Late Summer Jaunts

I spent the late summer in Anchorage working on a guidebook and building a greenhouse...living the good life, playing in our backyard. 

 

One lazy morning Cathy and I left Hiland Road hiking toward Girdwood over the Flute Glacier. It was supposed to be a day hike. It became an 8,000-foot, 28-mile day hike--a bit long for a lazy morning. Our hitching home plans backfired when darkness and rain caught us. It was a fun night of snuggling under a pack cover at the Crow Pass cabin. For breakfast we hiked out to the Girdwood Tesoro for Bahama Momma hot dogs. 

To retrieve the Rice Burner a few days later, Cathy and I did an evening run from Arctic Valley over to Hiland Road.  

Did you know that Portage has the thickest shrubbery in Southcentral? I confirmed this on a very sweaty thrash to the ridgeline for a traverse from the first Portage tunnel, over Begich Peak, along the ridge and down to the Portage cutoff. The trip highlight came afterward, when I learned that 64-ounce sodas were only $1.89 at the Girdwood Tesoro. I'm growing quite fond of the Girdwood Tesoro. 

Indianhouse is the steepest summit in the Chugach Front. An interest of mine was traversing the Falls Creek ridgeline, which includes Indianhouse. Here's Tobey, Maddog, Cortney, Sarah and Heidi's Kid Brother on the summit after traversing a portion of that ridgeline from South Suicide. Like Billy Finley, we rappelled the two gendarmes, but Tobey found exposed sheep trails around both gendarmes. 

Jeff Conaway showed Cathy and I Sheep Creek in the Talkeetna Mountains. After a float plane drop off at an alpine lake we hiked down to the river. Here's Cathy inflating her packraft for six hours of floating back to the cars. 

My sister Kate, her friend Kim Keller and Cathy paddling through bergs on Spencer Lake to float the Placer River. This is the ultimate visitor trip combining a train ride, hiking, camping, rock climbing and a float with icebergs. 

"I got this hole on the Kenai. Lot's of fish. We'll go down after work and kill them." Andy Newton told Cathy, Raena and me. But all I caught was a big-lipped sucker fish and a sore bum from all the driving. Good thing we always have fun with Andy and Raena. 

Joe Butler and Ryan Davis ice climbing on the Byron Glacier. 

Local avalanche and mountain guru Kevin Wright climbing Wisdom (5.9) on the Wedge above Anchorage. Kevin showed Cathy and me that Anchorage does have good rock. Thanks for an incredible weekend Kevin!

Eric Parsons tests his bike bags on the Hillside Trails. 

Cathy on the best evening run in Anchorage: the Wedge Sheep trail. 

"Hey guys! Check out all these sweeeeet mountains. Guys? Hey, where'd everybody go?" Dave Bass at the 1957 wreckage of a B-29 Superfortress in the Talkeetna Mountains. Dave and I were midway through a 15-hour stumble-fest that went here and there, over Lynx Peak and back over there. The full day was a strange combination of verging on being crushed by a 50-ton boulder and giggling like teenagers. 

Cathy near the summit of Matanuska Peak on her favorite excursion of our Anchorage summer. We followed the not-so-normal ridgeline from Lazy Mountain to Mat Peak. Near the top we found some steep granite to scramble. The wiffy likes steep granite.  

Dana Maddog Drummond on a 15-hour, 12,000-foot, 27-mile variation of the Thunderbird Traverse. The T-Bird Traverse is any tundra ridge hike that includes Thunderbird Peak in the Western Chugach. Our variation started at Peters Creek and finished at Eklutna. 

Cortney Kitchen on Knoya Point above Anchorage in mid October. Tordrillos out there. 

Alaska paddling strong man Paul Shauer in Bird Creek. Luc Mehl waiting in line. This excursion enhanced my understanding that water is best when frozen. 

