When I heard that Erin and Hig of Ground Truth Trekking were taking their kids and hiking and packrafting around Cook Inlet, I dropped them a line and asked if I might be able to join them for part of Turnagain Arm.  They were glad for the company, and so I planned to meet them as they came in to Hope, and proceed from there.  I got the call a couple weeks ago, that they would soon be getting to Turnagain Arm.  So, last Tuesday I gathered my gear and got a ride down to Hope, with the idea that they would arrive there at some point that night based on their progress so far.  As with most plans though, things didn’t go as expected, and Chickaloon Bay’s thick mud was proving to be more challenging than expected.

I spent the first night camped at the mouth of Resurrection Creek and waited for Hig’s call.  That first night, after staking out the tent and cooking dinner, I just sat and watched the geese out on the flats and enjoyed sunshine while I listened to music and triple checked all of my gear.  The night was colder than I expected, and I barely slept.  When the sun came up and the tent warmed up enough, I was more than happy to sleep in. Eventually Hig called and said they were still on their way, and probably would be ending their day in Hope.  We agreed that I would hike towards them and meet at Halfway Island, between Hope and Gull Rock.

Not wanting to carry all of the food I had brought with me, I stopped and talked to Billy, a recreational gold miner camped in the RV park waiting for the season to open on the 15th.  He agreed to watch my box of food until I returned with Hig, Erin, and their kids.

From there I set off toward Halfway Island by walking down the road through the still closed Porcupine Campround to the Gull Rock trail, and then on to just before the board walk section of the trail.  It was there that I cut off the trail and bush-wacked down through last year’s devil’s club to the rocky beach.  The tide was still quite low, and as I looked out toward Halfway Island, there was only one small trickle of a channel that I would have to cross, no more than six inches deep.

My big concern though was the idea of walking out onto the mud flats.  Having lived in Alaska all my life, I’ve never heard anything but bad about the mud flats, from the story of the lady who drowned in the 80s when she got stuck and drowned by the incoming tide, to the urban legend of a man so stuck in the silt that a helicopter ripped him clean in half trying to lift him out.  The stories, both real and imagined, are all based on the mud flats quicksand like silt.  You can take a step, and in seconds be stuck up to your waist.  Then, the suction is so great that you simply can’t get free.  Combine that with the 20+ foot tides in the Anchorage area, and it’s a short time before you’re a goner.

So with all that weighing heavily on my mind, I extended my trekking pole and poked at the mud.  It sunk in a short ways, but then found purchase.  With that I gingerly stuck my foot out beyond the rock and onto the mud and poked it with the toe of my shoe.  It gave a slight wiggle as if I’d just poked a bowl of Jello.  I stood there for a moment and continued to consider my options.  The tide was much lower than I was, and judging by the water line, I could venture out a little ways, and even if I got stuck and the tide came all the way in, I would still have most of my body above water.

With that rationale comforting me to some degree I stepped out onto the mud with all my weight on one foot.  The ground wiggled but I barely sunk in an inch.  I placed my next foot forward with the same result.  Feeling a bit braver I started to slowly walk forward, probing the ground in front of me with my pole and listening to the SCHLORK SCHLORK SCHLORK sound of my feet.  Before I knew it I was to the channel, then through it, and then standing on the gravel shore of Halfway Island.  I’d crossed a few hundred feet of mud flats and I hadn’t sunk in even to my laces.  Maybe I would survive this trip after all.

On the island I took off my pack, set up my solar charger for my phone, and turned my eyes out towards Chickaloon Bay to watch for movement.  I heard a dog bark and voices out somewhere towards Gull Rock.  There was somebody on the trail but not who I was waiting for.  About half an hour later though I saw a tiny black dot on the water.  I strained my eyes to see if it was moving but I couldn’t tell.  Soon it appeared that it may be two dots, but just as quickly it looked like one again.  I’d almost convinced myself that the sun reflecting on the water was playing tricks on me, but then the dots clearly separated and I saw the bright glint of the sun reflecting off wet paddles.  I gathered my pack and moved to the North side of the island to great the incoming travelers.

“Is that Erik?!” a squeaky voice asked, followed by many other high pitched questions.  I raised my hand and called out “Hello!”

