Monday, July 30, 2007

The weekend (and part of the week): Sunday/Monday

Well, I didn't have church on Sunday morning because Pastor Voss was flying out to Kodiak to have the service here at 6 PM. The group of people that I usually go hiking with all met and had a potluck lunch (for college-aged people). I suggested, since it was another very nice day, that we should go climb Mt. Barometer from like 8 PM to midnight so that we could catch the sunset. There was enough interest that we actually formed two groups - one that would start at 7:30 and one that would start around 8:00.

So, I went to church at 6:30 PM. We had 6 adults, including Pastor Voss. They used a MIDI keyboard and a computer to play the liturgy and hymns. The service was held in a conference room in town, where we rearranged it to be more like church - altar cloths, flowers, pulpit, pews, cross, etc. After church was over, I headed home to grab my hiking gear for the hike up Barometer. This time, since our goal was to see the sunset (officially around 10:40), I was determined to carry my tripod and other camera gear so that I could get some good pictures. So, my pack probably weighed about 20 lbs.

Anyway, I might not have mentioned it previously, but Mt. Barometer is a very popular hiking location. There is a well-defined trail up the ridge. The mountain is 2506 feet tall, and about 2300 or so feet above where we started the trail off the side of the road near the airport. I have heard rumors that the Coast Guard or other military people (who are in really good shape) have climbed the mountain in 45 minutes (round trip!). However, for a normal person it probably takes closer to 3 hours round trip. In the 45 minute case, they just run back down the mountain (literally - run - as in move your feet as fast as possible and hope you don't fall).

Well, we got started in a group of 5 around 8:30 PM. The trail starts on an old Army road, then finally turns into a trail that heads up the ridge. The trail was very brushy at the beginning, surrounded by salmonberry bushes (only a couple ripe berries though). Once out of the bushes, it turned rather rocky, almost like a scree slope (loose rocks that slide and can be dangerous). It was not as steep as the Three Sisters, but it was still a workout.

Because I wanted to get some really good sunset pictures, I pulled ahead when we reached about 1800 feet. I got to the top probably around 10:20 or 10:30, set up my tripod and camera, and started shooting. There were just enough clouds in the sky so that it turned a nice orange color. There also happened to be a full moon, which was helpful on our way back down. The other 4 in our group made it to the top in time to get some good pictures too.

From the top you could see around 360 degrees, as Mt. Barometer is one of the highest mountains in the area. You could see the surrounding mountains, the sunset, the moon, mountains out near KLC (yes, 30+ miles away), the city of Kodiak, etc. It was an amazing view, and I definitely want to go back. I suggested that next time we should just camp out at the top!

After taking pictures for about an hour (to about 11:30), we decided we should head back down before it gets too dark. Well, it was rather slow going trying not to slip on the rocky areas. Fortunately, two of us had bright LED flashlights that we used to light up the trail so that we could see where we were stepping. It got very humid as the low-lying clouds moved in, and dew coated the bushes and dripped onto the trail, making it quite muddy and slippery. We finally got back to the cars at the bottom around 1:50 AM, and we couldn't even see the top of the mountain any more because of the fog that had rolled in! We definitely didn't set any records on our hike up Mt. Barometer.

Well, since we all had work in the morning, and we already weren't going to get much sleep, we stopped at McDonald's and had some hot chocolate. I have been elected to email out pictures to everybody, and then we will swap everybody's pictures. I finally got home and got to bed around 2:30 or 2:45 on Monday morning, and had to get up again at 5:15 AM (yes, that is less than 3 hours of sleep before work!).

So, I took about 3 rolls of pictures while at the top (I bracketed quite a bit so I would more likely have a good picture). I think the hike was about 4 miles round-trip. Now, on Tuesday, I am feeling the hike. My right leg is sore (not my left one - obviously I use my right leg much harder).

Well, here are lots of pictures I took with the digital camera. The pictures I took on slide film I will get developed when I get back home (I won't see them until mid-September).












































Here is Mt. Barometer near the beginning of the trail. You can see the trail winding up the ridge. The reason the sky is washed out is because the sun is right behind the mountain (and the sunset that we saw in a few hours).




Here is a good view of the airport from about halfway up Mt. Barometer (from now on, just Barometer).




Here are some of the mountains surrounding Barometer. You can see they are still very much covered with snow.




