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Hiking History: Mount Pilchuck

July 29, 2015July 30, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

If you ask a Seattlelite what their first mountain summit was, they will most likely say Mt Pilchuck. The road to the trailhead is just across the National Forest boundary about an hour from Seattle and the drive to the trailhead gets most of the pesky elevation out of the way making for a short and sweet hike with great views of the North Cascades.

Mt Pilchuck was first climbed in 1897 from the Monte Cristo railroad by a USGS employee. In 1918 a trail was built when the mountain was chosen as one of the first lookout sites in the area. Building the lookout was quite a feat in those days, twelve feet were blasted off the top of the mountain and materials were hand-winched up the craggy boulders. The lookout was replaced a few times throughout the years and finally abandoned in the 1960’s. The lookout was restored in 1990 by the Mountaineers. 105 people spent an astonishing 10,000 hours restoring the lookout.

We can thank an ambitious ski endeavor for the road that goes most of the way up the mountain. In 1957, Mt Pilchuck was turned into a ski area. The single chair lift loaded skiers at the parking lot (in the same place it’s located today) and carried them high on the mountain for only a few dollars a day. In 1980, the ski area closed due to lack of favorable snow conditions. You can still see remnants of the mountain’s ski era on the trail today.

In late August 2007 I took a day off work and my husband and I climbed to the lookout. It was our first summit in the Washington Cascades and will always have a special place in our hearts. I remember climbing the metal-runged ladder the last bit to the lookout building and signing the register with the exclamation “1st summit!” following our names. Nowadays I love taking my friends and new hikers to this gem of a hike right in our backyard.

More Info About Mt Pilchuck (with photos of the old ski area):
Fifty Years Ago at Mt. Pilchuck on Sun Breaks Blog
Lost Ski Areas of Washington: Mt Pilchuck

Hikes Featured in this Post:
Mt Pilchuck

Outdoor Life

Hiking History: Tatoosh

July 24, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

In 1943 the Packwood district forest service, located just south of Mt Rainier National Park, assigned their first lady lookout to Tatoosh Ridge. A Seattle school teacher named Martha Hardy spent that summer in the lookout watching for fires, keeping the lookout fixed up and tidy and befriending a ground squirrel. Back then they couldn’t leave the lookout without permission for the entire summer. She asked to go run a new telephone wire to the pole outside so that she could frolic in the avalanche lilies just a little bit. She wrote a book about her summer as a lookout and doesn’t shy away from sharing her fears, mistakes and loneliness during her time on Tatoosh. In fact, the first fire that she called in ended up being just a waterfall. She was horrified, but she eventually became friendly with the receptionists and the forest service men below and her mistake turned into a cherished and funny memory.

“Without my willing it or knowing how it came about, I was a rock with the rocks, a bee with the bees, a flower with the flowers. My ears drank in the murmur of the wind, my skin the sunshine, my eyes the flutter of a small blue butterfly over a mat of lavender phlox. I was part of all I saw and heard and felt.” – Martha Hardy

So naturally, after reading about this spunky local trailblazer, I had to go follow in her footsteps. I enlisted a hiking buddy and last weekend we headed to Tatoosh. The lookout itself is long gone and the trail is listed as “endangered” in the hiking guide book with little foot traffic these days. We knew the road was washed out before the trailhead too so we were ready for a bit of an adventurous day. We parked at the washout, headed up the last bit of road and found the trail abruptly rising through the forest. We strangely but happily snacked on ripened huckleberries and blueberries along the trail, which is usually a late August luxury, and finally broke out into the high meadows. Radiant fireweed painted the hillsides a deep magenta and we stopped to marvel at the variety of wildflowers on the trail although they were a bit past their prime already.