Erin paddled a Red Denali Llama packraft with Lituya in her lap, while Hig paddled a Yellow Alpacka with Katmai standing up against the pack strapped to the front looking forward.  They came in to the shore and we hauled their boats up onto the island while exchanging greetings as the kids ran and played among the rocks.  We talked about the last couple days of their trip and discussed our next move.  It was quickly decided that we would take the boats into Hope, so I got mine out and began inflating.  Katmai and Lituya found my boat, with it’s alternating stripes of red and yellow, and my technique of squeezing the air out of the inflation bag into the boat, to both be highly humorous and entertaining.

As we got ready to push off from the island, I thought about all the warnings I had heard about Turnagain Arm, and it’s terrible currents.  I was again, somewhat hesitant.  Once we actually got on the water though, everything went very smoothly, and we were on the beach near Hope very quickly.  In fact it only took about a quarter as long to boat back to Hope as it had taken to hike out to Halfway Island.  We walked into town and met again with Billy and his wife to retrieve our box.  We had a short conversation with them, talking about their feelings on matters pertaining to Alaska and about how the state had changed, and then went back to the grassy beach to camp.  Before long though, Billy came walking up with a few bags, and generously gave us some steak, milk, lettuce, tomatos, and even bacon.  We gave him our sincere thanks before enjoying a dinner of spanish rice with cubed steak.

Day 2 

The second night had been nearly as cold as the first for me, and to make matters worse, I woke up with a pretty bad headache.  I figured it was probably one I could walk off though, and so I packed up my gear and got ready to leave camp.  Katmai and Lituya were fascinated by the colors of para-cord I had with me for repairs and tying my gear up, so I gave them each a piece to play with which kept them entertained for a little while as their parents made final preperations to leave.

We hiked along the beach, crossing the dreaded silt sloughs I imagined would eventually swallow me whole.  Some of them were sloppy, but none of them were terrible.  At one point though, we took a break, and Hig, Lituya and Katmai decided to give me a demonstration of liquefaction.  They danced in circles, as if performing a rain dance, in one spot.  As they did, the ground wobbled and jiggled, and eventually started to flow downhill.  Soon an area five feet across was slopping it’s way ever so slowly down towards the water.  It really was very impressive.

After that, we continued our walk, and Katmai told me about some very interesting dinosaurs.  Some of the dinosaurs he described I knew to be real, but others I wasn’t so sure about, like backpackasaurus and spaceshipasaurus.  Nevertheless he told us all about their various traits and habits in great detail.  My mind actually started to wander, and I caught myself trying to visualize spaceshipasaurus.  It may become the basis of some art project later.

We took lunch at Windy Point, where we also sat and waited for the incoming tide.  When it came there was no mistake about it.  The bore swept up one channel further offshore, and then started back down the arm where it met another channel closer to shore.  Soon the bore coming up that channel met the bore coming down it and they crashed together in a whirl of turbulent water.  The sand bars were quickly disappearing as various whirlpools and rips formed and disappeared.  Hig described what was happening in front of me from a Geologist’s perspective, and I was taken back to the feeling of being in science class, but the kind of class I actually enjoyed and wanted to participate in rather than the kind I’d rather skip.

As the tide continued to come in, the water started to calm down and level out, so we inflated our boats to take advantage of it.  We made incredible progress very quickly.  I was really almost startled by how powerful the currents really could be.  It seemed less like paddling on salt water, and more like paddling down a river with an occasional series of low class 2 rapids.  I few spots were choppy enough to get my adrenaline pumping a little even; especially where the channels came together to squeeze between Bird Point and the point on the other side of the Arm.

Eventually things calmed down though, and we were moving at a comfortable pace.  At one point we even saw a seal bobbing around in the water, as well as many different eagles, hawks, falcons and others birds.  The weather was good and my headache was getting much better.  This stretch of the trip was one of my favorite.  The sun was getting low and we started looking for a place to camp.  We ended up pulling into a place called Sawmill Creek, almost directly across the water from Girdwood.  We started a fire, ate dinner, set up camp, and went to sleep.

