New Trail at Turnagain Pass

This is a short post to start off the year. I found out from a friend that a new trail is being constructed at Turnagain Pass. This is great because there are number of interesting side valleys up there, and i have bushwhacked up to a pair of them several years ago. It's not yet completed, so one fine fall day i drove down there in the morning so as not to waste the sunshine before i went to work that evening.

The trail begins in forest winding it's way slowly uphill above alder slopes. Nothing like a new trail in freshly hewn stone!

After the first mile it breaks out of the forest into a very pretty and extensive meadow that i had never noticed.

 It had been a cold night after weeks of rain, forcing the ice to grow in curly shapes up out of the ground.

Wouldn't take much effort to get up into the higher valley.

It was an abnormally cold September morning, well below freezing with a chilly breeze at the pass. The trail was almost entirely covered in ice that had been extracted out of the mud after weeks of rain, but the sun still felt good and the air was incredibly clear that day.

Shortly after the meadow it begins a descent towards Turnagain Arm and offers a nice view up Twenty Mile Valley.

A nice brand new bridge

On the mid left you can trace the trail to where it turns at the front of the side valley. That is where there is a missing bridge. But it looks like the trail already offers great access to that valley, which i have never been in.

The trail ran for two miles passing several hanging valleys above until it began to descend to a lower, broader side valley. I had been told beforehand that at that point the trail ended at a stream filled gorge where no bridge had yet been built. So at that point we turned around. It looked from after that future bridge crossing the trail will continue to descend towards Turnagain Arm.

Kona gets a drink in the meadow.

It was a very soggy meadow. They usually are.

All in all it was a nice half day stroll in the mountains before a day of work. I am disappointed that the trail is not cut higher onto the mountainsides. Accessing the cool hanging valleys, some of which have small glaciers, is still going to be a chore, though there will be much less bushwhacking involved than there used to. And as an added bonus i got to see Kona catch a mouse. She was so proud she carried it in her mouth for 1/4 mile before she finally spit it out. Pretty gross.

At the beginning of the trail that week fields of fireweed were in full bloom and filling the sky like snow.

There's Fireweed in the air...