June was grandparents month in our house. Both sets came for a couple of weeks each.
One sunny Saturday my dad and I biked Resurrection Pass, 38 miles from Hope to Cooper Landing. I’ve been over that pass a number of times, but this was the first time it hasn’t been covered in snow. What a great singletrack ride!
I wonder what the 70-and-up age group record is for the 20 mile climb from Hope up to the pass? I bet my dad crushed it!
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.
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After a few very busy weekends, we took a trip to Hope, Alaska to relax and do a couple of short hikes.
Sun May 4
Sunday was an off day. Linda and I are leaving on a four day backpacking trip tomorrow and I needed a day to rest up and pack up.
Mon May 5
A couple months ago, some friends of ours, Mike and Tanja mentioned that they would really like to hike the Resurrection Pass trail. The Resurrection Pass trail is a 38 mile trail on the Kenai Peninsula that is known for being one of the most popular backpacking routes in Alaska. Aft era dismal winter, Linda and I were also anxious to get out and start seeing this great state and this seemed like a great way to start. After some discussion and looking for dates we could all do it, we decided to attempt the hike in early May. Normally the higher reaches of the route (only about 2500 feet) would still be buried in snow at this time of year, but we were hopeful that the low snowfall would make it passable. We debated bringing snowshoes right up until the last minute – even having a pair of them on Linda’s pack at the trailhead, before decided to go without them.
This trip was a great chance for me to get in some good trekking hours before my race. I knew the training would not be very hard. After all we would only be covering between 7 and 13 miles each day, and we would be staying in cozy cabins on all three nights. But I was pretty sure that just being outside moving around with a heavy pack on would be of great help to my preparations.
See pictures from this trip in the Gallery.
The first day was an easy 7 mile hike from Hope, Alaska into the Caribou Creek Cabin was fairly flat and easy. We were there in about three hours, which was fine with us because it was raining slightly and we welcomed the chance to dry out before we were completely soaked. We relaxed in the cabin and watched as the rain started to let up.
Tues May 6
The next morning we slept in late and had a leisurely breakfast of pancakes. After all, we only had another 7 miles to go today, there was no rush to get going. It had been cold last night – there was a dusting of fresh snow on the hills around us. But this morning the clouds were clearing off and by the time we got hiking at noon, we had blue sky. Along the trail we saw lots of bear tracks, most of them were very big. We kept talking and kept Teddy, Mike & Tanja’s dog, fairly close by. The tracks looked fresh, but we did not see any bears today. We stopped at Fox Creek Cabin for lunch, then made it to East Creek Cabin, our new home, by about 4:30 or so.
Wed May 7
We expected this to be our hardest day. It was an eleven mile trek up and over Resurrection Pass and back down to our next stop at Swam Lake Cabin. We knew that we would be on the trail a long time today, so we rose early and were on the trail by 9:00. We climbed steadily for the first two hours before hitting snow at about 2000 feet. The pass was indeed covered in snow, but we had hit it early enough in the day that it was still crusty and solid enough to walk on. Every once in a while, one of us would punch through, but for the most part, the travel over the snow was smooth to the pass. As we started descending the south side of the pass, it was now after 1:00 pm and the sun had been hitting this snow for longer. Our post-holing became more frequent and more frustrating. We were extremely happy when we finally put the snow behind us about a mile after Devils Pass cabin and started our steep descent to Swam Lake.
Swan Lake Cabin is a beautiful cabin. Nestled right at the base of Resurrection Pass’s south side, on the shores of Swan Lake, which is a narrow lake that snaked between two steep hillsides. After getting a fire going in the cabin and eating some dinner, Linda and I decided to take the rowboat (which comes with the cabin) out for a paddle. On our paddle we saw plenty of birds and ducks, a caribou, and even a black bear that headed up the shore line ahead of us for quite a distance before eventually jumping in and swimming to the other side. Swan Lake was everything I dreamed the Alaskan wilderness would be.
Our solitude was broken briefly when we saw the first other human since the start of our trip, but he continued up the trail and once again we had the place to ourselves.
Thurs May 8
This morning a pair of Loons came to greet us on the lake. We ate breakfast as we watched the Loons and prepared for our 13 mile trek to the trailhead and the end of our hike. Just after starting our hike, we saw the bear again – this time at much closer distance. He was only about 50 feet off the trail. He watched us walk by and we kept moving, not wanting to get him upset.
During the day we passed by Juneau Lake, which was also very beautiful, and Juneau Falls, which was a very big waterfall – much bigger than I had expected. The trail dumped us out by the Kenai River and we piled into the car we had shuttled down here on Monday and headed back towards home.
It was a leisurely trip, but also a great beginning to a summer of exploring the wilds of Alaska. For training purposes, I wish it had been a little longer or harder, but it was still very good preparation and the fact that my legs did not hurt at all was a very good sign.
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