Heitman Mountain

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. That's what I tell myself when we're in the midst of a particularly hairy incline on the trail of one of our mountain hikes. 

Or when the gradual, ever-upward path hasn't given me a break in the relentless ascent department.  As I plod along at my slower than slow pace, I just have to keep reminding myself this is good for me.

Because it is.  Good to get outside in the sunshine.  Good to get your body moving and get some exercise.  Good to get the pup out and having fun.  But God damn if it's not a challenge getting to the top every time! 

Which again...is good for me.  And truth be told?  I love it.  Even when I'm inevitably questioning my decision to climb whatever hellacious summit we've committed to for that day...I still love it.

Last weekend we hiked part of Heitman Mountain.  A mere 2,241 ft mountain at it's highest peak, but we only climbed to the first peak - which isn't quite as tall.  High enough, though!

As we were heading out to the trail head, we saw our first Kodiak bears fishing off the side of the road.  It only took a year! 

They were splashing around and putting on a good show for all the folks who had stopped and parked their cars to get out and gawk. It was a cool start to our day.

Our first Kodiak Bear sighting - Three big muthahs!

There were some boggy, mucky parts on the way up, so I had my share of stepping ankle deep into mud. At one point, Cheety accidentally face planted in a pretty sizable mud pit & managed to completely immerse himself in muddy goodness from neck to feet.

We had our share of mud!

You should have seen him struggling to free himself from the muck!  Just imagine a fantastic shloop sound as he pulled himself out & you'll get the right visual.  It was filthy & I'm 90% sure it was the highlight of his day.  Well, it was either the mud, or the incessant rolling in questionable things.  It was a good Pugbull day.

What's unique about the Heitman hike is that the trail circles around a lake, so as you're trekking through the dense, high grasses and alder, you'll see the lake on one side and the bays on the other.

Heitman Lake

The lake is about a mile and a half into the hike, and the trail basically hugs the perimeter of the lake.   As with every hike we've done, it's a pretty commanding view of Kodiak once you get up to the top.  This is only about the halfway point:

That's Base Kodiak and the airport behind me

And I have to share this picture of the men because I'm in love with it:

Those are some happy faces

Mountain Dog

One of my goals for September is to finally conquer one of the highest mountains on Kodiak.  The intimidating Barometer Mountain, which sits outside my bedroom window.  Mocking me.

Barometer Mountain

It's about a 2,500 ft elevation gain, and it's my white whale.  Alright, that's a little much - I'm not obsessed, but I definitely want to be able to look at that bad boy and say I've hiked it.  

I fully expect to be chanting my mantra the entire time when we finally tackle it.  Just keep putting one foot in front of the other...

Ta-ta for now.

2,241 ft

2,241 ft

These Ain't No Fozzies...

Early morning with the sea planes - I love this shot

It's hard to even explain what an unbelievable day we had last weekend.  It was National Geographic live, right in front of our faces.  We booked a tour on a seaplane to go check out the Brown Bears we live in such close proximity to, but somehow still haven't seen in person yet.

I asked for some recommendations from  local friends, and Sea Hawk Air was the suggested company to go with, so we paid our arm and a leg, booked our day & off we went.

What an experience.  Well worth the scratch!  We ended up flying over to Katmai National Park & Preserve, which is about an hour flight across the Shelikof Strait to mainland Alaska.

 We flew over Kodiak, past the village of Port Lions, & over the notoriously treacherous Shelikof to Katmai National Park
 Photo credit: Karl Musser [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons 

Our flight was smooth, and the weather was perfect. - Clear, sunny, and about sixty degrees.  The scenery was absolutely stunning.  You'll have to forgive my picture overload in this post.  There was just so much beauty and I'm compelled to share.  Case in point...

June is the greenest month, so there was no shortage of vibrant, emerald mountains to gawk at as we cruised along at about 1,500 feet.  We zipped around at a pretty low altitude on the trip over, so the terrain and wildlife were easy to check out.

Gotta love Pilot Willie

I'd never flown on a sea plane before - what a big difference from a regular plane!  The take offs and landings were so smooth, you hardly even knew it was happening.  I'm sure the calm water and clear weather helped there.  That and our fabulous pilot, Willie.

Willie was great - personable and very knowledgeable about the geography we flew over, history of the area, and animals we saw.  And how can you not like a guy who essentially lives off the land in the remote Alaskan bush AND has a walrus mustache?  Classic, crusty old Alaskan dude.

On the flight over, we flew really close to the mountains. I'll just say I was only a teensy bit aware of how damn close we were to them.  And by teensy bit I mean slightly freaked out as I watched the wing seemingly skim by each ridge we passed.  The mountain goats we saw teetering along the edges of the cliffs helped distract me from how near we were to them.

Hubby had the front

I don't know how they don't fall - they stand so casually on the steepest ledges.  I'm thinking clumsy and mountain goat don't go together very well.

We had four other folks on the flight with us. - A couple from Nome and their parents/in-laws who were from Vancouver, Washington.  They were all taking a vacation in Kodiak for the week.

The plane was a de Havilland Beaver, and fit all 7 of us pretty snugly. It's known as a bush plane, used pretty often up here in the sticks. 

