The rangers of Denali State Park have been working on a 15 mile winter trail between the Kseugi Ken campground and the Byers Lake campground for the past few years.  They have been routing the trail, removing downed trees, excavating sidehill ramps and brush-mowing the trail.  This year they finally got to the point where they could run a Piston Bully 100 over it ... and a great winter multi-use trail (ski, bike and snowmobile) came to fruition.  The rangers say they hope this winter trail will become a yearly feature of Denali State Park, for years to come.

You can ski this trail as an out and back or a point to point trip.  One thing you should realize ... this trail is not flat!  There are some flat sections.  But there are some big climbs ... like the section just to the north of the Kseugi Ken campground and on the south-side of Byers Creek.  Also, the bridges over the creeks are temporary snow bridges. This is a cool winter trail that folks should consider putting on their list.

 Lower Troublesome Creek crossing.

March in Southcentral Alaska, and still hardly any snowfall this winter (especially in the areas where I was hoping to log some new ski trips).  We've had a very unusual winter of warmth and record low snowfall.  Long term forecast is for more of the same.  Sadly, it's not looking good for getting in new skiing forays this year before we're off to other adventures.  My view of this winter can be summed up in one word: unimaginable.

Update: We traded this year's short crust skiing season for a van trip from Alaska to Newfoundland and Labrador.  A few pics from the trip below ...

A Stop at Devils Tower ... Historical Trivia, with Skier References

The first documented climb of Devils Tower in Wyoming was in 1893 by ranchers using ladders wedged into cracks.
The first technical ascent was by German Fritz Weissner and others in 1937.
In 1939 a group led by a Dartmouth ski team alum named Jack Durrance made the 2nd ascent.
In 1941 a 'daredevil' parachuted onto the summit.  But the planned plane drop of a rope for descending didn't work out.
The parachutist spent 6 days on the top of Devil's tower while people got Durrance to travel to WY, climb up and rescue him.
Each year about 5000 people climb Devils Tower.  Most climbers ascend the Durrance route.  Video about the 'Daredevil Jump'.

Iceberg that arrived from Greenland at Twillingate, Newfoundland.

Northern Newfoundland.  Icebergs, and Labrador, in the distance.  Norse people had a settlement here 1000 years ago.

Visiting North America's Furthest East Driving Locations

Say you want to start driving from Anchorage, Alaska and go to the furthest east drivable location in North America.  Well, you have a couple of options.   You can drive to the furthest east drivable point on the North American mainland.  Or you can drive to the furthest east point including North American islands, and excluding Greenland.  Your choice.  Or even better, don't make a choice.  Go to both locations.

The furthest east drivable point, including islands, is Cape Spear, Newfoundland.  Getting here requires a ferry ride from Nova Scotia or Labrador.  This is location 'B' on the above map and it is 111 miles further east than location "A", which is explained below.

The furthest east point on the North American mainland, location "A" on the map, is a little bit more of a challenge.  It's at the Deepwater Creek Trailhead to the east of the village of Saint Lewis in Labrador.  After driving through the village, you head up the rough and partially washed-out American Hill Road.  This road switch-backs and brings you past the village landfill.  Due to the winds here blowing garbage around, this is a rather nasty spot.  From here the road narrows to a single lane and climbs to the site of an old DEW (Defense Early Warning) radar station that was active in the 1950's and 60's.  Shortly after the DEW station site, the road ends at the Deepwater Creek trailhead.

At the trailhead we found the furthest east marker.  It was a plywood sign that was leaning against a post.  We took a photo of the sign, put the sign back where we found it ... and then we started a long wander back west.  A fun 18,000 mile trans-continental road trip.

So, where would you go?  Here is where we have road tripped in the last 5 years.  Note: This map is made with Google Maps, which is clunky and limiting when creating maps manually.  So there are hundreds of side trips off these roads that we made to trailheads and camping spots, for exploring places and occasional wrong turns ... that are not shown.  Anyway, this map will give you a general idea of what van adventures a couple of Alaskans can come up with (click on the map above, and zoom in & out).  Fun times ... "living in a van down by the river".

 Erik Packer developed a web app, named TextMeTheSnow, that will text you when snow is on its way.  Pretty cool.  Give it a try!