JAY'S RANDOM MUTTERINGS ON THE THINGS TO DO OUTSIDE IN ALASKA, POORLY SPELLED.
Ms Marsh, Tom, and I spent the day enjoying a mellow ski out in the White Mountains NRA. The greater Fairbanks area received a lot of snow in the last couple of days, and in the Whites that resulted in about two feet of snow on the ground. Thats about as much snow as we had at the end of the year – Wow!
The skiing was fast and fun. With the warm mid 20’s weather it was strange to see only five snow machines and three parties of skiers, but it was nice to see people out enjoying the snow.
A mostly fun day, with some riding (good and bad) and some pushing (all bad).
And I was back in time for this..
and this..
Happy Halloween !
Snow has arrived in the Greater Fairbanks area and while its a little too grassy to ski on the trails around our house, I had high hopes for the trails up in the White Mountains. Remus and I headed out to the Mile 28 trail head to check out the trails.
The trails out of Mile 28 are a bit rocky but quite ski-able and fun in a rock-ski only sort of way.. so long as you don’t crash, as the snow cover is a bit thin. I didn’t head down to the low lands, but stayed on Trail Creek Trail and the skiing was pretty good. The biking would have been even better great – but alas I left the bike at home as I have yet to swap out the warm weather only front shock..
I skied several miles past Lee’s Cabin then turned around and headed back .
Winter is a great time in Fairbanks – there are so many winter trails to explore!
I recently decided to go check out the Ester Dome Single track, a new trail system off Ester Dome road. I had been avoiding this area as my perception of them were somewhat coloured by some conversations with some random strangers that made them sound like some sort of mini version of the North Shore of Vancouver trails, suitable for folks with 50lb fully suspended bikes and too much Mountain Dew. Much to my surprise, the trails are actually super fun single track winding though birch and spruce trees. Obviously I shouldn’t talk to strangers.. The trails are very smooth and not very technical but narrow enough to keep me on my toe. The winding banked turns are very, very fun. There is supposed to be a short half mile more technical loop, but I didn’t bump into it. Alas, I now feel bad I didn’t come to any of the trail maintenance sessions.
My photos don’t really do it justice, as I was too busy having fun.
Remus enjoyed it too.
Summer is a bit hard on our dogs – the trails around our house are mainly winter trails and are pretty wet in the summer, so they don’t get as much exercise as they should. I have taken Remus, the youngest of the lot, on several mid/short length (20 mile or so) bike rides recently in an attempt to whip him into shape for the upcoming winter. Remus of course is very excited about this, as any excuse to go for a trip is fine with him.
Remus and I headed out to the Mile 28 trailhead in the White Mountains NRA to go explore and get some outside time. I had intended to bike out the main trail, but headed up the Summit Trail instead. I had never really thought of this trail as bike-able, however it turned out to be excellent riding. A bit rocky in a couple of sections but mostly quite fun. The old board-walked area at around the one mile mark are getting more muddy… I miss the boardwalk..
The ride up to the dome was amazingly pleasant. The view from the top was fantastic.
Once on top I noticed a new trail branching off to the side. It’s cut into the side of the ridge, and is dry and bike friendly, but alas not all that scenic.
The biking on the new trail is great.
Apparently BLM is working on hardening and reworking sections of the Summit trail, re-routing or otherwise dealing with the sections that are muddy. Its good to see BLM spending time on non-motorized trails. Hopefully it all works out. Remus and I continued until the new section appeared to stop, and turned around and headed back to the parking lot and then on the check out the main trail, and then headed home. Happy Monday everyone!
On a super hot and dry day, the twins and I set off for Nome Creek campground. The plan was for Nancy to bike the 80 miles or so to the Campground while the Twins and I would drive. Later in the day another family along with Tom and Ms Marsh would join us. The drive out was fantastic, with a little smoke near Fairbanks which quickly cleared out as we left town. The twins snoozed the ride away, and we passed Nancy biking along at mile 50 or so. After reaching the camp ground the woke the twins up, and after a little grumbling about the rude awaking, they set off to explore the nearby sandbars.
They had lots and lots of fun exploring the sand and gravel, throwing rocks in the water, and other fun games.
