Ship Lake Traverse

There's a creek that runs through downtown Anchorage called Ship Creek. It's a popular salmon fishing stream and in summer is packed with people trying their luck at catching some dinner downtown. Ship Creek comes from Ship Lake, high in the mountains above Anchorage. I decided i'd like to go see the lake one day, and the quickest way to do that is to take "The Ramp".

A lot of people don't realize just how colorful it is here in the fall.

The Ramp is a miles long incline in the mountains that rises 1,300 feet in two miles. At the top is a pass overlooking Ship Lake. From the pass you can continue up a ridge to a mountain, also called The Ramp, go down to the lake, traverse to another pass, or turn around.

Super nice day with a happy dog. It made me want to run around on a horse. It certainly would have made the trip faster.

The first time i went was in fall, on a day with perfect skies and a dusting of snow on the mountaintops. My goal was to ride my bike down the Powerline Pass trail for 3 miles, ditch the bike and cross the stream, then hike 3 miles up to the pass where i had plans to continue up to the top of the mountain to take a VR.

What i would call the beginning of The Ramp. The Ramp leads around to the left and ends at the pass in the distance. The mountain peak just visible on the far left shares the same name. The Wedge is in the middle, and Powerline Valley on the right.

Looking back down the ramp from the pass. You end up well above all the fall colors. This large area was already dead, just waiting to be covered in snow. The long wall on the left is The Wedge.

Things went well that day until i got to the ramp, where a steady cold wind was blowing down. I was moving fast and hot and to keep from sweating too much i was dressed lightly. I guess i should have gone slower and worn another layer because by the time i got to the pass my wrists and hands were so cold i could barely operate the zipper on my back pack. At the pass itself, that strong wind had increased to a bitter hurricane gale. I could barely stand up, and even the dog was seeking shelter. Taking a VR was out of the question, so we headed back.

Fisher ran ahead over the pass first, and out of site. As i was nearing the top, the fierce wind tore my hat off and carried it high up into the sky and out of site! A minute or two later i came over the top and could see that Fisher had found my hat. He was overjoyed to see me, spinning in circles and jumping up and down, even though we'd only been out of site for maybe two minutes at most. It appeared that he may have thought the wind had blown his master to kingdom come, leaving behind only his hat!

Two hours later as we were close to getting back i noticed the sky was glazing over in front of me. I turned around and saw that the mountaintops had disappeared in thick stormy clouds. Just a few hours after that it was snowing. That hurricane force wind was the violent arrival of winter, and we were up on the pass during the very last snow free hours of the year. At least i could rest knowing i'd made the most of fall!  A few years later it was early summer in 2009 and i plans for later in the summer. I was doing hikes solely to get in shape for harder things later on, and divised i a neat excuse to go back up the ramp....

Ship Lake a few hours before the permanent arrival of Winter, and two years later in early Summer. The idea was to walk down there, follow the valley out to the intersection in the distance, and take another right to the pacific ocean catching another trail that hopefully existed at Indian Pass. The snow that summer was dirty with ash because of nearby volcanic eruptions in Spring.

I wanted to go to Ship Lake, and i knew i also wanted to go to a place called Indian Pass. The two places are pretty close together in a straight line, although not connected by trail. I figured if i went to Ship Lake i could hike 3 miles cross country to Indian Pass where i knew i could pick up another trail there, and take that all the way down to the ocean. The cool thing about that route would be that, although it was 16 miles total, i would only have to walk up hill about 2,000 feet and i would get to walk downhill for 4,000 feet. Also, almost all of the uphill would be in the first 6 miles.

See the very faint trail in the right foreground? It doesn't look like much, and disappeared again only about 50 feet away, but even a trail as faint as this can greatly speed up travel if you can find and track them.

Again, things went well. Fisher had lost his leg so i was on my own, but descended the 1,300 feet from Ship Pass to the lake in 1/2 a mile. I quickly found an old intermittent trail right where i had decided the best route would be for travel down the valley. I'd gotten into the bad habit of not bringing maps with me and i almost walked past the valley i was supposed to turn into because the vague path i was on suddenly turned into an old jeep trail up ahead of where i was supposed to turn. It was pretty inviting, but in no time i had made it to Indian Pass and immediately found the official trail that led down to the ocean. From there it was just a waiting game. Waiting for my legs to carry me the last five miles along the stream through what eventually becomes monotonous forest. It wasn't really that boring though, there was lots of fresh bear skatt and the grass and bushes had already grown up to neck height, so i was kept focused on alerting any bears in the area to my passage.

Here i nearly walked to the far valley instead of taking a right up the closer one. The farther valley just looked more like the correct way, and there was a definite well defined trail over there.

These strange patterns of thick ash really threw me for a loop. Eventually i realized they were laid out according to the contours of a melting snow patch, which had only recently disappeared, leaving the ash in exactly the same design.

When i got done I was pretty tired, and my joints were worn out, but when i pulled out my new iphone, i realized the GPS mapping app i had been running through the hike had depleted my battery, and so i had no way to call Maree to come get me. It was about 10:30 at night (but still light), and everyone else was long gone (actually i hadn't seen a single person since i left the powerline trail). I was pretty upset, because that meant i had to KEEP WALKING. After another mile and a half i made it to a nearby saloon where i finally, was officially done.

Final approach to Indian Pass (actually on the far right). Going down the other side the ferns and bear grass soon grew up so neck height.

From Indian Pass you can glimpse of the ocean before heading into the trees. It was still 6 miles away but that was the finish line.

That extra walk sucked, but i have to admit that it was MUCH niceer waiting for Maree while sipping a beer than it would have been to wait on a log by a mosquito infested dirt road. Plus, it's always fun to see the faces when you stagger into a saloon covered in grit, with sticks in your hair and such. Up here the looks are only momentary.

Time for a beer.