Day 3

The night had been much warmer, partially do to our campsite being tucked back into the trees and protected from wind and partially due to the thick layer of organic material I had pitched the tent on.  Also helping me sleep soundly was knowing that I was inside the protection of Hig and Erin’s electric bear fence.  It all added up to me really not wanting to get out of my sleeping bag when I heard everyone else awake.  I did however pry myself out of my tent and get ready for the last day of the trip (for me.)

Hig noticed in the morning, something he had not seen the night before.  Our tents were only a couple dozen feet from the foundation of some old building.  Perhaps the sawmill of Sawmill Creek?

We started the day off beachwalking again, and soon we realized we were following the tracks of a coyote through the mud.  Wherever his tracks went, we seemed to instinctually follow, trusting the coyote to find us the best footing.  We saw many beautiful points of tree covered rock, jutting out into the arm, as well as sea caves and nests of cliff swallows, all untouched and un-treaded by man in who knows how long?

It excited me to think that the place we were traveling may not have seen another human in many years, even perhaps decades.  And why?  People are so afraid of the arm.  I hear the way everyone talks about it.  We get it drilled into our heads that if the currents and raging bore tides don’t kill us, that the sucking quicksand will, and the end result is that we take it all as gospel and no one sees this place.  I’m sure there is very real danger involved with visiting this part of the arm, but I have to imagine that it must be roughly equivalent with glacier travel, or a number of other risky activities Alaskans engage in on a regular basis.  Why is it so universally excepted then, that this is an unhealthy unwise thing to do?

Before long, we came to Seattle Creek.  We could see the evidence of man again, faint tire tracks in the grass, and some smoothly cut logs on a hillside, recent enough to be unweathered.  The thick soupy mud we’d been walking on, gave way to sandy grassland as we walked out into the arm.  We made a decision to walk until we came to the main channel, and then cross it with the boats.  As we walked we came across an old weather balloon, stuck in the silt.

Not much further though, and we were to the channel, a mere couple hundred yards from the highway.  The tide was coming in fast though by this point, and there was no high ground to flee to.  We inflated our boats as quickly as possible, and by the time they were ready, with all our gear strapped on, we had less than a minute or two to spare before we would have been standing in water.

We pushed off into the channel and the current immediately took us.  A steady wind blew in our faces, countering the current and causing waves to pile up.  A few were large enough to break over the front of my boat and pack, and spray into my face.  It was very exciting and a little hair raising.  I couldn’t help but think how embarrassing it would be to have gone all this way and then need rescue within a stone’s throw of the highway.

We survived though, and pulled our boats up onto the banks at the mouth of Peterson Creek.

That was the end of the trip for me, but for Erin, Hig, Katmai and Lituya, they still had the rest of the Arm, and the rest of Cook Inlet to travel.  Be sure to check out their progress and read their stories on their blog. I’m sure it will be worth following.  They are one heck of a family.

Dick faced challenges from massive rapids to rabid fox, with his wife Isabelle, and other friends, dogs, or often entirely alone, as he traveled around the map.  In addition to Kaylene’s writing talent, readers are also treated to loads of exceptional full color photographs of the places and events described in the text.

As a fan of adventure literature, I truly enjoyed this book about a local modern explorer and recommend it to anyone out there looking for a good read.

If you are looking for something to do Tuesday April 30th 2013 at 7pm, consider heading to the Snowgoose Theater for a presentation by Caroline Van Hemert & Patrick Farrell about their 4000 mile journey by foot, ski, packraft, rowboat and canoe from Bellingham, Washington to Kotzebue, Alaska.  Show up early though, their last presentation sold out quick and much of the audience had to stand; well worth it though.

In watching their last presentation, I was impressed by the variety of the terrain they covered, as well as the wildlife they encountered.  Details like their platypus bladder personal floatation devices, and their hand built row boats made their journey one of a kind, and their presentation interesting throughout.  Their stunning visuals (photographs and video of each section of the journey) are alternated with the couple’s own story-telling.  I found the whole thing to be very inspiring, and my only complaint was how lethargic I felt about my own life by comparison after leaving the theater.

