Twenty Mile Packraft - 7.4.2014

Over the last month the weather has been so wonderful that everything other than spending every possible second outside has dropped completely off the horizon. Climbing, biking, packrafting, backpacking, running, hiking, kayaking, zooming around in helicopters, fishing, late nights processing fish. Its been great. I keep thinking it will start raining, it hasn't. Lots of adventures to catch up on.

Back in early July I had just returned from an exhausting and quite trying week of field work in Kanuti. Alex and Co. were headed out to Blackstone for the weekend (which sounded incredible), but I just couldn't drag myself off the couch to pack.

I decided to start the long weekend with the 20 Mile packraft. 20 Mile is one of those iconic Southcentral adventures. People were already telling me I needed to do it the day I moved to Anchorage.

Per usual, I slept in, then wandered around my house spacing out, before eventually deciding to get moving. By 1 PM I'd stashed a bike at Portage, driven to Alyeska, and was hiking up the Winner Creek Trail.

The trail slowly gained elevation as it climbed through the temperate rainforest of the Girdwood Valley.


The mountains starting to come into view above Winner Creek.


A bit higher, looking back towards the other north face of Alyeska. Easy to picture a heaven of rad spine lines up there.