Southcentral Alaska 2014 Summer Hikes

In the Summer of 2014, I accumulated some miles on the trail.  Some of them were spent hiking, some running, and others feeling like I was dying from exhaustion.  All the hikes were day trips that I was able to do from the house.

Bird Ridge is just south of Anchorage.  It is a short, but steep climb from Turnagain Arm up to 3,505 ft.  I was easily able to convince our visitors that it was a great hike to do before bringing them to the ferry in Whittier.  We were fortunate to have a dry conditions and get some great views of the Chugach Range and Turnagain Arm. 

Hiking up the last section of Bird Ridge

 Matanuska Peak: - Every time I leave the house I can see the 6,1119 ft. Matanuska Peak, but until July 15, 2014 I had never made it to the tip, top! My usual running partner convinced me that not only should we climb Matanuska Peak but we should do so via way of Lazy Mountain, which is the Annual Matanuska Challenge Course. I've always had a healthy respect of the athletes who run this race, and now having completed the course, I am even more impressed by their times.

Matansuka Peak - 6,119 feet

There is over 9,000 feet of elevation change in each direction on 14 miles of trail.  Near the top of Matanuska Peak it is a bolder scramble and there are some smaller sections of scree, but mostly it is the steepness and the constant up or down that beats up on the body by the end of the day.  By the end of the day, I felt I had accomplished something!

Flattop Mountain: On the hillside of Anchorage is the most summited peak in Alaska, Flattop Mountain, which is accessed by the Glen Alps parking lot. I brought Autumn and a friend up Flattop the first year I lived in Anchorage, but hadn't returned again until I picked up one of our visitors from the airport.

Top of Flattop looking toward Anchorage

When I asked if he'd rather stroll around downtown until Bryant got off work or go climb a mountain, he picked climbing a mountain, and I didn't complain. The hike takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours round trip.  There is a bit of scrambling at the top that made me too nervous to bring the boys on it when we were young and lived in Anchorage.  And seeing that it is such a busy trailhead, I never saw any reason to go back again until that day.  There were thin high clouds and visibility wasn't that great, but it was fun to get on top of that famous peak once again.  What I didn't realize when I took the picture up the valley is that Powerline Pass would end up on my agenda a few weeks later.  Maybe the hike up Flattop replanted that trail idea in my mind. 

Top of Flattop Mountain looking up Powerline Pass

Powerline Pass - Glen Alps to Indian:  There are also less popular trails that leave the parking lot and we decided that to do just that.  Powerline Pass is a trail along a set of electrical wires that head from the Anchorage side through a valley and end up on the Turnagain Arm side in the small town of Indian. To the pass, the trail is wide, easy to follow, and affords great views of the city of Anchorage down below.  Most people turn around here and now I know why. 

The Indian side is steep and overgrown with alders.  That isn't so bad with hiking/running but I'm glad Bryant and I never followed through with any ideas of biking this same route.  Down wouldn't be much fun at all on a bike and coming back up I suspect would be a hike and bike for almost anyone. 

Powerline Pass - Looking down the Indian Side at Turnagain Arm

When we reached Indian, we had a snack at the Barbeque Pit and then headed back to Glen Alps.  It was an almost marathon day at 25.4 miles and 5,500 feet of elevation round trip.  Neither Kari or I thought it mattered that we didn't reach the magic 26.2 marathon number.  We'd had a fun and fulfilling day. 

 

Bold Ridge Trail - Eklutna Lake:   Through the month of July and early August it became a weekly event for my running partner, Kari, and I to conquer the different trails in our area.  On all the trails we'd done so far there were sections that were runnable, but the steep sections we would hike. Bold Ridge Trail is a nice combination.  The first and last five miles are an easy trail that runs alongside Eklutna Lake.  Then the trails heads up and then down the mountain ridgeline.  

View of Eklutna Lake from the Bold Ridge Trail

We just kept following the trail and ridgeline until we couldn't go any further.  As we moved closer to Bold Peak, we scared quite a few Dall Sheep and they looped away ahead of us around the next bend in the trail. After 3.5 miles the uphill trail stops. Experienced climbers carrying loads of gear may choose to go beyond our turning point and conquer the actual peak. Even if we had gear we couldn't have gone further, because clouds moved back and forth over the top of Bold Peak.  It was also good we didn't dilly dally any longer than necessary because the raindrops chased us back to the parking lot the last 2 miles. 

Johnson Pass:  Johnson Pass is the perfect long running trail.  It is 23.5 miles long, but there isn't much elevation gain and the entire trail is runnable(or bikeable). The problem is that the trail either requires driving 2 vehicles down and running a shuttle between trailheads, or an extra long day of round trip running back to the car.  Neither situation appealed to us, so Johnson Pass remained on the "would like to do list."

When Bryant started talking about heading to Seward for the weekend one Friday after work,  running the Johnson Pass Trail popped into my mind.  Luckily Kari was willing and available to run.  She drove us down to the south end of the trail and we spent all day running to the other side.  At the top of the pass are several lakes with good spots for a lunch or camping if someone were backpacking.  The cow parsnip along the trail can get pretty thick and high in places, but we were fortunate enough to have arrived only a few days after the Forest Service had cleared it away from the trail.  Everything was smooth sailing for us.  Along the way we came across tons of blueberries and salmonberries.  We gratefully grazed upon them talking loudly to keep the bears from invading our find of berries. 

It wasn't long before we made it to the other side and we were waiting patiently with the little biting flies for Bryant to pick us up.  Running Johnson Pass is now on the "done list."

Summit Lake Hatcher's Pass:  I was able to convince Wyatt and one of his friends to join me on a short day hike in Hatcher's Pass. 

At the very top of Hatcher's pass is the Summit Lake parking lot.  There is a short, steep and beautiful trail that wraps halfway around the ridgeline above the lake.  From the top are great sweeping views of Pioneer Peak, Palmer, Wasilla and down the Knik Arm.  We explored a little beyond the top of the ridgeline peak where the trail is a little less defined and eventually petered out completely,  Maybe next summer I'll go back and explore the connecting ridgeline to Government Peak.

For more pictures from Alaska Summer of 2014 Hikes:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/108360286648812110649/albums/6139704843905819649