So, get down to the Snowgoose Theater this Tuesday for the presentation.  Doors open at 6, so be sure to get there good and early if you want a good seat.  Hope to see you there!

2012 was a great year. Things really got rolling with the club. Being Jenna and my first full year back in Alaska though, it was really our first year of running the site and the club at full capacity. We made a number of mistakes, learned some things, and now in 2013 we’ll try to apply those lessons for an even greater, more productive, and more adventurous year.

First, let’s talk about 2012 for a minute. We did as much adventuring as I think we’ve ever done in a year, including:

• A winter hike of Archangel Road
• Hiked the Bodenburg Butte countless times
• Hiked the Maud/Plumley trail
• Hiked Thunderbird Falls
• Hiked the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail
• Hiked the Turnagain Arm Trail
• Hiked the Stampede Trail
• Hiked the Williwaw Lakes Trail, both summer and snowshoed in winter
• Hiked the Reed Lakes Trail
• Attempted to hike to Gull Rock in four feet of snow, and then later hiked and camped there in the summer
• Hiked to the Knik Glacier
• Hiked in Denali National Park
• Floated the Knik River several times
• Floated Campbell Creek
• Ran Rapids on Eagle River
• Ran Whitewater (or is that Graywater) on Hunter Creek
• Ran Whitewater on the Little Susitna River
• Ran Rapids, swam and nearly died in Glacier Creek
• Climbed Lazy Mountain
• Climbed Matanuska Peak
• Climbed Flattop Mountain several times, and camped there for Solstice
• Climbed Peaks Two, Three, and nearly to Flaketop behind Flattop
• Mountain Biked in Kincaid Park, and on trails in the Matanuska Valley

This being our first year of producing the online trail guides, gear reviews, and youtube videos, we didn’t expect to be an overnight success. By the end of 2012, we were averaging about 10 unique visitors a day on this site, and about 40 views per day on our YouTube channel. This is a long way from where our goals are at, but being our first year, it seems like a good start.

One of the great things about youtube though, is that it allows you to see who is viewing your videos by breaking them down into demographics. I wish we had the same thing available to us for the visitors this site, but we don’t.

Right away, you notice that most of our viewers (on YouTube) are between 35 and 54. This came as a little bit of a shock to me. I would have expected to see more viewers from 18 to 34. No offense to our middle aged viewers, but I had hoped to attract more young adults. The other thing you notice is that our viewership is almost entirely male. I expected there to be more male viewership, but I was surprised at just how much more.

The next thing we looked at, was which videos were getting the most views.

The thing to notice about this top ten list, is that they are mostly all either gear reviews, interviews, or instructional videos. None of them are trail videos except for the Stampede Trail. This, I expected to happen though. The gear reviews have a national and international audience, while the primary viewership for any of the trail videos is likely to be Alaskan. This isn’t something I think that we need to try and fix, it’s just a reality of who our content is appealing to.

With that in mind, I’d like to talk about advertising for a moment. We made about 20 dollars last year from our affiliate programs with REI and Amazon. I’m not shocked by that, based on our number of users/viewers. What we really need to focus on is increasing the number of people who use/view our content.

We have made a decision to monetize SOME of our YouTube videos though. We will reassess this decision in a few months and decide if it was worth it, but for now all of our gear review videos will have a preroll advertisement. All of our interviews and trail videos will remain ad-free. Our logic on that is this: If you are here to research potential trips, we want to keep that ad free for you. If however you are shopping for gear, then ads will be a part of your shopping experience. This also helps to target our much larger national/international audience with the ads, and target less our in-state audience.

We’ve made some other changes as well, in the interest of trying to appeal more to the 18-34 year old demographic. The above video clip is our new introduction video you may have already seen on the site’s homepage. Below is the old introduction:

We’ve also changed the intro bumper clip at the beginning of all of our new videos. We’ve replaced the aged map with a video collage. When we start rolling out some hiking videos for 2013, you will notice that they are going to be a little shorter, include music, and be somewhat more ‘direct.’ We have the feeling that these changes will increase our viewership overall, but especially in the demographics we are experiencing shortages in now.

If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to comment here, or drop us a line. We always appreciate the input. We’re looking forward to another exciting year of outdoor adventures and hope you’ll join us.

