More Urban Backcountry skiing !?  Yep.  I've been having fun coming up with these local ski loops, that combine urban trails and trail-less areas.  But this kick is about over.  I have just one more Urban Backcountry loop on the list (unless a new idea pops into my head).

I did this West Anchorage loop after work on this day.  The idea was to link up several large undeveloped pieces of land that run north to south: Connors Bog, Strawberry Lake area, the land between C street and Minnesota (south of Dimond) and the large swampy area north of Klatt Road.  Then to finish the loop after this link-up - ski the coast and the Coastal Trail to Earthquake Park.  The crux of this loop is the airport area.  I waited until after a snowfall and reconned the roads and bike trails going past Lake Hood to make sure they were ski-able.  I started and finished at the Connors Bog parking lot.  I was able to ski the whole loop with the exception of 5 road crossings.

As expected, I found lots of backcountry ski trails running through the undeveloped land that I skied through.  So the amount of trail-less skiing was likely less than 5 miles.  Most of the trail-less skiing was on the coast.  But there were also some great ski and snowshoe trails on the coast.

I had been wanting to do this ski loop for a while.  But I had to wait for over two months this winter for conditions to be right.  Winds can quickly steal the snowcover from this area of the Knik and Matanuska rivers.  And wind has done that here a number of times this winter.  So when several inches of snow fell, followed by a windless day, I figured it was time to give this loop a try.

I started and finished this loop at the Knik River Bridge on the Old Glenn Highway.  I went in a clockwise direction down the Knik River, up the Matanuska River (with a stop at the "Mini Butte").  From the Matanuska Bridge I took the bike trail to Maud Road, skied the snowmobile trail along the side of the road to the end of Maud Road, skied down the snowmobile/truck route to Mud Lake, skied south to the Knik River (got messed up in this area a bit - see map) and once on the Knik River floodplain skied down to the Old Glenn bridge.

About half of this route required breaking trail.  So that made progress slow at times.  95 percent of the time I classic skied and two-sticked.  Hardly any skating in these conditions.  I saw a number of old ski tracks on this loop.  From this and previous trips to this area - it seems like xc skiing is pretty big with Butte residents.  Overall, this was a fun loop around Bodenburg Butte - varied trails, some unique country I had not been to before, nice weather, temps in the 20's.  Also, it's satisfying to see a new ski loop go from your imagination to reality ... which is something that always seems to keep me entertained.

A side-project of mine over the past few years has been to come up with new Anchorage Urban Backcountry skiing loops.  These are loops that combine established winter trails in Anchorage with some backcountry skiing.  This loop is my latest.

I started and ended this loop at the Huffman Carrs store.  Here is a description of the loop: headed west to the Old Seward roundabout, railroad tracks to Oceanview Bluff Park, Anchorage Coastal Refugee to Campbell Creek, across Campbell Lake, Campbell Creek bike trail to the New Seward Highway, skied under the bridges, followed bike trail to Lake Otis Parkway, bike trail to Tour of Anchorage Trail, TOA trail to Service HS, subdivision and roadside sidewalks to the Abbott Loop/ Elmore Road intersection, Ruth Arcand Park equestrian trails and backcountry trails to the Lake Otis softball fields at O'Malley, crossed O'Malley and Lake Otis and skied undeveloped land south to the Tanglewood Lakes golf course, through the South Anchorage Assembly school grounds to Huffman Road, and then to Carrs.

If you find yourself getting bored of the standard cross country skiing options in Anchorage, then maybe it's time you gave the dark side of Anchorage xc skiing a try.

Finally, some snow and decent trails in the Susitna Valley.  I went up to Nancy Lakes and did the classic Red Shirt Lake - Big Swamp Loop (Nancy Lake Parkway - Red Shirt - Steve's Trail - Iron Dog - Big Swamp - Old Hunter - Rolly Lakes - Parkway to trailhead).  The trails were a bit soft, as new snowfall hadn't had time to set up.  But the trails were firm enough for skating.  It started spitting rain as I was leaving.  Hopefully the snow will hang in there.

Skiing the Palmer Creek Road, south of Hope, had been on my list of "places to ski that I have never skied at before".  Though I had never skied this road, I had driven it quite a few times, and I had even mountain bike raced it once.  And, I was skiing at the head of this valley last summer.

In the winter this road is not plowed and it becomes a snowmobile trail.  There had been snowmobiles on this road earlier this year, and they made a good trail.  But recently snowmobiling on this road, and in this valley, was cancelled due to low snow conditions.  So I guess I lucked out - because I had a nice trail, and the Palmer Creek Valley all to myself, on this clear and cold day.

STILL waiting for decent snow and weather on backcountry trails in Southcentral, Alaska.  Geez, what a year.  So for kicks, I pulled out the rock skis and did a park link-up loop in east Anchorage.  This loop hit three parks that have trails, but they are parks I had never skied at before (Nunaka Valley, Cheney Lake and Baxter Bog).  This loop required some sidewalk skiing on thin snow in Nunaka Valley and along Baxter Road.  But I was able to ski the entire loop, except for 3 road crossings and one underpass.

This summer my wife and I were on top of Bodenburg Butte, for the first time in about 25 years.  On top I looked to the southeast and saw a small butte out in the Matanuska River flood plain.  I was surprised that I hadn't noticed this highpoint before.  I said to my wife: "We gotta ski to that place!"

Well, I ran out of patience waiting for ski-able snow in the lowlands.  So we pulled a "Plan B" and hiked from the Old Glen Highway bridge down the west side of the Matanuska River to this mini butte.  We hiked river bars, overflow ice and ATV trails (there was an ATV trail that went to the top of this bump).  This butte must have a name, I hope to find out someday.  I plan on going back when there is snow, and when I can use skis instead of IceBug running shoes.