Once we were high on the ridge we started looking for a trail heading up to our left and found one after a short time. We made a last push on a fading trail to the summit on a small landing overlooking Tatoosh Lakes below. We were blown away by the views of Mt Rainier. I wandered around looking for any traces of the lookout (their weren’t any) and we celebrated with some gingerbread that I made in honor of Martha Hardy. When she had guests at the lookout she would get so excited that she would cook a massive amount of food for them like spaghetti and meatballs, chicken soup, biscuits and gingerbread. I found an old war time recipe that I thought may be similar to what she made. It was pretty good, but we made a list of ingredients that we thought would make it better like dried fruit, raisins and chunks of ginger. After a long time imagining what it would have been like spending every day right at this spot we got out the map to identify the surrounding peaks. Then we figured out we were on the wrong mountain.

In retrospect it was quite obvious that we were in the wrong place. The first thing I said at the top was, “huh, I wonder why they didn’t put the lookout on that bigger ridge over there,” while pointing to the actual lookout spot. And my trail buddy was wondering why we couldn’t see the smaller lakes we knew were below the lookout site. Also, it didn’t seem like we hiked far enough to be there already. After a closer look at the map we determined we had about another mile and a half to go. We laughed in disbelief and then decided to go for it the rest of the way over to the real lookout site. We hustled along the mostly flat trail while I kept exclaiming, “After all that, I can’t believe we went to the wrong mountain! Ahh!” The tread worsened along the steep ridge and after we turned a corner we found we were still pretty far away and significantly lower than the top of the ridge. We checked our water and energy levels and decided both were pretty low. We reluctantly decided to save it for another time. I was sad that my master plan was thwarted but as we hiked down the steep trail we came up with a plan for an improved return trip. We would come back when the wildflowers are in full bloom and with a new and enhanced version of gingerbread.

After what seemed like forever we were back at the car. On the way home we talked about how beautiful the little-used trail was and we were already looking forward to returning. We now knew what we were getting into and would not make the same mistake again. But like Martha mistaking a waterfall for a wildfire, our misguided effort turned into a great story, one that we will not soon forget. It was still an incredible hike and I will just have to dream about Martha Hardy’s little slice of paradise for another year. Next summer I’ll re-read the book while perfecting my gingerbread recipe in anticipation. And sometimes the anticipation is the best part.

Gingerbread Recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup molasses
1 cup boiling water
2 eggs

1. Sift flour, measure; sift again with baking soda, salt and spices.

2. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, vegetable oil and molasses; add boiling water; stir until well mixed. Add dry ingredients gradually, beating well after each addition.

3. Add well-beaten eggs.

4. Bake in well-greased 8 x 8 square pan at 350˚F for 40 minutes or until gingerbread is done.

Tatoosh by Martha Hardy

Martha Hardy’s writing really makes you feel like you are there on the lookout back in 1943. This book is so different from the lookout accounts I featured in the Camp Reads: Lookout Edition. Being a lookout in the 1940’2 was hard work. She was one tough lady to do what she did back then, but she didn’t think that she was different than her male counterparts and just did her best to perform her duties. Her story is funny, real and incredibly entertaining. It now has a special place on my bookshelf.

Reading List

Reading List: Lookouts

July 17, 2015March 14, 2019
by Ashley Gossens

Some of my very favorite trails in the Cascades switchback through meadows to the top of a bare ridge with a little wooden shack plunked on top like a delicious cherry. Thousands of fire lookouts popped up on the mountain tops in the early 1900’s in an era of western expansion and dominance, and the men and women that staffed the lookouts became heros. Some tiny solitary huts were graced with the presence of conservationist Edward Abbey and the zen buddhist poets of the beat generation: Gary Snyder, Phillip Whalen, Jack Kerouac.

