss grows. In one of its forms, the cells reflect light, so in low light conditions, it almost seems to have a greenish glow. Really, it’s more like a reflector on a bicycle or something, but not as concentrated, and certainly not as typical to see. When we reached it, Connor and Rowan did not seem overly impressed, though they did find it interesting.

I had told them about the first view point and thought we might possibly go that far. Connor wanted to, but Rowan seemed to have mixed feelings. She did want to see the view, but it almost seemed like she wanted to go back down just on general principles. I kept her motivated mostly by reminding her about the view and mentioning how big the steps were and how they were probably way too big for her to climb up. She showed me again and again that she could step right up them without any trouble. She also seemed to respond somewhat to the idea that this was practice to get stronger for future hikes when we could go all the way up. The “go pellets” (Hershey’s kisses) seemed to be well received also. Another thing they enjoyed doing on the way up (and again on the way down) was finding the trail marker diamonds on the trees and keeping track of how many we passed.

In the end, we did make it up to the view point. Both kids seemed to think it was fun seeing the town below us. Once we started down, Rowan kept up a steady pace down. We biked back home and by the end, Connor said his legs were getting sore. I think the round trip took us something like three or four hours, but I did not pay close attention. As best I could tell, from the viewpoint back to the bicycles took about 40 minutes. Connor seemed to enjoy the trip, but it was a little less clear what Rowan thought. She talked about wanting to go again and make it to the top of the mountain, but then she also said she didn’t have fun and wasn’t going to go anymore. One of the things that apparently bothered her was that she got a little sweaty.

Connor and Rowan both did very well on the trail. The first section definitely goes up, but until right before the first viewpoint, the dropoffs on the side of the trail do not seem so bad. The fact is, that hiking this trail by myself, I would not think of the trailside dropoffs at all, but I find that as a parent, it’s much easier to imagine my children tripping, falling off the trail, and tumbling down the hillside. Needless to say, that thought is not very comforting, and it was abundantly clear to me that neither Connor nor Rowan shared my concern. That said, they both walked down in a very reasonable manner, even if they were not clinging as tightly to the uphill side of the trail as I might have preferred on occasion (not that I can blame them, as I would not have done it either).

Scott Harris asked me if I wanted to go with him to check out Kamenoi Beach as a possible site for his COASST project observations. So we left Crescent Harbor a little after 9am. It took us a bit less than an hour to make the trip to Crab Bay. There is a mooring buoy located here for those staying at Brent’s Beach Cabin.

From Crab Bay, we followed a set of undeveloped but well used paths through the woods to bypass the drift logs, windthrow, and steep slopes at Kamenoi Point to reach Kamenoi Beach. We just walked to the south end of the beach before making our way back to Crab Bay and the boat.

Some years back, I hiked south along the shoreline for at least a couple of miles and I know others who have hiked at least as far as Fred’s Creek. Between Crab Bay and at least Shoal’s Point to the south, the Kruzof island coastline makes for a relatively easy and interesting backcountry route.

I hiked up Indian River Trail a couple of miles before venturing off the trail to look around in the west valley. It was a great day for hiking, with sunny skies and comfortably warm temperatures.

The trail was in good condition. I imagine the trail will stay pretty nice until the rain and wind that accompany our Fall and Winter storms arrive later this year. Hopefully the work that was done this summer holds up well.

Other observations from hike.

We took a family walk on the Forest and Muskeg and Estuary Life trails yesterday. We parked at Old Sitka walked the two trails and connected the loop by taking the road side path back to the parking lot. It was a nice afternoon walk. Despite threatening clouds, we did not get rained on, and the sun even shown through a little bit. Salmon are moving up the stream, and it was interesting to watch the schools from the bridge directly above them.

Recently I had the opportunity to go on a hike with a group of people from UAS. Although I have been up Mt. Edgecumbe before, it had been several years since I had last made it out that way. That last time I made it over to Fred’s Creek and the trail was in July 2003. Since that time, a new cabin has been built and the lower 4 miles of the trail have been rebuilt, including a new trailhead and bypass. The original trailhead was right behind the Fred’s Creek Forest Service cabin. The new trailhead is down a 50 yards or so from the cabin. I think this trailhead and trailhead bypass was built to allow hikers to avoid disturbing people staying in the cabin.

