Tincan and Kickstep Glaciers

It seems I have made this the summer of tying up loose ends. Years ago before the digital age i bushwacked up to a cool ridge i found on a map that allowed you to walk for miles while looking down into valleys on either side. That was in the fall when the days were short and i had to turn around before i had gone very far. I always wanted to go back, so this summer i did.

If you do an image search for Tincan or Kickstep Mountains you will get a huge cascade of snowy winter imagery. It's a popular heli-ski and backcountry ski destination but apparently nobody ever goes there in summer. Kickstep Mountain is visible sticking up on the East side Turnagain Pass from the parking area. It looks like it's immediately over the hill but that's the clear Alaskan air tricking you, it's actually 5 miles away.

The short trail portion of the hike starts off in nice Kenai forest. It very quickly degrades into bushes, cow parsnip, devils club, and alders.

If you go the wrong way you will soon be forced back in the right direction when you run into the gorge containing Tincan Creek.

Right about where i decided to abandon the "trail" i found this pontoon boat. It's pretty weird to find a boat tied to the side of a mountain. I can only guess that somebody was lowering the pontoons down into the gorge to use as a work platform while they did some gold dredging in the creek.

We emerged from the forest and got our first view of the upper valley ABOVE the pass. Kona sits in semi-tundra scouring for wildlife. In the distance is Kickstep Mountain and a very long wall of rock leading away from it. On top must be a really cool ridge walk. We left the trail quite some time ago and would not see one again the rest of the way.

I don't normally carry bear spray but this hike is about 85% off-trail and the first mile of the off trail portion is through excellent bear terrain. The first time i brought Fisher, and an one point, in the thickest, steepest brush, he started acting spooked. I had a weird feeling too, something just seemed imminently wrong. I avoided that area on this visit. The bushwacking had been horrid anyway, so i was interested in finding a better route.

A strange opening in the forest we took advantage off. It was really cool to go from the forest and transition through so many areas of vegetation, all different, that eventually resulted in typical frost hummocked tussocks and tundra in the back of the valley.

I still cant believe this but i ended up standing in almost exactly the same spot 12 years apart after starting an off-trail hike from two completely different starting positions! And i took the same damn picture! I was not aware of this until weeks afterward i had the idea that it would be neat to see if the glaciers looked any different after 12 years. I had to dig up my slides. That's how long it had been. The top picture is from I THINK 2002, in September. So this second picture is from July 2014. It's not exactly a fair comparison because the first picture is after two more months of melting snow. When i look at these full size, and especially comparing some other pictures i took that were more close up, i can see that the ice has retreated some but thinned out considerably. That is typical of land based glaciers.

Still, to end up in that same location is baffling. There must be something about the terrain and foliage that naturally pushes you towards this specific location. Now, might as well make this even more complicated. The picture immediately below this paragraph was our next area of hiking. We came across a number of dry stream beds and tarns. This is in the picture above. If you look at the rocky mound in the center foreground and look just to the left of the trees you'll see a little open area of yellow and reddish, and that's where i decided would be the best way to go. That's the area below. Looks steeper up close doesn't it? That's the way this entire hike turned out to be.

But back to the beginning. We originally started by following the winter ski trail just past the bridge south of the parking area. That trail, unfortunately peters out in thick alders and marshy cow parsnip. At least, the occasional ribbon i was following became less frequent or did something unexpected. We ended up pushing our way through alders along a cliff. That was exactly what i wanted to not do, so i chose to crawl straight up the mountainside until we were on the forested top. That section in the alders and going up to the top was the hardest part of the trip.

Eventually we passed the zone of high grass and the zone of alders. Just scraggly patches of bushes and trees remained. Kona leads. She was having a great time. She loves wide open areas. 

The valley on our right hand view was starkly different in character.

It had been at least 12 years since i had been there and i had forgotten why i chose my original route so many years ago. I didnt' know about alders back then but i did pay more attention to maps and had craftily avoided the hill that this time i was now on top of. Once on top i soon had to climb back down the other side and it was nearly as steep as the way up. So that seemed like wasted energy. Back up the next hill a pattern began, but with each hilltop the vegetation improved, until i was finally out in the open walking through deep tundra.

I still like the old slides i took.This looked incredibly wild to me back then, and also unreachable for some reason. This was as far as i had gone that first time. In the fall the days are much shorter and based on the shadows i think even today it was probably time to turn around.