These days only a small number of lookouts still stand in the Cascades and an even smaller number of them are still staffed. The once rough and solitary lifestyle of a fire lookout has been romanticized in later generations and hopefully the love of these historic buildings will continue to aid in the restoration and preservation of them. I like to think that someday I will quit my job and work as a lookout for a summer. I will finally master proper posture by doing yoga everyday perched upon a rock. I will make tea and do as Gary Snyder did: “wrap up in a blanket in cold weather and read” and patiently wait for the first silent snow flakes of the fall. But more realistically I will forget the yoga, have terrible posture and will slowly go crazy making a list of ways to die in or around a lookout. But hey, a girl can dream…

This edition of camp reads kicks off a special series of posts dedicated to some of my favorite lookout hikes in the Cascades. Look for these additional posts throughout the summer and fall!

Fire Season by Philip Connors

In 2001 Connors was a copy-editor at the Wall Street Journal in New York City. After 9/11 he quit his job and visited a friend in New Mexico. She was a fire lookout in the Gila National Forest and was looking for someone to take over her spot. Connors has been working there every summer since. The book is a memoir of his time in the lookout and a love story to the Gila National Forest, one of the largest National Forests and includes more wilderness area than any other National Forest. The most famous of these is the Aldo Leopold Wilderness named for the conservationist. This is a great account of the modern fire lookout. You can see his photos from the lookout and check out his new book on his website.

Poets on the Peaks by John Suiter

It all started when Gary Snyder walked into the Marblemount forest service office in 1952 and requested to be sent to the “highest, most remote, and most difficult-of-access lookout” in the North Cascades. They all laughed and sent him up a miserable trail to Crater Mountain. The now famous poet influenced many famous writers of the era with the likes of Phillip Whalen and Jack Kerouac. They all spent time alone in the lookouts of the North Cascades and studied zen buddhism, practiced yoga and wrote poems and books. Written from unpublished letters, journals and interviews with Snyder and Whalen, this book tells of the lives of these men centered on their time as lookouts.

Mountains of Memory by Don Scheese

Like Fire Season, Scheese portrays the ways of the modern fire lookout in his memoir. He was a lookout for over a decade in the rugged wilderness of Idaho. When he’s not on the lookout he’s backpacking, climbing mountains and rafting the Salmon River and always contemplating the role of humans in the forest. As a nature writer he studies Thoreau, Snyder and Abbey and notes the wildflowers blooming about the lookout. He now spends his days as an English and Environmental Studies professor.

The Big Burn by Timothy Egan

In 1910 a massive forest fire ripped through Montana, Idaho and Washington. It was the biggest fire ever seen in the west and over ten thousand men fought it. Egan tells the story of the “Big Burn” and the events leading up to it through the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. The story has been documented on the PBS show American Experience and can be watched on the PBS website. Egan, who grew up in Seattle, has written extensively about the history of the west. His latest book, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher is about the fascinating life of the legendary photographer Edward Curtis.

Lookouts by Ira Spring and Byron Fish

This is the ultimate handbook for the Cascades & Olympics lookout lover. It chronicles all of the lookouts built in the cascades and gives a little history and photos for many of them. Reading through the book you’ll get a good sense of the importance of the lookouts to our mountains and the crazy places they perched these little houses on. The complete list of lookouts in the back of the book lists when they were built and if they are still standing (as of 1996 for the 2nd edition). It’s the perfect starting point to build a list of lookouts to visit.

Additional info on lookouts:

National Historic Lookout Register (with interactive maps of lookouts in every state)
Washington Fire Lookout Sites (with historic photos)
List of Fire Lookouts Currently Standing in Washington

See Also: Tatoosh by Martha Hardy

Outdoor Life

Silver Star Mountain

July 2, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

On July 4, 2013 as I was working on my 30 peaks by 30, I climbed up Silver Star Mountain. It seemed like an appropriate choice for the holiday and I was happy to see that the flowers were in full bloom for the occasion. The hike is not difficult and from the summit you can see Mt Adams and Mt St Helens. But as nice as the summit is, this trail is all about the flowers. Get lost along the many trails that wander this mountain and see how many red, white and blue flowers you can find.

Happy 4th of July!

