April 29 2008
Despite the weather a day well spend. I hiked for apx. 5 hours with an expert! Mary Whitley. I learned a lot about birds, plants, the works of the glaciers. A glacier covered this area. But first I want to write down the easiest route (for now) to a certain peak. Coming back from the closest point we got to the peak. I used the compass going south. And we did come out by the old gravel pit, which is connected with the Mendenhall roads. I am not very good with a compass yet, partly due to the fact that true north is different then magnetic north. Anyway, Mary marked the point also on the map with the help of a GPS. Starting at the gravel pit, taking an old bush road west, which takes me north after a a little bit, through the orchid swamp, then when the road turns west again, one climbs over an old log to go straight north, It does go over,what seems, an esker, but you leave the hill to your west. You just aim north. Going up and down a little bit, and some densely treed sections, but basically it should go gradually uphill and bring me to the spot where Mary and I had a picnic in the snow accompanied by birds! This all to bring me back to that 'wild' place, which was quite lovely.
May 8 2008
"Mary, We where so close to that little lake I was talking about, and it is sooo beautiful." And being at 3300 feet I was surprised it was already thawed out, totally open water.Where as teapot pond and 'moose skull lake' at 2400 feet are still frozen. This lake which might be a pond. Is nestled in between an elongated hill, which might be an esker. And the mountain. It,s a grassy lake (pond), but on the sides are big boulders, say 10 metres diameter. Today Jane and I left the gravel pit at 8 am and followed the route Mary and I came back on, see above, April 29. And it went as predicted, something that is hard to do, as it is a big world out there. From the lake we went east to avoid a tangle of alders. And at some point we turn north to the.... certain peak. It is very prominent, looking at it from the neighbourhood and highway because it has a knob on the top, I call it nipple. From down below it looks very promising, but I invite you to come and see it from close up. Jane and I reach this wonderful top at 10 am! Needless to say, that after some breakfast, we carry right on. Because....we 're in the high country. And it is here where we love to be. It is so open and expansive. It is such a freedom. And it makes us feel we are the luckiest ducks on the planet. Jane saw moss campion blooming I missed it because I was too busy nibbling cranberries from last fall. By the way the crow berries and blueberries are pretty tasty too. There's always so much to enjoy. We find places where obviously some animal likes to do a poop. Jane finds a moose antler, that has totally been gnawed through by some little animals. We see and hear birds. Smell the smells of summer. After the knob, The first stretch is a little bit of a struggle going through waist high bushes and soft snowpatches. But soon enough we are on this ridge with all those amazing rocks strewn about and the snow patches are getting harder, as in frozen solid. And easy enough we reach...the fire lookout, Ahh, we land ourselves on the helicopter platform, which I like as a sundeck. We find some survey posts, one from 1943. And then we go to the lookout. Well I didn't say it yet but the whole trip the view was spectacular. But being at a look out you can imagine, All our beautiful lakes and mountains. One day even mnt. Logan might show. And south there is a lovely blue ribbon, The flowing Takhini river.
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