Montana. If the word doesn’t conjure an image in your mind I don’t know where you have been, but you need to go there. For me, it brings to mind green valleys surrounded by forested mountains.
But the Smith River? If you have heard of it you probably talk to people in the rafting world. When I told most people we were going I got a blank stare. Where is it? Well, it’s not really by anywhere you have heard of really. And that is part of the charm.
After a day on the water it was time to take a hike. The only trail on the map of the island was to a lake and that looked like as good a destination as any. The first half of the hike followed the rocky beach before we headed inland and upwards.
Days in Alaska in May are long, even in southeast. All those hours of light leave you wanting to seize each hour you are given. With that in mind we didn’t waste too much time before we were up and ready to explore, and headed out on a hike. There are definitely places with worse plants (I’m talking about you, southwest Oregon, and your poison oak), but after being reintroduced to devils club I can say I didn’t miss it one bit.
There was a nice spruce and hemlock forest that was dense enough it made getting around pretty easy.