The last time I was on the trail, the upper part of the trail had been recently rebuilt. I think work was being done that summer, and perhaps the next, on the lower section of the trail. After at least a couple of years, the trail is still in good condition. There was very little mud, despite the fact that much of the trail runs through or along the edge of muskegs. There was one significant bit of trail damage, however. There was no sign of any bridge across the stream bed near the shelter. I am assuming it was washed out, but I suppose it is possible that the bridge was purposely removed. In the summer, the stream is mostly dry, but it obviously gets lots of water at times. With high water, the stream would probably be difficult to cross, though this is unlikely to be an issue for summer hikers. The new three-sided shelter appears to be in good condtion, and someone has rigged up a rope system for hanging food (or deer?) nearby. The signs for the old and new shelters appear to have been switched, however.

Probably 30 or more people started out on the trail, but only a few when all the way to the top. It took about 3 and a half hours for those I was hiking with to make the summit. Unfortunately, the clouds were down on the summit and it started misting to go along with the stiff breeze, so it was quite chilly and we did not spend long up there. I am sure the trip down would have gone about as fast, except I stopped a lot to take pictures.

Other thoughts and photos related to this hike:
Sandhill Crane
Comments and Question about Kruzof Island Flora
Observations from the Day

Along the trail about halfway up.

Trailhead

Old Trailhead

Yesterday was my brother’s last full day in town, and he was interested in doing a backcountry hike in the sisters. On what may end up as the warmest day of the year (the temperature got up to 75 in town), we headed out around 9am to climb the Middle Sister. It took us 4 hours or so to reach the summit. From there we followed the ridge back to the last saddle on the south ridge of the North Sister. From there we made our way down into the valley above Indian River Falls. Along the way, we made some unfortunate choices and had to thrash through some unpleasantness (especially considering our warm weather clothing). We finally made it down to the falls about 3 hours after leaving the ridge top. It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get back to the trailhead from the falls.

Indian River Trail has seen quite a bit of work done to it since I was last at the Falls in early June. The trail is in very good condition. The brush has been cleared all the way to the falls. The trail itself has been fixed up with several small bridges rebuilt, and several sections with river gravel put in to fix up muddy areas.

We passed four people on our way up Indian River Trail, saw three people coming down the Middle Sister, and passed four people on the trail on our way back. I’m sure there were many more on the trail during the day, given the weekend and weather.

My brother and I hiked Harbor Mountain to Gavan Hill today. The weather was decent. It was sunny on the drive up, though that did not really last on the trail. There was no rain and the clouds were mostly up above us, though occasionally we were in them. If anything, the wildflowers were even more abundant along the south slopes of Harbor Mountain then they were 4 weeks ago. Certainly the number of different species in profuse bloom was greater. The mud condtions were pretty good for looking at tracks, and we saw lots of ptarmigan tracks along the trail. My brother also followed a bear trail through the grasses some distance. It appeared to him that a sow and 1 or 2 cubs had crossed the trail and headed down into the Cascade Creek drainage between Harbor Mountain and Gavan Hill.

Trail conditions overall were pretty good. There is no snow on the trail at any point. Someone has put nylon netting on the boardwalks heading up into the bowl on Harbor Mountain. It certainly makes the boards less slippery, but I am guessing it won’t be very durable. Along the ridge between the top of the bowl and Harbor Mountain Ridge trail, there were some very muddy spots. As the trail goes along the south facing slopes of Harbor Mountain, there are sections where the Sitka Alders are growing out into the trail. This is causing people to walk at the opposite edge and widen the trail on the downhill side (where there isn’t much room to widen it). It could probably stand to be brushed out a bit. On the Gavan Hill side, it appeared that someone has trimmed the brush from along side the trail most of the way up. The mud terraces along the trail below the Cross Trail intersection are still in place, and the muddy patches continue to get wider as people seek to avoid the deep mud where the water is backed up.

The trail is in good condition. It looks like the brush has been trimmed back this summer. There is evidence that a bear has been on the trail. We saw several other people also walking the trail while we were on it.