Tongass Views

Mitkof Isand's history includes some serious clearcut logging, which in turn, led to some serious road building, which in turn provides access to...denuded landscapes resembling a heavily bombed Ukranian war zone.  So, though I'm opposed to peppering this world with more grim reminders of the conflict between heavy industry and nature, driving on those roads can temporarily lead through some paintable locations.

Throughout southeast Alaska many of those logging roads soon become alder thickets as plant succession works it's wonders.  But, before nature has put the bandaid on what man has wrought, a few paintings have peered back at me from my easel as a result of stopping at pullouts before those roads became impassible.

And, as an aside, one led to what is probably the worst hike of my life.  On that day I sauntered with our old golden retriever, Bessie, up one of those overgrown logging roads.  Slipping between alders was as easy as eating rhubarb pie... and I congratulated myself for choosing such a clever route up Sam Peak.  I drooled at the prospect of photographing an unobstructed view of the Stikine River watershed that would unveil like the drawing of a movie theater curtain once I crested the top.  

But, when I reached the landing where logs were once loaded onto logging trucks, my smile evaporated.  While perhaps only a bit more than 100 yards remained to traverse the clearcut between the "road" and the tree line above, it might have been easier to charge through a wall of angry professional football players to gain that short distance.

The problem: while loggers are after logs they can sell, they leave behind tangles of tree limbs, tree tops and felled trees they deem unmerchantable.  And, on this steep slope, there were piles of them.  It looked like they had just felled the forest and walked away.  I found myself faced with piles of logs I had trouble just climbing over myself much less dragging a golden retriever.  We'd struggle to get on top of a monstrous log only to discover it only led to a dead end or a gain of a couple of feet before we had to abandon our perch.  From there we would descend into a maze of tree limbs that made each step a struggle to extract my legs plus a dog, only to reach another similar sized felled tree.  Repeat!  Mid-maze I contemplated turning back more than once, but that looke just as forboding as forging ahead.  Surely, surmounting the next log would reveal an open path.  Wrong.

But, I made it.  There, above the maze I found easy going along deer trails leading to the ridge and what I was sure would be a view worth the worst of struggles.  AAGH!  Au contraire, all I could see were tiny glimpses of something through a dense wall of trees.  My struggle had been in vain and I still had to get back down the mountain.

Oh dear, I've digressed from my intention in writing this post: sharing paintings of views I've discovered during explorations up these back roads.  

Here are a few:

Tongass Vista

I based this studio piece on a photo I took on my favorite logging road until we replaced our Mazda Tribute with a Honda CR-V.  The problem:  A dip in the road that requires high clearance.

OK, This seems to be my only painting from I road I can no longer traverse.  But, I've made plein air paintings in areas I accessed via roads that the US Forest Service has retained for public access.

Three Lakes Meander

The Three Lakes Loop provides access to a plethora of logging units and a popular system of trails connecting (surprise) three lakes.  This painting depicts a meadow near the trail leading to Crane Lake.

Favorite Meadow

The Ohmer Creek Trail leads to a wetland complex that I hiked into so I could argue with a "pack" of mosquitos while I painted it's "portrait.

Springtime on the Beaver Meadow

The view from the start of the Crane Lake Trail.

Last Bend

A particularly attractive spot is the access road to Greens Camp, a campground in what is the only Alaska State Recreation Area on our island. 

Deep into the Forest

This former logging road now leads to Petersburg's newest water reservoir on Cabin Creek.

Beyond the Bend

I used to park where the Three Lakes Road crosses Falls Creek.  There I could access what was one of my former favorite places to paint on this island.  But now, alders lay strewn across the creek (perhaps the victims of flooding) plus the rugged hike defies my aging body.  Sigh!