Here are the other 4 people in our group climbing up Barometer. You can see the trail behind them.




Well, here's the first sunset picture.




Here is the sunset once I zoomed in a little more.




Here is a panorama of the sunset behind all the layers of mountains.




Here is what the top of Barometer looks like (when properly exposed to show the grass, rocks, and flowers).




There was a memorial cross at the top of Barometer, which made a good silhouette for the pictures of the sunset.




Here you can see how the fog was rolling in (I was watching it as we climbed the mountain). I like the way it fills in around the trees. The Three Sisters are at the left side of the picture.




Here you can see the city of Kodiak. Pillar Mountain is to the left side of the picture. Notice how the fog is rolling into town.




Here you can see the nearly full or full moon rising opposite the sunset. It was actually this red because of the sunset. You can also see how the fog is flowing over the point covered with trees.




Finally, here you can see a silhouette of 3 of the people in our hiking party. I didn't get a really good picture of us all (using self-timer on the camera) with the digital camera, so I'm hoping my SLR took a better one (not likely). Maybe one of my friends in our hiking party got a better pic (I put their cameras on my tripod and took pictures of us as a group).






Here are the new mileage totals as of Monday:

Foot: ~48 miles
Bike: ~78 miles
Car: ~3100 miles (It is 95.6 miles roundtrip to the range. I have driven about 6 of these miles!)
Boat: ~6 miles
Plane: ~3450 miles

The weekend (and part of the week): Saturday

Well, Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day. This time about 30 of us got together for an orienteering course (learn how to use a map and compass). A Navy SEAL organized the whole thing out at Termination point where they have markers set up that are used for training (you have to find them). We split up into groups and were given two markers to find. There are trails out there, and in our case, we only had to get off the trail once. Our group found both markers and arrived at the meeting location first. We also had a scavenger hunt for different things as we were hiking through the woods. The bad thing was we never had to use our compasses because of the main trail.



























Termination Point is right next to Monashka Mountain, (which is seen in this picture since I didn't get a picture last time).




Here is one of the markers we were supposed to find. We had to report the correct letter for a coordinate to show we had been there.




Here is an inlet near Termination Point.




Here, one of the scavenger hunt items was to get a picture of a sea animal. Well, we noticed a fish was jumping out in that inlet. I was lucky enough to get a picture of it as it jumped out of the water.




Here is a close up of the fish in the last picture. I don't know for sure if it is a salmon or not.




Here is a view of the surroundings at the beaver lake which was our meeting place.




Here is a big tree that the beavers chewed down (it was about 2 feet in diameter).




The hike was probably about 4 miles long and relatively flat, so it didn't tire me out much, and I wasn't sore from it...


Anyway, here are the mileage totals again:

Foot: ~44 miles
Bike: ~76 miles
Car: ~3000 miles (It is 95.6 miles roundtrip to the range. I have driven about 6 of these miles!)
Boat: ~6 miles
Plane: ~3450 miles

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Snow-day?

Well, we had a "snow-day" today, except that it wasn't for snow. Last night I actually felt as if it was December or something at home in Indiana (except it wasn't snow). It has been gray, rainy, foggy, and windy up here since Sunday, and last night it rained pretty hard all night. Well, all the creeks and lakes and stuff are filling up and flooding. The road out to work was closed down because of a mud slide that went over the road (however, there was an alternate route). We continued on and saw lots of flooded areas.

We got out to the construction area where they are working to lay the foundation for the road. There is a lake that they put the road right through the middle of (the lake isn't deep), and it had risen several feet and was running over the road. The construction company was out there and let us drive across. However, a few minutes later, they apparently shut the road down for fear of it washing out (one of the other company vehicles wasn't allowed to cross). We got out to work, and then Anchorage OK'd us taking the day off. The construction company allowed us to cross (with a pilot car) so we could go back home.

The seas during this storm are probably 15-20 feet, and there is like a 4 foot chop on top of it. I think I could see some 6-8 foot waves near where I'm living. It was really windy (like a solid 30-40 mph in places). It was raining in sheets, too. We got back to the mudslide area and they had the road cleared off (now like 4 hours later), however, the guard rail was really dented and moved because of the force of the mud. Water was running off the hills and mountains everywhere. It is supposed to rain through Saturday, so we will see how it turns out.

