Saturday last, we decided to run up Crow Pass, near Girdwood, then down the other side, to the Eagle River, then turn around about 21 km out, and return to the trailhead. This is a beautiful area in the Chugach Range, just about 60 KM east of Anchorage, with a little higher mountains, up to 2000-2500 metres, than the ones nearer to the Chugach Front Research Centre.
It is also part of the route for a really tough, almost-marathon length race every July, the Crow Pass Crossing. Which starts at the trailhead near Girdwood, crosses the pass, runs down the trail to the Eagle River ford, which is a challenge, crossing the fast-flowing, cold river, ending up at the Eagle River Nature Center, 40 km from the start. But since Homer, like most sled dogs, doesn't like crossing streams much deeper than his knees, and it would likely have been too high in the afternoon anyway, from glacial melt, we decided to just do the out and back. The double summitting of the pass we felt, more than makes up for the lack of the challenge of fording the Eagle River.
So we made it to the trailhead around 1100 and started up. It was the second day of a wonderful break in our long, gloomy, summer weather we had this year, which is still going on, thanks to a persistent high pressure ridge. Which had this strong of one been in place last June or July, would have given us record high temperatures and wildfires. But this late in the season, what we are getting instead, are clear, cool days and nights, with fog around the Cook inlet, which is playing havoc with Anchorage's busy airport.
Heading up the trail, we were awestruck by the verticality of the terrain here. Tree line is only around 600 metres here, and we quickly got above that and enjoyed the scenery. Ragged Top mountain here rises to 1591 metres (5218'), 1220 metres above the trailhead. And the mountains rise even higher as the trail ascends.
The trail splits about 4 km in, one section goes up gradually, into some gold mining ruins abandoned in 1940, before a rapid ascent to the pass, while the other ascends at a steady, moderate rate up to the pass, above the ruins. After approaching the ruins, we went off-trail to go up to the upper route, as we liked it's more steady ascent up to the pass. And this is the route that the Crow Pass Crossing race uses.
We reached the pass, 6 km in, in 50 minutes (it's slow running uphill!). Homer was running strong, and we were hoping that would continue, since at 14, he is an older dog, especially considering his size.
The top of the pass was just as, or even more beautiful, with small lakes, and high peaks all round. We kept running, wanting to get up and over, but it was tempting to slow down and savour this incredible scenery.
There is a small USFS cabin that rents out, and another under construction that will be ready next year. We will definitely be renting one then, to use as a base to explore and climb the surrounding peaks and high country.
Mattie of course was in heaven, I think she was wet continually, the whole time we were on this outing. Because there are so many streams and ponds, for her to get into. Which she wasted no time in doing.
When we got to the top of the pass, we could look down, and see our objective, in the far distance. The Eagle River crossing, behind which rear the higher 2000-2500 metre peaks in the heart of the Chugach range, which are extensively glaciated.
As we dropped down from the pass, it got quite steep, and in some sections, quite precarious, with sheer drops of 30-50 metres, while the trail was only 15-20 cm wide. We definitely had to watch our step!
But the scenery continued to be stunning on all sides. Raven glacier was on our left (east) side, shining beautifully in the sun. It was clear though, that it has receded quite a bit, judging from the newly exposed unvegetated rocks at its base (more on this later).
As we dropped further and got down to a little less steep and precarious sections, the view was a little different. Instead of a glacier on our left side, the mountainsides had these beautiful little cascades flowing down, of clean, clear water. One of which we drank from later, when our water ran out.
At the end of the steepest section on the north side of the pass, was our only unbridged major stream crossing. Clear Creek, which emanates from Clear Glacier. I took off my shoes and socks, and strolled across, after having an energy break. On the way back, I drank heavily from it's beautiful blue, clear water, and it was great!
A few km north of this crossing, the trail crosses Raven Creek, which has cut a sheer 30-40 metre deep cleft through solid rock. Truly amazing to contemplate, as the little bridge crosses over it, and pictures just cannot do it justice. To see this large, boiling stream straight down through this narrow gorge is an amazing sight. Something not possible to see in the Interior!
I had to get after Mattie and Homer though, they were getting out to the edge of this sheer drop-off, harvesting tasty ripe blueberries. But I was afraid they would lose their footing, which would have been fatal, so called them back.
