Flattop Mountain in Chugach State Park

Last Saturday, Lila, Hillel and I went to Flattop Mountain in Chugach State Park. When you visit Anchorage, everyone tells you that one of the hikes you have to do is Flattop. It's an easy drive, just on the Eastern side of South Anchorage. You head up into the hills past the swells' huge homes to a well-maintained dirt road out to Powerline Pass. The trail is pretty easy up until you get to the base of the actual hill that is called flattop.

The weather was temperamental. At moments we had view all the way out across the Anchorage bowl, past downtown and out to the Alaska Range. Then ten minutes later a cloud would blow through and we couldn't see more than two-hundred yards.

The path started in a small scrub forest with weather gnarled trees. Then we were out on an exposed slope with berry patches all around. Finally we headed up some very well constructed steps to the saddle below flattop.

From there the snow started and we had to carefully pick our way up carefully. We took our time and followed the route up. The view was pretty spectacular.

Up top, it was surprisingly still. Everyone had told us that it was always windy on the summit, but we had a nice calm day. We scarfed some sandwiches and enjoyed the view. After exploring a bit, we carefully descended. As soon as we made it back down to the last saddle, where the good path started, it began to snow in earnest. It was amazing. Us California folks tried to catch snowflakes in our mouthes. It snowed so hard for a bit that we could actually hear the snow fall.

On the way back down we spotted a moose and her calf out in the valley.

Back in town we spent the evening getting ready for our friend Justin's birthday party. He threw a superhero party where you had to come up with your own superhero and power. I went as "Mr. Patriot". My power was a 'decontextualizer ray' that could instantly turn every issue into black and white and us/them. Callie was "Beergoggula" - you can guess her power. Lila was "The Translatrix" and had a bunch of phrases translated into other languages taped all over her. It was a fun party. I think our house won for best set of costumes (not that it was a competition or anything).


PICTURES:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/Flattop