What Makes a Good Trail?

There are a lot of factors that go into a good hike. How long is it before there's a payoff? What's the elevation gain? What's the total length? How often does the scenery change? How much driving does it take to get there? Even some of my favorite places, like Glacier Park in Montana, have numerous official hikes that i find to be substandard due to monotony, or the ratio of effort compared to rewards. By the time i hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up in three different places i was completely disinterested in the idea of doing it again. The North Cascades suffer from the fact that too many trails involve hiking for hours and hours through the woods before you are high enough to see anything other than trees. Some of the not so good Alaskan hikes i've been on involve seeing the same view for hours on end while you walk down an long uniform-looking valley (only to turn right back around at the end), or the trails are created badly, in that they too often have a tendency to go straight up the side of the mountain. Although i'm not fond of switchbacks, going straight up wastes more energy, and creates a trail that degrades much faster.



It kept raining last summer until i would just go out regardless. However, i didn't want to waist a bunch of time driving somewhere that really needed a sunny day to appreciate, so i would go closer to home and some days just explore areas i'd been around before but never took the time to investigate. One day i went up to Hatcher Pass (the actual pass) and hiked up the hill from the top of the pass.



I had only planned on going to the top but that didn't take very long and i saw from the top that it was easy walking to keep going. I followed the ridge a while and eventually just decided to walk down into the adjacent valley and traverse around the bottom of the mountain back to the pass. It turned out to be a very good route to take. A loop hike that was just the right distance through constantly changing and interesting landscapes, and it never rained until i got back to the car. Now i've got a unique new moderately adventurous hike i can take visitors on who are up to task.

Fourth of July Weekend

I haven't made a post for a while, but i've been busy learning some new photo techniques. Now i need to learn how to post the stuff online. One of my brothers came up to visit over July 4th weekend. Fourth of July isn't that great for fireworks in Alaska because it never gets dark. But, because it never gets dark it makes for a great day to spend outside.




The ground around here was like walking on a giant brain


Jeff sports his new "broadband" programmers mohawk.


Fisher is seen here asking if we really think it's a good idea for him to get in the freezing water


Later Fisher launched into his eternal Holy War against ground squirrels

It was cloudy in town so we went to the Talkeetna Mountains, which turned out to be mostly sunny all day. We went up to a kind of a hidden lake i'd been to before. My friend Jeff had decided to try out a wet suit he had and go swimming in the lake. I'd been swimming in it before, for about 30 seconds. Jeff lasted about 2 minutes before his hands and feet were completely numb. It was decided a full dry suit would be required. Fisher must have thought Jeff was trying to kill himself, because he swam out into the lake to rescue him. All in all it was a very nice hike, and afterward we were rewarded with a great steak and fish barbecue at Maree's relatives property on the Matanuska River. Nice times.




Just about to exit the afternoon shadow of the mountain


If you look at the second pic in this post, you can see that those clouds behind the mountains stayed right where they were all day long. Crazy.