After this amazing gorge, the trail then took on a much different character. As we descended more slowly down the valley of Raven Creek toward the Eagle River, it got muddier, and went through dense thickets of alder and willows, and tall grass. Roots and slippery muddy rocks were always a problem, and hard to see, with the dense, overgrown vegetation around the trail. As we got closer to the Eagle River, some beautiful mountain ash trees made an appearance, backed by the higher mountains. We got tired of this overgrown, muddy, rocky trail though, and decided to turn back, shortly before reaching the Eagle River. We wanted to be in the sun, in the higher terrain, with the beautiful mountains surrounding us, not in the alder/willow thickets. This was about 19 km and 2 1/2 hours in.
The way back was much harder, as it was steeper going up the north side of the pass, than the south side had been. I decided to just walk the rest of the way back, it was so steep, and, it was so beautiful out, I wanted to spend more time in this beautiful area. Fast-packing for me is always a spur-of-the-moment decision, as far as how it will be done. If the trail or route is not too steep, I'll run the majority of the 40-65km, otherwise, I'll run some, and walk a good percentage, as well. In this case, I probably ran 14-16 of the 39 km of this outing.
I was sweating hard coming back up the steepest part of this route, it was fairly mild, 15-17C or so, and in the bright sun, I was quite warm. I had to stop a couple times and hydrate, it's amazing how thirsty I get, and how much water weight I can lose on these kind of outings.
We stopped at the top of the pass, and rested a bit, and I drank almost all the water I had filled my bottles with in Clear Creek earlier, after having my lunch there.
I also went in the little lake up to my thighs there, I was already getting sore, from the double pass ascent of 1524 metres (5000'), and that cold water felt good. After that, we just walked the rest of the way down, enjoying the inspiring scenery and warm early fall sunshine. We reached the trailhead around 1730, about 6 1/2 hours after our start. My legs were quite sore from the double ascent/descent, so I wasted no time in getting my legs into this beautiful, fast-flowing, COLD, glacial-fed Milk Creek. Which comes off of Milk glacier, and flows right next to the parking area near the trailhead. In addition to the beautiful scenery, the other thing which made the day a resounding success, was that 14 year old Homer was just as fresh at the end, as when we started! I sure am proud of him! Mattie of course, ran at least double our distances, with all her side excursions, often at her full speed. We long ago realised that she is incapable of tiring, at least in all that we do!
This was easily one of the most beautiful fast-packs/hikes I've ever been on. And just an hour from Anchorage! We'll surely be spending alot more time to come over the years in there. Skiing could be pretty dicey in there though, the steep slopes all round might be dangerous for avalanches. I'm going to ask around about that before venturing in there in winter, for sure.
CRYOSPHERE TOMORROW?
The Cryosphere Today is a website maintained by the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana, which provides current images of sea ice and snow cover around the globe, as well as archived images from the periods of record of them. A very interesting and informative site. This university is a major centre for glacial and cryospheric research, and global climate change.
The period of record for satellite-measured Arctic Ocean sea-ice concentrations only extends back to 1979. Yet serious and troubling changes have occurred in those 31 years, which we have alluded to in previous articles. Which deserve another look, and now that you have the link, we encourage you to go to the site, and check things out for yourselves.
First though, after seeing what we were sure was rapid recession of Raven Glacier, on our fast-pack last saturday, we needed to find an older picture for reference to compare. And what luck, we found one from another blogger who had hiked through there in 2006, in exactly the same spot! And so here, for your inspection, we present to you our comparison, and forecast for the Raven Glacier.
Here is an image I downloaded today from The Cryosphere Today, which I found particularly compelling. In the image from 1979, note how the majority of the ice-cover in the Arctic basin is measured at 80-100 percent coverage, and how large it is. Most the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska is covered, as well as that north of Eastern Siberia. 31 years later, most of that is gone, and less than half of what is left, is at 80-100 percent coverage. The rest is 50 percent or less, meaning, there is open water throughout those areas, including extending across the North Pole, from Alaska, to Siberia!
We don't think it takes a glaciologist or climatologist to figure out this trend! We would therefore expect open water throughout the Arctic, including over the pole, within five summers. This of course, is a tipping point, in the global climate system, as we have mentioned before.
Since global CO2 and methane emissions are going to accelerate in the coming years, as countries like China and India "develop" further, and the US does nothing to curb it's emissions, the effects we expect we'll see will test the capacity of all humanity to adapt to, and cooperate in surviving, in the coming two to three decades. Cheers.
No comments:
Post a Comment