Hikes Featured in this Post:
Silver Star Mountain

Outdoor Life

Juneau

June 20, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

If you haven’t noticed by now, I kind of have a thing for Alaska. A few weeks ago Passage to Juneau watched me from the seatback pocket as I was once again giddy with joy on an airplane headed north. I had every intention of reading a good chunk of the book during the flight but I couldn’t tear my darn forehead from the window. I know. I should have been contemplating the epic journeys of Captain Vancouver and Jonathon Raban via sailboat from my hometown of Seattle along the inside passage to Juneau as that same brilliant blue water snaked along below me. After all, I was watching their entire route condensed in a few hour flight. But I wasn’t thinking of them.

I was thinking of my husband. He’s flown this exact route countless times and has never taken a single photo! He never calls me upon landing and exclaims the joys of the great fjords and glaciers he just witnessed! This I will never understand. But it didn’t really matter much, I was coming to see him. His work shift was ending and I had quit my job three weeks earlier. My quick trip to Juneau was my last hoorah before starting a new job. And the forecast was all sun and 75 degrees.

There were really only two things on my list to do in Juneau: visit the Mendenhall glacier and climb Mt Juneau. I left the rest up to my husband. We set up camp at Mendenhall Lake Campground (which is amazing) and headed out for an afternoon hike to Spaulding Meadow. The trail starts out on an old courderoy road and then quickly narrows into a muddy mess. But the views from the meadows are lovely, enticing us to explore more.

Later we had a barbeque dinner with friends on the beach. We chatted about life in Juneau and the differences between it and Seattle, and of course, the weather. A fishing boat pulled up on the beach and some more people joined us (sadly empty handed), and we watched the most beautiful sunset that seemed to go on forever.

The next morning we ate breakfast on the lakeshore near our campsite and then headed to the glacier. We were early enough to beat the crowds and enjoyed the short hike to the waterfall with only a few others. We slowly wandered back along the shoreline looking for an iceberg we could catch. We found one just a few feet out and my husband picked it up and raised it like a trophy as I snapped photos.

Later we headed out on the same boat that had visited us the night before. We spent the day chasing whale spouts and flukes and changing bait as we crept around the shoreline looking for the elusive king salmon. Late in the day we finally had a bite. Our captain friend reeled in a monster 35lb king salmon! He said it was the biggest fish he ever caught. On the way back we spotted two whales breaching and splashing about with their tails. They appeared to be playing in the water in front of us. We watched for awhile, mesmerized.

The last morning we headed downtown and up the tiny narrow streets to the Mt Juneau trailhead. The trail starts out on the Perseverance Trail. This trail was originally used by the native people as a hunting and berry picking route and later became the first road ever built in Alaska. It was constructed after gold was found in the Silverbow Basin in the 1880’s. As we climbed up to the Mt Juneau trailhead, we passed an abandoned mine shaft and looked down on an old mining building turned into a museum and even spotted some tourists panning for gold in the creek.

From here the trail climbs quite abruptly to the meadows below the summit. The trail then weaves and eases ever so slightly into switchbacks. There were only a few patches of snow along the trail and at the summit, quite unheard of typically in early June. From the top we counted the cruise boats below and spotted the airport. We pondered the abandoned shack and cables that were built in the 1970’s intended for an aerial tramway from town. The tram project was cancelled for some reason (probably because it proved an impossible task) but was revitalized in the 1990’s. This time the tram was built on the adjacent Mt Roberts where it still operates today.

We took off that night for Seattle and climbed through rain clouds. The forecast in Juneau for the foreseeable future was rain and 60 degrees. I thought about how incredible the trip had been. Everything was perfect: the campsite, the glacier, sunsets, playful whales, king salmon catch, weather and, most importantly, the company.

Passage to Juneau by Jonathan Raban

Raban’s journey in the 1990’s was not quite as happy and romantic as mine, but then he did choose to sail from Seattle to Juneau alone on a 35-foot sailboat. His journey was more dark and foggy, riddled with loss and the realities of the hard hit logging and fishing towns of coastal Canada. Raban weaves his own narrative with the stories of Captain Vancouver and the first peoples of this once rich land. It’s long and contemplative and easy to get lost in, just like the inside passage.

