Alaska adventure - Falls Creek Trail, Chugach State Park

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Ginny and I have decided to forgo one of my favorite things to do - a State Fair, in order to search for bear. I choose a hike that is bound to have bear. Falls Creek Trail in Chugach State Park near Girdwood. According to Ginny's guidebook the park is home to over 300 black bear and 65 brown bear! Bear sighting is certain!

The hike itself sounds interesting. A 4.5 mile round trip hike that follows a steep creek. While 4.5 miles doesn't seem like much the elevation gain was almost 2400 ft! That is 2400 ft in 2.25 miles! No problem. We are fit. Bring it!

We start the hike at around 1130. It became very apparent that

1-the trail was VERY steep

2-the trail was VERY slippery because of all the rain and

3-there was no retreat possible if we encountered a bear. Too steep and slippery. We would have to Stand Our Ground.

As if we didn't have enough to do keeping our balance and looking out for one of the 365 bears, I also decided to make this a geocache hike and pulled up one of several caches located which was about 1.5 miles into the trail.

The trail starts out through a beautiful rain forest. About 1/2 mile into the hike we encountered a friendly sheepdog named Cooper, two more of his buddies and their dog moms. They were coming down the trail. "Did you see any bear?" We inquired. "Yes! One up on the ridge!" They answered. They also confirmed sheep sightings.

YAY! Today was the day! I would get to see my bear! We continued on. I was keeping careful watch out for bear while we continued the relentless ascent up the mountain.

To take my mind off the steep climb, I started thinking about what we would do when we finally saw the bear. Those girls looked prepared. They had an air horn. Maybe even bear spray. Will, Ginny's husband, gave me a quick tutorial on what to do if you encounter a bear. It is very confusing but I think it boiled down to three bear states of mind. Startled bear - say calming and soothing things to bear. Curious bear - make noise and make yourself big. Angry, rabid bear - stab in the eye with a sharp object. All Ginny and I had was a pocket knife grabbed in haste as we went out the door in case we encountered angry bear.

Eventually we had to cross the creek in order to keep going and find the cache. This took some time as I did not have my gortex hiking boots. After spending 10-15 minutes searching for a better place to cross, I resigned myself to taking off shoes and socks to cross bare foot. Yikes that water was FREEZING! Ginny waited patiently while I crossed, dried feet and put shoes back on.

We continued along the trail. For the most part the trail had been wet and slippery but wide. We started to encounter parts of the trail that were washed out that went right next to the swift and steep, icy creek. A slip and fall here could be very dangerous. But along we carefully went as my GPS indicated we were getting closer to the cache.

Ginny spotted what we thought might be a sheep and we kept an eye on it as we trudged upward and onward. As we got closer our sheep turned out to be a gap between some trees:-(

Eventually the GPS indicated we were within several feet of the cache and was pointing to a rock mound. We turned over a likely rock. No luck. Ginny spotted another loose rock and turned it over and voila! There it was! In a tiny tin can. After much struggle we got the can opened and signed the logbook.

I looked at my watch. Over two hours had gone by! Two hours to go 1.5 miles! Well we had wasted a lot of time stream crossing and searching for caches. "Should we continue on and finish the hike and quest for bear?" we pondered. As if on cue, the rain started. Knowing the descent was going to be even more tricky than the ascent, especially in the rain, we decided to start back.

Sure enough we both slipped several times. Ginny was a trooper though. She made it through even with a wrist she had broken several weeks back sumo wrestling with her husband (don't ask). I however had another fit at the creek crossing spending another 10 minutes looking again for a crossing where i didn't have to take off shoes. No luck. It was another barefoot crossing. In hindsight, I should have just crossed with them on because by the time we were both done, we were soaking wet!

That night we stuffed ourselves on not one but TWO types of salmon Will had caught earlier in the season. (Yesterday was apparently a fluke - Will is an accomplished fisherman"). We determined that the red salmon was tastier than the pink. Warm and toasty with full bellies, we decided it was a pretty good hike after all!

Wildlife: one Australian Sheepdog named Cooper

Scenery: mushrooms, tiny windflowers, vistas and waterfalls

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Photos

Rainforest
Who know this part of Alaska is considered a temperate climate? Explains all the rain!

Comments

[Carolyn]

Fun trip!
Love the sheepdog wildlife and bear tutorial. Your pics are beautiful!