I have a large backlog of stuff to post because I have been busy doing things that are post worthy. The following was a quick overnight trip to the lake at the base of the Woz Glacier. Twas the night after Solstice (I was going to say “It was” but the spell checker thought that “Twas” twas a better idea and I thought that was funny) but it felt like a Solstice celebration to me. The trip was 19 hours chocks to chocks so here’s 19 pictures of it…
Alaska in January can be cruel, cold and unforgiving. Only the bravest souls with state-of-the-art equipment should venture forth into frozen void.
We may not be state-of-the-art but January was super warm and when a weekend with winds of less than 20 knots came along we decided that a first was in order. Timbers [the cabin] in January.
We were up with the dawn (10:00 baby! I’m likin’ the January thing so far), grabbed some little boats and headed out the Spit to a bigger boat. The view coming out of the harbour lead us to believe that we had made the right choice.
Darn near calm and probably above freezing. Things just kept getting better as we steamed on.
Apparently the military also thought that today was a good day to be out and about because there were a lot of them and they were conning like mad (refueling ops?).
One of the primary reasons I bought Shelby the packraft was to serve as a ship to shore boat. I know that doesn’t sound glamorous but I’ve carried 100+ pound double kayaks, zodiac rafts, and other miscellaneous watercraft up a lot of beaches and 6 pounds is pretty brilliant.
My companion also had a kayak so we decided the take advantage of the tide and ride up into the lagoon. A sea kayak to a packraft is as a sports car is to late 60’s muscle. One just glides along effortlessly while the other burns some serious gas to keep up. They are both fun but there’s a reason why people keep rebuilding muscle…and why I have Sammie the sea kayak.
Laziness and fixation of Mallards compelled us to beach and take a quick stroll once we made it into the lagoon. Seriously, who wants to paddle when you can ride the tide? Lucky we did because the ice was nice.
Light was ‘awastin’ though so we rode/rowed out of the lagoon, almost collided with a porpoise, and headed back the the mighty Torega to grab my pack.
A packraft makes short work of ship to shore…
Shelby was all I had hoped for. I can summarize it in one word, Effortless.
Timbers was great. We lit a fire and it warmed right up. We had the obligatory ground animal pasta and everything. January just makes it better.
Next morning we were again up at the crack of dawn. Apparently is was colder during the night than we thought.
Before leaving there was one more thing that had to be done, riding a raft down a real river.
It was great and I learned three things 1) rafting rivers is AWESOME, 2) packrafts ride over rocks very well, and 3) I might want a little more water the next time I ride Halibut Creek. Seriously though, epic fun and I can totally see why people ride these things on rivers.
All too soon we had to head back and to be perfectly frank it was one of those days that you really didn’t want to head home. I guess that is as good a way as any to end a trip.
Since March I’ve been out to Timbers, the family cabin, every month except for April (so it was kinda rocky start…). To keep the record standing it was clear that a trip before the end of the month would be required (darn).
Due to time and tide we opted to use the raft. We have started to refer to the raft as the Samuel L Jackson not so much because it is a bad mother f*@!kin’ raft but rather because it is named after the two great grandchildren (it’s kind of a long story if you don’t know it).
Anyway, the main point is that we got to Timbers and we only had to paddle a fraction of the journey (note the mothership in the background). After checking out the cabin we headed down for a fall exploration of the flats. As usual I took a bunch of pictures of flowers and shit.
It was clearly fall and there were some really exceptional leaves and some cute ducks.
Bet you thought that I’d have a picture of a duck to but the joke is on you!
Halibut Creek was remarkably low so we followed it up its valley as far as we could. When we got as far as we could with only Xtratufs I got motivated and forded the river at three more shallow points until there was only shear cliffs on either side of the river.
I got to see new territory which is pretty cool as we have spent a good deal of time in this area since we built the cabin in ’98. I also got to test out the insulating properties of SmartWool longjohns after immersion in glacial stream water thanks to a realization mid creek that a) the water was deeper than anticipated and b) I needed to push on because I wasn’t going to give it a second shot. Turns out they work really and I was suitably impressed.
The camera doesn’t really do it justice but it was exciting to get this far. After hiking back to the cabin along a new route down a wash inside the treeline it was time for dinner. Building on the earlier theme we made a lovely pot of chili with a moose base (see earlier post). I guess that we will have to catch something else with hooves or paws to keep this up.
Darkness comes early and we stoked up the fire and hunkered down for the night. We only managed to play one game of Scrabble before calling it a night. I was in the lead the whole game until the very end when my Uncle took the win with Zits for 66 points. He said that he never did well at Scrabble…
We slept in the following morning and by the time we made and ate a hardy breakfast it was afternoon and we only had time for one more afternoon walk before heading back.
