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

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