Girdwood

Following the Kenai Peninsula adventures, we parked ourselves in Girdwood, a little ski resort town surrounded by large mountains. While Julia taught young skiers how to work hard, I wandered around the Chugach Mountains trying to do fun stuff.

The first endeavor was to check out a little trail that followed Winner Creek. Very pleasant.

Looking east up the Winner Creek Valley.

Winner Creek

 Winner Creek sneaks through some tight spots and down a waterfall into Glacier Creek. There is a bit of a canyon and a tram has been installed crossing Glacier Creek. It is kind of fun to cross. I had heard this creek was good for packrafting so I scouting things out a bit.

Looking down Glacier Creek from the tram towards to the Winner
Creek confluence coming in on river left.

I ended up getting to packraft Glacier Creek from the tram down to the Girdwood library. It was really fun. A video is provided in another post that gives a pretty clear picture of what I got to do. I had to dump my boat out a few times due to a dysfunctional spray skirt but I was laughing and enjoying the whole process. About an hour of exhilaration/fear/amazement.

Next up was a run/hike on the Crow Pass Trail with a spare afternoon. Julia got sucked into coaching so I was on my own for this one. Boo. It's more fun when she is along. Also, no bears spotted. That is good.

Looking south down towards Girdwood and Crow Creek. 

Old mining equipment. 

A public use cabin at Crow Pass. On sunny day I can only imagine the views.

Raven Glacier from a moraine just below Crow Pass.

 On the way out there were a few clouds on both sides of the pass.

Looking north down Raven Creek towards its confluence with
Eagle River.

At one point on the trail it is necessary to cross a little tributary that meets up with Raven Creek. Hiking in Alaska often involves wet feet. It's just part of the deal. Thankfully I learned not to wear cotton socks while hiking a while back.

Cold.

A little waterfall on Raven Creek.

Hello moose. He was pretty content. No aggressive behavior observed.

On the trip back the sun came out on the north side of the pass.

Flowers along the trail just before the creek crossing.

Still cold.

The south side of Crow Pass on the way back to the car.

Great hike. There is a marathon that follows this trail from Girdwood to Eagle River. Apparently people tend to hurt themselves by tripping a lot. Understandable.

One more adventure was involved in this trip but I forgot the camera. With a new confidence in my packrafting ability after Glacier Creek, I joined a group of packrafters for a trip down the South Fork of Eagle River. I am not a skilled enough paddler for that one yet. Also, within 15 seconds of getting in my boat at the put in I hit a rock, cut a hole in the bottom and punctured the seat. That made navigating around rocks and brush pretty tough, though I probably couldn't have pulled it off anyway. The hike was pretty nice though.

Hooray for South Central Alaska. And we hardly even began to explore.