Summer Camping

Yesterday Mark, Gregg, the dogs Roxy and Jake and I went camping with Chase Tingle up behind Bell's Flats. Chase is an out-of-town volunteer for the Community Archaeology dig. He's from New Hampshire and likes to ski so we volunteered to show him what Kodiak's got for summer snow. As he has never skiied during the summer, and seems to like us, he accepted our invite enthusiastically.

We parked at 'little Kosovo' at the road's end at Sargent Creek - so named for the shot up and burned cars that litter the creek edge. It is always a little scary to leave one's car there for the night. Then we carried ski and camping gear for a hot and sweaty 2 hours to the alpine bowl where we made our camp. This time of year Kodiak's alpine country is superb. Gregg tried to convince me to sing 'The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music'. I declined (no Julie Andrews here), but the metaphor was apt. Kamchatka Rhodies, wild geranium, anenomies and various heath flower are all in a riot of bloom, set against the spring green of the Emerald Isle backcountry.

We set up camp, dropped gear and continued up to the top of the run we call 'Double Surprise' - so called because there are 2 unexepected, surprisingly steep drops before you get to the bottom. The run drops down towards Sheratin Bay away from Bell's Flats. So we dropped 1600 feet away from camp, skiing on bumpy corn snow. The snow cover is 'surprisingly' good this year and we ended our run with an extra 500 feet or so of vertical into a ravine at the end of the run. High walls and lush summer vegetation with a thread of dirty snow on the bottom to follow. Then the long climb back to the top and a ski back to camp. We all watched Gregg rip 'Sweet Pea' a very steep shute that I declined to take the dogs down for safety reasons.

Back at camp the dogs had done enough chasing and immediately sacked out in the shade of the 'Mega Light' teepee. Gregg cooked up a 'Rice-a-Roni Mexican Surprise' dinner with lots of cheese, and life was good in the warm, seemingly never-ending Alaskan evening. Earlier we spotted a sow with 4 cubs playing on the snow and eating new forbs on the slope across the way. Mark had brought a spotting scope and we had the kind of bear viewing I like - not up close and personal! Not many deer though - we ended up seeing 7 bears and only one deer. Deer hunting in the alpine might be a bit tough when it begins in two weeks.

Glorious evening, but rain by morning. At 6:20 AM we all awoke to Gregg's declaration, "I am going home". Good thing home is only 2 hours away. But Gregg did decide to join us for coffea in the mega light teepee and more importantly shared his half and half cream before he departed. Mark, Chase and I ate a hearty breakfast of jambalaya with peppery sausage before we too departed, and headed back to the low country.