A few months ago, my friend "Sassy Nurse Heather" (who you might remember from the Beer Train episode) and I were talking about growing older, bucket lists, life goals..etc. And one thing that we both wanted to do was hike the Crow Pass Trail from Girdwood to Eagle River. Crow Pass is a 26 mile hike through some incredibly rugged, yet stunningly beautiful wilderness, replete with glaciers, glacial streams, waterfalls, mountains, wildlife,...you name it. So guess what. We did it!
We planned and prepped and initially had thought to do a three day backpacking trip, but then decided to cut it down to two days, thereby lightening the backpacks by at least a pound or so.
Here we are at the trailhead, don't we look cute!
Gratuitous trailhead waterfall beauty shot.
Heather was very excited!
The view back from where we came....
why yes, now I CAN say "I've looked at clouds from both sides now"
The wildflowers were spectacular! Wild columbine, lupine.....
Miniature Jacob's Ladder.....
The first four miles or so are uphill all the way....but at least this part of the trail had relatively good footing...
Narrow, and steep...then things got a little more...'interesting''!
More of the looking back from whence we came....
And get, this, a mountain goat wandered right down the trail in front of us to munch on a bit of grass. Why yes...thoughts of cashmere did go through my mind...and nerd that I am, I might have even voiced them to fellow knitter Heather..who being not so much the nerd, rolled her eyes.
There was lots of the shlepping across steep and slippery snow berms....
But we were rewarded with an amazing up close and personal view of the glacier...
STRONG IS BEAUTIFUL!
About 7 miles in and still feeling good!
So is Heather!
How could you not in the presence of this type of greatness.....
The trail became progressively rougher....
3500 feet above sea level...now we are at truly in "The Pass"
Not a glacier but still a beautiful scene...
Me and Heather having a Kodak moment!
I know, doubles, but this was so gorgeous I couldn't help myself...
And we kept on trekking.....
and trekking.....
Not so happy with the slippery, steep slopes.....
In fact, after the third one, my knees were visibly shaking.....but still we kept going...and the terrain became even rougher...lots of sharp protruding rocks....
yep...lots of rocks...aka ankle busters...
with the occaissional 100 feet of decent trail just to give you hope...
amazing terrain.....
and this was only the tiny glacial stream we had to cross....so cold it stings...and then makes you go numb....and a two city block wide one yet to cross.......
It was an indescribable first day....we crossed this bridge and continued on to set up camp on the river bank...a total of just under 13 miles the first day. I was whipped. I'm waiting for someone else's pics of day 2...my camera battery died. Let's just say Day 2 was even more physically challenging....and I think my 40 lbs of backpacking stuff doubled it's weight. We crossed a big cold glacial river, crossed ravines on single peeled log bridges by holding onto a rope above our heads, and used knotted ropes to pull our sorry butts up and down steep gullies. More glaciers, more waterfalls, more incredible scenery. Oh, and we ran into not one...but two...black bears, one only 80 feet away. But I will save that part of the tale for the accompanying photos. Until then...I will tell you, I've only ever been so tired, so sore, so exhilarated and so dang amazed once before...and that was when I gave birth to my daughter. This two day trip gave me back my faith in my physical abilities. And, guess what, we are planning another big adventure in 3 weeks!
