Yesterday there was up to an inch of snow on the lakes, and about 4-6 inches in the woods. This wasn’t ideal for skating, but it did open up the possibility of skating the lakes and skiing the woods – all without changing boots!

Tim, Ian and I took advantage of the conditions to do a 26 mile ski & skate loop that hit 22 lakes (both numbers are approximate). Two years ago, Tim and I did the normal Nancy Lakes canoe trail in under two hours. This time we were looking to do a bigger loop. We took ski blades, classic skis, and wore combi or skate boots. We basically encircled the entire Nancy Lakes area, except for Nancy Lake itself. The loop took five hours. The skating was good (even with the snow) and the skiing wasn’t too bad. We skated very quickly across the lakes, but sometimes got bogged down breaking trail on skis. Some parts of the route hadn’t seen any human traffic yet this season.

Its not often that these conditions occur, and we had a great time taking advantage of them. Check out my photos by clicking the photo below. Also check out Tim’s photos and video here.

June 25: Tim Kelley and I went peakbagging in the Lynx Creek area of the Kenai Mountains. Center Creek gave us a good excuse to do some packrafting as well. Also be sure to look at Tim’s photos and comments.

On July 17, we headed north to the Little Susitna River and the Nancy Lakes Recreation Area for a weekend of canoeing.