Since moving to Anchorage a decade ago, the East Fork Eklutna valley has held a place in my mind and tugged at me. Over the years we've explored the peaks around the yawning mouth of the drainage, but the upper basin has waited out of reach. With a scheduled traverse from Seward to Homer kiboshed by uncertain weather and my tight work schedule, Nyssa, Heather, Lars and I "compromised" with a loop through the dramatic gorges of the towering B Peaks.
The trip started on a sunny Saturday morning in the Eklutna parking lot where we swung on our loaded packs and skated onto the lake. Days of spring sun and clear nights had metamorphosed the surface into a hard and fast crust which we cruised across as Chad and his smiling golden retriever skated laps around us..jpg)
At the east end of the lake we chased the crust upstream until the skating became a contact sport. Then, we crashed through the scarred deadfall remains of the old wildfire until crawling out onto the road at the East Fork trailhead. We skinned over exposed rocks and walked along the melted-out dirt of the spring trail as the shady walls of the giant gorge closed in above us.
We had ventured into this giant canyon several times, but it seemed even more breathtaking than before. Perhaps it was the intention to pass through it that had me seeing the length of the valley and truly experiencing the scale of the beast.
From high on the cliff walls above us, we could see goats perched on impossibly small ledges. Turned to the scale of moving white dots by the mountains that they inhabit, it felt like we'd entered another world. 