Anyway, so we got a "snow-day," or what should actually be called a "rain-day" or "flood-day" or "mudslide-day!" And yes, this is the kind of stuff they show on the Weather Channel, but here it is relatively common occurrence when it rains really hard. Here are some pictures.




















Here we are about drive back on the road that crosses the lake.




There were whitecaps on the lake!












Here you can see the water running off of the hills and mountains.



Monday, July 23, 2007

KLC Open House

Well, the KLC open house was on Saturday. After hours of preparation for it (I helped with the parking planning), it finally arrived and was over in 5 short hours. It was a beautiful day - blue sky with very few clouds, warm, just an amazing day sandwiched in by rain on Friday and Sunday. I was in charge of launching the model rockets. We had a total of 4 rockets to launch (1 A/B/C engine rocket, 1 E engine rocket, 1 F engine rocket, 1 G engine rocket) and we got in a total of 10 launches.

The first two launches were successful, as we launched the A/B/C rocket, which is almost foolproof. Then we launched the F rocket, where the shock cord ripped right out. We found the nose cone/parachute part, but not the body tube/fin part.

Then we launched the really big one - the G engine rocket, which is about 4" in diameter and about 4 feet long. It was big enough that I found some raw eggs in the kitchen, and packaged one in bubble wrap and put it in the rocket. However, this rocket was quite large and heavy, and we only had F engines. Well, we launched it anyway, and it probably didn't go much more than 100 feet up. The parachute came out about 10 feet off the ground, slowing the rocket just enough that the raw egg survived. All the spectators were amazed, of course.

Then we launched the E rocket for the first and last time (we only had one E engine). It was a successful flight. Then we launched the G rocket again, with a raw egg for show. However, this time the parachute came out about 1/2 second too late. The rocket smashed into the ground, cutting up the plastic nose cone, egg everywhere, and rocket quite damaged. Well, we were down to one rocket now, the A/B/C engine one, and we only had 2 engines left.

We launched the A/B/C rocket once more while I tried to tape up the G rocket to keep launching it since we had a bunch more F engines. The we got the professional photographer to come down and take pictures since he could get 5 or 7 frames per second with his camera. We staged it for the photographs, so we had the tall launch tower in the background, a crowd of people, then me with one to three kids that we chose out of the crowd, and then the rocket. We launched the G rocket again, and this time the parachute again came out about 10 feet above the ground, but it didn't unfurl and slow down the rocket. We put it back together again, and in the mean time, launched the little A/B/C rocket.

The photographer was apparently getting great pictures from what I heard - about 4 or so frames of the rocket off the pad with the smoke/flame underneath it. The kids were having a great time, and they all wanted to come up and help by pushing the button to launch it. We had the crowd do the countdown, and then the kids would run after the rocket after the launch.

Finally, we launched the G rocket one last time before everybody had to leave, with the photographer still there as well. This time, it didn't go quite so well. It went straight over the IPF (one of the buildings on site), and went "thunk." I thought it had landed on the roof of the IPF, however, it had completely cleared the building. It had hit a truck that was parked there in the parking lot! When we all got over there, we saw that it had left a dent and some paint marks on front of the truck. And the ironic thing is that the truck was owned by the company that trucks the rockets (the big rockets that are launched at KLC) out to the range. Now they can say that they deliver the rockets to KLC, and they got hit by a rocket!

Anyway, everybody there probably has pictures of the damage the rocket caused. The rocket didn't turn out so well either. A fin was broken off because of the impact. Since the photographer was still there, they had me explain how the rocket works to the kids, while he snapped pictures the whole time. They should have plenty of good pictures for whatever publicity publications they will make in the next few years.

Although it was a long day, it was a lot of fun launching the rockets, and watching the kids get so excited about launching them. I would love to come back just to launch the model rockets for the open house.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took on Saturday:







































Here you can see the mountains as seen from the IPF/SCAT.




Here I zoomed in on the one mountain.




Here is another view from the IPF/SCAT.




Here is a view of the layers of mountains shrouded by the mist and haze, as seen from the MSF.




Here you can see the MSF (Maintenance and Storage Facility), and the mountains behind it. Compare the mountains in this picture to the last time I took the picture (4 or so weeks ago). You can see how much greener everything got.




Here you can see the LSS (left), SCAT (middle left), IPF (middle right), and PPF (payload processing facility, right, hidden behind trees).




