Skyline Trail

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We’re off to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge! My friend and co-worker Rob and his family invited us to join them at the Engineer Lake Cabin, which is a fairly remote public use cabin on the refuge. We got directions and planned to meet them there. We stopped on the way to hike the Skyline Trail. The guidebook and trail sign said that it was a one mile trail. The trail started steep and the girls enjoyed the rock scrambling and counting steps. Well, it may have been one mile to some landmark, but the trail kept going and so did we. It took some convincing the girls, but they were glad that they kept going. We found some fantastic blueberry patches (yes, they are still around), some tundra hiking, and some fabulous views. We could see Mt. Redoubt to the southwest (a volcano that is part of the Ring of Fire) and Denali to the north (the girls are pretty sick of hearing about views of Denali). By the time we got back to the car it was 4 o’clock! We still had to get to the parking area and hike to the cabin.

We found the parking area easily. The Campellone family car was there, so we knew we had the right place. We had packed Gabbi and Jacqui’s clothes in each of there backpacks and they were actually pretty excited to carry them along the trail to the cabin. The trail turned out to be about a mile and just before we reached the cabin Rob, his wife Estrella and daughter Carina met us and helped carry some of our gear to the cabin. The cabin was great! Much bigger and brighter than the one’s at Savoy that we have been going to for the past couple of years. There were 2 double sized bunk beds a nice table and a wood stove. Rob and I paddled their canoe back across the lake and picked up the gear. When we got back, Gabbi, Jacqui, and Carina were playing and Estrella and Danielle were chatting away. You never would have guessed that they had all known each other for an hour. Danielle had made a soup that we brought along and heated up. We ate a ton! The breeze had picked up and the lake was pretty choppy, along with plenty of clouds in the sky. We started a fire in the stove and the cabin was nice and cozy, quickly. The bunks were wooden, so thankfully we had some borrowed sleeping bags and sleeping pads from Maggi (a friend and co-worker). As we got ready for bed we realized that we were one sleeping bag short. Between the pads and the size of the bags that we had, we decided it wasn’t worth trying to navigate back to the car in the dark. As it turned out, Gabbi spent about two-thirds of the night with Carina in her bunk. Unfortunately, Danielle still didn’t sleep very well and was pretty tired the next morning.

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Comments

[Pam Ables]

Glad you had a great time...
Enjoyed your story about your visit to the Engineer Lake cabin. I am glad to see that our efforts are appreciated. I too enjoy staying at that cabin. It is the one that is remote enough to give you that great wilderness experience but not too remote that you can't get there from Anchorage in a day and back. Pamela Ables Kenai National Wildlife Refuge