Also, as always, we are constantly looking for people willing to submit their own adventures, gear reviews, and blog posts for the site. If you are interested in contributing, drop us a line.

The Snow Peak GigaPower Auto stove is incredibly easy to use. That’s easily it’s best feature. The piezoelectric push-button igniter makes starting the stove a cinch, and it allows you to forget your matches at home (who hasn’t that happened to.)

It’s build quality is good, and it’s four fold out pot supporters are stable. It’s light compared to liquid fuel stoves, but not compared to the rest of the field of canister stoves. The GigaPower Auto weighs 3.75oz, but by comparison Snow Peak’s Titanium LiteMax weighs just 1.9oz. That’s the sacrifice you make for a built in starter though.

We were able to boil two cups of water from 60°F in an MSR Titan Kettle in three minutes. So there are clearly faster cook systems as well, but again overall the Snow Peak GigaPower Auto Stove is a good quality, fairly priced product and would be a good addition to any pack, especially for people who tend to forget their lighters/matches.

The Sawyer Squeeze Water Filtration System is a big step in the category of lightweight water purification. It’s true that tablets and drops are likely to remain the lightest option for some time to come (possibly forever) but this product brings the weight of a true filter down to less than the weight of a SteriPEN (The SteriPEN Adventurer Opti weighs 3.6oz and the Sawyer Squeeze weighs just 3oz.) The other advantage that the Squeeze has over the SteriPEN system is that it actually filters the water, without the addition of a pre-filter. It’s main disadvantage to the SteriPEN though, is that it is not rated for viruses. Most filters aren’t, but the SteriPEN is. How big a deal this is, particularly in North America where countless backpackers use filters exclusively and don’t fall victim to viruses, is debatable. Personally, here in Alaska, I don’t concern myself with it.

The other filter that should be compared to the Sawyer Squeeze, is the MSR Hyperflow. I have been a big fan of the Hyperflow, and when I went and bought the Sawyer Squeeze, I was actually at REI to purchase another Hyperflow, until I started comparing specs and remembering what I’d read about the Sawyer in Backpacker Magazine. When it comes to weight the Hyperflow weighs 7.8oz, whereas the Sawyer weighs just 3. MSR claims the Hyperflow can pump 2.75 liters per minute. This may be true the day you buy the filter, but my tests and experience of the filter have not measured up to the claims. I’m lucky to pump a liter in just over a minute unless it’s the first trip out with a brand new filter element. Back-flushing on the Hyperflow is much more tedious, and more often than not, doesn’t seem to yield the results hoped for: significantly better flow. The Sawyer Squeeze is claimed to be able to filter 1.7 liters per minute. In our own test, we only produced 1 liter in just under a minute, but admittedly we were being gentle. Back-flushing the Squeeze with the provided syringe is quite easy though. I’m not sure how many people will want to carry the syringe into the field however.

So how do you use the Sawyer Squeeze? Simple! You fill up one of the three provided plastic water bags (2L, 1L or .5L) screw it onto the filter and squeeze. You can also screw the filter onto a plastic soda bottle (or similar) and drink directly from that.

So to recap, the Sawyer Squeeze is lighter than the Steripen and Hyperflow. It’s faster than the SteriPEN, but not as fast as the Hyperflow under ideal conditions. It’s cheaper than both the SteriPEN and the Hyperflow. In my opinion, it is simpler to use and maintain than the Hyperflow, but possibly not the SteriPEN. It does have the advantage however, of not requiring batteries like the SteriPEN. Lastly, the Sawyer Squeeze is ONE MILLION GALLON guaranteed with regular back-flushing.

Total elevation gain is 3,500 ft.  The hike is between 5 and 5.5 miles.  Though it is not a very long trail, it is quite steep and it should be expected to take at least 4-6 hours.  The trail offers a lot of bang for your buck, and even if you do not reach the summit, you will be treated to some spectacular views.  This trail can be very strenuous due to being steep, but starts out quite gentle along the Turnagain Arm Trail.  It also makes for a great place to watch the bore tide come down the arm.

