Another great ridgeline in Chugach State Park, excellent views of the front range.
Click here for a full screen version.
Thanks to Ian and Josh for waiting for me. Not my best day.
Archive for the ‘Hike’ Category
On the ridge between Wolverine and Elliot
Sunday, July 31st, 2011Penguin Ridge Hike
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011The alarm clock crowed rudely at 4:00 AM. On a Saturday. I fought back by hitting the snooze bar a couple of times.
The Penguin Ridge hike has been on my to-do list for a long time. Tim Kelley first recommended it to me years ago. Like many other local Chugach hikes, I always figured that some weekend, when I had a little extra time, I’ll knock it off my list. But, funny thing, when you have two little rugrats there is never “extra time.” I decided to start at an ungodly hour, so that I could be back on Dad duty by lunch. I left the Bird Creek parking lot just after 5:30 AM.
I knew from previous reports that this ridge offered a lot more vertical and a lot more scrambling than what you can see from the road. But even so, I was surprised how much scrambling there was. I thought that once I got a mile or two past Penguin Peak, I’d be tundra-running the rest of the way. Nope. I should have known better – after all this is the Chugach. The ridge is narrow, rocky and loose enough that you need to go slow, watch your footing, and occasionally scramble, all the way from Penguin Peak until you are directly above the Girdwood turn-off on the highway.
I briefly thought about descending here, as Roman suggests. But I couldn’t resist the urge to see what was around the next corner, then the next… I’m glad I kept going, because the terrain got easier and I could move faster, as the ridge headed northeast, paralleling the road into Girdwood. The terrain is a lot more nuanced here, a wide ridge with lots of tundra-covered rises, depressions and a beautiful lake. Great for running. The scenery is better too, as you are looking away from the highway and into the heart of the Chugach.
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360 degrees from the top of Penguin Peak
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I knew that finding the California Creek trail for the descent was going to be difficult because it is very over-grown. I never did find it. After wandering above brush-line for almost an hour, I finally gave up and picked the drainage that had the shortest distance between open tundra at the top and evergreen canopy at the bottom. Once in the drainage, I found the easiest thing to do was walk in the creek. The California Creek valley is notorious for bears, so I was yelling constantly to overcome the noise of the creek. So, yes, I was doing the same thing these kids did just a few hours later up in the Talkeetnas. [ Shudder ] Just when my feet were going numb from the water, I arrived in the spruce and hemlock forest, which was open for fairly easy walking. I quickly hit “Abe’s Trail” which took me to the California Creek trailhead. It turned out to be a very mild descent by bushwhack standards, and possibly better than the overgrown trail would have been.
I jogged into town and met the family, who had been playing at the Girdwood playground. Unfortunately for them, Dad was a little less than energetic that afternoon.
View Map & Stats on Endomondo
15 miles, 8 hours (includes one mile/one hour of wandering to find Ca. Creek trail)
Notes:
I was glad I went west to east, so that I hit the rocky stuff early when I was still fresh. I was hiking into a decent headwind the whole way, but it wasn’t a big deal. It is nice to end in Girdwood and grab some food. A classic Chugach hike, spoiled slightly by the sight and sound of Seward Highway traffic along the way.
Adventure Apps
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011On Sunday I needed to be in Girdwood for dinner, but I had just enough time for a short hike on the way there. I decided to go up Rainbow, which is one of my favorites along Turnagain Arm.
The hike was great, with oodles of unexpected sunshine. I didn’t bring a camera, but when I got to the top, I whipped out my phone and took this picture (click and drag the picture to spin 360 degrees):
Click here for a full screen version.
It took me a long time to succumb to getting a smartphone, but I really enjoy how easy it makes documenting my trips. No longer do I need a camera, cell phone and GPS in my pack (though I still carry a better camera on occasion). It took me about 30 seconds to snap this picture, and it uploaded to the web as I began my decent. The quality is not a good as some of the panoramas I’ve stitched together in Photoshop, but for quick little trips like this it works great.
While we’re on the subject, I’ll share my absolute favorite smartphone app: Endomondo.
This embedded map of my Rainbow hike is very cramped, click here for a full screen version.
