Crow Pass Trail, near Girdwood Alaska, June 2020
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I just came off a hike on the Crow Pass Trail, which runs along the original Iditarod trail for part of its length, and goes from a trailhead near Girdwood to the Eagle River Nature Center. It’s about 23 miles, depending on how many wrong turns you take (the trail on the Eagle River side is not well marked and often hard to follow amidst game trails, social use trails to campsites, etc.). I hiked with 4 others, including my husband, a friend, and a friend and her son. Weather was excellent – hot and sunny, partly cloudy, with a gentle spit of rain at night, not much.
First part of the trail is a steady climb – switchbacks in Alaska! who knew – to Crow Pass, at 3883 feet. Pretty easy except for some snowy traverses, which were soft and well trodden, but slippery enough to require attention. I’m a weenie on these, so took longer than everyone else. I thought about but decided not to bring my microspikes, and those would have sped me up a bit. Not really necessary though. Wildflowers were in abundance. No bugs!!! We spotted mountain goats below us on the stream bank, but they left before we got close. Lots and lots of bird species, a birder’s dream – but with our pace not much time to stop and watch them. Ground squirrels too.
After the pass, it’s a long descent to Eagle River, down a stream filled valley with gorgeous views of peaks all around and the Raven Glacier. We did some rock scrambling in places (tore my pants), and previous hikers had done snow butt slides instead. Many stream crossings, the larger ones with bridges. We encountered one group of two men and two boys who were ascending from the river side (those are all the people we met on the entire hike. good to go during the week, not the weekend).
Reaching the river, it was running pretty high, so we camped for the night. Silty water from the river is all that’s available; if I had known I would have filled up several miles earlier. But it was fine tasting, just a very dirty filter! Pleasant, quiet camping. The next morning we arose at 6am to get an early start across the river. Eagle River is a fast flowing glacial river, a serious crossing. We put the men on the outside, women inside, and linked arms. The outer two had trekking poles in one hand. Not sure how far across it is, but it takes time and it’s cold. One step at a time. Depth was mid thigh on me, 5 ft 7 and a fairly pushy current.
Once across we made coffee and had an nice break! The remainder of the hike is along brushy riverside, and includes some ladders and ropes to get over washout areas along cliffs. That was the toughest for me mentally, not knowing if my arthritic grip would be adequate to hold me while grasping onto tree roots and rocks. Others found it easier than I did.
The grass and brush gets higher as the season progresses, hiding both black and brown bears in abundance; we saw plenty of scat but we were noisy and avoided any encounters. Lots of moose too, but none seen. Pretty views of small lakes, river meanders, mix of cottonwoods and spruces – nice to see healthy spruces after seeing so many beetle-killed spruce along the highway. Again plenty of wildflowers and many butterflies among the fragrant wild roses, along the trail. I fell a few times as I always do, being a clutz, but it was nice to get down face level with the fragrant wintergreen flowers. No harm done.
Plan A was to camp again about 3 miles from the nature center and hike out the following day, but we all agreed to hoof it out with only one night on trail. We were all pretty fogged by that point, but wanted to get the long car shuttle over with that day. Camped at Eagle River Campground that night and – ordered a pizza delivered to the campground! The car shuttlers brought beer.
Fantastic hike. Visitors to Anchorage can do a long day hike up Crow Pass without doing the entire trail. I was glad to have been challenged doing the snow, river crossings (there were several more, over logs, wading with a rope to hang onto, etc.) and rock scrambles. That was type 2 fun for me, and I wouldn’t do it without a group, but it’s good to know what you’re actually able to do when you have to.
Base weight for me: 24 pounds including lunch and snacks but not water. Water is plentiful along this trail, although the river is silty, best to filter from side streams. My Salomon trail runners worked great! No sore feet, no blisters. Dried out relatively quickly. I did pack neoprene socks for the glacial river crossings.
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