It's been a hairy few weeks. So, I decided to just cut loose Friday afternoon. I headed up to Glen Alps to do the Flattop geocache. The cache is located near the top of the backside of Flattop Mountain. The term "backside" got me in trouble. I assumed backside meant the backside of the mountain - the east side which faces away from Anchorage. But, as I discovered - the hard way - the east side of the mountain, although on the backside, is not considered the backside. The backside refers to a southwest approach that is not often used. sigh...
Anyhoo, I headed out of the parking lot, down the trail towards, down Powerline Pass to what I thought was the backside of the mountain. Actually, before I left the parking lot, I stopped to read the bear alert sign. The sign was posted on Tuesday by the park rangers. A pesky black bear in the parking lot was approaching folks. There were also several handwritten updates posted by other hikers - bears had been spotted each day including earlier in the day on Friday. All of that definitely got my attention. Especially since I had absolutely nothing with me that would disuade a bear from a tasty slat rat snack.
But, I was pretty determined. So I headed out anyway. But I very carefully watched and listened as I made way down the bushy trail. I also picked up a rock. My strategy was to hit the bear on the nose with the rock and then attack - make myself really big and loud. You do not play dead with black bears - it's a good way to get dead. You've got to either get the hell out of there or stand your ground. Of course, realistically, a rock is not going to do squat against a bear. But it was my little security blanket.
Fortunately, only the first half mile is brushy - once you get to Powerline Pass, the trail is very wide and for the most part un-brushy. I puttered my way a mile down the pass to the best route up east side of the mountain. I turned right and started plodding my way up. And up. And up. Because of my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I'm in pretty grim shape and don't have much strength. But I am so tired of being tired that I just didn't care. I wanted to go up. However, after a bit, thing got quite steep and I almost ground to a halt. I was reduced to doing 40 steps and then sitting for several minutes. 40 steps. Sit. 40 steps. Sit....
And what was totally discouraging was that according to my GPS, I was not making any progress at all towards my goal. The cache notes stated that the cache was located about 2/3's the way up the mountain. Well, as I crawled my way up 2/3's of the mountain, it was clear I wasn't anywhere near the cache. That's when it dawned on me that it was on the other side of the mountain. On the west side! How the west side can be the backside is beyond me. Sigh...There was no way I had the oomph to get all the way up and over. I was pretty bummed - anyone can climb Flattop. And there I was, beached. sigh...
NOTE: Later I found out that the eastside approach is actually considered very steep and can be dangerous in spots. So, I was not quite as wussy as I thought.
Anyhoo, I gave up and headed back down. I needed to be back in town at 5:00 PM and it was 3:45 PM when I started down. I figured it would take me about 15 minutes to get down off the mountain and then 1/2 hour to do the mile and a half back to the parking lot via Powerline Pass trail. So, off I went. I made it as scheduled down to the trail at 4:00 PM. I then sort of staggered my way down the trail - my legs were in jelly mode from their sudden reintroduction to mountains. After about a half mile, it was apparent I was moving slowly. But, even so, I figured I still had plenty of time - maybe it would take me 35 minutes instead of 30 minutes. No sweat.
What I didn't take into account was the bull moose that crashed out the bushes a mere ten feet in front of me. My jelly legs were instantly cured - I bolted backwards at warp speed. I had visions of slat rat tartar. After running about 20 feet but not hearing anything I turned back and looked. There was my bull moose calmly munching on willow. He had done his little charge to get me out of his space and then returned to lunch. So, I was safe. But stuck. The moose was right on the trail and there was no way to get around him. I wasn't going to try to get behind him on his side of the trail through heavy brush and the other side of the trail was covered by the evil very thick virtually inpenetrable dwarf spruce. And this moose was absolutely not going anywhere.
I then noticed two folks on the trail on the other side of the moose. Evidently they'd witnessed my little encounter - or rather they saw the bull come out woods and they saw my feet turn and run. We had a nice long conversation as we tried to wait out the moose. I learned they were visitors up here working for the summer. They were jealous of my digital camera. I promised to e-mail them pictures - assuming I could make it past the moose at some point. We discussed the apparent old age of our bull - he was quite skinny in the haunches and his beard was gray. This entire conversation took place with the moose between us. He didn't seem to mind at all. He was a very calm old guy.
I tried to explain to the moose that I needed to get by - my psychiatrist appointment was at 5:00 PM. And as we all know, one shouldn't be late to one's shrink appointment. I felt the moose would understand the urgency of my situation. But, alas he didn't.
So after fifteen minutes of this, I finally gave up and dived into the inpenetrable dwarf spruce. This stuff is straight out of Lord of the Rings. Unbelievable. But I pushed through the grabbing tangled, branches, roots, and trunks and emerged out on the other side of the moose - somewhat bloodied but still with a remote shot at being only a few minutes late to my shrink appointment. The visitors gave me their e-mail address, I said goodbye to the moose and headed off as fast as my wobbly legs would go.
The rest of my hike was hurried but uneventful. I ended up being 30 minutes late to my appointment - but that was because I got caught in a huge traffic snarl. If it hadn't been for that, I would have only been about 5 minutes late!!!!!
So, here's a batch of pictures from my little adventure.
Bear Alert!
The ridge top through the clouds.
What's This???!!!!!!!
Head shot!
Here's a full profile shot. Note his gray beard.
The moose and my two buddies on the other side.
11:22:37 PM 
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