Carlanna Lake Trail

Hi there!

This week I was in Southeast Alaska for work, so I was pretty excited to be able to tackle a few trails in that area of the State.  My first destination was the always-bustling island town of Ketchikan.  Tourists are fewer during this time of year - I think I only saw one cruise ship at port – but regional basketball tournaments were happening this week, so there was a lot of excited people and activity going on around town.  I was lucky to be able to get a decent hotel room.

Who uses shoe polish anymore?

It was overcast and a bit rainy all day, but the rain ceased by the afternoon as if to encourage me to stick to my hiking plans.  I changed out of my ubiquitous Southeast AK footwear (XtraTufs) and into my new hiking shoes; then my friends and two beautiful Golden Retrievers and I walked to the Carlanna Lake trailhead for a 3-mile excursion.

Cheating on Fly and hiking with other canine gals...

Once at the trailhead, I was glad I’d brought microspikes, because the trail began as a pretty steep incline and it was covered in snow.  It looked like a really great sledding hill, actually.

At the top of the slope lies the lake, so there was almost instant gratification from this trail.  Summer is the best time to view this lake - seriously, do a web search for images of Carlanna Lake and you’ll see what I mean; I’m totally going to pay this place a visit when I return in the Fall.  My friend says it’s a lovely lake for floating on an inflatable raft and people also do some fishing or swimming in the lake.

Still beautiful, even in winter.

We followed the trail around the lake and then continued on up the Minerva Mountain trail.  It was so strange to be hiking in the rainforest with all its greenery and have snow at the same time.  Snow blobs would kamikaze down through the tree canopy and ‘shplop’ on the ground, or on my head, with an action that felt as if the trees were doing it on purpose.

Most of the trees were new growth, but there were several giants that told of former forest glory and a history that I can only imagine.  They were beautiful specimens.

After a bit, the trail reached an avalanche chute and we could see recent avalanche activity.  Actually, a hiker was killed about a week ago in the heavy snows in the Ketchikan area.  So, with that in mind, we decided to call it a day and return home safely.  If you find yourself in Ketchikan and want to do a relatively easy, super beautiful hike, Carlanna Lake trail is a safe bet.   For some really lovely scenery, go even further and give Minerva Mountain trail a try.

There's the avalanche chute where we stopped.