This entry was written by , posted on July 24, 2009 at 10:32 pm, filed under Ravenna, Uncategorized and tagged cooper landing, juneau falls, kenai peninsula, resurrection trail, trout lake. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Mount Cecil Rhode. The epic backdrop of the Kenai Princess Lodge. Covered in snow in the winter, spotted with snow in the summer, and home to a resident population of horned sheep and grizzly bear. Two weeks ago two KPL employees went hiking there and ran upon a mother grizzly bear and her cub, undoubtedly the worst way you could possibly encounter a bear short of strapping bloody sockeye salmon to your back and trying to mount the animal’s behind. Luckily, the mother bear sniffed the air, decided the two young men weren’t worth the confrontation, and eventually went on her way. No lives were lost, and no trousers ruined.
We set out to climb Mount Cecil Rhode about a week later. We got lost finding the trailhead because we always get lost finding the trailhead. We walked all the way to Cooper Lake before we realized our error and then had to trek some four miles back before we could begin our ascent. I thought my achilles tendon might shatter into several small pieces, but it stayed strong. You gotta sidestep.
Getting lost in Alaska can suck, getting lost in Alaska can be awesome.
Snow cave.
Cooper Lake.
The trail up from the road to Cooper Lake is horribly marked and steep. About an eighth of a mile in we saw what we thought were bear droppings followed by a scarf ominously “abandoned” on a tree branch. We began to make large amounts of noise.
Matt: Possibly running from a bear, possibly running from the past.
An exercise in radness.
Rounding the first hump we were presented with staggering views. The clouds were just starting to roll in and reach down towards the hillside in wispy fingers. We could see KPL and the Kenai River below, and much more of Mt. Cecil Rhode above. We could also see snow.
Lichens and the Kenai Princess Lodge.
It was about at this point that Matt started to lag behind and Phil slipped into a groove ahead. It was also about this time that the footing turned to a loose shale, and a snow storm started. With moisture the shale became slippery, and I had to put my hands in the snow or on the often-times knife-sharp rock to keep myself from falling. Matt started to lag even further behind, while Phil charged on like a male ram in search of an in-heat female.
The trail gets steep…
And then it gets snowy.
I almost gave up. I was sliding nearly every step and it was getting dangerous. I was afraid that if I actually fell I might not be able to stop myself, and I was pretty sure that a bad fall was not far off. So I yelled to Phil, “I’m not going to be able to make it. I’m going to stay here,” and then I waited. After a few minutes Matt came plodding past and barely uttered a word but kept walking. At that point the decision had to be made: Bruised body parts, or bruised ego? Like the intrepid young explorer I am, I pressed on.
Things began to get awesome by the ridge. It stopped snowing and the summit was finally in sight. Phil was already up there. The views were amazing. Hiking is amazing. And a few short minutes later and I was there, slightly terrified that I was going to somehow get off balance and plunge several hundred feet to my death, but mostly happy that I hadn’t given up, despite the fact that the bottoms of my New Balances might as well have been coated in petroleum jelly and my hands looked like they were about to fall off from spending so much time in the snow. The views were epic. Cecil was epic. Everything was epic.
And then we went down.
Footprints.
The ridge.
Kenai Lake.
The summit.
Resting Phil.
Happy Matt and Mark.
The view from the top.
A young man making his way in the world.
This entry was written by , posted on July 1, 2009 at 10:15 pm, filed under Alaska and tagged Alaska, cooper landing, kenai peninsula, mount cecil rhode, mt. cecil rhode. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
…keeps the doctor away. Climbing mountains also keeps the doctor away, unless you fall and break your ulna. Then the doctor will be beating your door down, begging to mend your broken bones.
Dr. Phil.
This entry was written by , posted on June 27, 2009 at 10:36 pm, filed under Alaska and tagged cooper landing, kenai peninsula, mount cecil rhode, seward. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.