Exploring Eagle River Alaska
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A late spring in Alaska meant that a lot of the high country was off limits unless I wanted to get my snow gear out again. Fortunately the area around Anchorage is a bit warmer and also a bit drier (at least compared to other areas near the coast). I planned a quick weekend trip up the Eagle River Trail to check out a lake and hopefully a glacier at the top of the valley.
The trail partially follows the historic Iditarod Trail route. I’m no expert but I imagine the avalanche danger must have been through the roof running dog teams through the steep Chugach Mountains back in the day.
After a few miles I left the day hikers behind and got into the wilder part of the Eagle River. I took a break on a rocky knob to enjoy the view. On this trip I was again carrying my old reliable Seek Outside Unaweep Pack. For packrafting trips its still my favorite pack.
I saw a young bull moose a ways midway down the trail and took his picture. At this point I was rushing a bit. I had plenty of time to get up the Eagle River Trail. But I wanted to bushwack a bit to an unnamed lake close to a glacier. If the stars really aligned I thought I might be able to traverse some open country to walk on the glacier.
The trail was mostly a very gradual climb but in a few places cliffs dropped almost straight down to the river. This creates some nice waterfalls and trail building head aches.
<b></b>High on the mountainside I saw a herd of Dall Sheep grazing. On the other side of a canyon there were a few mountain goats. A local hunter was glassing the area for spring bears. I was extremely skeptical of his chances of getting anywhere near a bear if he did see one.
Towards the end the trail sort of vanished into the trees. I actually thought I’d reached the end of the trail so I began to bushwhack. Eventually I found what I thought was a game trail which turned out to be the real trail. It just gets covered up in leaves and doesn’t get much use so high up.
Eventually I did reach the end of the trail and I began a short bushwhack across glacial moraines to a lake.
The lake was nice but unfortunately the sides were too brushy for me to make a quick run up the glacier. It was just as well because the glacier had retreated from where my old map showed it to be.
After a short night (the sun woke me up at 4:00 AM) I packed up to raft home.
While retrieving my bear bag I saw the sheep out again. I had not noticed this ram the day before.
The Eagle River was pretty low for packrafting but I blew up the raft anyway. My Kokopelli Nirvana is a self bailing raft. I was a bit skeptical of the idea of a self bailing packraft at first but now I’m a full convert. On shallow rocky rivers like a self bailer is great because you can get in and out quickly. And once rivers get bigger the self bailer is great if you take a swim and need to get back in your raft quickly.
Low water forced me to get out and tow my raft over shallows spots from time to time. It was still faster than walking however.
After floating about 3.5 hours I reached Echo Bend. The rapids below Echo Bend are normally a bit of a handful, something I would not tackle solo. They probably would have been easier at low water but not being sure I took the easy way out and hiked the last few miles to the car. It was a perfect Alaska weekend trip.
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