Maybe its a hold-over from my years of keeping a training log, or maybe its my fascination with maps, but I love to document my routes. Endomondo makes it easy to map your routes and see all the vital statitics of your workout. It’s as easy as using a stopwatch. There are many, many apps that do this, but Endomondo is my favorite. (In truth, they won me over when I saw that they had both “Roller skiing” and “Orienteering” as workout types.) So now I can keep a record of all my workouts with minimal effort.
One additional cool feature is Live Tracking via the web when you are within cell phone range. So if I get “lost” and my 45 minute run somehow turns into 2 hours (when I am supposed to be watching the kids and cooking dinner), my wife can see exactly where I am (and thus be mad instead of worried). Well, sometimes its a cool feature. Of course, there are privacy settings so you can control who sees your maps.
Oh, and if you try Endomondo, make sure you add me as a “friend.” It is surprisingly motivating to see other peoples workouts. I added this Rainbow hike as a public route, which means you can try to beat my time and become Route Champion! Wahoo!
Just like old times
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
For the first few years that I lived in Alaska, Scott was my go-to guy for outdoor fun. He was a serious ski racer at that time, but whenever I could distract him from rollerskiing, we’d go do long skis and runs in the mountains. But in 2005, Scott decided he’d rather be an academic than a ski bum, and that he would rather not live 4,000 miles away from his soon-to-be-wife. So he left Alaska. I am fortunate that there are so many cool people to do outdoor adventures with here in Anchorage, but I still miss having Scott around.
Scott and Jess were back in town this past week, and he and I were both looking forward to getting back into the mountains together. As it turned out, we didn’t have a lot of time. We had to squeeze in an afternoon hike during kiddo nap time on Sunday. We went down to Girdwood and hiked up Crow Pass. Then we crossed over Clear Creek and poked around in some side valleys before it was time to head back down.
A short trip, but a great time, as always.
Packrafting the East Fork of the Chulitna
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010Well, it took until mid-August, but I finally got away for a little while.
This past weekend, Rob and I both had a free day and a craving to do some packrafting. We decided to go hit the East Fork of the Chulitna river. We’d heard that the East Fork is a great packraft river, and we also knew that there were a lot of hiking route options to get to that water. We didn’t have a lot of info on any of the hiking routes, so in the end we picked the route we thought looked best on the map.
The whole trip was spectacular. The hiking, the boating, the weather… all perfect.
It was quite jarring – shocking even – to wake up Sunday morning in Broad Pass to clear skies. The hike only got better from there. We explored two beautiful alpine valleys, crossed two scenic mountain passes, traversed a ridgeline, and had a fun scree descent, all while basking in the only sun of the summer. Along the way we saw a dozen sheep, a dozen caribou, a sow grizzly with two cubs, two porcupines, a few bald eagles, and a whistling army of marmots. In six hours of hiking, we only bushwhacked for, at most, fifteen minutes. And even then, it was very mild bushwhacking (well, except for the wasp incident…).
Just over a dozen miles later, we descended to the East Fork of the Chulitna, about a mile above the confluence with Crooked Creek. Initially, we thought that section might be too bony for floating, but after walking downstream a few hundred yards, we decided to give it a try. We were glad we did, because it was bouncy Class II butt-boating at its best. The water smoothed out a bit when Crooked Creek came in, until we reached the two canyons of class III water. The canyons were tremendous fun. We even did a few sections more than once. After that, it was mostly bouncy waves down to the Parks Highway.
At the highway, we grabbed our stashed bikes and pedaled nine miles back up the highway to Rob’s truck. By this time, the clouds had moved back in, and the rain started just as we pointed the truck south towards Anchorage. The weather window had closed, but we had put every minute of it to very good use.
Hike:
12.7 miles (plus a spur to bag a peak and another detour to look for a lost hat)
6 hours without much stopping
~5500′ of vertical
Great walking with almost no bushwhacking or scrambling
Packrafting:
16 miles of splashy class II, with two fun class III canyons.
4.5 hours, including scouting and playing a bit.
A great river for intermediate boaters looking to try a taste of class III water.
Total trip, including bike shuttle:
37.5 miles
12.5 hours
5 stars
A couple more comments about the route…
We didn’t dally much, so some might find this more enjoyable as an overnight trip. It’s also worth saying that even though the reviews on Packrafting forum give this trip great marks, I think they are under-selling it. It is probably the most fun day trip of hiking and rafting that I have done. A classic for sure.
