August 21, 2007

I am almost looking forward to summer ending. It will be nice to take it easy for awhile, at least until ski season starts. Summer does seem to be winding down. It is now getting dark so early. It is a little after ten right now and it is almost dark. Well, it is cloudy out so maybe it isn’t really as dark as I think.

We did have an in-town weekend. We had concert tickets for last Saturday night so we couldn’t leave town. We got up reasonable early and headed to a stretch of the Turnagain Arm trail that we haven’t hiked. We started at the southern end of the trail near Windy. The trail was mostly ours on a beautiful day.

The concert was fun. Our most played CD is from this band which isn’t to say they are our favorite, but we certainly enjoy their music. It was a strange venue. The concert was held in the parking lot of our favorite pizza place. The thought of a nationally known band playing in the parking lot of a pizza joint seems a little strange. Not that we have been to a lot of concerts in our lives, but this seemed like the best concert setup we have ever seen. They limited the tickets to 3000, but it didn’t seem like that many people. We hung out with a group of about 8 people, mostly who work with me. There was no seating, but that didn’t seem to matter. In fact, it was a plus. We stood around and talked while listening to enjoyable music played live. While we were closer to the stage than we have ever been at a real concert, the sound level wasn’t unbearable. We could actually carry on conversations. The lack of seating allowed the group to rotate around, keeping the conversation lively and fresh. It was really fun.

On Sunday we seemed to be in slow motion. We had planned to do some mountain biking, but when we got to the early afternoon without getting packed up, we decided to take a ride on the commuter bikes. It was the first time we have used them in awhile since we have mostly been too tired to ride to work over the last few weeks. We rode the Campbell Creek trails to the Chester Creek trails and back home along C Street. We had a bit of trouble figuring out how to get from Campbell Creek to Chester Creek through the university, but we eventually figured it out. We had a nice day and it felt good to get out and stretch our legs.

This past weekend was a little more intense. To start out with, we learned that it doesn’t help if you are traveling with a meteorologist from the National Weather Service. They don’t have any inside information. We figured that out on Friday night as we drove to Granite Creek Campground in the rain wondering what happened to our mostly sunny skies.

Kris and I headed down ahead of our companions as they had a longer drive. We picked out a campsite that would hold three small tents. We set up our tent then sat in the car for about an hour waiting for our fellow adventurers. They arrived and we went about getting all the tents set up. Our group consisted of a couple from work, her meteorologist friend, and us, a total of five.

We hung out chatting under a tarp in the rain for awhile but still got to bed early. We awoke to clouds and a little drizzle. We packed up the tents, trying to shake off as much water as possible. When we were ready, we headed to the Johnson Pass trailhead. We unloaded the bikes and gear. Then the guys headed south a half an hour to drop a vehicle off at the trailhead at the other end, a mere 23 miles away by trail, quite a bit more by road. When we returned, the bikes were almost set up and ready to go.

We had planned to take our good mountain bikes on this adventure, but a communications mix-up cleared itself up on Wednesday evening when I realized that the plan was to camp out halfway through the trail. We had to quickly change our plans. With no way to carry overnight gear on our full suspension bikes, we had to use our commuter bikes. I quickly replaced the rear rack on my bike. The old one was over twenty years old and was starting to get bent from the abusive style in which I ride on the way to work. I figured the worst thing that could happen would be equipment failure. We figured out how to pack everything. The tent rode on top of Kris’ rack, the sleeping bags on mine. We both have panniers that mount on the side of the rack so that gave us four small containers for food, cooking gear, clothes, and other gear. I also wore a small backpack to carry our bulkier insulating layers. Our bikes were probably pushing 70 lbs loaded.

We hit the trail around 11:00 with lots of energy. It was only 10 miles and 700 feet of climbing to get to the top. We estimated it would take us a two to three hours. It took us almost six. The first four miles were OK. The trail was relatively level and not too difficult, but the weight kept us slow and the previous night’s rain kept things sloppy. Once we started climbing, things got tough. The trail was never really steep, but none of us had the endurance to keep pedaling on some of the sustained pitches. Walking a heavy bike uphill over rugged terrain is difficult.

