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hich we visited. The above photo is of Mosquito Cove, which we hiked to one afternoon.</p><p id="fb9d">My husband has a Garmin watch and we were amazed at the details it captured on our hikes and kayaking experiences. Here, you can clearly see just how wild the place is. And you can also see our exploration of the cove (at the very top).</p><p id="4861">The photo at the beginning of this story is of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Edgecumbe_(Alaska)">Mount Edgecumbe</a> from our hike to Mosquito Cove, but, believe it or not, the photo below is from the parking lot of Quality Foods. It has to be the prettiest parking lot view I’ve ever seen. I think the locals thought I was a little nutso camped out in the parking lot with my camera while my husband went inside to gather some dinner for us.</p><figure id="86b7"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*fNgL7guRm9aO8o67BJ1v3g.jpeg"><figcaption><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Edgecumbe_(Alaska)">Mount Edgecumbe</a>, from the Quality Foods parking lot. Photo ©Erika Burkhalter.</figcaption></figure><p id="18cd">Here’s the parking lot of Quality Foods, along with our little rental jeep, which was, literally, the very last available vehicle to rent in Sitka until August! It had 186,000 miles on it and was left for us, by the little local agency, with the keys under the doormat. I love small towns and how trusting people are who live there.</p><p id="8730">A lesson we’ve learned from traveling this spring and summer is that rental cars are super-difficult to come by right now because the rental companies have sold off so much of their inventory during the pandemic. When we were in Hawaii a couple months ago, people were — I kid you not!!!-renting U-Hauls to get around in.</p><figure id="d268"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*nI-Zu_BVLCtegtf96z0a5A.jpeg"><figcaption>The Quality Foods Parking lot has one of the nicest views I’ve ever seen for a grocery store!</figcaption></figure><p id="d624">This is the view from the back deck of the Airbnb that we rented. We never went out to dinner, or even left the house, once we were home from our day-time adventures, because the view was so phenomenal. Every night, we were buzzed by Bald Eagles. We saw a little mink running through the rocks at twilight. And on the first evening, a sea otter swam around the cove, diving and surfacing over and over again.</p><figure id="b8ef"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*yiDWQL3P6KHRNibQv5HccQ.jpeg"><figcaption>Evening view from our Airbnb</figcaption></figure><p id="215b">The crazy thing was that the strip of flat land you see, in the photo below, was the local airport. They don’t have a lot of flights coming in or out, but we watched multiple small planes and several Alaskan Airlines jets come in and out. One night, when the wind was a bit high, several float planes landed on the runway. We didn't even know that float planes could do that.</p><figure id="67a5"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*04qsL_LaYiXixe5GgQZTgg.jpeg"><figcaption>Yes, that’s a landing strip. Photo ©Erika Burkhalter.</fi

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gcaption></figure><p id="54dc">I did miss my mountain bike though while I was traveling. This weekend, my husband and I hit the trails pretty hard three days in a row. Our grand finale was a “training ride,” to prepare for climbing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddleback_(Orange_County,_California)">Saddleback Mountain</a>.</p><p id="6696">It’s an intensely steep ride up a dirt fire road. While it is not a super technical ride, it is pretty much straight uphill. After the cool weather in Alaska, the eighty degree weather was scorching. We surprised ourselves and got within five miles of the summit. But we ran out of water and decided we needed to come back down. Alas, we’ll have to try again with a little more water, and maybe a cooler day.</p><figure id="4aa1"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*lkxHAWIl-q46TkwRXFs8EQ.jpeg"><figcaption>Almost to the top of Saddleback Mountain.</figcaption></figure><p id="3dce">Thank you for following along on my SNAPSHOTS week in photos. And thank you <a href="undefined">Dennett</a> for creating this challenge. I always really look forward to reading about and seeing other people’s photos from around the world.</p><p id="7181">The following folks also publish their photos from the week quite frequently and I would invite you to check them out too:</p><p id="0f44"><a href="undefined">Anne Bonfert</a>, <a href="undefined">Tracy Aston</a>, <a href="undefined">David Wade Chambers</a>, <a href="undefined">Lisa Bolin</a>, <a href="undefined">Mia Verita</a>, <a href="undefined">LensAfield</a>, <a href="undefined">Barbara Radisavljevic</a>, <a href="undefined">Kim Zuch</a></p><p id="d4f6"><i>Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).</i></p><p id="f849">You might also enjoy:</p><div id="09e1" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/back-from-alaska-1aa9a475a82c"> <div> <div> <h2>Back from Alaska</h2> <div><h3>A trip of a lifetime</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*Y77Guk0a3T8G8fXPGnPhTQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="24e3" class="link-block"> <a href="https://psiloveyou.xyz/pedaling-into-the-soft-embers-of-a-summer-evening-e162d2619cd8"> <div> <div> <h2>Pedaling into the Soft Embers of a Summer Evening</h2> <div><h3>A bike ride through the thistles</h3></div> <div><p>psiloveyou.xyz</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*lqRQ5Ja7U7rJYCAJCqGslA.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="9add">Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.</p></article></body>

View of Mount Edgecumbe from the Mosquito Cove Trail. Sitka Alaska. Photo ©Erika Burkhalter.

