For crust skiing in the Hatcher Pass area, I figured I'd try a double-header for something new.  I call this the Archangel Two Lake Tour.  Start at the Archangel trailhead, ski up the Goodhope Creek drainage to the small lake at its headwaters, ski back down to the Reed Lakes Trail, ski up to Upper Reed Lake and then back down and out to the trailhead.  I think Goodhope Creek valley is a cool place and I've been there a few times before.  It's wide, safe and has a lot of fun and ski-able terrain.  You can see this from these pictures, the upper picture is from just above Goodhope Lake (which is buried under snow).  The catch with this double-header is the 2nd climb, up Reed Lakes Valley.  The first 2300' climb up Goodhope hammers you pretty good.  So I found the 2nd 1600' climb up Reed Lakes to be quite brutal.  Oh well, suffering or not ... it's hard to beat a beautiful day of crust skiing in the Talkeetna Mountains.

Last year I skied from Tyone Lake up to the top of Nipple Mountain (aka Nipple Top) and then back to Lake Louise Lodge.  That trip quickly made me set the goal of skiing from Lake Louise Lodge to the summit and back.  And so I did, this year.  This ski started out on a fast groomed snowmobile trail.  But at the end of Susitna Lake my pace slowed down as the trail got softer from the little snowmobile traffic since the last snowfall.  My wife came out on her snowmobile and met me near the top of the mountain, then she went back and skied on trails out of the lodge area.  After she left me a strong south wind came up and I had to buck the wind all the way back.  This wind and soft snow added up to two hours more than I had planned to complete this ski.  So I was running on fumes at the end.  Oh well, the "To The Nipple And Back" ski route is in the books.  A fun day.

Between long days of skiing (see above, and below) I took an easy day to complete the skiing of some trails I hadn't skied yet in the vicinity of the Lake Louise Lodge.  I skied the Misery, North-South Seismic Line and Jan Lake Loop trails.

The last remote snowmobile trail I needed to ski to complete skiing all of the mapped Eureka/Lake Louise trails ... was the Eureka West Trail.  This trail is mapped, but half of it is (usually) not groomed or marked.  I started skiing from the Eureka Lodge on groomed snowmobile trails which I followed to the Little Nelchina River (I had actually skied this section a few times before).  Then I started out on the 14 mile mountainous section I had not skied before.  Following miners' trails I skied over the first long ridge down into the Tyone Creek drainage.  Here trails went everywhere and it took some GPS work to get on the right route. 

Due to massive overflow on Tyone Creek, a group of previous snowmobilers had gone over Tyone Ridge to get to the Moore Lake Loop Trail.  So from the valley a brutal climb was in order to get up onto Tyone Ridge.  Here a narrow trail through soft, hoarfrost-ridden snow made the final few miles to the Moore Lake Loop Trail.  I had grand aspirations of doing a loop (I had this same aspiration on a previous attempt of this loop in February).  But I was fried and decided to call it a day.  The trail I wanted to ski was now in the bag and time for my wife, who had come along on her snowmobile, to get in some skiing on our way out.

Yellow shows the route I did.  Magenta is the route from last month.  Distance, with a couple of "oops" side trips - 32+ miles.

If you are traveling to the Sheep Mountain/Eureka/Lake Louise area to stay overnight and then do a long ski, a moderate length trip to throw in the day you drive up from Anchorage ... is to ski from the Eureka Lodge to Sheep Mountain Lodge.  This route follows snowmobile trails from Eureka along the Glenn Highway.  Eventually the trail goes over a ridge near Gunsight Mountain to the Squaw Creek Trail and then follows an abandoned section of the Glenn Highway and trials to Sheep Mountain Lodge.  A scenic ski when the weather is nice.

A trail that had been on my list to ski was the Sheep Creek Trail.  This trail goes from the Sheep Creek Lodge on the Parks Highway to a shelter cabin on the Rabideux Trail.  I stopped in at the Sheep Creek Lodge to ask about the trail.  The lady running the place said she had been on the trail the day before, but turned back because of open water.  But she said some Trapper Lake folks had come in on the night before to get "take-out".  Knowing that folks had been across the trail, I decided to give it a go.  I'd later figure out that the Trapper Lake folks that came for take out were some pretty hard-core sledders.  Or else they were willing to risk travel on a sketchy trail because the lodge take-out food was so good.  I guess I'll never know.

This trip was a milestone of sorts for me.  It was the last trail I needed to check off skiing all of the mapped winter trails in the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys.  I've been working on this project for quite a while (as you can probably tell from this web site).  And its been a lot of miles (which I haven't and probably never will add up).  At this point, I have skied all the trails that are mapped by: the Curry Ridge Riders, Mid Valley Trail Club, Willow Trail Committee, Lower Susitna Drainage Association, Susitna Valley SnowTRAC, Nancy Lake State Recreation Area, Haesller-Norris Trail System, Big Lake Trails Club, Point Mackenzie Recreation Map and the Mat-Su Borough Trails Department (which maps trails for areas like Talkeetna, Montana Creek, Butte, Sutton, Chickaloon and Hatcher Pass).

There are of course still trails I haven't skied in the Su Valley.  Mostly the remaining ones are unofficial snowmobile routes out beyond the marked trail systems.  I've skied a lot of such trails (as can be seen on this web site).  But there are more to ski.  And of course, they are on my list.

Reflections on skiing all of the Mat-Su mapped winter trails, and "trail-bagging"?  I'm the type that doesn't like doing the same thing twice.  So being able to ski places I have never skied before keeps my excitement up for skiing.  "Trail bagging" in the Su Valley is perfect for me.  I'm also the type that doesn't have the patience to slog in heavy gear up a mountain, just to get in a 5 minute ski run.  Being able to skate ski, cover a lot of ground and see lots of new sights is more fun for me.  And that's what Su Valley trails are all about.  Finally, I don't like being in herds of people.  So being able to spend decades skiing thousands of miles of trails and rarely every meet another traveler is heaven for me.  Just like with this trip.  A beautiful day, great skiing ... and I did not see a single person.  I love the Susitna Valley.  Always have, always will.