 

Are you impressed? You should be! This thing took me a lot of evenings and some weekends. I'm lucky Dad helped me for five days, otherwise I'd still be out there flailing away. Most of the windows are recycled from the Samoan church down the street. Newton hooked me up with the door. I poached the design from Judy across the alley. 

 

In late September I attended the AMGA annual meeting at the Gunks in New York. Cathy met me afterward for some climbing. Here is Cathy on overhanging 5.6+++ jugs on the ultra-classic route High Exposure. Our favorite day at the Gunks was cragging with Markus Jolliff from Joshua Tree who also came for the guide meeting. Great getting to know you Markus!

After cragging we visited Flanagans. There are lots of Flanagans. Here are a few. Cathy with her parents Peg and Mike Flanagan during a rowdy 18 holes at the par three in Rehobeth Beach, Delaware. After touring around the East Coast for several weeks I found the East's finest attribute are Flanagans.  

Back in Anchorage it's stacking up on Airport Heights! 

And it's stacking up in the hills. Jeff Ellis skiing Eddies shrubbery at Turnagain Pass. You know Jeff is Canadian because he's wearing a toque. 

Clear Creek Packraft

Most rivers in southcentral Alaska are not clear. They are frothing glacial rivers with two inches of clarity. Anything named Clear Creek are a must-do. Cathy and I boated a Clear Creek near Wonder Lake with Andrew McCarthy in 2009. Beautiful granite boulders with Tahoe Lake-clear water. Cathy did Clear Creek (Chunilna Creek) in the Talkeetna Mountains with Gretchen in 2008. She'd forgotten about the class III schwacking and was willing to go again.

We stopped at Gorilla fireworks in Houston to load up. The Talkeetnas are packed with bears. Fireworks are cheaper, lighter and easier to shoot than guns. The Gorilla Girl tried to sell us the Bigger Than Life with 500 Gram Heavy Weight for $40, but we settled on the M-5000 pack that Gorilla Girl claimed: "Sounds like a machine gun." My regular explosives source is in Glennallen.

In Talkeetna we jumped on the Alaska Railroad and took the whistle stop to Curry. This wasn't the glass-roofed luxury, drinking coffee and smoking big cigars train. Instead it was full of fired-up locals going to their cabins, including our neighbor Judy. On the train we also met Ryan and Cade, Anchorage packrafters also heading to Clear Creek--company!

Curry to Clear Creek is urbanized for Alaska. We followed an ATV trail, then the brushed-out Alaska Intertie. The Intertie was built in 1980 by the Alaska Energy Authority and is part of the Railbelt Electric Grid System that links central and southcentral Alaska, including Delta, Fairbanks, Anchorage and out to Seldovia.

We saw caribou, moose, black bear and some chicken shit grizz. They looked fluffy and snuggly. 

I was more scared of the blood-sucking eagles circling our camp. 

A short hike the next morning and we looked down to Clear Creek.

We schwacked straight down to Clear Creek and were greeted by an airstrip, seven cabins and multiple owners who told us "This is private property." They know the dangers of packrafters. The moral: Stay way away from the buildings and roads at the junction of Clear Creek and Bacon Creek. The best option is to join Clear Creek a 1/3 mile downstream of the junction with Bacon Creek.

Cade demonstrating proper inflation technique for Ryan. This was Ryan's fourth creek. His first was the notoriously-rowdy Willow Creek.

Ryan in the Clear Creek canyon. The pools were stuffed with three-foot King Salmon and Rainbow trout. Conditions were bony. June, when flow is higher, would be better. 

We did find high flow at the West Rib in Talkeetna. From Clear Creek we floated another hour down the Talkeetna River and pulled into Talkeetna, a quarter-mile from the West Rib. Also testing flow at the Rib was Thai Verzone, Roman Dial, Joe McLaughlin and Timmy Johnson. They looked pooped from boating the steeeep East Fork of Iron Creek.

