Bear Mountain

Hi there!

Bear Mountain is a hike that I have wanted to do for a couple of years and the timing finally worked in my favor.  TheNurse and Kona were available in the evening and willing to join Fly and me, so I picked them up at the car pool parking lot and we drove 35 minutes down the highway and followed winding, multiple turns, directions to the trailhead: a un-obtrusive trail at a curve in the road, where we had to park on the side of a rather steep residential road and hope the emergency breaks held.

  

There were other cars parked along the road, but we didn’t meet any other hikers.  The trail crosses though some private property, so we kept our voices muted through the lower thickly wooded section, until we were sure that we were away from any domestic dwellings.  It was a steep trail, almost from the first 100 feet, but it was an easy trail to follow, even if it wasn’t marked, because there was a clear path to lead the way.  Bug repellant was nearly ineffective, as the swarms of hungry mosquitos attempted to land on our Deet coated bodies.  Happily, the little vampires diminished along with the trees as we climbed higher and higher into the alpine region of the mountain.

Small glimpses of the landscape below us could be caught, if we turned around at just the right time to look through the tree canopy below, but our attention was focused mostly on what we hoped was the rounded top of the mountain and not a false summit.  Wildflowers kept us from feeling too miserable as we struggled up the steep ascent and we admired them all the way up to the top of the mountain.

Wooly Lousewort 

Oh what a wonderful wide “summit” (more like a plateau) it was too, with sweeping expanses of moss and lichen.  We eagerly ambled over toward the edge of the mountain to get a view of the Cook Inlet below us; we could see the Knik Arm to our right and all the way past Anchorage to our left and immediately below us were the murky waters of Mirror Lake.  We enjoyed our summit snack, took in the view, and played with some photo opportunities.

TheNurse and Kona look toward Anchorage and Turnagain Arm

What are you doing down there?

 Then, we decided to move to the other side of the large top and were rewarded magnificent views of the Knik Arm and the Matanuska Valley – I’ve never seen it from this side of the valley before and it is something special.  We pointed out familiar landmarks and talked of returning some weekend with tents to spend the night and explore more of the area.  I am not sure if it was an unusual evening or not, but the top was nearly completely wind free, and would be an ideal place to spend the night, if the wind was not too fierce.  I think Fly and I will try it out sometime.

Matanuska Peak

The Matanuska Valley with Palmer visible on the right.

The clouds were acting very moody, but no rain fell, so we meandered over towards Mt. Eklutna to find the trail that leads down from the peak, so we could do a loop, instead of odiously retracing our steps back down the mountain.  For a minute, we were tempted to attempt the summit of Mt. Eklutna, since we were already on the ridgeline, but it looked like it would take us another two hours to summit and it was already 10pm.  Not as if it was going to get dark on us, here in the land of the midnight sun, but TheNurse had church in the morning and needed some beauty sleep, so we opted out of the added adventure.

 

Mt Eklutna looks so close!

There was some guess work and confusion about where we were on the ridge and where we would meet up with the trail, so we had to consult a topo map of the area that I had downloaded to my phone.  Ah, thank goodness for technology.  After regaining our bearings, we had an easy time finding the Mt. Eklutna trail and began our descent.  It was a steep one, with very little switchbacks.  We agreed that, if given the choice again, we would climb up the way we had climbed and not this route.  The views down were nicer though than we had experienced on the other trail, so that made the knee burn worth it.

There's the trail leading to Mt. Eklutna - found it!

Also found some snow.

Looking back at that snow patch and Bear Mtn.

Getting ready to hike through that valley on the right with Mt Eklutna on the left and Bear Mtn to the right.

At the valley's edge and getting ready to drop over to head down the slope.

Down, down, down.

Only after reaching the wide 4-wheeler trail at the bottom of the mountain trail did we meet up with some other “hikers” (four youths who looked ready to party with their music blaring and disturbing our peaceful hiking experience).  It was very nice to have had the mountain, and nearly the entire trail, to ourselves, considering it was a weekend and we congratulated ourselves on an evening hike well experienced.