Winner Creek to Twentymile Packraft

Last weekend I had the chance to float twenty mile with some friends.  Yay!  I've wanted to do this trip for a while now, so I jumped at the chance.  It's a great hike up the Winner Creek Trail, over Berry Pass, and down to Twentymile Creek.  The forest service put in a pretty sweet trail nearly all the way there - boardwalks, stairs, and everything. Deluxe! 

With all of the snow melt, I think water levels were a little higher than normal in some of the smaller creeks crossing the trail.

If you haven't heard, it was a pretty big snow year this past winter. There was still *a lot* of snow out there! I think easily half of our hike was through snow.

Berry Pass!  Picture green tundra, alpine lakes, singing birds...

and Anson ready to fight off any bears! 

Twentymile was a blast.  A little narrow and fast to start, but soon mellowing out into a flat, beautiful river.  A great day trip for a novice pack rafter. 

Bore Tide 2012!

The bore tide has gotten plenty of press lately, both in Anchorage and out.  It's a really neat phenomenon - if you have a big tidal range coming into a shallow area, the incoming tide basically piles up agains the outgoing tide and forms a true tidal wave (aka tidal bore or bore tide). 

Here in Anchorage we get a tidal bore in Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage.  It's not an everyday occurrence, you need a big enough difference between low and high tides, which usually happens  a few times a month.  If the conditions are right when we get a bore tide it can be a great paddle surf opportunity!  Yesterday was a fantastic day for a paddle: no wind, glassy water, and sunshine!

Jon and Anson, heading out. 

Anson and I paddling out to wait for the bore. 

 Paddle high five!

Anyways, I think I mentioned that the bore tide has gotten quite a bit of press lately.  Anchorage Daily News had some really nice photos of Jon and Anson.  KTVA local news reporter John Thein did a really nice piece a few weeks ago when the weather wasn't so stellar (just have to get through the commercials first), and Associated Press reporter John Thiessen did a piece yesterday.  As you can tell I was pretty excited.  After that interview we loaded up the truck, drove a little further south, and caught it again...