After a couple of hours Nancy arrived and we all spend the afternoon together hanging out on the sandbars enjoying the sun. Eventually we were joined by the additional family and we all hung out having fun and enjoying the fine afternoon. After a dinner of pasta and cheese (a favourite of the twins) everyone hit the sack. Late in the evening Ms Marsh and Tom arrived and joined our encampment. The next day was nice and clear, promising good weather for the float and hike I had planned for the next two days. The twins were quite excited to be camping and quickly got up to go play in the sandbar again, after having a quick breakfast.
The breakfast menu was melon and cereal – yum yum!
After a slow morning Ms Marsh, Tom, and I set off to float down Beaver Creek. leaving Nancy to drive home with the twins. Our plan was to hike out on the Summit Trail the following day.
The water was pretty low – the Nome Creek gauge said 2 to 2.5 ft – which is a about a foot to two feet lower than the other time I floated it. I was not how the low water levels would effect stuff, but it turned out to be fine, though very slow.
Our first sign that something was different was when we reached the confluance of Nome and Beaver Creeks – last time we floated this section there was a nice and fun eddy line where the creeks came together. This time around there was no eddy at all, and the junction was hardly noticeable.
Beaver Creek was still float-able at these water levels, just a bit slow. Shortly after the confluence Ms Marsh found a very out of place trail sign that by the mile markers should have been just outside Windy Gap cabin. However we are well upstream of any trails heading to Windy Gap, and the only trail upstream of us is a dead end trail heading to Richards Cabin. Tom was quick to point out that it was also misspelled. How it got here was a mystery, so I decided to haul it out to Borealis and leave it there for BLM to ponder.
The sign had the added advantage of preventing Ms Marsh and Tom from playing bumper cars with me as they were quite worried about it’s not so sharp edges.
The float was quite a bit slower than when we did it last year – I think it took 9 hours total last year, and this year it took around 12, even though we took fewer breaks. There was quite a bit of mellow floating, bobbing along..
This was not all bad – I got to enjoy some mellow floating and enjoyed a fair bit of recliner time.
We ran into a few small rain storms and a fair bit of distant thunder, but nothing too intense.
We eventually reached Borealis, our takeout spot, and had dinner in the cabin and camped out nearby. In the morning we crossed Beaver Creek and started our hike out.
The hike begins on some very dilapidated board walk and then continues on the winter trail up to the summit trail. Last time I hiked this in the summer I noticed that the board walk appears to continue a ways after the winter trail turns off. I decided to check out the board walk and was surprised to see it continued for a fair bit and cut a bit of the tossuc slogging winter trail section of the hike.
Alas, after crossing the slue the board walk goes away and we were back walking on the tussocky winter trail.
On our hike up the Summit Trail Tom found several reminders of our winter adventures – he found a single stick of swix extra blue, and a White Mountains fuel tag.
After a shortish slog we reached the fine hiking of the Summit Trail – Tom was suitably excited.
The rest of the hike out was fantastic – the trail had great views and is in very good shape. the older sections of board walk had a large number of exposed nails which made things a bit treacherous at times.
The last section of trail was a bit of a mud fest. The trail used to look like this:
Now it looks like this:
Nancy, the twins, and I hiked it when BLM was revamping the trail with an assembly line of small bobcat like tractors.
At the time I had stopped to talk to the trail crew for a while, and they said the plan was to use “ditch and elevate” to remove the board-walk and have the trail dry in the summer and groomable in the winter. Its looking like a bit of a failure, as its a bit of a muddy mess now, in the driest spring I have experienced. Hopefully BLM will get the trail sorted out and have it reach some sort of drier state.
Once past the mud things went by quickly and soon we were at the parking lot, and before we knew it at Hilltop having burgers. Yum! Yum! The hike was fantastic, as was the float, though it would be a bit better to have done it with slightly faster water. Camping with the twins added extra spice and added a bit of extra spice – and of course fun was had by all!
