I was stationed in NAF Adak from July 1995 through August
1996.
Either you hated this station or you loved it! As you can
tell, I loved my stay there. The hiking was a very good way to
get away from the monotony of the base and the complaining of
those that hated it.
I remember many good times on Adak and I would like to make a
contribution to others' memories.
I can say that I've scaled a mountain all the way to the top,
I've seen the American symbol of freedom in its purest form
(without a cage around it). I had a drink from a stream that has
absolutely no harmful contaminates in it. And I've taken a deep
breath of air that did not have to go through a filter to be
purified. I didn't like having to go to work while I was
there but I cherished every chance that I had to leave the base
area.
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View southward from the south end of Lake
D'Marie. At the top of the little canyon is Lake
Bonnie Rose, and to the right of that, Husky
Pass. |
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Starting to climb Mount Reed; here is a view
southeast over the meadow seen in the above photo. |
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Looking north from a little valley just south of Lake
D'Marie. In the distance you can see the western
flank of Mount Moffett. |
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Interesting wooden structures, probably an old
boardwalk. |
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View east and a bit north of east, from the slope of
Mount Reed. You can see Lake D'Marie in the
foreground, Adak town and Sweeper Cove in the near
distance and at the farthest viewing distance is Great
Sitkin island, a sometimes active volcano. |
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Same location as above, but view southeast. |
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Was this your car? |
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Bering Hill, early in the morning with the impressive
bulk of Razorback Mountain in the background. |
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One of a great many dirty little caves scattered
around the island. Doubtless during WW2, soldiers huddled
in these things watching for the enemy. |
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View from Candlestick Bridge of Clam Lagoon, sealions
resting on the sandbar. View northeast. |
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View from Candlestick Bridge of Clam Lagoon, sealions
resting on the sandbar. View north. Mount Adagdak
occupies the background on the left side. |
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Heart Lake. Sure, it is cloudy and one wonders what
that wave in the middle is, with no detectable cause. The
Heart Lake Monster? Perhaps one of the lost jeeps that
tried to ford it and discovered it is really deep
in places. A stream flows into it from Lake D'Marie to
the south, and the water then flows west to Shagak Bay.
This forms an "L" wrapped around Mount Reed. |
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Razorback Mountain from the southwest.
Randy Rain helped identify this photo:
From Randy Rain Fri Sep 14 13:02:38 2001
Subject: Southwest approach to Razorback
I'm pretty sure this is a photo of razorback
as you begin the ascent from
the southwest. I can almost make out the spot
where Rod Poole, Harry Hale,
and I spent a freightening night about half way up.
My brand new (piece of
crap) white stag tent threatened to give me a crash
course in hang gliding
at about 3 a.m. in what turned out to be 70 m.p.h winds.
The three of us
spent a cramped few hours in Rod's trusty two man R.E.I.
gortex tent ....
God I Love that place .... Great memories!!!
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Lake D'Marie from the southeast looking northwest. At
far right, distant, is a hill overlooking Shagak Bay. The
notch just nearer and to the left is where the stream
from Lake D'Marie, after passing through Heart Lake,
enters the sea at Shagak Bay. |
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Lake D'Marie, similar view to the above but more
westerly viewing. I cannot read the sign, but as the lake
was for a time the water supply for the town, it probably
is asking folks to not pee in the lake or lose your
pickup truck in it. |
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"My first Adak car!" Cars
and pickup trucks did not last very long on Adak.
Maintenance was very nearly always do-it-yourself, the
wind and rain ate the bodies and sometimes blew the doors
right off the hinges. The road to Commsta (later called
NSGA) had a series of S-curves that were eternally
riddled with deep potholes. It was customary to go rather
fast, shaking the rust off the car and drifting sideways
through the S-curves with the tires just touching the
tops between potholes. At slower speeds the tires
actually go up and down each hole, beating the car to
death. Adak cars hardly ever left the island once
arrived. |
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Waves crashing on rocks. Plenty of waves, plenty of
rocks, not very many places for a boat to come ashore. |
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