The de Havilland and our trusty pilot, Willie

We tooled around looking for bears from the air & landed in our first cove, called Geographic Harbor, once we spotted a few.  It was surreal to be as close as we were to these enormous beasts.  We're talking only 50 feet away at some points.  It was freaking cool.

Pooh bear?  Ummm....no!

We motored around within the coves and took off and landed a few times around the area, too.  At the end of the day, we saw somewhere around 25 bears both from the air and when we were down on the ground walking around in our sexy hip waders.  We rocked the hip waders.

My handsome hubby.  He makes redneck look good.  ;)

At one point, one of the seven or so bears we were watching wandered so close to us, I was able to get some pretty remarkable close up shots.  It was both exhilarating and unnerving to be right there with him.  How about this mother:

This is my favorite shot from the almost 200 pictures I took. - I love that he's looking at me

We were so close to him, we could hear his teeth crunching on
the clam shells he was digging up & eating. - It was remarkable & again a little unnerving.

We also had the opportunity to check out a momma and her cub running along the beach & digging for clams.  The cub was adorable, and kept standing on his hind legs and falling over onto his back.  We couldn't get that close to them, but I was able to grab a few shots with my soon to be replaced, not powerful enough for Alaska zoom lense:

I love the one on the left where he's sitting up watching his momma dig for clams

It's not easy to get across what an incredible experience it was to be in such close proximity to these wild, massive animals in their own habitat.   Instead of fumbling around trying to describe it, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

She was a pretty one

Check out that claw

Taking a drink

This is one that will go down in the lifetime memory book...and if any of you ever make it up to Alaska - cough up the dough for this one.  It's way worth it.

Ta-ta for now.

It was so pristine and peaceful.  Sweet ride - Could be an ad for de Havilland!

Be Bear Aware!

When we arrived in Kodiak, I noticed pretty quickly some of the differences between living up here and living in the lower 48.  Ya like that?  I'm already busting out with "the lower 48" like I can even say that with any authority.  But, one thing that stood out is the whole dumpster situation.  For one thing, they have locks on them up here.  

Locks on a dumpster?  Yep.  To keep the bears out.  Some of the locks are on the intricate side.  I'm not saying they have combinations or anything - a la high school gym lockers - but there are definitely some that have an "insert this pin in this groove and turn" type of scenarios.  It makes me imagine the bears having strategy sessions to figure out how to crack the code to the forbidden food source.  

What I think is funny, and consequently started snapping some pictures of as I discovered different versions, is the inevitable "Be Bear Aware" signs on all of the dumpsters.  They crack me up.  Some of them are very serious, like pretty much every one I've seen on the base.  Case in point:

Be Bear Aware, dammit!

 It's stark, no nonsense, and to the point.  Just the fact that they use the word "refuse" makes me chuckle.  It's just so military.  I laugh now, but I'm sure I won't be laughing if I ever have an encounter of the bear kind at some point.  But, I can't say they didn't have a sign to warn me.

As we bee-bopped around the island, I started to notice that some of the other dumpsters in town had signs too, but they were much more entertaining.  And almost whimsical compared to the strictly informative and deadly serious ones I'd become used to on the base.  I think this one is my favorite:

C'mon, you've got to love this one.  It's like the trash is his crack, and the bear NEEDS a fix.  Look at his eyes. - He's completely on the edge and the only way down is through the illicit garbage.  If his bear-parents aren't careful, he's going to steal the flat screen and sell it on the street to feed his taboo habit.

I like the cartoons because they're more light-hearted than the "words only, no pictures" variety.  Still gets the message across, but with a little more flair.  Kind of takes your mind off the fact that there's a real potential for an encounter.  Who wants to fixate on the probability of severe bodily injury - or at the very least - getting the crap scared out of you, when you're just trying to throw away some dog poop?  I'd rather giggle at poorly drawn bear caricatures.  Real world...psht.

This next one is the only other type I've seen in the whole bear awareness campaign Kodiak's got going on:

Whoever designs the cartoons might want look a little closer at a bear.  I get that they're trying to go for a tail there, but I think they missed the mark.  Last time I checked, bears didn't have pointy asses.

I'm also pretty sure this bear might be in some sort of fish stupor.  His tongue is hanging out, and he kind of looks like he's stumbling along as if the garbage can is his own personal rascal.  He might just fall down if someone takes away that trash can.  Either that, or he's not the sharpest bear in the cave.  Slack jawed, glassy eyed - he's obviously the stooge of the whole garbage stealing operation.  He's the bear lackey of the scam if I've ever seen one.  Patsy the Bear! 

I'm constantly on the lookout for new versions of the "Be Bear Aware" dumpster signs.  I'm a little disappointed I've only seen these three.  That's not nearly enough!  They're way too fun to make up stories about to only have three kinds.  

I  make light of the whole "we live in bear country" scenario, but if I'm ever in any situation involving a bear, you can bet your ass I'm not getting mauled!  I heard a local say that the motto in Alaska is, "I don't have to run that fast, I just have to run faster than you."  Done.

Ta-ta for now.