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2020/2021
by: Tim Kelley
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Late April 2021:
Paxson Area Crust Skiing |
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Mid April 2021:
Broad Pass |
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Mid April 2021:
Jack River Canyon Loop |
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Mid April 2021:
River Crust Skiing, Out Of Talkeetna |
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From main
street Talkeetna you can head out onto the Big Susitna flood
plain and find good crust skiing when it is in season. BUT
... you need to be careful here. Three big rivers converge
here ... the Big Susitna, Talkeetna and Chulitna rivers.
So there is fast moving water here all winter long, whether it
is covered by ice or not. It would be easy to get in
trouble here be breaking through the ice of a river channel.
Best is to ski here with other people. And the best people
to go skiing here with would likely be the Denali Ski Club folks
of Talkeetna that ski here regularly. I recently did a
long crust ski here by myself. And I found a lot of
sketchy areas that I definitely avoided. |
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I apparently passed
by this makeshift sign while I was heading out, and didn't
notice it. I noticed on my way back in. The sign had
some good advice:
"This river is not safe for any form of travel (at this time).
Don't be a victim." |
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Early April 2021:
Hidden Lake Again, This Time For Crust Skiing |
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Late March 2021:
Skiing The Nelchina Glacier Ice Tunnel |
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Mid March 2021:
Checking Out The Cooper Landing Bypass Progress ... On Skis |
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Mid March 2021:
Skiing The Historic Herning Trail, Grubstake Gulch to Knik |
In 1900 the
Herning Trail
was built for winter freighting of mining supplies from Knik
to Grubstake Gulch on Willow Creek, in the area west of Hatcher
Pass. Once the Alaska Railroad was built in 1916, this
trail was abandoned. In recent years the Matanuska-Susitna
Borough (MSB) has been working on
reestablishing a public multi-use trail along the general route
of the Historic Herning Trail (link to
PFD file).
I figured it would be fun to ski the Historic Herning Trail.
I had skied some sections of this route before, but wanted to
link everything together for a one day adventure. I used
the proposed route that the MSB is planning between Knik and
Houston as a starting point. But during a couple of recon
trips I altered the route a bit based on trail usage that I
discovered.
The end result was a 37 mile ski that followed this route:
Grubstake Gulch - Willow-Fishook Road - Dave Churchill Trail -
Herning Trail - Zero Lake - Houston - bike trail and power lines
along the Parks Highway - Hawk Lane - power line to Big Lake
Road and on to Hollywood Road and beyond - musher
trail to swamps north of Three Mile Lake - Three Mile Lake
- power line to Old Iditarod Trail - Knik.
I'd like to think that miners skied this route back in the early
decades of last century. Perhaps some of them traveled on
skis along with freight dog teams. So who knows ... maybe this
was the first time the Historic Herning Trail route has been
skied in the last 100 years. |
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GPS track: 37 miles |
Grubstake Gulch |
Old map of the
Herning Trail,
once called the Double Ender Trail. |
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Dave Churchill Trail |
Trying to find the
Willow Sled Trail / Herning Trail |
Willow Sled Trail /
Herning Trail |
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When snowmobiles fan
out to play in swamps, the route you are trying to follow can
get vague. Good to have a GPS or knowledge from previous
ski trips. |
Willow Creek Sled
Trail sign |
This entire trip was
classic skiing on cold powder. |
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Plowed roads near
Zero Lake when 10 years ago there were none. Makes trail
navigation a little confusing. |
Nearing Zero Lake
area. |
Skiing along the
Parks Highway. |
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Along the Parks
Highway. |
Power line leading
to Hollywood Road. |
Hollywood Road.
Near where the 2018 earthquake
hit hard. |
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Three Mile Lake.
Snowstorm moving in. |
Powerline to Old
Iditarod Trail. |
Mile 1 of Old
Iditarod Trail |
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Old Iditarod Trail
in Knik. |
Knik Museum |
Done. The Knik
Bar has old, and mostly forgotten, links to long distance
skiing. Formerly the start and finish of the 200 mile
Iditaski races in the 1980s. |
Notes:
I did a couple of recon trips to figure out this route.
