Backroads Hiking Trip (Talkeetna/Girdwood/Chugach)

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Kantishna to Talkeetna

July 3

Completing our 3.5-hour journey from Kantishna, we got to the train station at the park entrance at 11:00 a.m. We ate our brown bag lunches from Backroads and strolled the very busy park visitor center there until we boarded the Denali Star for a 12:30 p.m. ride to Talkeetna. It was here at the Visitors Center where we realized how remote it was being in Kantishna at the Denali Backcountry Lodge.  We had no idea, until now, how many people were actually visiting Denali National Park.  It was wonderful that, while in Kantishna, we never realized how many people were visiting the park .  Typically at a popular National Park, the crowds are usually lost only after hiking a trail beyond the one or two mile mark, but on this trip to Denali with Backroads, even though we were with a small tour group, we never felt crowded.

The train ride was 4.5 hours long. Our seats were not very good. We did not get to sit in the upper level bubble cars. We were too low to fully appreciate the scenery. From our seats we could only see one side, and from there we mostly saw the heads of fellow passengers, the backs of their seats, sky, and the tops of the trees right next to the tracks. We had to stand up to see anything of note, or stand in the crowded, narrow vestibule between the cars which had an open window on either side.  We managed a few nice views, but not many.

In the post-trip survey, we recommended to Backroads that train-car and seat upgrades be made an option on this trip…we all would have paid the extra. We were excited about the train ride, but it turned out to be the only real disappointment of the trip.

The train was an hour late arriving in Talkeetna due to unexpected stops to allow other trains to come past on the shared track. So, we only had a couple of hours in Talkeetna. We checked into our hotel, and then we were dropped off in downtown Talkeetna by the Backroads van. Downtown Talkeetna is a very small, colorful, offbeat touristy strip that has a remote, rural Alaskan feel like in the TV show Northern Exposure.  But it is a busy town.  The town is a base for many Denali climbers.  We had beers in town at the excellent Denali Brewing Co. and then dinner at Mountain High Pizza Pie with six others from the group (good food, very slow and indifferent service). After dinner, Em, John, Charlie and I walked through town and got fantastic homemade ice cream at Shirley’s Northern Lights Gourmet Ice Cream while the others took a Backroads van to the hotel. I bought a swiss army knife at a souvenir shop to replace the one that TSA took from me when boarding the plane to Alaska. The hotel was about two miles from town, and we were just leaving the souvenir shop to start our trek back, when amazingly the Backroads van which came through town for a last sweep of group members happened by, so we got a ride back.

There was an awesome deck at the magnificent Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge which had a tremendous view of the Alaskan Range and Denali. We had drinks from the bar with some of the group out on the deck, and took even more pics of the mountain. We began joking about how many pics the group has of Mt. Denali. We were truly spoiled since many people have come to see Denali and never get a glimpse of it.

 

 

Bed at 11:00 p.m.

Talkeetna to Chugach

July 4

Happy Independence Day!! The group departed Talkeetna at 8:30 a.m. After about an hour we made a pit stop at Millers Market in Houston.  Turns out this is a popular pit stop for buses heading to Anchorage because it is a neat, quirky market with ice cream, and there are about a dozen very clean individual rest roos.  They had an Independence Day specialty soft ice cream cone, which of course, being 9:30 in the morning I got one (as did several others).

We went south through Anchorage and on to Girdwood along Turnagain Arm, a waterway that is part of the Gulf of Alaska. The drive along Turnagain Arm was quite scenic…an unexpected bonus actually. It is a beautiful, long causeway called the Seward Highway along the water with views of Kinea Peninsula and mountains. We looked for whales, as they are often seen along the Turnagain Arm peninsula but didn’t see any. Emilie and I did see an eagle sitting atop a dead tree on the other side of the road. The Chugach National Forest was on the other side of the peninsula and the Chugach State Park was on our left (the road between the Chugach and the water).

Before getting to Girdwood for our next hotel, our itinerary included a stop at Eagle River Nature Center for some hiking. This is considered the gateway to Chugach State Park.
We hiked Dew Mound Trail and then Albert Loop for a total of 8 miles of fairly easy, level and packed dirt trail. Em and I pretty much stuck with our new friends John, his sister Anne, and his son Charlie on this hike. John and Charlie were from Nevada, and his sister was from California. Fun, intelligent and good conversation. At the endpoint of the Dew Mound Trail, those of us who chose this hike gathered round some logs set up at Dew Lake’s edge to eat lunch with a magnificent view of the forest and mountains outcrops with waterfalls above. John and I took our shoes off and rolled up our pants to cool off our feet in the river.

On the hike back, we diverted to the connecting Albert Loop Trail. Only seven of us chose to do this to extend the hike, the others met back at the visitor’s center. As usual, we were glad we took the longer hike option. Albert Loop trail offered some spectacular viewpoints from a wooden bridge that spanned a marsh-like pond. We watched a mother duck with her very cute 6 ducklings weave in and out of the bridge supports below.

From there we headed into Girdwood for a night’s stay at the posh Alyeska Resort, a popular ski resort in winter. Before dinner, Em and I walked the grounds of the resort, and then relaxed in the hot tub and indoor pool. We met our group in the lobby and headed for a late dinner in Girdwood at the eclectic Jack Sprat restaurant. As part of the Backroads tour we were treated to hors d’oeuvres at the outside patio of the restaurant in a reserved section for our group. This night we celebrated our last dinner together, as the hiking tour ended the following day. The food, atmosphere, and service at Jack Sprat were excellent.

Back to hotel and bed at 10:30 p.m and off to bed.

July 5 – Chugach

We had a nice breakfast at the resort and then on to our final hike with the group, a five-mile up and back hike along Winner Creek Trail in the Chugach National Forest, and conveniently, the trailhead is located on the resort grounds.

It started with a short ascent, but it soon leveled off to become an easy hike through the beautiful, rich forest. At about 2 miles we came across the bridge spanning the Winner Creek Gorge which was a very fast, narrow rapid. It was beautiful. We then hiked another half mile to our turnaround point (the trail does go further). Our turnaround point was the hand tram, which hangs about 100′ over Glacier Creek below. Basically, it is a two-person tram that is supported by ropes, and powered by hand, and crosses over the creek, which is pretty far below. Not for the squeamish. Fortunately, there was nobody else at the tram so there was no waiting. There were only six of us at this point so in three batches we went. It was scary but fun as we all helped each other with pulling the rope from either side of the creek. Very fun. The hike wasn’t too difficult, but the cumulative effect of the hiking the past few days was catching up with us, and the others. This is probably why only six of the group did this hike all the way to the hand tram.

  

After the hike we checked out of the Alyeska hotel and at around noon we went to lunch and a brewery tour at the Girdwood Brewing Company. Emilie enjoyed the brewery tour and the beer with the group while I rested outside in the sun after the lunch part and enjoyed a very good non-alcoholic “root bear”.

This was where the Backroads trip ended. We split up the groups by those needing to be taken to the airport, and those going to Anchorage. We said our goodbyes to Tom, Andree, Rich, Eric, Henry, and trip leader Mason. Nikki had already left the group the night before. We got in the van with the others going to Anchorage.

Next: Anchorage and Juneau