With Nancy and the twins away visiting her parents, I decided to have a nice mellow Thanksgiving safely away from the masses. To that end, Tom, Ms Marsh, and I headed off to Upper Angel Creek cabin in the Chena River State Recreation Area . I took my fat bike while Tom and Marsh decided to ski. The trail into the cabin was in amazing shape, making for effortless biking.
I stopped briefly at the lower cabin which is getting replaced after burning down last winter. The new cabin is huge and looks like it is going to be a great option for short trips. I think this would make a great destination for the twin’s first self powered ski trip.
Remus had a blast on the trip in, though he would have enjoyed a bit more sedate pace with more stopping time to explore and sniff around. On bike we travel fast enough he has to keep his short legs pumping to keep up.
Remus was entranced by all the wolf sign on one section of trail. A small wolf pack appears to use the trail as a corridor and there were lots of tracks and wolf scat.
The trail was so flat and fast it almost felt like I was cheating, gliding along expending almost no effort.
I arrived at the cabin well before the skiers and enjoyed some peaceful quiet time as the cabin warmed up. The arrival of Tom and Marsh was announced by the crunching of their skis on the cold -20f snow.
We spent the evening lounging around and of course eating. In the morning, after pancakes and an immense amount of bacon, we headed back to the trail head and a soak in Chena Hotsprings. Over the night the temperature had risen to a balmy -4f which seemed amazingly warm. I decided to take an alternate route out, and took the new trail routed along the hillside. The views from the new trail are fantastic.
The trail was a bit soft though, and I felt a bit guilty whenever I broke though the thin crust and created a trench with my rear tire. The trail looked like it would be wonderful skiing. There is one creek crossing that was open, but it was possible to sneak across without getting wet.
At about half way I retreated to the lower trail and zoomed out to the parking lot, where I dropped off my overnighting stuff, and then explored the Chena Hotsprings winter trail while waiting for Tom and Marsh to catch up. The winter trail appeared to be in great shape, though there was some large sections of overflow.
Eventually Tom and Marsh caught up and we headed off to soak in the hot water at Chena Hotsprings and a burger at Mia’s – a fantastic way to end a wonderfully quiet Thanksgiving.
A big thanks to Tom and Ms Marsh for making this trip happen!