Looking back the way we had come showed us that we had gained enough altitude to see over the Turnagain Pass area to the mountains behind it. I had never seen them before. This day of hiking there was a high layer of smoke in the sky that diffused the sunlight.

The valley below looked improbably flat. I was constantly tempted to go down there, but i knew it was a lie. Alaska is one of the biggest liars i've ever known.

It went on like this for several miles, until i made it to the base of the mountains in the back of the valley. I had, of course, started several hours later than i should have, so i was running out of time. Where i was though, was very encouraging. I was staring down at the terminus moraine of Tincan Glacier. The glacier had retreated quickly a great distance up the valley, leaving the valley floor completely covered in lifeless rock fields. The front of the moraine was gushing with numerous waterfalls all up and down it's width, so i wondered if there was ice under the rocks.

Ok, we finally made it to the base of the pyramid, and it was good.

Looking at the view, it seemed like a shame to not keep going and check out that terminal moraine.

Just as i suspected, once i was down in the valley it was much less flat and easy than it had looked, but it was still very pretty.

I still had two hours i could spare, so i decided to go down there and after one more hour, maybe longer, i would return. It was a good choice. The area in front of the moraine was a lush garden of clear streams and scattered fields of flowers. High above, clearly accessible Kickstep Glacier contributed it's own cascading stream to the area. Climbing onto the rocks showed that it wasn't so barren after all. The flowers from below were gaining a foothold around the meandering streams. The valley at that point had a very cool rugged look going on, and i could see that the glacier was so melted and exposed that it looked like you could safely walk all the way to the headwall, which had a metallic sheen.

Kona was extremely thirsty. She's very snobby about what water she will drink and we had passed numerous tarns and small streams that she turned her nose up.

The stream from Kickstep Glacier cascades down the mountain to converge with the stream from Tincan Glacier. Man this place is nice.

A panoramic shot of the area, close to 180 degrees.

An extremely unlikely but perfect camping spot. This is the only flat area i saw anywhere and it happened to be in just the right place.

Also preposterously unlikely? This perfect sidewalk made getting to the moraine super easy.

These "water gardens" created the most pleasant area i've ever encountered directly in front of a glacier. We found a nice place to sit and eat. We relaxed for a long time (for me), but it wasn't enough. I decided you would need to camp to really get everything you could out of it.

We started climbing up the rocks. It was an amazing transition from lush green lifeless rubble, except where flowers grew along the water.

Something is conspicuously missing. Very rugged from here on out, but exciting. It looked fairly easy to walk along the streams but we didn't have enough time. The end of the glacier is now a mile away.

In the rocks i found an old goat skull. It had nearly succumbed to the elements, so i didn't want is as a prize, but i did take it's one remaining tooth. When i got home i showed it to Fisher and he immediately tried to eat it.

A close up of the headwall. On the left of the wall you can see clear bands of rusted iron. There was a ton of quartz around me so i'm guessing the lighter bands of rock are that. The far right wall had a purplish metallic sheen. I really wanted to go check that out. After looking it up i read that there are some interesting minerals in the area, including gold.

As we headed back clouds moved in. Once we were off the tundra and into the bushes conditions were shifting towards mostly overcast. The clouds didn't move in so much as just formed overhead. By the time were getting close to home, it started to rain.

Too bad for my own bad decisions. I had to turn around. The glacier was still a mile away and i had used up and hour and 15 minutes of that 2 two hour grace period. Time flies when you're having fun (or bushwacking). Kona really dislikes boulder fields anyway and she was already letting me know. So we reluctantly turned around.

After all, it was critically important to get back to town before the Taco King closed.

On the way back we tried a couple of different routes. Thought maybe i could avoid the two biggest hills by walking around the sides of them through what looked like fields of flowers. Up close they turned out to be stalky plants, some flowers, but all about 6 feet high and very dense. So i abandoned that idea and went back up the to the top of hill. On the final hill i wanted to avoid the way i came up. We stuck to the top of the biggest hill in the forest, which was somewhat easy to walk through and tried to make our way more south before heading down. We kept getting forced more and more to the south because of cliffs. Eventually i just had to climb down the cliffs in thick forest and brush. There didn't seem to be any other way down, and we still ended up in thick marshy high plants and alders thickets. So the way i started the day seemed like the best route after all. Go figure.

I leave you with ham. Near the beginning of the trail in the woods along the creek i found the remains of an old camp, possibly an old cabin. There was this weird can of ham. I looked into it and it may be as old as the 1970's. The youngest it would be i think is from the early 80's.