Bomber Traverse

At the beginning of summer I received news that Leisha, my sister-in-law's sister was making her way back up to Alaska. As I knew Leisha was the adventurous type, I wanted to take her and her boyfriend, Jacob, out on a backpacking trip.

The 'Bomber Traverse' immediately came to mind.  As it is a short hour and a half drive north of Anchorage in the Talkeetna mountains.  I have always been fond of the Talkeetna mountains and this seemed like the perfect trip for Leisha and Jacob. It offers some non-technical glacier travel which always excites out-of-towners and I had never done this route though it has been on my list for a while now.

The trip started out on Friday, August 6th, the day our nephew, Tylus Morgan Jabaay, was born.

I took off from work a few hours early so we could beat the traffic heading out of town.  First we had to drop a mountain bike off at the Reed Lakes Trailhead to help with the shuttle at the end of the trip.  Then we drove to the start of our adventure: Gold Mint Trailhead.

The plan for the day was to stay at the 'Mint Hut' approximately nine miles in.  Leaving the truck at six o'clock with loaded packs and not knowing exactly where the hut was didn't give us much time. Not only were we getting a late start, but the sky was overcast with a ceiling around 3,500 feet.  The trail was supposed to lead straight to it so there was no immediate need for concern.

 

Around mile five the vegetation started closing in on the trail and rain gear was dawned to avoid getting soaked by the rain saturated brush. 

 

A few miles later, wet, cold, and dark we started the push upwards toward the hut. Somewhere around this time I lost the trail and started traveling south around a large bench.  Later realizing we should have been on the north side of this bench where the hut would be located. After wandering around in the dark for far too long we set up the tents and bedded down for the night.

 

In the morning we awoke to partial clearing, but fog and clouds were rolling in and out. Jacob and Leisha went for a morning stroll to find water for some delicious banana-strawberry pancakes (thanks to Leisha) and they caught a glimpse of Mint Glacier and Montana Peak. After breakfast we headed upwards for 'Backdoor Gap' a small pass that would gain us access to our first glacier.

  

Once at the base of the pass, we looked up to see nothing but clouds. This didn't make us feel too confident but a quick glance at the GPS reassured us that we were traveling in the right direction. Making it to the top we enjoyed the gradual improvement of the visibility on the glacier.

 

Traversing across the glacier heading towards our next destination, 'Bomber Glacier', we made a few detours around some smaller crevasses and eventually had to avoid a larger but still fairly small bergschrund to get to a small saddle which would allow us to drop down to the 'Bomber Glacier'. Still enjoying fair visibility we stopped for a snack and views of both glaciers.

 

 

Dropping down towards 'Bomber Glacier' was steep, narrow, and loose rock prompted us to descend one at a time. Once on the glacier we headed straight for the airplane crash located in the center of the glacier. Poking around for a while we left for the final leg of the trip.

 

 

  

The Reed Lakes Trail was our way out to the bike and eventually to the truck. We were soon clouded in again.  A quick lunch at Upper Reed Lake we were then on our way again.

 

A few more stops to look at the water falls, lakes, and do some blueberry foraging we made it to the Reed Lakes Trailhead where I enjoyed a fast and invigorating bike ride down to the truck.

 

Returning Leisha and Jacob back to Melissa's house where I met Tylus, a handsome baby boy, for the first time.

 

Winner Creek to Twenty Mile

Nearly a month ago my friend and I did the well known hike and packrafting route, 'Winner Creek to Twenty Mile'.  Going into this trip I had heard of the good trail leading up to the pass and the sudden dead end of the trail into a jungle of devils club and alders. The allure of a packrafting day trip so close to town in such a scenic area drew me in and I couldn't resist.

The hike up was everything I thought it to be; with a great trail, wildflowers, grand views, a few snow fields, and bear tracks (large and small) it was enjoyable but I knew what was on the other side. With a lunch break at the pass, which gave scenic views and an entertaining air show from the local helicopters of Girdwood.  We started down into the Twenty Mile drainage where the trail abruptly ended.  We had to follow surveyor flags that were not much help.

Once through the barrage of devils club we were nearly to the river and the onslaught of some small biting flies began. Into the water we went but only to portage a strainer fifty feet later. Heavy rains had caused the river to flood and although every obstacle was more or less runnable we portaged them all rather than taking the chance. Portaging every 100 feet or so was unexpected and after the bushwhack and biting flies it was not what I had in mind.

After floating over the tops of alders, where the river had flooded into another channel, we made it to the main channel of the river and enjoyed a peaceful  float out, except the supercub that buzzed us to the bridge of the Seward highway.

Although sounding negative; this was a worthwhile trip and I would do it again. Like I said earlier, this trip offers beautiful views, wildflowers, a well maintained trail to a point, waterfalls and shimmering glaciers and snowfields.