See Also: A Wolf Called Romeo by Nick Jans (A plaque about Romeo is on a rock along the short path to Mendenhall Glacier)

More info about Juneau:

Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center and Trail Maps

Perserverance Trail History

Hikes Featured in this Post:

Spaulding Meadow

Nugget Falls Trail to Mendenhall Glacier overlook

Mt Juneau

Reading List

Reading List: Long Distance

May 29, 2015November 21, 2019
by Ashley Gossens

Now that Memorial Day has passed and we got our first barbeque under our belts, it’s officially summer! It’s time for long hot slogs up mountains, weird hiking boot tan lines and eating gorp while reading books! Here are some great adventure stories to add to your summer reading list. Have any favorites to add? I would love to hear about them in the comments!

I Hike by Lawton Grinter

Lawton Grinter takes out the monotony of his over 10,000 hiking miles and gives us his best stories from his thru-hikes. These include an ice cream eating contest on the AT that goes terribly wrong (I do not recommend reading this one while enjoying your trail food), to learning to pee while walking to save time (all those minutes spent leaving the trail for privacy just wastes time), to the heart-felt story of losing the person who influenced his long-distance hiking and a harrowing story of a lost hiker on the PCT. Anyone with a trail name will find a comrade in Grinter and all others will find a great story teller. You can get more of Grinter on the monthly podcast, The Trail Show and his trail documentary, Walkumentary.

Almost Somewhere by Suzanne Roberts

At the age of 22, Suzanne and two girlfriends from college set off to hike the 210 mile long John Muir Trail through the High Sierra in California. The trip is harder than any of them imagined and they were mired by rain, hunger, aching muscles and personality differences. Suzanne, a big fan of John Muir, naively thought that the beauty of the mountains would simply propel her along the trail and speak to her in a profound way. Instead, she learns important lessons about dedication, friendship and about what it means to be a woman on the trails.

I Promise Not to Suffer by Gail Storey

After a career crisis, Gail’s husband Porter decides to crisscross the country with two long distance bikes rides and hiking the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail. Gail commits to the bike riding, but she was not much of a hiker. She gives up on the AT, promising that she would do the PCT. Finally the time came and she couldn’t back out. Now in their fifties, the couple, dubbed by their trail mates as Porter-and-Gail struggle to make their way. Gail loses too much weight and has trouble carrying her load as Porter is increasingly impatient. The two make their way all the while contemplating their life issues- Porter was weighing his career options and Gail’s mother was dying of cancer. They are ultimately contemplating their reasons for being on the trail and how to reconcile these reasons with what was happening off trail. The pain, struggle and passion can be felt in Gail’s writing as she does her best to keep to the trail for the deep love of her husband. Porter-and-Gail’s adventures continue on her blog.

Walking the Big Wild by Karsten Heuer

Karsten and his wife Leanne are no strangers to the long distance way of life. They spent their honeymoon chasing migratory caribou on foot for five months in northern Canada and Alaska . They also paddled, walked, and sailed across Canada with their two-year-old toddler to meet Farley Mowat (one of my favorite authors!). This book tells the story of another long distance journey, this time through the Rockies from Yellowstone to the Yukon in search of the grizzly bear. Karsten is a wildlife biologist and he set out to determine how human development and deforestation effects the migratory routes of wildlife in this important corridor. His goal is to study and bring attention to the obstacles to wildlife in this area keeping them from completing traditional migrations. This book does just that while also telling a compelling story of adventure.