Here is the IPF (Integration and Processing Facility, I think).




Here is the SCAT (I don't remember what this one means). It moves on tracks between the IPF and the LSS. I was launching the rockets with the help of one of the other KLC employees, between the IPF and the SCAT (you can see the safety cones).




Here you can see the LSS (I don't remember what this stands for either, but I know it is one of the launch pads). This is the big tower.




Here you can see the damage done to the truck by the rocket.




Here is the broken rocket that did the damage.




Well, here are the new mileage totals after a few days:

Foot: ~40 miles
Bike: ~60 miles
Car: ~2600 miles (It is 95.6 miles roundtrip to the range. I have driven about 6 of these miles!)
Boat: ~6 miles
Plane: ~3450 miles

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Buoy Swing!!!

Well, there is a buoy swing at the top of the hill near White Sands Beach and the start of the hike to Monashka Mountain. We went right by it on our way to try climbing Monashka Mountain, so we stopped to try it. This time I got pictures (and video!).

Anyway, a buoy swing typically works like this:

A rope is tied to a buoy (round, soft plastic ones, not the metal version), and then tied to a rope that is tied between two trees (you can see this in the pictures). It is typically made over a steep hill, where you can jump off from the top of the dropoff, and then ride the buoy along the arc of its swing. So, to ride it, you hold onto the rope, and then jump out over the edge and onto the buoy, then ride it for a couple oscillations, then hop off again on the top of the hill. It is very easy getting on, but not so easy getting off. Either way, they are tons of fun! Too bad there are no hills in Indiana :( Maybe we can put one up in Shades or Turkey Run state parks...

















Here is the buoy swing as seen from ground level.




Here is Curtis riding the buoy swing. You can see one of the Three Sisters in the background.




Here I am riding the buoy swing. I wasn't intending to ride it, but I ended up doing so anyway. I'm definitely glad I did, and I can't wait to try another one somewhere else! There is a really pretty view of the mountains when you are out on the far end of the swing (where the trees don't block your view, and you are about 30 feet above the really steep hillside).




Here I am on the buoy swing again, when I am where I need to get off.





You can view the 2 videos I took on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oAy5me_4Cg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvMBQCsLL3I

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Monashka Mountain Hike

Well, today Curtis, Katy (or Katie, I don't know how to spell her name), and I tried to hike Monashka Mountain, with an elevation of about 1800 feet. We didn't have time to get all the way up to the top, but we did get up about halfway, to the point where I could take a few good pictures. The weather was much better this time, as we could see the tops of the Three Sisters, as well as the top of Monashka Mountain (unfortunately I don't have a picture of just Monashka Mountain).

We didn't follow the trails much, because there were so many of them and we just got confused as to which one to follow. So we just kind of made our own trail, by going whichever way seemed easiest (or shortest). When trying to find the shortest way back to the car from where we had climbed to on the mountain, we just decided to go straight there. This was not the greatest idea, as we had to fight our way through the brush (which is very thick, and up to 4 feet tall) and alders. It was tiresome. It was probably about a 4 mile horizontal hike, with a 1000 foot elevation change. Anyway, here are the pictures, as well as some picture of some of the vegetation here in Kodiak.






























Here is a view of one of the Three Sisters from between the trees about a quarter of the way up Monashka Mountain.




Here is a view of the Three Sisters and surrounding mountains from Monashka Mountain.




Here is a view of the surrounding mountains from Monashka Mountain.




Here is a view of Mount Herman, about the same height as Monashka Mountain, across the channel. Also, notice all of the wild geraniums that are growing on the grassy hillside. The wild geraniums are everywhere here in Kodiak. They are really pretty because the hillsides kind of look purple when you are standing close enough to see the flowers.




Here is a close-up view of the purple wild geraniums.




Here is White Sands Beach, named because when the tide is out, there is a strip of white sand across the beach. People come and take the white sand, because all the sand here in Kodiak is black. White Sands Beach is where the road ends, and where the trail begins to climb Monashka Mountain.




In the last post, I mentioned cow's parsnip. Here is a picture of the stuff. It can grow to be at least 4 feet tall, and the leaves are huge (like, as big as a medium pizza). It is all over the place, especially on the grassy hillsides of the mountains. The reason I am mentioning this stuff, is it is kind of like the poison ivy of Alaska. There is no poison ivy in Alaska, but this stuff has an oil that will cause dermatitis. So you don't want to touch it (which is difficult when sliding down a hillside). It is not just in Alaska either, as it can be all over the US.