With a lower tide we tried to cross Halibut Creek in Xtratufs but didn’t quite manage it. I don’t know what it is with water, boots, and trying to cross.
We headed back at a high high tide so I got to row a long way. I also got to stay on the mothership while the raft went back for the rest of the party.
By the time we were heading back we were racing the sun. It’s nice to have dark nights for a change.
The final leg of the journey involved racing the setting sun in the Spit road. It takes almost exactly one Spit length for the sun to disappear once it touches the horizon.
What a great way to end a great weekend getaway.
The Alpine Ridge trail is a nice spur off the popular Glacier Trail and, if sufficient time is allowed, can get you up above the tree/brush line. I had a friend in town and found a hole in the schedule so that we could go do some hiking. Spoiler alert, five hours isn’t enough…
A little scouting the night before yielded this interesting but low quality photo of the ridge…
The following day I took another picture from below. So much for context (and shamelessly showing that, yes, I have toys which I occasionally use for silly things :- )
We were really lucky to have perfect weather for the trip. Actually, it was too hot but I guess that I shouldn’t complain about that. We started the hike at the Glacier Spit trail head to cut down on boat time and skip the steep climb up the Saddle Trail.
We zipped in to the Saddle trail cutoff in about 1.5 hours. It’s a nice trail.
I’ve spent a lot of time on my butt driving boats this summer so I wasn’t in the greatest shape but my mountain biking friend helped my keep up the pace as we climbed the ridge. We ran out of time before reaching the top of the second bump where we really get a 360 view above the treeline but it was still the farthest I’ve been on the trail and we got some decent looks at things from the first bump including:
We got back to the boat with some time to spare and chatted with tourists waiting at the trailhead. Hopefully we dispelled some foolish preconceptions. Finished the day with a well earned burger and chocolate shake (and it should have been since it cost $20 because the good place was closed :- ( ). During a quick lunch stop at the top I also took a little time to appreciate the micro along with the macro.
Saturday morning I realized that the fates had conspired to leave me, my father and the Torega free during the afternoon. Since it was a sunny day we decided (my father and I, the Torega didn’t have a vote) to hike up to Leisure Lake as an early Father’s Day activity.
One of the funny things about my job is, despite the fact that I more or less live on the bay all summer, there are a couple of places that I have been taking people to for years but have never seen myself. The State Park trail system in the vicinity of the Halibut Cove Lagoon Ranger Station was one of those places. The other particular advantage of the lake hike was that there is a dock at the ranger station where we could leave the boat.
After we worked into the Lagoon on the incoming tide we realized that we had forgotten about the possibility that the dock would be full of boats fishing for kings (there is a seeded king run in the lagoon). Luckily the fishermen were able to move a few things around and I was able shoehorn the boat into a space at the base of the dock.
After taking a peek at the ranger station we headed up the trail. According to the trail signs and math the hike into the lake was about 3.4 miles and took about 1:45. I need to get in better shape.
The state park has a public use cabin at the lake and another nearby in Moose Valley. There is also a nice camp site at the mouth of a lovely little creek where we stopped for a quick snack.
While it would have been nice to have a nap we headed back after about a 30 minute rest. The trip out only took about 1:25. Over all the trail was really good and I’d like to backpack back into the area so that I can spend some more time exploring. All in all a successful afternoon jaunt.
Every summer I pledge that I will spend more time at the cabin and every summer I don’t spend enough. While I will probably continue to uphold that tradition last week I managed to fit in a whirl wind single night trip.
It feels like one rule for going to Timbers is that one must arrive at an inconvenient tide. This time was pretty convenient but I still got to wear the Derkka boots to jump off the front of the boat.
On my walk up to the cabin I found a perfectly good buoy.
As always the cabin was lovely. I was impressed by the number and variety of flowers this early in June.
After some primitive surveying activities out on the flats and a tasty can of tuna (forgot the Mayo in Homer) for my evening meal I took advantage of the evening light.
The next morning I was up at the crack of dawn, or, as others call it, around 11 (because my phone was off). After an entire can of Hash for breakfast (you can’t take it with you) I decided to take advantage of the lack of wind and paddle the kayak that I needed to bring back to Homer out to Glacier Spit.
I really did pack light and I didn’t even need to put any gear in my front compartment. For once I actually left close to high tide and decided to take advantage of that fact and explore Rusty’s Lagoon behind Glacier Spit.
Kayaks are remarkable vehicles. They are very easy to propel at a surprisingly fast pace and allow access to all sorts of out of the way places. We are fortunately to have a pair of wood kayaks built by my father (see future posts hopefully).
After reaching the end of Rusty’s Lagoon I decided to portage my boat over the berm to wait for my pickup rather than fight the current. Glacier Spit is a great place to hang out and have lunch.
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