More photos:
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| Beaver Creek-Summit Trail float hike |
Spring is pretty nice in Interior Alaska. The days are long, the weather is warm, and there is still enough snow around for good skiing. The family and I decided to take advantage of all the glories of spring and headed out to Eleazar’s cabin in the White Mountains. Eleazar’s is about 12 miles from the nearest trail head, and a fairly mellow ski, in normal conditions. Hauling two three and three quarter year olds makes it a bit less mellow, but still doable. I had scouted out the trail two days before the trip was planned to make sure the trail was still ski-able, and while the first quarter mile or so was pretty bare, the rest was in great shape. We left town mid morning, and after a hour drive or so, we reached the parking lot and began the unloading processes. Traveling with kids complicates things a bit, so the unloading processes was pretty extended – the twins hot water bottles to prepare (traveling in luxury!), the chariot to assemble, snacks to ready, etc.
Eventually we were off and heading down the trail. The first bit was pretty muddy and low on snow.
The twins walked the first mile and a half – which was good as there was not enough snow for them to ride in the chariot.
It also got them nice and tired so by the time we had enough snow to load up into the chariot they were tired enough for nap time.
The bushes on the side of the trail were starting to melt out, revealing last years blueberries..
and cranberries.
Eventually nap time arrived and the twins were bundled up into the chariot and Nancy and I put on skis. The skiing was fast and fun – the trail was hard and a bit icy, but with some softer wax it was still quite good skiing.
Going down the steeper hills with the twins in the chariot was a bit tricky and I ended up walking down the really steep one. The chariot has quite a bit of mass and tends to give the puller the occasional hard push when going over moguls. On the steepest sections of trail I had to be careful as I was almost knocked over several times while walking. Fortunately we arrived at the bottom intact and after short time nap time was over and the twins were awakened and treated to snacks and entertainment while we skied along.
After a few more miles we reached the final hill to the cabin. The twins then were extracted from their comfortable quarters and they walked up the final hill to the cabin. The trail up was in great shape, but the last 100 feet or so was completely snow free.
Shorty after I reached the cabin the folks who were joining us on the adventure arrived – Trustin and Robin. They traveled by snow machine and had a good but interesting ride in. The snow free sections were apparently a bit challenging – the snowmachine did fine but the sled had a bit too much drag.
Eleazar’s is a wonderful cabin – its perched on top of a bluff that overlooks the Wickersham creek valley and has a great view. The twins had a great time exploring the cabin and the surrounding area. The cabin had a couple of interesting board games that the twins got quite a bit of mileage out of, as well as a loft. The loft was a great hit.
Eventually it was dinner time..
and then everyone turned in for the night. It was so warm the stove did not require stoking (or over-stoking as often is the case) which was quite refreshing – no trips from my warm sleeping bag to load wood into the stove were required. In the morning everyone enjoyed a nice breakfast of pancakes and bacon – except of course Nancy who made herself a bowl of cereal. My first attempts at pancakes were a bit of a failure – after the first bacon dripping assisted pancake I learned the “non-stick” pan I brought was more of a “stick” pan. I could not find my normal pan and had used one of Nancy’s pre Jay pans that I had never used before. Fortunately Trustin had brought butter and liberal use of it prevented any additional pancake disasters.
After lots of pancakes and bacon, we enjoyed a lazy morning of laying around goofing off, but alas eventually we actually had to pack up and get moving. The twins started off walking and got a good mile and half in before nap time arrived.
The ski out was uneventful but quite pleasant. On the last couple of miles we evicted the twins and they walked the last bit with lots of renditions of one of their favorate books, “We are going on a bear hunt”.
Togiak, our older dog, decided we were going too slow, and started taking naps on the side of the trail, curing up under spruce trees while we slowly dawdled the last mile or so.
Eventually we reached the parking lot and everyone loaded up. The dogs were quite happy to dive into the straw in the back of the truck and go to sleep.
The trip was super fun and a great way to end the ski season. The twins had a good time and I got quite a work out hauling them around. I brought violet Toko spray klister and used it on the way out. That stuff is quite amazing – it works quite well and less of a pain than standard klister with no more sticky tubes of doom.
Alas, the snow is almost gone now – I expect its now time to put the skis away. With some luck I will get in one bike ride on the trails before the snow softens up too much, and then I think the snow season will be done. Soon backpacking, pack rafting, and bike touring season will arrive – hurrah!