On Saturday, Toby and I took our packrafts for a long walk on the Johnson Pass trail.  The trip we had in mind didn’t work out, because I balked at getting up and over a ridge.  Just like the first time Ian and I I tried the Center² Spencer route, we got cliffed out in an area that probably would have been fine if we had an ice axe and crampons.  You’d think that I would have learned from that trip, but no, once again we left the ice axe in the car at the trailhead.  The terrain looked fairly mundane on the map, but less so in person.

Even so, we probably could have made it up and over, but I get really cautious in those situations.  I guess I’m kind of a chicken, but I start thinking about all the possible ways that it could go wrong and psych myself out.  Its a paradox that I struggle with often - I love adventure, but I’m not much of a risk-taker.  Anyway, I convinced Toby to turn around.

So what was supposed to be a hike and packraft trip instead turned into a long day of hiking the Johnson Pass trail from north to south, with a detour along the way.  We hiked/jogged approximately 27 miles in ten hours.  It was still fun, and we got to explore a really cool side valley.   My body is nicely beat up today from hours of jogging with a 30 pound pack (in addition to our rafting gear, we also had gear for an overnight). My shoulders, back and hips are all a little sore and raw.

With the equinox upon us, and temperatures starting to get below freezing at night, I think that’s it for the summer adventure season.  All in all, it was a pretty disappointing summer.  So many things I wanted to do, and I only did a couple of them.  There’s always next year!

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.

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.

Supposedly the three peaks we bagged had never been climbed before. But even so, whoever named this bay must have known how spectacular it is up on the peaks, because the views definitely hit the Jackpot!

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.

On Saturday July 9, Tim Kelley, Scott and I went to Wells Bay in Prince William Sound to hike a couple of peaks.

On Sunday April 17, Scott, Bill and I planned to explore the crust skiing in Center Creek. If only I could get us there…

On August 22, Scott, Brian and I finally tackled the Whittier Ridge Run that I have had my eye on for over a year.

On August 14, Tim Kelley invited Colin and I along on a peak-bagging hike in Prince William Sound. You can also see Tim’s photos and comments on his website.

Hammer Adventure Race held on July 10, 2004