Last summer, Ian and I tried to hike from Turnagain Pass to Spencer Glacier Lake, then packraft out the Placer River. I call this trip “Center² Spencer” (Center to Spencer) because the route is Center Ridge to Center Creek to Spencer Glacier. Its as clever as I could get.

Unfortunately, we had to turn back at the pass near Tincan Peak, above Center Ridge. The cliff was a little too high and we didn’t have the right gear. So its been on my list to complete this summer. Friday was a nice day, so we jumped at the chance to do it again. We also took along Bastien, an orienteer who is visiting from France.

This time we made it. It was a great trip, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that some parts sucked. The bushwhack up to the top of Center Ridge wasn’t fun, but it was only half an hour. And after that, the walking on Center Ridge was great. Going over the pass was a challenge, but was made much more doable by good snow conditions and the fact that we had ice axes. The walking on the other side of the pass was easy-going with spectacular views, except for one steep bushwhacking section just before Center Creek Pass. And then, of course, the descent from Center Creek to Spencer Lake was awful. Some of the nastiest bushwhacking I’ve done. If they ever build the proposed whistle-stop trail down this slope, this could become a classic packraft trip. But not until then.

The trip took a total of 11 hours. We hiked quickly, but didn’t push the pace, and we stopped for a few snack breaks. We had a great time and made the most of a rare sunny day. Check out the photos for more details. Thanks to Bill for giving us info from his ski trip on this route in June.

Toby and I decided to go packrafting on Sunday. After looking at the weather forecasts (cloudy, chance of rain, same as every day this summer) and the river levels (high, from rain), and my recent luck (or lack thereof) on new routes, we decided to stick to a known entity.  Recently, a number of people have raved about Resurrection Creek in Hope, so we decided to head down there and check it out.

We parked at the Resurrection trailhead and walked upstream past the impressive river restoration project.  After scouting a canyon, and deciding that it was more than we were interested in tackling, we put in just below the canyon.

Wow, was it fun!  The restored section of the river had quite a few boulders that created big (for a packraft) waves and holes.  We had a great time hitting the drops and popping in and out of eddies.   After the restoration area, the river eases slightly, and the rest of the run (about 8-9 miles total) is fast and lively but without any major dangers until near the very end.  There was very little wood until the last half mile, where we encounted a number of strainers and sweepers.  Some were across the whole river and we had to portage around them.  I could have done without that part, but it was well worth it for the rest of the run. We completed the loop with a bike shuttle back to the parking lot.

The water seemed to be pretty high.  Where we took out in Hope, the river was above its banks and flowing through the willows.   There is no gauge on the creek, but nearby Six Mile was at 10.8 feet.  My best guess is that the restoration section was easy class III at this level, and the rest was fun class II.

Because the river kept us busy, I didn’t take many pictures.  So all I’ve got to show you is this one picture of Toby near the end of the run.

Many of the outdoor trips I do are fairly standard. They are on well-defined trails, doing routes that many people have done before. But the best trips are always the ones that are unique. In Alaska, a land with an infinite number of outdoor opportunities, it always seems like a shame to do the same old, same old. So I constantly have the urge to step out and do something a little different. Sometimes these ‘different’ ideas turn into successful trips. Other times, not so much.

Recently, my batting average on successful trip ideas has taken a nose dive. I’m hitless in my last three attempts. I think part of the reason is that I am searching for adventures closer to home. With greater family responsibility in the past year, my windows for play time have become shorter and less frequent. The problem with this strategy is that I live in a city of almost 300,000 people, many of whom are avid outdoors men and women. Chances are, if there is a great trip to be found within an hour’s drive of Anchorage, it has already been discovered. But that doesn’t stop me from searching. It just means that my failure rate goes up. Way up. Maybe someday I’ll learn to stick to the tried and true, but it hasn’t happened yet.