Wos Glacier Rock Climbing

In the pit at the Alaska Rock Gym Kerry Tinzman told us about cragging at the Wosnesenski Glacier near Homer. The rock climbing closer to Anchorage is terrible. The Seward Highways is rated one of the top five worst climbing venues in the US. On the plus side, all rock climbing means a TRIP! We got Wos beta from shitflyclimbing.com and made air and water taxi reservations. 

Our nephew Miles Goritsky joined us. He just graduated from high school in Camas, Washington and needed to get his yayas out with somewhat responsible adults. 

When we arrived at Northwind Aviation in Homer we learned why Kerry knows the Wos. Kerry is dating Jose de Creeft, the Northwind pilot. Kerry flew in with us, giving us the grand tour along the way, pointing out bears and climbs.

We landed a quarter mile from camp.

An alder forest protected us from wind draining off the Iceworm Icefield. This area seems to be a rain shadow from the uglier Prince William Sound weather. Kerry said the winter water ice climbs freeze consistently here. 

Cathy on Womb with a View (5.10a).   

Miles on Sloppy Peach (5.9+++). 

Miles nearing the forceferous overhang. 

After our second day of cragging we walked up to the glacier. We didn't start packrafting down there. Eeep!

Miles is Cathy's sister Karen's son. He has strong Flanagan genes. On the last day of his AK visit we ran and hiked O'Malley Peak above Anchorage. We did a loopy, traversey sort of thing in a few hours. Although it was his first mountain he became more energized the longer we were out and finished sprinting to the parking lot.

Is Miles saying "Ouch!" or "Ahhhh!"?

After climbing we packrafted the Wos River to Kachemak Bay. The National Geographic Trails Illustrated map shows this river as a Fjord and calls it Quiet River or something Outside like that. 

Miles, here's your boat, a paddle and your life preserver. And do you see those big rocks? Steer around them.

If we had more time we'd have butt-boated the side creeks. Miles thought they'd be like a real life Splash Mountain in Disney World. 

On Kachemak Bay, after the five-hour float. 

We camped near Haystack Rock, where the water taxi would pick us up. 

Waiting for Mako's Water Taxi. Bald eagles everywhere, like pigeons in Trafalgar Square.

Back in Homer. Miles is off to Western Washington University this fall to study his long-time interests of writing and history. 

East Fork Chulitna River

Summer in Alaska is about packrafting - if you can negotiate rivers then Alaska is at your disposal. Packrafts are six-pound backcountry boats. Think Kmart raft with $1000 worth of durability.

 

Last weekend Cathy, Gretchen Roffler and I packrafted a portion of the East Fork of the Chulitna River, an hour north of Talkeetna. We started where the Parks Highway crosses the East Fork, hiked Hardage Creek to a pass and over to the East Fork to float back to our cars. Dreamy. 

A guidebook for packrafting isn't out yet, but it's coming. Our info for the East Fork of the Chulitna River came from packrafting.org. Brad Meiklejohn's description had typical Alaskan class. He provides the necessary route info, but leaves extraneous details out. Brad mentions nothing of the bushes in Hardage Creek. We found some bushes where moose live. Then we camped at bushline. 

 

 

Cathy and Gretchen at treeline camp in Hardage Creek. For this trip we eschewed stove and tent. Instead we roasted franks over a fire, slept under a tarp, and drank cowboy coffee for breakfast. A hole dug by a grizzly after a ground squirrel made an ideal fire pit.  

 

 

Real coffee. Dylan Taylor told me to never boil cowboy coffee. We boiled the coffee. I'll never listen to Dylan again. 

  

 

At the 4,600-foot pass between Hardage Creek and our descent to the East Fork. 

 

 

Down in those bushes that Alaskans don't notice is where we jumped in our boats. Rob Whitney and Corey Smith (two fit boys) did an extended version of our trip. Read Corey's story. 

 

 

Yum! Low bush blueberries. 

 

 

Gretchen in first canyon. 

 

 

Scoping the class III+ crux entrance to second canyon.  

  

 

Back on the Parks Highway at 7:30 PM. The weekend I've lusted after for three years. Oh Alaska!