Here is another annoying plant here in Alaska. This one is called Devil's Club. It has a spiny stem (you can see this in the picture), leading to big leaves, similar to the cow's parsnip. It also has the same attribute as the cow's parsnip: the spines have an oil in them that causes dermatitis. Again, you don't want to touch it. These plants can grown to be at least 8 feet tall, and you want to watch out that you don't grab on to the stem for a hand hold, as it looks like an ordinary branch. The Devil's club is less common here in Kodiak than the cow's parsnip is, but it is still found a lot in the forested areas.





Well, here are the new mileage totals after a few days:

Foot: ~38 miles
Bike: ~40 miles
Car: ~2000 miles (It is 95.6 miles roundtrip to the range. I haven't driven any of these miles!)
Boat: ~6 miles
Plane: ~3450 miles

Hiking the Three Sisters (the mountains)

Well, Curtis got a group of friends together and we all planned on hiking up the Three Sisters (see previous post for a picture of the mountains). There were 8 of us, including myself, that went for the hike. Today did not have the best weather: it was cloudy and rainy in the morning. But we decided to try to hike them anyway.






































The first peak looked like this when we started (compare to the right-most peak in the picture in the previous post):




Here you can see the trail that we followed up the lower half of the mountains. It was similar to an animal trail. It was not very wide and was very steep and slippery, even though plants and mosses were on the trail. There is a slight flat area about halfway up the mountains (above the clouds in the picture), and then it gets steep again to get to each of the peaks.




Here is the view from about halfway up the steep first half of the mountains. We parked at the bend in the road, and hiked to where I took the picture. The city of Kodiak is behind the hills on the right hand side of the picture (and off farther to the right).




Here you can see how steep the hill was that we were climbing. The part shown in the picture is about a 45 degree incline, even though that was not the steepest part.




Here we all are at the flat spot about halfway up the mountains. We now had to decide which peak to go up, and how to get up the peak. You can see Woody Island out there in the distance (I don't know which of the two islands it is though).




Here is the valley between the middle and right-most peaks of the Three Sisters. You can see that the clouds rose quite a bit from when we started. It was quite windy again, as we were at an elevation of about 900 feet. We were planning on trying to conquer the middle peak which is the highest. The peak was above the clouds, so we could not see the best way to get up there.




Well, we kept hiking after we had thought we found the best way to get up to the peak (go up the valley to the ridge, then up a ridge to the peak. However, we hiked along the side of the middle peak, which was just as steep as when we were coming up the first hill. Then we decided to head down through the alders to a different route because the first choice was not the greatest. We got down a little ways to where we could start heading up the valley, but we noticed it was getting much foggier. Eventually, we couldn't see the waves crashing on the beach, as shown in this picture, and we couldn't even see the ridge with the trees on it.




Here is a pine tree, and the side of the right-most peak in the Three Sisters, to show you how foggy it was. We decided to head back down for safety reasons. We got back to the ridge we couldn't see because of the fog (shown in the last picture). Then we headed back down the really steep hill to the bottom.




Here we are heading back down the really steep hill (about 600-700 vertical feet). It was so steep, and so difficult to try to stand on, that many of the people in our party decided to just slide down the hill. They slid down the trail because the plants were already knocked over, as the grasses and cow's parsnip and other plants were often about 2 feet tall and very thick. The hiking pole I had was very helpful going up and coming back down, but it was still so steep that I fell down multiple times.




Here is the trail after we came back down. You can see how much wider it is, after 8 of us went up and down it.




Here is a comparison of the trail, before and after, at about the same scale. Nobody will get lost trying to follow the trail next time!





After reaching the bottom, we decided to build a bonfire at the beach. Horizontally, we hiked about 2 and a half miles (not including the extra distance due to inclines) and changed elevation about 900 feet. However, we didn't get to any of the three peaks due to the fog. Now, at almost 8 PM, it is sunny, with almost no clouds in the sky.


So, here are the new mileage totals:

Foot: ~33 miles
Bike: ~31 miles
Car: ~1500 miles (It is 95.6 miles roundtrip to the range. I haven't driven any of these miles!)
Boat: ~6 miles
Plane: ~3450 miles