Even with that, I had to wing it a couple of times. Using
racing skis to do routes like this means you commit to the
randomness of snowmobile traffic for your trail. I think
it is best to do trips like this one on days soon after a
weekend when conditions were good for snowmobile riding.
Then hope that all the sections that you want to ski had
traffic. I had a snowmobile trail to follow for 99% of
this route. Yet, I didn't encounter a single person while
doing this ski.
During my recon trips, I found that some of the route that the
MSB had documented for the Historic Herning Trail had no
snowmobile traffic at all. So I found an alternative route
that was close by. The areas between Three Mile Lake and
the Big Lake Road had situations like this ... local snowmobile
traffic not matching the MSB proposed route.
At this time, the MSB is working on reestablishing the Historic
Herning Trail between Knik and Hawk Lane near Big Lake.
So, they have yet to publish a route through Houston.
Between Houston and the Zero Lake area the connection to the
Willow Sled Trail / Herning Trail is confusing due to recent
subdivision roads near Zero Lake. |
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Early March 2021:
Hatcher Pass To Willow |
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I had skied
from Hatcher Pass to Willow
before. But
I ended up skiing a
round-about route that time, as there were some
Haessler-Norris
Trail System trails that
were not yet established. And some H-N trails I didn't
know about.
Now that I know the Haessler-Norris trail system better, I
wanted to ski a 'direct' route from Hatcher Pass to Willow.
So, this 36 mile route is what I came up with and skied.
This route could be a couple miles shorter if you can find the
northern Deception Swamp to Capital Trail connector (that I
missed, see jog in route). So pretty much, this is the most direct
and clearly signed winter route between Hatcher Pass and Willow
that I know of, that maximizes trail use, that you can ski, bike,
mush or snowmobile.
But before you go: There are variables in this route that can make
or break the fun factor. The plowed section of the Willow-Fishook
Road that ends at Craigie Creek is good when it's good.
But with melting in late winter it can quickly become an unskiable dirt road. Also, the trails leading to Willow
can either be nicely groomed mushing trails. Or the same
trails can be bumpy and torn up by snowmobiles. Or the
trail sections that cross open swamp areas can be drifted over
and gone. It's a crap
shoot if you just go for it without checking conditions on the
Willow side first.
So if you want to ski, bike or snowmobile from Hatcher Pass to
Willow ... this route is for you!
Route description: Hatcher Pass Lodge - Willow-Fishhook Road - Dave Churchill
Trail - Herning Trail - Kyzer Way - Gocke Trail - Spain Lane - Nike Trail - Capital Trail - Deception
Swamp - Tuxedo Drive MSB trailhead in Willow. Distance: 36
miles. |
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Heading out. |
Climbing. |
At the pass. |
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Willow is that way ... |
Beginning of plowed section
of the Willow-Fishhook Road. |
Fast but slippery skiing on
the plowed road. |
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Better road skiing at lower
elevation. |
In the upland Haessler-Norris
Trail System. |
Capital Trail. |
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Plenty of snow. Cold
powder, not fast skiing conditions. |
Skiing under the finish arch! |
GPS track: 36 miles. |
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Late February 2021:
Hoks To The Rescue ... When It Won't Stop Snowing |
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Mid February 2021:
Hidden Lake, On The Kenai Peninsula |
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If you like
to avoid places that are swarming with people, then winter is a
good time to visit the Kenai Peninsula. It's a good time
to go to popular K Pen summer spots and not be immersed in
humanity. One place that I had never been to before on the
Kenai Peninsula, do to people avoidance, was Hidden Lake.
Now that I've been there, I've got to say ... it's pretty cool.
Ridges with glacial-buffed rocky outcrops on either side of this
long lake. Trails that connect to the west end of it.
Rocky islands. Nice campground. And besides a few
ice fisherfolks, it's deserted in winter.
If you poke
around on this web site, you will see that I have skied Kenai
and Skilak Lakes a number of times. But I had never skied
Hidden Lake, which lies between these two lakes. This
place is now on my crust skiing list. It would be fun if
you were here with good crust skiing conditions and could skate
the lake and the Seven Lakes Trail and the trail to Engineer
Lake.
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Location of Hidden Lake |
A Kenai
National Wildlife Refuge sign at the Engineer Lake campground
gave me a few laughs. Apparently the federal government
has added to the list of freedoms they are taking away from
Americans. Now gone is the freedom to run on trails.
