Day 30 of Lupe’s 2018 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon, Northwest Territories & Alaska!
7:23 AM, Bottenintnin Lake – Although the sky was blue, mist hung over Bottenintnin Lake. Two white swans sailed among lily pads far from shore. Lupe sniffed eagerly through the forest nearby, but wasn’t having any luck. Still early. Apparently the squirrels were still in bed. SPHP worked on catching up the trip journal, but also made several forays into the forest with Loop. The were-puppy put in an appearance, and as the morning wore on, the forest rang with the shrill happy barking of the American Dingo. The chattering squirrels had finally gotten up!
Lupe and SPHP had discovered this quiet spot along Bottenintnin Lake after Lupe’s adventure to the Skilak Lookout last year. On a sunny day like this one, Looper was going to find a mountain to climb somewhere before it was over, but Bottenintnin Lake had become a favorite place. SPHP was glad the Carolina Dog got to spend a big part of the morning here, but after a few happy hours, it was time to move on. (10:38 AM)
By 2:00 PM, Lupe was out of the Kenai Peninsula back in Anchorage. The only stop along the way had been for a look at Hope Point (3,709 ft.) across the Turnagain Arm, which Loop had climbed 6 days ago in rain and fog. Today Hope Point basked in sunshine beneath a cloudless sky.
Nearly mid-afternoon. If Lupe was actually going to climb a mountain today, she had better get on with it. Fortunately, Chugach State Park had plenty of great peaks to choose from within striking distance. Couldn’t take on anything too long or difficult, though, with the day more than half shot already.
3:15 PM, Mount Baldy & Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks trailhead – At the end of Golden Eagle Drive in Eagle River, Looper already had an impressive view of the Knik Arm to the NW. This was the trailhead for Baldy, Mount Baldy, Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks, and points beyond. SPHP was shocked to find cars and trucks lining both sides of the road. 50 or 60 vehicles up here, easy! More coming and going all the time. People and dogs all over the place. SPHP had a hard time finding a place to park the G6.
Before hitting the trail, Lupe paused for a look at the grand view of the Knik arm from right here at the trailhead. Far beyond the Knik Arm lay Mount Susitna (4,396 ft.), the Sleeping Lady.
No posted information was evident at the trailhead. Lupe had a choice of taking a gravel road that disappeared up to the R, or a level path on what appeared to be an abandoned road beyond a large red metal gate. Everyone else seemed to be taking the easy way on the path, so Looper did, too.
The busy gravel path was lined with tall bushes, and remained level or at a slight incline all the way to a small pond where the trail divided. Shortly before getting to this pond, SPHP spoke with a man who advised staying to the R here, going past an old wooden building, and taking a steeper route. This would avoid a long muddy stretch of trail coming down from Baldy (3,038 ft.).
The man had a 3 year old girl with him who had made it up Baldy under her own power, a gain of over 1,200 feet of elevation! They had climbed Baldy by a different steep route, which started with the gravel road that went off to the R back at the trailhead, and approaches Baldy from the W. They had just come down by a much easier route, which leaves Baldy heading E, and then makes a big sweeping curve around to the N before arriving at the pond.
Apparently the way the man and the 3 year old had gone was a popular loop route, but the big curve providing a much gentler rate of descent that they had just slogged down had been a sea of mud.
Sounded like good advice. SPHP thanked the man, congratulated the plucky 3 year old on her successful ascent of Baldy, and Lupe had gone on to the pond. After helping herself to a drink, the Carolina Dog took the recommended trail to the R, which soon did go past an old wooden building.
Once past the wooden building, the trail turned toward Baldy (3,038 ft.) and started climbing. Before long, Lupe reached a T intersection where she went L. She hadn’t gone far, when a couple coming down said that this way was very muddy higher up, and they didn’t recommend it.
So Lupe went back to the T to try the trail to the R. This branch soon started directly up Baldy’s steep N slope. The trail deteriorated rapidly as Lupe climbed above several people picking berries.
The side of the mountain became very steep. The trail turned into such a faint path, that it was on the verge of disappearing entirely. Loopster gained hundreds of feet of elevation without any discernable change in the situation. Quite plainly, SPHP must not have understood the advice others had provided. This route couldn’t possibly be what they had been recommending. However, if a 3 year old girl could make it up Baldy on a steep route, so could Lupe and SPHP.
Resigned to climbing straight up the N slope clear to the summit, more than halfway up Baldy, SPHP was surprised to see Lupe standing next to a much better trail. This trail was traversing Baldy’s N slope, gradually gaining elevation as it went E. Little pink flags marked the route.
What a gift! An easier way up. Loopster followed the trail E. She could already see her primary peakbagging goal for the day, the 3-pronged summit of Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks (4,449 ft.), in the distance.
Following the curvature of the mountain, the trail turned SE. This trail was brand new! So new, that it was still under construction. Loopster started seeing chunks of tundra that had been freshly torn up and set aside. After going only a short distance, she reached an abrupt end. Pink flags continued along the slope marking the route the unfinished trail would eventually take.
