Mt Roberts is the view that we see from our condo. We have lived here for four years and kept saying that we needed to do the trail, so today was the day. Since we couldn't start until 2 pm and Coastal has fee passes for the Tram, we decided to ride the tram up and then hike from there.
The Tram takes you up to 1800 ft and for those of you reading this, you must know that I hate the Tram ride up, really I do, I don't look around, I find a focus point, usually my hand or the floor and focus on my breathing. At the Tram we stopped for a restroom break and then checked in the Nature Store for a trail map. To my dismay, they were a $1.00 and since we brought no cash and we have trail books at home, there was no way I was paying for one. I asked the elder women behind the counter for the the miles up to the summit. She seemed a bit weary that it was 2:30ish in the afternoon and we, well at that point it was I she saw Bob was in the restroom, was going to head to the summit. I tried to reassure her that: a. we lived here, b. the last tram was not until 9:30 pm and if we missed it, we would hike all the way down, sunset wasn't until 10:55 pm c. we have hiked plenty before and I didn't think that this trail was that challenging. At this point Bob had walked up behind me and was giving a look. I wasn't sure if it was the "I can't believe you told her we were locals look" or not. I told the lady we had a cell, we would be fine and we headed off to hike. What I found out later was that Bob was annoyed with the women for asking so many questions and implying that we weren't prepared. Seriously, you should have seen some of the people that we saw on this trail: hiking in poor footwear, no water, little kids being dragged along. Anyway, our first stop . . .
We had picked up Subway before we came up and stopped at the first picnic table we came to for a bit of lunch and recharging. The picnic table and scenic outlook just happened to look out to our condos. They are the brown ones you see in the picture below. While taking the picture and hiking, we had a few people comment that we lived here and we would just point, "yep, see those brown buildings, right over there".
Hiking along. As you look at these pics, you should be able to tell who had the camera today. It was a beautiful hike.
The view down Gastineau Channel towards Taku Inlet.
Takin' a breather.
Time for a water break. I didn't realize that Bob was taking my picture as I was watering myself.
Ahhhh!
Smile.
I believe just before this picture we were singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music, ahhhhhhahhhh". It just reminded us of the views in the Sound of Music.
Bob the Explorer
The view
At the top we found a spot to sit and Bob had brought a Coke along to enjoy, and yes, it was really a coke!
As we sat there, these guys floated into view. We had seen a few different ones all along the trail.
As we hiked and chatted with a few of our fellow hikers, we were asked how high we thought the summit was. Bob and I originally said 3300 to 3600 ft. Then we lowered it to 3300 to 3500 ft. As I was working on this blog posting I decided to look it up. It is actually "3816 vertical ft". I told Bob at the end of the hike that I felt like we had speed hiked. We were out of the car at 2 pm and back in by 6 pm.
People along the way:
We meet a nice young (I know, can't believe I said that, but we are getting a bit older, from South Dakota. They did pretty well, they ended up turning around, realizing that they didn't have the proper gear or water and they were really huffing and puffing. I thought it was cute that at one point the girl told us that she couldn't believe we weren't laboring on the hike! I assured her that I love hiking, but hate the up part and that we labored too. We told them about a few trails in Skagway since that was their next port.
High-fived a little guy decked out in Tiger gear.
Chatted with a man that was hiking in workboots, jeans and a sweatshirt! It was warm out, by the top I was in a tank top and had zipped the legs off my pants!
It was a perfect Monday, we ended our wonderful day with a stop at the Breeze for a take-n-bake and a slushie. Then home to the couch where photos have been uploaded and blogged. Bob is watching The Lightning Thief and since I have already seen it I am off to dreamland.
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