Symphony Lake

Symphony Lake, Flute and Organ Glacier, Cantata Peak, Calliope Mountain -- they sound like names of streets in a new subdivision. From space, Flute Glacier looks like it would be easy to walk up, so i thought i'd head over there.

This was way back in 2006, and my dad had given me a camera he was no longer using, a Canon 10d. Before that, i had been a devoted slide film user. You won't likely see any posts from those days because i'm not going to sit here and scan slides just for a blog.

The 10d was useful enough to prove to me the benefits of going digital.  It was the first digital camera i ever used (except for a very primitive and very expensive 2 megapixel camera from Kodak back in 1998, for work ). I had forgotten that, and when i was moving these images off my hard drive recently i was getting angry that i couldn't find a copy of the one pictured above that was bigger than 3072 x 2048 pixels (about the same or less than a typical point and shoot pocket camera). Then i realized that was just the maximum resolution of the camera! Things have changed a lot since 2006...

The part of the trail that goes by the neighborhood. This is how high up the side of the valley you have to hike while passing the private property. After this mile the trail drops back down to the bottom of the valley and stays there the rest of the time.

The Eagle Lake trail is in the back of a neighborhood in the town of Eagle River. Unfortunately some jerk bought the swath of land at the end of the neighborhood, blocking access to Chugach State Park. I assume this made him feel like he owned the whole rest of the valley because from what i understand the owner wouldn't work with the state to allow access to the park, so the trailhead had to be built a mile down the road after a conservation organization managed to purchase some of the real estate in the area in 1988. That means roundtrip you have to spend two uneccesary miles walking by a neighborhood before you pass that guys property and get into the park proper. There is another valley in the Talkeetna Mountains were that same kind of situation is going on right now.

 The rockfield starts abruptly, after the bridge.

The hike to Symphony Lake is 5.3 miles one way, and is unfortunately a bit boring and monotonous for a large part of the time, even though you are above treeline. Eventually you arrive at a large rockfield and at that point the scenery ahead is much more appreciable. At the top of the rockfield you realize you are standing on an old lateral moraine. The moraine separates Eagle and Symphony Lakes, one of which is higher than the other.

The scenery is really nice once you get through the rocks.

Also of interest at the top of the boulder field is a bizzare octagonal platform about 10 feet high. This thing was built by a homesteader in the 1970's. Back then you could claim land as your own, and i guess this guy thought building a "platform" would be enough of an improvement to make it his. Apparently it's a very contested valley.

A badly taken panorama that shows how Eagle Lake, on the right, is higher than Symphony Lake, on the right. I'll blame it on the old Eos 10D i was using. It was the first digital camera i used, and had a poor dynamic range.

The day i was there the platform turned out to be very useful. Just as i got to the rock field the sky opened up and poured down a storm of hail, sleet and very cold rain. I had a rain coat, but not rain pants, and soon my legs were soaked. Just a few hundred feet above me it was dumping snow. The pseudo shack provided some refuge to hide in until the storm passed. Inside were even a couple of filthy sleeping bags hanging on a wall for those who were desperate. Desperate was a key word, because although the place had a roof (very leaky) it had no floor. It was just built right on top of the boulders, so there really was no place to comfortably sit, and certainly no where to lie down.

 The long way back. At least the storm passed.

Following along the shoreline of Symphony Lake will lead to the Flute Glacier after a few more miles. Typically it is done as a two day trip. I had originally hoped to hike to within site of the Glacier, but by the time the storm let up i was cold and still very wet, as was the dog. I no longer had any interest in navigating through a couple of more miles of freshly wet tundra and rocks. The area of the lakes was very pretty though, and warranted a return trip, with camping in mind.

 

 Wet Doggie.