Day 3: Lovely Alpine Walking to a New Valley

Raina and I woke up, packed camp and continued walking through stunning fall alpine colors. Right before we dropped into a drainage a young brown bear came out of the bushes. Raina with her eagle eyes spotted him first and yelled bear. We got out the bear sprizzle and stood next to each other looking big. He went out of sight, circled us and then gave us another good look, but Raina told him to "Beat it", and then he slowly rambled away.

 

The trail was intermittent but we got on something good before we dropped into the trees and down to the White River. From there it was beautiful open tundra and grass, we picked up a four wheeler trail and followed it to Lime Creek. We blew up our one boat ferried the packs across and then Raina and I rode double across. No pics unfortunately!

Eventually we got to the morraine from the Russel glacier, but it continued to be amazing walking.

 

A lot of animals cross through here! Tons of bear and caribou tracks.

 

We crossed flood creek and found an awesome campsite up above it. The views were stunning.

 

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Day 2: Geohendra Creek to Alpine Beauty

Raina and I continued up Geohendra Creek the next morning. Within 15 minutes we passed the cabin, and a plane parked on a pretty rugged airstrip.

 

The walking was fantastic. When we got off Geohendra creek there was a pretty decent trail across the alpine.

 

We made coffee at Solo mtn cabin, and I finally gave into the colder temps and put on long underwear.

 

We spent the whole day walking beneath beautiful snow and glacier covered mountains. By the end of the day we could see the white river valley and a whole new valley filled with more beautiful white mountains. Absolutely amazing country.

 

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Day 1: McCarthy Flight to Chisana and Up Geohendra Creek

I have wanted to do the Nabesna to McCarthy route for years. The car shuttle is daunting though, so Raina and I bypassed it by flying from McCarthy into Chisana. In retrospect we could have flown all the way to Nabesna, but that's retrospect for ya.

The McCarthy Foot Bridge

 

Even though it was a semi beautiful day our flight got delayed for about 4 hours waiting for the clouds to clear. The pilot for Wrangell Mtn Air was awesome, and we flew over most of the route, except the infamous goat trail.

Raina let me sit up front because she knows what a picture taking geek I am. She really is the best!

 

We landed in Chisana a little after 4pm, and headed out right away. From the air we could see a nice four wheeler trail through the trees that went straight to Geohendra creek, our pathway to the alpine.

 

 

The Creek was super easy walking, as good as it gets really. We hike up about 7 miles and made camp on the riverbed. Just as dinner was about done, and the sun was almost gone, a girl with pink chaps on a humongous horse came right by our camp. She was followed by her packhorse, two clients in camo and a young buck with like 4 more horses. It was random, they were headed to a cabin around the corner, Raina and I laughed because we almost stayed there.

 

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Train Ride, Sidewalks, and Floating the Placer River

When we woke up we had no idea what to do with the beautiful day. A few minutes on the great internet secured us seats on the AK railroad to get a drop off at the Spencer Glacier whistlestop. We had a 1/2 hr to pack and head out the door!

Getting off the train

 

Hiking Around the Lake

 

 

We decided to walk around the lake to the toe of the glacier, I was just as psyched to walk back, but we decided to float across the lake, all I can say is that I'm glad that there wasn't a head wind, and the views were incredible.

Blowing up the Boats

 

 

The Placer river is a pretty boring float. If it didn't involve a glacier and a train ride it would be much less appealing. A wonderful day out with great company, no complaints!

 

An Almost Attempt and Float out Eagle River

Ryan and I woke up to low clouds and our dreams of ascending Yukla started to wither. We gave it a good go, but the bush schwack and dreary weather defeated us. There were amazing beaver trails up the hillside near Twin Falls, we could have been more persistent.

 

 

We decided to stay another night after our futile bush schwack.

 

 

A quick paddle navigating trees brought us to Echo bend where we took out and hiked back to the nature center.

 

Crow Pass to the Eagle River

It was a glorious morning on top of the pass,and no need to hurry.

 

 

 

A lingering snow patch below the pass

 

We hiked all the way up to the lake, neither of us had been up there before. The toe of the glacier still looked far away. We paddled to the start of the river and were treated to a fantastic ride down. It was cranking, there were some super fun wave trains, then it of course mellows out farther down. We took out below Twin falls, and camped with dreams of Mt. Yukla above us.

 

Glacier Creek and Up to Crow Pass

Ryan came into town for a week, and I was a bit surprised he was ready to head back outside for a float, hike,and camp trip, but I ran with it! He got a new alpacka raft, it looks like an inflatable kayak, its pretty sweet.

Glacier Creek was Cranking

 

Glacier creek was significantly higher than the last time I was there, but it almost made it easier because there weren't as many rocks to avoid. Ryan definitely was in love with his new boat after the first corner. Having a spray deck is pretty nice, he's been roughing it in the old alpacka!

The Put In

 

The float was fast, we were out within the hour. Ryan biked back up to the car while I dried gear in the sun. We still had a good amount of daylight so we headed up to Crow Pass for the night.

 

Gold Mint to Snowbird Glacier

It was a beautiful hot sunny day as Kellie and I hiked down the Gold Mint trail.  We were in leisure mode and took advantage of scenic vistas to absorb the sun and of course chat.

Kellie Heading Down the Gold Mint Trail

 

Getting Up Higher

 

We sat up at Backdoor Gap for at least an hour just soaking up the steep walls, blue lakes and anemic glaciers.  When it was time we headed over and down the Penny Royal glacier to the valley below.  I have done a few variations in this area, but this was by far the easiest travel I have ever encountered, I think this is the way the Bomber Traverse is meant to be done.

 

 

Kellie and I soaked up the comforts of the cozy Snow Bird Hut, drank wine, watched a beautiful sunset and then were ready for bed.

The weather had turned to pea soup by morning and we packed up our stuff and headed out.

 

The sun came in and out on our way down, it looked like we were going to descend into The Nar, but instead the clouds kept parting and the sun stayed on us.

An awesome trip with fantastic company.

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Snow Bird to Bomber to Reed Lakes

I woke up to a blue bird day and decided to check out the valley that the Bomber and Pennyroyal glaciers terminate in. I dropped straight off the back off the moraine down to the alpine lake, it was steep and probably not the easiest way down.  Beautiful Alpine Lake

I picked my way down through the cliffs and moraine trending toward the right, I passed a small unnamed valley and then headed up the wider second valley.  The walking was good through tundra and scrub brush.  I saw more bear scat than all my trips up to Hatcher Pass combined. Heading Down to the second valley on the right

I debated going out the Gold Mint trail or heading up and over Bomber pass to the Reed lakes trail all the way up the valley, but as the clouds started to build my decision was made.  I've never walked up the toe of the Bomber glacier, coming up the moraine I could picture how massive it once was, but now its little more than a ramp of ice, I didn't see any crevasses. On the Bomber

The first time I was on the Bomber glacier was 1997, and I've walked past the plane many times and decided to skip it this trip and headed up to the pass.  Looking down on Upper Reed Lake

Dropping off Bomber pass down to the Upper Reed lakes is probably one of the more unpleasant steep boulder fields I've been on, but the Reed Lakes trail is pretty awesome. D.16.3:EG:5850