A Long Trek Home by Erin McKittrick

Erin, a Seattle native, met her husband Hig in college and they have been adventuring since. After graduation they decided to set off to Alaska. They did not fly or drive there like us normal people would do. They got there completely self-powered by boat, ski and foot over a staggering 4000 miles. They wanted to find adventure, but they also wanted to raise awareness of the deforestation, mining operations and loss of salmon habitat that plagued their route. Erin helped found the non-profit Ground Truth Trekking that works on conservation issues in Alaska. She, Hig and their two kids live off the grid in a yurt on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. She writes about their life on her blog.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Ok, I know this book is on all the hiking book lists and Bryson’s trip on the trail was a short one in comparison to the journeys of the others on this list, but this book is just downright entertaining. I remember reading the whole book on a rainy spring day and I couldn’t wait to get my feet in my boots. It’s become a classic of sorts, and coming this fall it will be a movie starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. It looks kind of reminiscent of that bucket list movie: a feel-good movie about some old guys going on an adventure. I don’t exactly have high hopes for the movie, but I will definitely watch it.

Outdoor Life

Mount St Helens Climb

February 25, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

I awoke at 4am to the hooting of an owl. I was snuggled in my sleeping bag in our tent at Climber’s Bivouac, a small campsite at the beginning of the Mount St Helens climbing route. The apprehension of the last few days gave way to excitement as I rose and put on my headlamp. From now on the mountain was in charge. I recalled the previous day’s walking through the underground lava tubes of the nearby Ape Caves and reading interpretive signs of the destruction that took place here, pondering the potential of a mountain that could create such things.

I was not yet born when the news broke on May 18, 1980 of a massive eruption in the Pacific Northwest. The volcano was displaying the realities of it’s name, Loowit, meaning “smoking” or “fire” mountain by the Klickitat people. A landslide triggered by the explosive blast sent two-thirds of a cubic mile of mountain top hurtling into the valleys below. A mushroom cloud of ash towered above as hot mud and debris flowed downward, taking with it the living things in its way. In all, 57 people were killed, 250 homes and almost 200 miles of highway were destroyed along with 230 square miles of forest and countless animals. On that day the summit dropped from 9677 feet to 8365 feet and it’s beautiful cone replaced with a mile wide crater.

As the sun began to rise my husband and I climbed above treeline. The forest we passed through was not only recovering but thriving in the thirty years since the blast, surprising scientists who expected this process to be very slow. But as we continued onto the rocky ridge, the moon-like appearance and ash on our boots reminded us that this is still a mighty volcano. The sun beat down on us from the cloudless August sky above and I imagine the unthinkable heat that formed the young rocks around me. We continue straight up the sandy ash, one step forward, two steps back, finally gaining the crater rim.

Standing at the top of the crater rim one cannot deny the fragility of life. Here we are, tiny vulnerable specks on this mass of a mountain. Yet this mighty dome has been weakened, it’s thousand foot top torn away in an instant. To stand on the crumbling rim looking out into the crater is to observe the incomprehensible power of this planet we call home. I am humbled while gazing upon the hardened mudflows of decades ago and the ghostly waterlogged carcasses of 500 year old trees still drifting like toothpicks in eerie Spirit Lake.

But ultimately this story is one of renewal and restoration. Mount St Helens is rejuvenating itself with fresh forest and wilderness, making room for new species of plants and animals to thrive and providing nutrients to the soil of the valleys that nurture our gardens and agriculture. In the decades to come this mountain ecosystem will become more lush and diverse than it was before. This same principle applies to life: change is essential. And it’s how we navigate these times in our lives that make us the people we are. Like the ever changing mountains we must be adaptable and resilient to change. We can choose to resist or we can embrace it and in the process allow ourselves to renew and grow into better people.

Find out more about Mount St Helens:

Climbing and Permit Information

Mount St Helens Institute

Mount St Helens VolcanoCam

National Geographic Gallery

In the Blast Zone edited by Charles Goodrich, Kathleen Dean Moore and Frederick J. Swanson

This post was very much inspired by this wonderful collection of essays and poems about Mt St Helens. In 2005, a group of scientists, writers and poets embarked on a 4-day trip to discuss, observe and ponder the changes happening to the mountain inspiring the writings collected here. I consider this essential reading for anyone considering visiting St Helens for the first time or those who have been visiting it for years.