The unsuccessful trips rarely make it onto this website, especially when they get stymied in the first few miles. But I am making an exception for this one, for two reasons:

1) Its the only thing I’ve done recently
2) It was supposed to be the first ‘adventure’ that Linda and I have done together (just the two of us) since our son was born. So I felt added pressure to make it successful.

But alas, it was not. My plan was a day-hike/packrafting route on the Kenai Peninsula. I estimated about 6 hours of hiking and two hours of rafting. The area is not remote by any means, but I did think I had selected a unique route that could potentially become a packrafting favorite. I’m not going to tell you where, but maybe you can figure it out from this photo…

… or maybe not.

I knew there would be some nasty bushwhacking, which I thought we could handle for a mile or two. But the vegetation was even worse than I expected. Additionally, I hadn’t planned on dealing with a steep side-hill while bushwhacking, and the fact that the creek was raging, which prevented us from being able to cross in search of easier terrain. Plus, it was raining. Eventually, I admitted defeat, and we pulled the plug.

As a consolation prize, we went to the Johnson Pass trailhead in Turnagain Pass and hiked into the bridge over Center Creek, and rafted out to the road. I did this a few years ago as part of another trip, and it was a fun, relaxed float with a few sweepers to keep us on our toes. But today the creek was raging (Six Mile was at 11.4 ft, ‘action’ stage), and there were a lot more sweepers, especially in the first mile or two. Center Creek, usually on the easy side of class II, seemed closer to class III. But after three portages in the first mile, it opened up a bit and we enjoyed a nice run to the road.

So not exactly what I had planned for the day, but it was still nice to get out and about with Linda for the first time in forever.

On Sunday, the local adventure racing club was having a low-key 8 hour adventure race.  Since the weather wasn’t great and some of my desired summer trips are on hold because of lots of snow in the mountains, it seemed like a great way to spend the day and beat myself up a little bit.

Ian and I paired up to compete against 5 other teams.  Darren’s course consisted of various controls around town, with each control worth a certain number of points depending on the difficultly/time involved in reaching it.  The object was to get as many points as possible. The course involved mountain biking, hiking in the Chugach front range, ‘ reverse orienteering’, and paddling Campbell Creek.

It was a lot of fun. I managed to flip my packraft in Campbell Creek (with my bike attached to it), which was quite stupid and embarrassing.  Mental note: Do not try to step, feet first, into a packraft in moving water. The hiking part (in the Williwaw-Wolverine-Long Lake area) was a bit trippy because the mountains were completely enshrouded in low clouds. We ended up coming in late (and losing some points) because we chose to get the high-value control at Long Lake.  But no matter, we still did well in the points and we were glad we pushed out to the Lake.  You can view the results here. The point values aren’t quite right, but they are close enough. Our team name was ‘Ask Cory’ because when Darren asked Ian what the team name was he said - yep - “Ask Cory.”

For many of the controls, we had to take a picture to prove that we made it there.  Thus, I have a few photos from the event. And because I’m a geek, I also drew up a map of the controls and plotted our route.  Check it out:

Thanks to Darren for a fun, challenging course, and thanks to Ian for hauling my ass around town.

Erik, my ski buddy from the Park City days, and his wife Emily were in town recently. Erik really wanted to try this packrafting thing that I’m always raving about. And you know me - I’m always up for a run-n-float!

June 16: We had quite the large flotilla on Eagle River on Saturday. Ten of us hiked over Cross Pass from Girdwood and floated out in our packrafts.

October 22: Another weekend of good weather, so Tim Kelley and I ran to the Knik Glacier and floated back. Photos by Tim Kelley.

October 13: It was probably our last weekend of nice weather before winter sets in, so I really wanted to go packrafting. So what if the water is already freezing?

Sept 2-4: After a summer of generally miserable weather, Linda and I were treated to sunny weather and beautiful blue skies on Labor Day weekend. We went to Denali National Park to hike over Windy Pass and packraft the Sanctuary River.

August 5: Linda, Scott and I did a hike up the new Winner Creek trail in Girdwood. From the pass we went down the other side and floated out the Twenty Mile River.