Photography, Travel

From Sitka to Saddleback

A week in photos

We’ve been back from Alaska for almost a week now, and I’m still trying to get back into the groove of things at home, in Southern California. This really was a “trip-of-a-lifetime.” Looking back through the photos makes my heart ache a bit for that wild part of the world.

The beauty and vastness of Alaska is something that really can only be experienced by being there — words and photos just don’t quite do it justice. Smitten by our visit to Denali National Park last summer, we just couldn’t wait to get back again. This time we were mostly on the water though, which was quite a different experience.

The view above is of Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano located at the southern end of Kruzof Island, Alaska. The volcano is about 9.9 miles (16 km) east of the Queen Charlotte Fault that separates the North American and Pacific Plates, and is the highest point in the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, an area of about 100 square miles.

Most days of the year, Mount Edgecumbe is hidden in the clouds, but we were lucky enough to have two days of summer sunshine while we were in Sitka and the mountain revealed herself to us in all of her glory.

While we were there, we heard a story about someone lighting tires on fire on top of the mountain last summer. When the people of Sitka woke up, it looked as if the dormant volcano had sprung back to life and was about to erupt. Apparently, this event created quite a lot of havoc.

The Mosquito Cove Trail (from my husband’s Garmin Watch)

The hiking around Sitka is phenomenal, although there is always the very real threat of bears, which kept us solidly on some of the more well-traveled paths. We had one terrifying moment when an off-leash dog emerged from the brush and scared us half-to-death. But the only bears we saw here were in the “Fortress of the Bear,” a rescue center which we visited. The above photo is of Mosquito Cove, which we hiked to one afternoon.

My husband has a Garmin watch and we were amazed at the details it captured on our hikes and kayaking experiences. Here, you can clearly see just how wild the place is. And you can also see our exploration of the cove (at the very top).

The photo at the beginning of this story is of Mount Edgecumbe from our hike to Mosquito Cove, but, believe it or not, the photo below is from the parking lot of Quality Foods. It has to be the prettiest parking lot view I’ve ever seen. I think the locals thought I was a little nutso camped out in the parking lot with my camera while my husband went inside to gather some dinner for us.

Mount Edgecumbe, from the Quality Foods parking lot. Photo ©Erika Burkhalter.

Here’s the parking lot of Quality Foods, along with our little rental jeep, which was, literally, the very last available vehicle to rent in Sitka until August! It had 186,000 miles on it and was left for us, by the little local agency, with the keys under the doormat. I love small towns and how trusting people are who live there.

A lesson we’ve learned from traveling this spring and summer is that rental cars are super-difficult to come by right now because the rental companies have sold off so much of their inventory during the pandemic. When we were in Hawaii a couple months ago, people were — I kid you not!!!-renting U-Hauls to get around in.

The Quality Foods Parking lot has one of the nicest views I’ve ever seen for a grocery store!

This is the view from the back deck of the Airbnb that we rented. We never went out to dinner, or even left the house, once we were home from our day-time adventures, because the view was so phenomenal. Every night, we were buzzed by Bald Eagles. We saw a little mink running through the rocks at twilight. And on the first evening, a sea otter swam around the cove, diving and surfacing over and over again.

The crazy thing was that the strip of flat land you see, in the photo below, was the local airport. They don’t have a lot of flights coming in or out, but we watched multiple small planes and several Alaskan Airlines jets come in and out. One night, when the wind was a bit high, several float planes landed on the runway. We didn't even know that float planes could do that.

Yes, that’s a landing strip. Photo ©Erika Burkhalter.

I did miss my mountain bike though while I was traveling. This weekend, my husband and I hit the trails pretty hard three days in a row. Our grand finale was a “training ride,” to prepare for climbing Saddleback Mountain.

It’s an intensely steep ride up a dirt fire road. While it is not a super technical ride, it is pretty much straight uphill. After the cool weather in Alaska, the eighty degree weather was scorching. We surprised ourselves and got within five miles of the summit. But we ran out of water and decided we needed to come back down. Alas, we’ll have to try again with a little more water, and maybe a cooler day.

Almost to the top of Saddleback Mountain.

Thank you for following along on my SNAPSHOTS week in photos. And thank you Dennett for creating this challenge. I always really look forward to reading about and seeing other people’s photos from around the world.

The following folks also publish their photos from the week quite frequently and I would invite you to check them out too:

Anne Bonfert, Tracy Aston, David Wade Chambers, Lisa Bolin, Mia Verita, LensAfield, Barbara Radisavljevic, Kim Zuch

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).