The trailhead is at an unmarked parking lot at mile 108.3 on the Seward Highway.  From Anchorage, pass Beluga Point and the water spout, then look for a road going up the valley on the left.  Just past that road and guard rail, there is an entrance for the parking lot.  Head west from the parking lot and start on the Turnagain Arm Trail.  The first mile or so follows the Turnagain Arm trail through birch forest.  In June, there are plenty of wildflowers in the area including western columbines.  The trail to the peak leaves the Turnagain Arm trail at the crest of the trail (where there is an overlook of the arm).  The are two trails, the first you’ll see is a scree pile, just a bit past this is a dirt trail.  They both will go to the same place a little further up.

The trail at this point is very steep, and can be loose, so trekking poles are advised.  As Alaskans are not inclined to include switchbacks on most trails, the going will be a little difficult.  Forget-me-nots and other wildflowers can be found on this section.  The forest quickly fades away in favor of tundra, and after a little while you will reach a ridge that offers spectacular views of Turnagain Arm, Rainbow, and the surrounding peaks.  Look across the valley for signs of wildlife, as often moose, bears, and dall sheep can be spotted in the distance.  After an enjoyable but short walk along the ridge, the trail resumes to ascend steeply.  Some scrambling will become necessary until you reach a false peak.  The trail from here descends slightly and veers to the right.  Follow the trail until you can choose a safe way to ascend to the final ridge.  There is lots of loose scree in this area, so if possible, look for a more solid path.  You will be headed up towards some small cliffs, look for a safe route to get above the cliffs, then find the trail on the top side.  This will take you back towards the left and towards the peak.  Take a rest, enjoy the view, and work up the energy to get back down!

View Rainbow Peak in a larger map

The first thing you need to figure out when doing the Gull Rock hike, is where to start. Until recently, you used to just drive as far as the road to hope would let you, park your car at the Porcupine Campground, and start hiking. That is no longer the case though. There is a new trailhead, which is accessed by turning left right before the gas station a few hundred feet before you enter the Porcupine Campground.

The trail itself has very little elevation gain, and is kid/dog friendly for all abilities. There are lots of bears (mostly black) in this area, so bring bear spray or an appropriate firearm, and practice bear safe camping. The trail melts off early in the season (usually in good shape by May depending on how much snow we got the previous winter) so it’s a good first backpacking trip of the year.

At the rock itself, there are lots of good grassy tent sites. If it’s windy, there are good sites towards the middle of the peninsula that are shielded from the wind by short spruce trees. The views from all of the camp sites are fantastic. If you walk out to the end of the rock, you can see Anchorage, and fire island, with it’s new wind generators.

View Gull Rock in a larger map

Williwaw Lakes is a great, easy hike, appropriate even for young kids and dogs. It’s easily done as a day hike, but it makes a great overnight backpacking trip. One of the best things about Williwaw lakes is that for it’s proximity to Anchorage, you really feel away from town once you get there.

The trail starts at the Glen Alps parking lot. Hike to the powerline trail, turn right, and then back left just a couple hundred feet down the trail. There is a sign that indicates the turn. From there, you descend to and cross, the south fork of Campbell Creek. Soon you will reach another fork, where a sign indicates to turn left to continue towards the lakes. This section of the trail can be very swampy early in the year.

The next fork will take you right, along the middle fork of Campbell Creek and up into the valley between O’Malley and Wolverine peaks. This section often is deeply flooded in places during spring and early summer, but you can skirt around the flooded spots. Keep going, and soon you will be rewarded with a view of the lakes.

There are plenty of great spots to pitch a tent, and if you choose to camp you will not regret it!

View Williwaw Lakes in a larger map

That said, this may be my favorite knife. It just begs to be abused. With a waffle pattern hilt, like that of a framing hammer, holes in the hand guard (presumably for lashing to a stick for stabbing bears and whatnot) and a fire starter built into the sheath, this knife is nothing but cool.

A whistle is built into the cord attached to the handle, and there is a sharpening stone on the back of the sheath. For all the bells and whistles though, the knife is still functional, from cutting cord, to starting fires, to hacking down small trees. If you purchase this knife, it may not be the finest blade in your collection, but it will probably be the most fun.