View a map and more photos:
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Watch Rob enter the second canyon:
Second canyon – East Fork of the Chulitna from Cory Smith on Vimeo.
Whoahs and Williwaw
Friday, August 6th, 2010This summer has not been what I hoped it would be, on so many levels. The obvious reason is the rainy weather we’ve been having for two months, but really that’s only a small part what’s been going on for me.
I’m still dealing with weird health issues. They aren’t as bad as they were during the winter, but I still don’t feel right. Work has also been much busier than usual. And finally, my wife gave birth to our second child, a daughter, this spring. Obviously a joyous event, and we are thrilled, but the little one’s had some unexpected rough spots in her first few months, which is super stressful and time-consuming for us as parents.
The net result of all this is that I have done nothing adventurous this summer. I bike to and from work and that’s about it. I did some orienteering events early in the summer, until my back gave out (see: weird health issues, above). My longest hike was up Flattop. Damn, that’s embarrassing. As someone who deals with stress through exercise, its been a tough time for me.
I was finally so desperate to get outside that last week I cashed in some vacation time, simply so I could go for a hike. I wanted to hike all day, but since I haven’t been out at all, I figured I should stick close to home and have a few bail out options. So I left Glen Alps with a loose goal to climb Mt. Williwaw, but my route was undetermined. I ended up going up Little O’Malley and O’Malley peak first, then dropping down to Williwaw Lakes before picking my way up the Williwaw gully. Due to the rain and cold temperatures, the snow in the gully was almost ice. My running shoes couldn’t dig in at all. Luckily I had my ice axe, otherwise I would not have made it up. From the top of Williwaw, I skirted the ridge over towards Koktoya and briefly thought about bagging that one too, but decided not to push it on my first day out. I dropped down to Long Lake, then went up and over the ridge behind Wolverine and back to Glen Alps.
The sun wasn’t out, and it was very windy, but it was a glorious day as far as I was concerned. I was able to sweat out a lot of frustration during those 18 miles and 7500 feet of vertical. I didn’t go fast, but I was encouraged that I felt pretty good even after seven and a half hours. Thank god it’s hard to lose base endurance.
Caines Head Alpine Trail
Monday, September 14th, 2009I spent the Labor Day weekend camping with family and friends at Caines Head State Recreation Area, on Resurrection Bay south of Seward. On Sunday, we did a really cool hike up the Alpine Trail. Despite rave reviews in guidebooks and online trail guides, this hike is still relatively unknown. I think it ranks among the best trail hikes in Alaska.
The trail from Caines Head to above treeline is three miles (plus an additional 4.5 miles if you are starting from Seward instead of Caines Head or Derby Cove). Once you get above treeline, there are tons of cool glacial ridges and gullies to explore, a few small tarns, and spectacular views of Resurrection Bay and Callisto Peak.
At one of the tarns, the kids and moms stopped to wade in the water and scramble on the rocks, while Ian and I explored the southern flanks of Callisto Peak. Lots of amazing features to see up here. Gorges, glaciers, cliffs… and that’s before even raising your head to gawk at the views of Resurrection Bay. Ian and I hiked up to the southern ridge of Callisto, where we were treated to a spectacular view of Bear Glacier and the gigantic icebergs floating in its glacial lake. For me, it was the “view of the summer” and one of the best glacier views I’ve ever seen. Unfortuantely, in our haste to drop our kid packs and start exploring, Ian and I both left our cameras behind. Damn! So I can’t share that view with you. The best I can do is show you a couple of pictures of what the view looks like in winter (thanks to Matt Faust). These pics are taken from the top of Callisto rather than the ridge, but you get the idea. Its even more dramatic in the summer with greenery and blue water to offset the white ice.
I highly recommend checking out this hike if you are in the Seward area. The views are as good as Lost Lake or Exit Glacier/Harding Icefield, but with a lot less people. And if you do go, please send me a picture of the Bear Glacier view! I want that shot in my photo album. Maybe I’ll just have to go back. Sigh.