Hikes Featured in this Post:

Monitor Ridge, Mt St Helens, WA

Ape Caves, Mt St Helens, WA

Outdoor Life

Backpacking Chugach: Part 2

February 11, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

When we discovered our food stash had been raided by ground squirrels we panicked a little. But after taking inventory of our remaining stock we found we had enough meals to continue with no extras and little to snack on. We were thankful that we threw in some emergency ramen noodles when we packed. We spent our second night just below Ship Lake Pass relieved that we could continue.

The next day we wanted to climb a couple peaks before continuing on to the next camp. The Ramp and the Wedge rise above either side of Ship Lake Pass. We started with the Ramp, the higher of the two, and then traversed over to the Wedge like traveling from the horn to the cantle of a saddle. Ship Lake glittered below us like an aqua bike seat shaped jewel. Clouds clung to the tops of the high peaks around us saturating the vibrant green of the valley below.

Our destination for the day was Deep Lake in the next valley parallel to us. We could follow the trail back down the way we came and then climb up to a pass and up the Ball Park to Deep Lake or we could stay up high and traverse the scree around O’Malley Peak to meet up with the trail at the pass. We were hesitant to walk back down and then up another steep climb so we decided to off-road it in the alpine for a shortcut. Anyway, it didn’t look far to the pass.

Looks can be deceiving in Alaska. Things that look close are actually quite far, slopes that look gentle end up steep, rock that looks solid from afar can end up being unstable. I was cursing this land as I took two steps in the scree only to slide down three. Meanwhile the bottoms of my feet felt like they were being sheared off and my ankles ached from traveling perpendicular to a steeply sloped mountain for hours. We gingerly circumnavigated massive boulders in the scree. It was slow going to say the least. We didn’t get to the pass until early evening. I praised the joys of a level trail on my aching feet as we climbed the gradual trail through the Ball Park to Deep Lake. That night we longed for that extra food we lost to the squirrels. We made a list of all the food we could eat: pizza, burgers, snickers and faded to sleep.

On the fourth day we left our base camp at Deep Lake and took a day hike to the Walliwaw Lakes. We made our way to another pass and descended to Black Lake, a good description for this dark water lake. As we were walking down from the pass we saw some black dots moving above us. We took out the binoculars and watched two wolverines chasing each other in the snow.

Then we explored the Williwaw Lakes. The chain of picturesque lakes is nestled at the feet of colorful mountains. The lakes had a top layer of crystal clear water and below they were a pure blue. It was as if glacial silt had settled to the bottom of the lake and stayed undisturbed for millennia.

We returned for another night at Deep Lake (which should really be called lake in a deep, steep hole) and the next day returned to the busy trailhead. As we arrived some clean tourists were looking at something excitedly through the binoculars. A bear! they exclaimed. We laughed and exchanged knowing glances. We knew that the real threat out there was those darn ground squirrels. We got a ride back to town from a nice man and his young son and finally got the pizza we were craving at Moose’s Tooth.

It was quite an adventure for our first backpacking trip. We prepared the best we could- we studied the map, brought bear spray and extra food, but still there were issues unexpected. I don’t regret anything we did on this trip but rather remember it as creating an important foundation for life in the outdoors. I know I must take risks, make mistakes and learn in order to make myself a better person, both in outdoor endeavors and in life.

chugach_route — Our route in yellow (the dashed line is our approximate off-trail route), map from http://dnr.alaska.gov.

