sometimes you really have to work hard to find the sun

This past Sunday, I sure did. About thirty students and about ten chaperones headed 10 miles across the ocean (saw lots of humpback behavior while we were did that), then took just over eight hours to get up a dormant volcano and back. Here are some images from the hike:

Alaskans are fancy with their offloading. Click any image for bigger versions.

The hike began in rainforest...

...but it didn't take long to transition to muskeg.

Muskeg is essentially the same as a peat bog. Standing in that puddle for long would have been a bad idea.

Sitka TrailWorks put in some nice boardwalks...

...and a bunch of bridges. The manpower involved in transporting and building in these more remote locations is mind-boggling. And the stairs are leg-tormenting.

We're basically hiking through clouds here, which means that the spiderwebs look awesome. Also, TONS of berries low to the ground.

Taking a quick rest with our group and previewing the sunshine.

There's some sun!

No, this isn't the steepest part yet.

From here on up, it's all scree. Imagine a mix of pumice, feldspar, basalt, and bits of obsidian (you know, the crap that a volcano spews out when it builds a cinder cone), where almost all of it is smaller than your hand. Where it's carpeted in low-lying berries, it's almost easy to hike. Those run out halfway up, though.

Yes, those are mountains past the clouds.

This .6 mile stretch took an hour to climb down. Taking breaks heading up was a good idea.

The stakes are there to guide hikers on low-visibility days. They are important progress markers, too, for motivating people to go just a few steps further.

The cairn marks the top of the trail. From here, it's an easy jaunt to the crater (maybe 200 meters).

Panorama!

That's what "dormant" looks like.

Yep, that hiking kilt worked perfectly. We took some group shots and enjoyed lunch in the sun and wind.

Of course, if you go up...

It wasn't so much a "climb" down as a "slide" down.

I do plan to eventually edit this to be black and white with this music in the background. If you don't find that funny, you need to watch more good movies. Don't bother trying to play the movie - I'll share it on YouTube when it's ready to go. For right now, it's essentially just a GIF.

A first glimpse of the ocean! 14 miles and 3200 vertical feet and we were definitely ready to be done.

They brought a bigger, nicer boat to take us back. We still had to use a ladder to get on!

These guys didn't even see the juvenile humpback breach twice in under a minute. It was spectacular - completely vertical, a twist, everything cleared the water except its flukes. No chance I was wasting time finding my camera.

So there you have it. That's how Alaskans do day hikes.