Sitka Trails

I told Connor and Rowan about my plans to visit all the trails, get tracks and refresh (or in some cases, make) my acquaintance with them in order to update the trails site. They seemed to have mixed feelings about helping me with this project. But only in the sense that Connor was unhesitating in his approval of the idea, and Rowan was decidedly unenthusiastic about the prospect.

For our first trip as part of this project, we decided to start relatively easy, with Thimbleberry Lake-Heart Lake trail. A fair amount of snow had fallen, and was continuing to fall as we made our way up from the Thimbleberry Lake Trailhead. We passed a family with a couple of young boys carrying small snow shovels who seemed determined to shovel at least part of the trail. We also saw other folks coming and going as we made our way along.

It took us a bit less than an hour to make it over to the Heart Lake Trailhead. Blue Lake Road is still closed to all non-dam project traffic above the trailhead, but it looked like it might be okay to at least walk the lower section of road between Sawmill Creek Road and the Heart Lake Trailhead. Instead of making a loop of it, we just opted to turn back around and return the way we had come. It took us a little less than an hour each way.

As we had a fair amount of time left in the day, we decided to go ahead and see if road conditions were reasonable enough to get out to Herring Cove. One of the things that inspired me to get back to work on this site was a question/comment left for me about the “Bear Mountain Trail” shown on the sign at Green Lake Road. I didn’t remember seeing such a sign (or at least noticing a Bear Mountain Trail), and was curious about it.

I was watching for a sign as we walked up Green Lake Road after parking at the Herring Cove Trail lot. Sure enough, when we reached the gate, there was a nice green sign with a rudimentary map that included an indication of “Bear Mountain Trail”. That seemed sort of funny, since as far as I know, there has never been an official trail up the mountain. There are at least a couple of different well used routes up the mountain off of Green Lake road, however. The one I am most familiar with starts at Pole 41 and, given the scale of the map, appeared to be the one shown. (The other is much closer to Bear Cove and provides access to Bear Lake – I’ve not made it up that one yet.) We ended up walking out as Pole 41 before turning around.

Distance:
3.4 miles (Thimbleberry Lake – Heart Lake Trail, round trip)
1.8 miles (Green Lake Road to Pole 41, round trip)

Connor and I did the trail from Heart Lake to Thimbleberry Lake on bicycle today. This is the first time I’ve been on the route since the new trail was opened this last May. I’ll need to do a fair amount of revision to the Heart Lake and Thimbleberry Lake Trail sections of the trail guide, as the trail is significantly different than the old trail it replaces.

The trail is about as wide as a road with a slightly raised middle portion. It consists of well-packed dirt and rock with a couple of bridges on the Thimbleberry Lake side. Several benches were placed alongside the trail, and a dock with skiff on Heart Lake is a noticable new addition, as well.

The trail is pretty steep in a few places, but there are no steps, as it is intended that this trail be used by mountain bikers and cross country skiers in season. I was not able to pedal up the steeper sections with the trail-a-bike, though I think I would have been able to make it on my own. I’m sure the trail-a-bike was not intended for off-road use, but it seemed to do all right on this relatively tame trail. Connor thought the bumpy ride going down hill was fun.