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A Fat Old lady Takes Up Climbing |
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| A week ago, I came down to Seward to hike the "Old Jeep Trail", also called "Falls Trail", up Mount Marathon, but the weather didn't cooperate. When the sun came out again, I gave it another try. This time, it was perfect, beautiful, everything you could want from a mountain trail. There were stunning scenes, flowers, birds and squirrels, and a lovely falls at the end of the trail. Some fellow hikers spotted a black bear, but I never saw it. The trail starts out wide and graveled, going up through rainforest. It turns into a narrow footpath, and continues along a stream, progressing through scrub forest, meadows, and some tundra. Most of the collage photos have large versions, and there are some additional scenes linked too. Check the photo links below the collage. |
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More photos from the Falls Trail, Mount Marathon |
| We are having an amazing stretch of warm, dry weather which is unusual in August. I haven't been up to the Hatcher Pass area since the Reed Lakes hike in June. A couple years ago, I climbed Gold Cord Peak in wet weather, which made the rocks slippery. I've been wanting to go back up in better weather. So I emailed a friend who lives out that way and asked her if she and her kids would like to see the world from the top of Gold Cord Peak. Shonti, her son Devon, and I made to to the summit. Her teenage daughter, Kluane and another friend, started out on the trail, but quickly turned back. Except for a haze that limited distant views, it was a wonderful hike. We took our time and enjoyed the experience. There are mining ruins to explore throughout the area. My dog refused to scale the final monolith to the summit, just as he did two years ago. It is quite steep and scary. Devon and Shonti went up it first, while I stayed below to take their picture. (Click to see it.) Then I went up, and took a couple summit view pix. The view north is the panorama in the collage. |
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More photos from Gold Cord Peak, Hatcher Pass |
| There was a heavy haze in the air when I left Anchorage, headed for Hatcher Pass again. It was much worse in the Pass, and had a strong smell of forest fire. Because of the long period of hot, dry weather, this has been the worst wildfire season on record, with more than 5 million acres burned, in several large fires to the north and east. (The fire I photographed from the Steese Highway in June is still burning.) In spite of the smoky air, I decided to hike up to Gold Cord Lake anyway (not far from Gold Cord Peak Trail.) The trail is only about a mile long (one way) with only about 600' elevation gain. The smoke did have me wheezing a bit, but I covered my face with my shirt and made it okay. It is a beautiful lake, surrounded by some late flowers. There were little pikas in the rocks along the trail, but they were shy, and wouldn't let me approach closely. |
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More photos from Gold Cord Peak, Hatcher Pass View of the ridge to Gold Cord Peak, seen from the Lake
trail, through heavy smoke |
| The next day, the heavy smoky haze moved into Anchorage, stinging my eyes and making breathing difficult. I stayed inside and inactive for a couple days. On the 17th, I took off in the evening, headed south to see if conditions were better there. Yup, at least a bit. I camped by the Russian River Fall Trail, and hiked it the next day. This is a 2-mile long trail, basically flat, through beautiful forest, leading to some falls. The whitewater sections were full of red and king salmon. Bears frequently dine here, but we didn't see any. |
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More photos from the Russian River Falls Trail Here's a big version of the Yellow Monkeyflower |
| August's amazing warm, dry weather continues. Records are broken every day-- high temperatures for the date, highest average for the season, greatest number of days above 70ºF, etc. Even with the summer conditions, there was just a tinge of autumn color along the Flattop trail, with very few flowers left, so we know these gorgeous days are numbered. Flattop was a very popular place while we were there, as you can see from the lower picture taken at the summit. |
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