This hike gets a post of it's own. Mt. Edgecumbe was my #1 must-do hike when in SE Alaska. The only inhibiting variable was weather, thankfully, Sitka did not let me down. Mt. Edgecumbe is a dormant volcano located on Kruzof Island. It sits at 3,201ft tall (thanks Wikipedia). To summit this beast, it took some advanced planning. We secured a 30-minute boat ride to the island (drop off at 7:00AM) and pickup 7 hours later. I need to give a shout-out to Patrick Davis of Sitka Sea Marine, he made the trip there and back extremely convenient and he's a downright nice dude. The trail is 7 miles long starting at Fred's Creek Cabin. We ended up hiking closer to 16 miles roundtrip because we opted to circumnavigate the rim. The last mile is utterly awful, you will be crawling up to the summit. I recommend hiking poles, they will make the experience less painful.
Because this hike sits on an island away from Sitka and it is only accessible via boat or plane, you will see hardly anyone. In fact, we saw no one until we made it to the summit. We met a few locals at the cabin while we were waiting for Patrick to pick us up, but other than that, it was just us and the bears. (Note: we did not see any bears on this trail, we did see a young brown bear down by the beach - it may have been chasing one of the local's dogs...but do not fear, bring your bear spray on this hike and make sure you stay vocal throughout...you will be fine!) I am pleased to say we made it up and down in roughly 7 hours, I can finally scratch this summit off my bucket list. It was an amazing journey, one that I will think about...oh everyday.
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| Early morning boat ride across Sitka Sound. |
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| Waving goodbye to Patrick. |
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| First steps, long way to go. |
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| Who knew these guys lived out here. |
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| Mt. Edgecumbe looming in the distance as usual. |
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| He's so stoked I made him do this. |
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| Best tent site ever? |
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| Up we go! |
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| When you think a hike is almost over, and you are terribly mistaken. |
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| Longest .6 miles of my life. |
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| We made it! |
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| Crazy clouds. |
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| He says he's not going back down, that he's done. |
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| Oh and it's really cold up here. |
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| Hiking around the rim. |
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| Can't get over the clouds up here. |
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| On top of the world. |
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| Go Jags. |
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| Inside the volcano, #anticlimactic. |
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