Chugach State Park: Alaska’s Backyard Wilderness by Bill Sherwonit with photos by Carl Battreall

If you have ever flown into the Anchorage International Airport then you’ve probably flown over Chugach State Park. Although these mountains dominate the skyline of the most populated city in Alaska, they are often overlooked by tourists. They are predominately visited by locals and few have witnessed the most remote parts of the park. This book shows off the beauties of this area over all four seasons, highlighting just some of the stunning scenery, plants, and wildlife in the park. I picked up this book in a tiny bookstore in Anchorage just after our backpack trip, it is now a treasured part of my book collection. Click on the title link above to see a slideshow of some of the photos in the book. You can also purchase a signed hardback version of the book on the website.

The great Alaskan photographer Carl Battreall is currently working on an ambitious project to document the entire Alaska Range for a large format photo book which has never been done before. You can see his photos and follow his story on his blog, The Alaska Range Project.

Hikes Featured in this Post:

Chugach State Park, AK

Outdoor Life

Backpacking Chugach: Part 1

February 6, 2015August 7, 2018
by Ashley Gossens

As the plane descended over the mountains I wondered what we got ourselves into. My forehead was glued to the window as I gazed out at the smooth emerald green mountains. They were so beautiful, but also rugged and desolate. I got butterflies in my stomach and a huge smile on my face. We were on our way to Anchorage for our first backpacking trip.

We planned for five days in the Chugach State Park just outside of Anchorage. We bought a brand spanking new tent, thankfully free of the suffocating wet dog smell of my husband’s hand me down tent of his youth. I suffered through a few car camps in the thing but I refused to spend a good portion of week in basically a leaky, smelly tarp, not to mention that it weighed approximately ten pounds.

So with our shiny new tent and lightweight gear we headed to REI to pick up fuel, bear spray and some dehydrated meals. We stopped next door at the Middle Way Cafe to get breakfast before hitting the trail. At that nondescript cafe nestled in a strip mall I had the best breakfast in my life: french toast with whipped blueberry butter and fresh blueberry compote. We were ready.

We took a shuttle van to the Glen Alps trailhead with other tourists looking to hike the popular Flattop Mountain. We waded through the people to find the Powerline Trail. We hoisted our packs and started our journey. The trail winds through low vegetation with a few stream crossings, gradually climbing up the valley. Not long into the hike some people told us there was a moose with her calf up ahead and to be careful. About ten minutes later I looked over and saw two brown humps poking out of the bushes. The moose looked up at me nonchalantly chewing leaves. I screamed and ran away, then returned to take a picture. Not exactly what you are supposed to do. Luckily the moose didn’t seem to mind.

We took a side trail to Hidden Lake and set up our first night’s camp. We blew up our sleeping pads for the first time (how luxurious!) and cooked our first dehydrated meals. We explored the rocky arm above the lake and wandered on the lichen rich scrub. We took in the alpine view and waited for a sunset that never came. We finally went to sleep in our cozy new outdoor habitat. It was comforting to know that the wildlife could not approach unseen and there was no darkness to be scared of.

On the second morning we packed up and headed to Ship Lake Pass. We set up camp before heading over the pass and down to Ship Lake so we wouldn’t have to carry our packs back up the pass. We decided not to keep the food in the tent but we were above treeline and there was nothing but rocks in all directions. We decided to bury the food under some rocks so a bear would not get to it and took off for the lake. We crested the top of the pass and were blown away, literally it was quite windy but the lake and the mountains towering behind it were breathtaking.

We wandered in the flowers around the lake for what seemed like hours. There were no trails here, it felt truly wild even though in reality we were not all that far from downtown Anchorage. We climbed back up to the pass and to our campsite. As we approached we saw that our things were disturbed. There was no sign of the much dreaded bear, but rather the tiny chew holes of the ground squirrel.

They chewed through our towel, our large collapsable water jug and chewed tiny holes through my backpack. Luckily the damage was minimal. Then we remembered the food we buried in the rocks nearby. We rushed over to see if they breached our cache and sure enough they did. We were horrified to find the remains of our tastiest meals and our big bag of gorp. We took inventory of what was left. Would there be enough to continue or would we have to turn back, cutting short our first backpack trip ever? Stay tuned for Part 2!