Mountain Orienteering 2009
Monday, August 17th, 2009
The turnout for the Arctic Orienteering Club’s annual Mountain O event is usually low (45 people this year, only 8 on the long course). I think this is because people don’t really understand the Mountain O. Orienteering itself confuses a lot of people. Mix in some mountains as well, and people figure it best to avoid the whole thing. But in my opinion, the Mountain O is the most fun race of the summer. It’s basically a big treasure hunt in the mountains. Plus, it only costs $6. You can’t beat that exercise/price ratio! Anyone who loves to run or hike in the mountains should give it a try. There are usually short and long course options, to fit your fitness, navigation, and motivation levels.
As I sat at home last night feeling battered, bruised and exhausted from this year’s event, I started thinking that this little-known event can hold its own when compared to some of the most infamous mountain running races in Alaska.
Crow Pass Crossing: 24 miles, 3890′ elevation gain,
Powerline Pass race: 13 miles, ~4000′ elevation gain,
Matanuska Peak Challenge: 14 miles, 9000′ elevation gain
2009 Mountain O Long Course: 16.8 miles (mostly off-trail), 5600′ elevation gain
More than anything, I was just trying to justify the fact that the race had left me pretty wasted.
The start and finish were at the Glen Alps trailhead of Chugach State Park. You know its going to be a big day when, twenty-five minutes into the race, you are standing on top of Flattop and you’ve only covered 1/10th of the race distance and found two of the 19 controls. I ran most of the way with Ian Moore, who is both a faster runner and a better navigator. There were a bunch of controls early on that were “tricky” at best, and “misplaced” at worst. One by one, we’d all get to the spot where the control should be, then wander until someone stumbled on it. That allowed me to stay within sight of Ian while we completed most of the climbing. Then we ran together for a couple hours after that. Ian and I have both been battling ankle injuries recently, so we ran a bit gingerly on our feet in the rocky terrain, wondering how long our legs would hold.
After three hours of racing, we had traversed the Flattop Ridge to Ptarmigan Pass, descended into Rabbit Creek valley, started up the base of McHugh Ridge, then crossed back through Ptarmigan Pass to Powerline valley. As Ian and I crossed Powerline valley, we took slightly different routes. I was sure we’d reconnect in a matter of seconds, like we had many times before. But all of a sudden, I was alone. I never saw Ian again. I suspected that he had ankle problems and dropped back. But I also knew Ian’s skills as an orienteer, and it was completely possible that he was ahead of me and I simply couldn’t see him. As I approached the finish at Glen Alps, it would not have surprised me a bit to see Ian standing there, already done. But, as I suspected, he had experienced a shooting pain through his leg and then dialed it back after that. My legs, for their part, were sore but feeling as good as I could have hoped for at the finish.
I completed the course in four hours. Times on the long course varied up to six and a half hours, possibly even longer for those who didn’t finish. A long day for everyone! Congrats to Lindsey for being the only woman to complete the long course (3rd place overall) and Jen for winning the short course.
2009 Mountain Orienteering Results
All the participants deserve congratulations for surviving a challenging course that was made even more difficult by fog and tricky controls. But it was still a lot of fun. Come join us next year!
Bard Peak paddle-climb
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Aaaahhhhh.
That noise you hear is me letting out a loud, contented sigh. Finally, after five long months, I made it back into the mountains of Alaska. My main goal as I was rehabbing my Achilles tendon was to heal well enough and quickly enough to do some peak-bagging before summer was over. If I could just bag a peak or two, summer would not be a total loss. By early August, I was feeling ready and the weather was looking good. So Tim Kelley and I got together for a hike.
Tim suggested Bard Peak, which he had done before. If you’ve ever gone to the Portage Glacier Visitors Center and looked across Portage Lake, you’ve seen Bard Peak. Here’s a picture of it in winter time. Bard Peak is the pointy one on the left.
Bard Peak is fairly close to home and seen by hundreds of people every day, but rarely climbed. It would provide enough vertical gain, bushwhacking, and rock scrambling to give my legs a good test without too many unknown-territory variables.
We accessed the peak by paddling across Portage Lake. The paddling made for great bookends to a spectacular hike. Check my photos below, and of course also check Tim’s trip photos.
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It feels good to be back at home with sore muscles and a few scrapes on my arms and legs, enjoying the afterglow of a long-awaited peak-bagging outing.
Hiked Flattop Yesterday
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009Mostly hike, a little run. I dare say it was my first real workout. Achilles felt great. Opposite knee, not so much. Aaarg, if its not one thing, its another.
