I finally got the perfect afternoon to tackle Mount Newhall today! Chico and I started up about 2:45 after mailing some packages at the post office. There isn't a trail after about the halfway mark and I made some uninformed route decisions that left me about 150 vertical feet short of the summit with no real safe way to advance so I ended up traversing to the left and glissading down on my butt back to the trail with no damage except the loss of most of my jeans on my left butt cheek. I took these pictures at about the 1300 foot mark and they form a right-to-left panoramic view if you connect them in order from top to bottom. You can see from the bottom photo (doesn't that rock formation look just like a man's face in repose??) that it was already 45 degrees of wet grass at that point and it got steeper further up. The view was pretty much the same from further up - I just didn't want to dig out my camera from the pack while I was clinging desperately to pieces of moss with my hands and feet trying not to slide to the bottom (until I was ready!).The top photo is cool as it shows the whole of Mount Ballyhoo which I climbed a couple weeks ago. On the right side of this photo is the open Bering Sea; on the left side you can just see the airstrip - not very long is it? A lot of folks don't realize that the only body of water that can properly be called Dutch Harbor is the water between the spit in this photo and Mount Ballyhoo. In the second photo you can see the town of Dutch Harbor with Hog Island in the distance. The water to the right side of Hog Island is where we have been watching whales from Mount Ballyhoo these past few weeks. The third photo shows some of Dutch Harbor and the town of Unalaska towards the left. You can see Alyeska Seafood jutting into the East Channel just above and to the right of center.
I got home with one tired dog and found that Goldfish had gotten prime rib and baked potato with all the fixings for me from the galley, so I didn't miss out on supper - all in all a pretty perfect day! We're going to watch a movie and turn in as there is lots of fish tomorrow. Cheers!
2 comments:
Holy cow! That looks to be quite a lot bigger than your Mt. Ballyhoo. That must have been quite the trip up. And down too as you had said. I think i got the whole picture now of where you live. On a very nice day too, i might add. Don't beat Chico up too much, with all your hiking. LOL
Love ya
Zack, thanks for all your comments, I hope to get you out here for a visit sometime soon so you can check things out for yourself. Love you, Dad
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