The Ghost of Lane Hut

Hey Tribe,

Archangel Valley has long been a favorite of mine.  It is absolutely heavenly.   The more commonly traversed and most popular trail branching out from this breathtaking valley is the Reed Lakes trail.  However, I want to share another trail with you, one that has become a bit of a misnomer these days: Lane Hut trail.

Like many trails in the area, there is an abandoned mine along the way and scraps of metal and other equipment debris is scattered about the trail; at the end, there once was a hut – Lane Hut.  The one-room building served as a shelter from the oft-ill weather, but also served as a weekend party house.  The one time I was there, in the deep of winter, the door wouldn’t shut, and there was graffiti covering every surface of the interior.  It did have a drawer full of silverware, oddly enough, which was a combination of relief (I’d forgotten my spoon back in the truck for my clam chowder lunch) and horror (I might catch some unknown disease from the spoon’s germs).  Alas, the park service, in effort to avoid some liability no doubt, set the doomed hut to flames a few years ago and Lane Hut is no more.

However, the 4 mile round trip Lane Hut trail perseveres and TheNurse, Kona, Fly, and I paid the area a visit Sunday afternoon.  The road leading to the unmarked trailhead is not an easy one: once past the overflowing Reed Lakes trail parking lot, the unpaved road is filled with potholes, ruts, rocks, and all manner of road hazards.  Vehicles are parked randomly along the road, where weary or cautious drivers decide they’ve driven far enough and simply stop where they are.  After skillful navigation, we arrived at the trailhead and made our way to the mining remains.  Twisted cart tracks laced the ground in front of the caved in mineshaft and rusty pipes gushed water from their uncapped mouths.  The area felt as if the miners simply got up and left one day and never returned.

After exploring the area briefly and waving to the climbers scaling the massive rock face above the mine, we backtracked to the trail that would lead us deeper into the valley and to the site of the ghost hut.

The trail was an easy one to follow and gradual in its climb, like a long ramp.  Several small streams flowed across the trail and their happy trickling sounds added to our mountain experience.  Termination dust covered the tall jagged rocky peaks that surround the valley, but winter had yet to take hold and we grew hot with effort before too long. 

At the top of the ramp was a wonderful lake.  We stopped to remove jackets and gloves and Fly and Kona ripped around the lake like dogs possessed.  Being a water lover, Kona was quick to exchange running for swimming, and the girls enjoyed a refreshing paddle before we continued up the trail.

Large boulders were strewn about the upper reaches of the valley – evidence of the Earth’s turmoil, as well as the forceful power of winter avalanches that frequent the area.

There were also pools and streams: crystal clear, beautiful, sandy pools and streams.  They always make me gasp when I see them, because this Alaskan girl is so used to seeing glacier silt waters that are murky and muddy.  Mountain streams are impossibly wonderful, in my opinion.

But I digress.  We followed the stream to the end of the valley where a waterfall flowed in the middle of the bowl shaped dead end valley.  Lane Hut once stood here.  Now the area is flat with only the tall spires of the peaks above for visual interest and relief from the moss and low lying alpine plants.

 

After some obligatory waterfall photos, we knew it was time to make our way out of the valley before evening arrived, since the summer daylight hours are retreating as the snow creeps further down the mountains.

So, with a backward glance at the hutless bowl, we descended out of the mountains – our conversation pondering what the valley would look like in 50 years or so: when the mine and the hut would be even further distant memories and time and weather had created more boulders and changed other boulders into rocks.  Would there even be a Lane Hut trail?