Mountains, mountains and more mountains

        Matt and I have been having a great time these past couple of days, largely because we've been stepping up our game because the weather's been gorgeous and the Oriordans are visiting. On Friday, Matt and I had off and decided to go hiking for the first time since we've been up here. One of the most popular mountain trails here is on Deer Mountain, a 3,000 ft elevation peak that has a beautifully maintained trail and great views of Ketchikan. When we set out to hike it, we neglected to realize the downsides to transportation by foot and were already exhausted by the time we made it to the trailhead, which was a mile and a half hike on its own.

Us at the trailhead, before we even started the real hike. We think we'll take the bus there next time.

      As we hiked, we both noticed that this was the first time that being in Ketchikan actually felt like being in a rainforest. All around us, the flora was thick and lush and there were sounds of weird bird calls and dripping rainwater all around us (interestingly enough, the ravens in the forest often mimic the sound of dripping water so it was hard to distinguish which was which).

The trail ahead

      
        We didn't see much wildlife on our hike, although I had been prepared to buy bear spray (until we went to the store and realized that bear spray was $70 a can). We had gone to a bird rehabilitation exhibit downtown earlier that day and had discussed fooling our readers into thinking we saw this guy in the woods:

    
     But then we discussed the ethics of misleading our blog followers and of the possibility of breaching the moral code of blogging. And then there's the fact that you can totally see that the bird is tethered to a rail. As for our hike, we didn't make it very far because we were out of shape. And when I say we, I mean mostly me. Also, there is STILL snow on the summit, making it quite difficult to hike after about 1 3/4 miles up the trail. We went to the mile mark where we'd heard that there was a great view, and sure enough, there we found one of the best views we've seen all summer!

Us at the overlook. Note scenic mountains and departing cruise ship in the background.

       The photo above was taken by Dottie, a new friend we made at the overlook. Dottie is an ambitious 60-year old woman who came up with her husband from Maryland to run the youth hostel for a month this summer. They had never been to Ketchikan before and decided to come up on a whim after seeing the position advertised online. It's pretty awesome getting to meet people like her on a daily basis here!
      On Friday night we headed out to the Asylum, our next-door bar, with the Oriordans and hung outside because it was such a nice night. Nothing like enjoying some beer with a mountain view!

       Lucky for us, we're back to our normal schedule and have Monday off- that's tomorrow, woohoo! Hopefully we'll do something awesome and crazy. Or we might just loaf around and read.

Either way, more soon!

Bridget