"NEVER run on trails" says the sign! Though I might not
agree with that, I definitely agree with the government mandate
to call out "hey bear" in bear country.
Of course, that's what
the HeyBear! app does! |
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Early February 2021:
Willow Uplands Loop |
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Late October:
The New Hemlock Burn Trail |
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XC skiers in
Anchorage should consider checking out the completed section of
the new Hemlock Burn Trail (HBT). This is a tame downhill
mountain bike singletrack trail that is fun to ski. The
trail has a gradual descent gradient, so there are no wild downhills. But of course, if the trail was covered in ice ...
then you wouldn't want to be on it with skis. Recently the
trail conditions have been cold powder ... so no problem with
control in the corners.
The completed
section of the Hemlock Burn Trail, as of late October 2020, goes
from near the lower Glen Alps parking lot to the intersection of
the Prospect Heights Trail with the Gasline Trail. The
Hemlock Burn Trail crosses the Gasline Trail at that point and
continues towards Prospect Heights. This section of the
HBT, though cleared, is still in various stages of construction.
But with enough snow and traffic it will probably come to life
this winter.
The start of
this trail has not yet been tied into the Glen Alps trailhead
system. So it's a little hard to find. But the
picture below should guide you were to go. Unless it
snowed recently, there should be tracks leading from near the
lower parking lot to the trail start.
Note: As of
late October this trail was not officially open. There are
signs on the trail that say it is still under construction.
But ... you will likely see a lot of ski, bike, snowshoe, foot
and paw tracks on this trail. |
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The magenta line
is the start of the Hemlock Burn Trail singletrack. The
start of the trail is not far from the lower parking lot at Glen
Alps.
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Mid October 2020:
Kalifornsky Beach Sand Rolling |
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Sand rolling!? Wait! What?!
Yeah. Sand rolling. Roller
skiing on a beach using roller skis with monster-tires.
Roller skiing on a beach?
Monster-tires? Huh?
OK, here is the story, in
chronological order:
1)
20 years ago I made some monster-tire roller skis for skiing the
flatter xc skiing trails, like the Mize Loop, at Kincaid Park. I used
them off and on. Basically they were clunky … but they were
entertaining and I got a good workout using them. But then I
stopped masters ski racing and focused on backcountry cross
country skiing. And my monster-tire roller skis got lost in our
garage.
2)
July of 2019. I was at Kalifornsky Beach on the Kenai Penninsula.
I had a really fun time riding my mountain bike on this beach of
hard-packed sand.
3)
June of 2020. I was reorganizing our garage and I found my old
monster-tire roller skis. I then remembered how much fun
mountain biking on Kalifornsky Beach was the previous year. And
I wondered if these all-terrain roller skis would work on that
beach.
4)
October of 2020. I brought my monster-tire roller skis to
Kalifornsky Beach. Skiing sand on these roller skis worked
out ok. But I would rank it as a 6 out of 10.
Doable, but not high on the fun factor. Speed was a bit slow,
though it seems like sand rolling would be a valid training
option for ski racing.
But training for xc ski racing is not my thing these days.
So I
skied on them for a while, then put them away and went beach
riding on mountain bikes with Tammy, my wife. Much more fun.
Always neat to try new stuff. Now I can add
sand rolling, or sand roller skiing, to my life’s skiing
experiences. |
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My
homemade roller skis, that I made a long time ago, that utilize
off-road skateboard wheels. |
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Wheel size comparisons: Off-road skateboard wheels on left.
V2 150 pneumatic wheels in center. Solid rubber V2 98
wheels on right. |
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February 1982:
Blast From The Past ... Skiing The Length of Lake Champlain |
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I was cleaning out our attic
recently and happened across this old picture. It was
taken in 1982 during a 125 mile ski I did that traversed the length of
Lake
Champlain (between Vermont and New York). I started at
the Canadian Border and skied the east coast of the lake.
I skied under the Crown Point bridge, that would later be
blown up
and rebuilt. A short and fun side trip was skiing up to,
and into,
Fort
Ticonderoga, an 18th century fort that has been well
preserved. I finished the ski at the boat locks in
Whitehall, NY. A fun skiing adventure ... ~40 years ago. |
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