As we got higher, the vegetation turned mean. We found ourselves riding through vegetation that was taller than us and often included cow parsnip. The heavy stalks of the plants slapped us in the face. Some of the plants were thorny. All of the plants were wet and we were getting soaked even though it didn’t really rain on the ride up. The trail was often invisible. We found ourselves aiming for the least dense portion of the vegetation, kind of like riding between rows of tall corn stalks.

The trail was muddy. It was often a narrow trench that kept the bike tires trapped. This was fine as long as I kept my center of gravity over the trench. I fell several times when I got outside the trench. It wasn’t painful, though, as the tall vegetation padded my fall. I think a few times I should have fallen and didn’t because the vegetation was holding me up.

We were relieved to arrive at Johnson Pass, the high point on the trail and nearly midpoint on our journey. Two beautiful lakes flank the pass. Bench Lake drains to the North and Johnson Lake drains to the South. We camped between the lakes in an improved campsite that included a few sites where the tall vegetation was knocked down by previous tents and a metal bear-proof container to put our food in overnight.

We set up and made dinner. We began collecting firewood for a fire, but as we finished dinner, it started to drizzle. We all started to look at each other, everyone thinking the same thing, no one wanting to admit that they were thinking of going to bed at 8:30. We may have all spoke up at once. No one criticized the decision. We were all exhausted and the dampness was taking its toll.

I slept pretty well. The crushed vegetation under the tent made a comfortable bed. I sleep light in the wilderness, always listening for unusual sounds. That contributes to the weirdness of what happened. Kris and I both awoke suddenly to a howling wind. It could have built gradually and not awakened us until it reached a fury, but we both woke up at the same time. The tent was shaking. The wind was howling. It had been a calm evening prior to that. I started to think I was going to have to add more stakes and perhaps some guy lines to the tent. Then, more suddenly than imaginable, the wind stopped. It was dead calm. We sat there confused, waiting for more, wondering how such a sudden and violent gust could occur on such a calm night. I began to wonder if had really happened. Mountain weather can be bizarre.

It drizzled all night. The raindrops on the tent make you imagine heavier rain. I imagined the trail filling with water for our downhill exit. We woke up early and the drizzle was not as bad as I had imagined. We made breakfast and began packing up. I adjusted everyone’s brakes. As we headed down the trail, I soon caught one leg of my rain pants on the chainring of my bike. I stopped to find a strap to tie the leg in tight and right at my feet, lying on the trail, was a small piece of nylon that worked perfectly. Sometimes you get exactly what you need exactly when you need it.

The ride down was much easier, but still challenging. We still faced tall vegetation with the added benefit of some speed. Much of the trail was in forested areas which eliminated the excessive vegetation. We bounced over rotts and rocks as we descended. I resisted the temptation to launch off the more aggressive lines, but still rode a few wheelies over small drops. It would have been a fun ride on the full suspension bike.

We passed a hiker on the way out. Within an hour of passing her, we came upon a stretch of trail where the bear prints were over the top of her footprints. This was near a small creek that had spawned out salmon wiggling in the shallow water. Next to the creek was a pile of fish bones that were clearly leftovers from feasting bears who had eaten dozens of salmon on that very spot. It was a little freaky. We also saw lots of bear scat along the trail on Sunday. Most of the scat was full of berries. It is almost like they don’t even digest those things.

The berries were the pleasant distraction from the torture of pushing a heavy bike uphill. We all grazed on the raspberries, salmonberries, crowberries, watermelonberries and blueberries. They were all ripening up nicely. I love this time of year. Only some red currants could have improved the situation.

I have been fishing for silver salmon on Campbell Creek most evenings for a couple hours, enjoying a casual wade along my stretch of the creek. It is just relaxing. The salmon have been remarkably late this year. They still aren’t in the creek in any significant numbers and they have really only showed up this week. The trout fishing was very good a couple nights last week with me catching easily 20 fish, most ridiculously small, but still aggressive and fun. I finally caught a couple salmon this week, landing two and hooking two more in one evening. The two I landed were already pretty dark in color so I released them. They were also relatively small for silvers.