Friday, October 9 was sunny.  Harbor Mountain Road is the one vehicular access to high country, over two thousand feet above sea level.  The road was built by the military in World War II and led to a secret radar instillation.  The story spread around Sitka was that it was for coast watchers looking for a Japanese attack but the “sight” went beyond what binoculars could see.  The Radar was an SCR-271 unit that looked out over the Gulf of Alaska to spot incoming Japanese Bombers.  The Japanese had taken two of the Aleutian Islands, Attu, and Kiska, and had bombed Dutch Harbor.  There was fear that the Japanese could bomb bases in Sitka.   The strategic concern was that the Japanese would establish bases even closer to the lower 48, putting the Boeing works in Seattle in danger of air strikes.  It turned out that was not the Japanese intention.  The Aleutian invasion was a diversion from Midway and part of establishing an outer defense ring for Japan.  Now there is a picnic shelter built on the radar’s foundation. 

The radar became inactive in 1944 after Attu and Kiska were retaken by American forces and dismantled after the war.  The road was taken over by the Forest Service.  Now the Sitka Sound Science and the Forest Service operate a weather station on Harbor Mountain below the original radar site.

The road is not maintained in the winter and closes on November 1.  Sometimes the upper part of the road is blocked, there are several gates along the road, earlier because early “Termination Dust” (TD for short) can make driving difficult.  Termination Dust is a term used because the first snow on the mountain tops coincides with the end of summer jobs.

This was the first really sunny day, rather than sucker holes, since we got back from our trip and I feared that it may be our last chance to make it to the top before TD.  The Alpine tundra was a little beyond peak color, but still beautiful, especially when framing views of the channels below,