Eagle River Valley Homestead Road Crust Cruising

On the south side of the Eagle River Valley there are a number of old homestead roads.  Homesteaders once carved out places to live in the wilderness in this area.  Presently no one lives permanently at these homestead sites, and these properties are now in-holdings within the Chugach State Park.  By following old roads in this areas you can eventually reach a remote cabin at tree line that you can see from the Eagle River Road.  Benji Uffenbeck, Tim Miller and I had never skied to this cabin before, so that was the goal of this 16 mile +/- crust skiing foray.

The properties pictured below are privately owned ... so with respect to the landowners I'm not going to publish on the web how to get to these places.
Skiing conditions varied from great to not-so great due to a truck that 4-wheeled its way along some of these roads. Signs of the old-time Alaskan dream: a log cabin and a bulldozer. A big cat and a redneck with an attitude ... one dangerous combination!
These ruts look worse than they were.  You could cut turns on the sides on the way down. A nice day in the Western Chugach. One trail we took dead-ended at this old cabin.
The cabin was a goner.  It had been trashed by animals for decades.  We definitely knocked before entering to wake up any bears. From the bite marks, it looked like a porcupine had been riding this rocking horse. We dared Benji to scarf down this 40 year old can of "Dennison's Hot Chilli".  30 minutes later it became BRUTAL to ski behind him !!
It looked like a kid living at this cabin in the 60's was making a scrapbook before the family left.  There was even a picture of crust skiers from the 60's !! A 40 to 50 year old thermometer at the cabin said that the temp was in the sweet-zone for crust skiing.
This was our destination.  A neat little cabin that seems to see little use.  And it's in one very scenic spot. Looking west down Eagle River Valley.
A panoramic view from the cabin porch.  Check out the amount of snow on the north side (sunny side) of the valley floor ... none.
Thanks to Benji for giving us a pass to ski in his 'hood.
     
Back to 2006 Skiing Photos Photos and web page by Tim Kelley