I arrived in Anchorage, after a week of driving, on the afternoon of Tuesday the 28th of August. I met up with Callie at a coffee shop (near REI, of course) and we immediately went to go look at a some houses. A house and a condo were right in the area that we wanted to live in: mid-town right by Westchester Lagoon. The house near the Lagoon was nice, but not exactly what we were looking for. The big plus (other than location) was that we could move in immediately. We had both been living out of suitcases for a while, and that was a big draw.
However, Callie had also looked that morning at a house in the Valley of the Moon on Aurora Drive that we both thought looked like it would be nicer to live in. Patience prevailed and we put off a decision until I could look at the house on Aurora the next day. That night we crashed in Girdwood at Callie's friend's house. Girdwood is beautiful. It's right by Alyeska, the largest ski mountain in Alaska.
However, Callie had also looked that morning at a house in the Valley of the Moon on Aurora Drive that we both thought looked like it would be nicer to live in. Patience prevailed and we put off a decision until I could look at the house on Aurora the next day. That night we crashed in Girdwood at Callie's friend's house. Girdwood is beautiful. It's right by Alyeska, the largest ski mountain in Alaska.
The next day we met with Linda, our now current landlord, and signed our lease. That was Wednesday morning and we couldn't move in to the house until Saturday. So we decided to go on a backpacking trip. After some intent guidebook scouring, we chose to do the Devil's Pass trail as an out and back trip.
For those of you that want to just skip my description and jump straight to some pictures, here's the link!
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/DevilSPeak
Devil's Pass is on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage. Check out a map of the town of Cooper Landing, which is right by the start of our hike, here. The Resurrection Pass trail is a longer traverse that runs North/South. We did another trail that leads to a pass that meets up with the southern portion of that traverse.
Our first night we didn't get started until late (it took a while after signing the lease to buy food, pack our bags, and drive down to Cooper Landing). We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant that had a beautiful deck looking out over a lake. The place was pretty cool. Although it had this crazy turkey that was just hanging out on the deck - I assume it was a pet. Towards the end of the meal it decided that it didn't like our waitress and decided to go after her feet. She chased it off.
We finally hit the trail about an hour before sunset. We did the two miles to the first tent site quickly and set up the tent just as it got dark. It was pretty hard to find a flat spot to set up the tent. Luckily there were pretty much no mosquitoes. We were a bit wary of bears, but the site had a bear locker for our food and we were a bit away from where we stored the food.
The next morning we got going quickly so we could get into the sun. The hike up to the pass was actually pretty easy. It was a gentle slope through the forest and then the trees ended and we had great views up and down the valley.
We noticed a lot of moose tracks on the trail and one pile of bear scat, but we never spotted any of the local large mammals.
Once we hit the pass, we were in a gorgeous stretch of tundra dotted with lakes and beaver ponds. The sky was still clear blue and it was gorgeous. We stopped to take a swim in a lake near the pass. It was ridiculously cold. So we instead munched on lingonberries and enjoyed the sun.
Our swim was well timed, because as we descended into the next valley over it started to cloud up. We explored the cabin at devil's pass and then headed for our intended camp site. We arrived and set up the tent just as it started to rain. We threw up my shelter tarp (a great buy!) and tied one side to some trees and staked the other down to make a lean-to. We ate lunch, read books and enjoyed the break while it rained and then hailed.
Once the storm looked to have broken, we took a hike down the valley to see if we could spot some of the other local lakes. We turned back after spotting some cool berries and some beavers, but no close ups of the lakes.
That night it rained more, but we stayed dry in the new tent (Thanks Gene!).
Our next morning was partly cloudy and we did a quick hike up to Resurrection Pass to see what it was like. The pass was not obvious, but the tundra up there was beautiful.
We hiked out with patches of rain chasing us down the valley.
A bit footsore (we both need new boots) we drove over to Hope, a town on the other side of Turnagain Arm from Anchorage. We ate fish and chips, drank a beer, and talked to Carlos. This guy is awesome: he organizes bike races around Anchorage throughout the year. Including a crit on a frozen lake!
We found out that the next morning there was a 109-mile mountain bike called the "soggy bottom ride" that went from Hope, over the Resurrection Pass to Cooper Landing, then back up over Devil's Pass and down to Hope. Crazy.
Our campsite that night was the worst. It was beautiful, but the ground was ridiculously hard and neither of us got any sleep. We could not wait until the morning when we could drive back to Anchorage and move into our new house. Showers never seem so wonderful as when you are at the end of a backpacking trip.
For another description of the trail, check out:
1 comment:
Northern Disclosure--!
Oof. My ribs. Whoo. Oh, my sides. Cut it out. No, really. What a cut-up. Oh, Sally.
I rather like the adjective "footsore".
Post a Comment