So that was that! Lupe resumed going straight up the slope. Hundreds of feet higher, the terrain finally started leveling out. Lupe eventually arrived at the W end of Baldy’s summit ridge. From here she could see the town of Eagle River, and the Knik Arm all the way to Cook Inlet.
Baldy (3,038 ft.) was a super popular destination! A dozen people were milling around enjoying the views. A rock formation where the Dowling survey benchmark was shown on the topo map was clearly the highest spot at the W end. So many people were coming and going, that Lupe had to wait in line for a turn on top.
Everyone hung around the scenic W high point, as if it were Baldy’s true summit. However, a considerably smaller rock formation toward the E end of the summit ridge appeared to be slightly higher. No one else was paying any attention to this less notable high point, so Lupe didn’t have to wait for a turn here.
Having visited both the E and W high points, the American Dingo could now claim a successful ascent of Baldy. However, according to the topo map, she hadn’t made it to the summit of Mount Baldy (3,281 ft.) yet, a rounded hill almost a mile farther ESE toward Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks along a vast ridge.
The distinction between Baldy and Mount Baldy is a bit confusing. SPHP would have bet money that all these people up at Baldy would have said they’d climbed Mount Baldy. Hardly mattered. Mount Baldy is almost 250 feet higher, but since Baldy is at the far W end of the same giant ridge, the views were almost certainly better from here. No real reason to go to Mount Baldy unless one is continuing on to Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks, which Lupe was.
From the E end of Baldy, Lupe followed a trail ENE losing a fair amount of elevation. This was the popular route down Baldy that eventually curves N through the muddy stretch leading to the pond. However, as soon as she could, Loop left the trail and headed for Mount Baldy.
Since it was already getting late to consider climbing Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks, no one else was going this way. Lupe had the whole giant ridge to explore pretty much to herself.
After briefly visiting High Point 3058 and Mount Baldy (3,281 ft.), Lupe headed for Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks. A dirt road took her to the base of the long slope leading up to the jagged rock formations along the top of a rugged ridgeline. A trail that sometimes climbed aggressively, and other times switchbacked higher, provided a route up.
The SE side of the ridgeline that forms Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks is cliffy, so all the unmaintained trails and routes Lupe followed always stayed on the NW side of the mountain. The ridgeline itself was too rugged for any trail to stay right on top. Once Loop got up to the rock formations, she sometimes had views to the SE through gaps between them.
Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks (4,449 ft.) has three distinct high points. Having long had a clear view of the mountain from a distance, it was plainly evident that the first one Loop was coming to was definitely the lowest. The trail passed fairly close to the first high point, but Lupe did not leave the trail to visit it. With the sun starting to sink noticeably, it was more important to push on to the true summit.
Despite having had a great look at the mountain, which of the other two high points was the true summit was not entirely clear. SPHP was of the opinion that the most distant high point was slightly higher, but that could have been an illusion.
So far everything had been easy, but as Lupe approached the middle high point, that began to change. The trail she was following was braided, and amounted to little more than a goat path. The NW side of the mountain became increasingly steep. Switching over to the SE side where there were now gigantic cliffs was out of the question.
Lupe got very high, quite close to the middle high point, but she skipped this one, too, although reaching it didn’t appear difficult. The situation deteriorated as the Carolina Dog tried to continue on to the last high point. The goat paths along the steep slopes were very narrow, but the worst part was trying to get beyond long spines of rock that went straight down the mountainside. Many others had done it, and Lupe could, too, but the rocks were worn so smooth that SPHP didn’t trust the hand or foot holds.
The problem was ultimately solved by making a considerable down climb to reach a more favorable spot to get around the biggest of the spines. Once that had been accomplished, Lupe climbed back up to the ridgeline. She reached a good-sized area of fairly level ground at a big gap in the rock formations that provided grand views to the SE.
The rest was easy again. From the gap, Lupe followed a path across a slope that wasn’t nearly as steep as those near the middle high point. The path led up to a ridge running NW from the third high point. A modest cairn sat right where Loop gained the NW ridge. This ridge was plenty wide, and provided an excellent direct ramp to the summit.
A small conical hill, the uppermost portion of which was nearly all rock, capped the third high point at the NE end of Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks. A single tall boulder was the absolute high point. Lupe leapt up on top. She had done it! The American Dingo stood astride the true summit of Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks (4,449 ft.)!
From the third high point, the middle high point did look slightly lower. Admittedly, it was a close call. SPHP wasn’t 100% certain Lupe was at the true summit of Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks, but almost.
The views, of course, were spectacular! Lupe could see all the way down the Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks ridgeline to the middle and first high points, and clear on down to Baldy, which looked tiny from here. To the W was the Knik Arm. To the SW, Anchorage, Cook Inlet, and very far away, Redoubt Volcano (10,197 ft.) and Iliamna Volcano (10,016 ft.).
In other directions, Lupe gazed upon a sea of peaks in Chugach State Park. The peaks nearby looked barren and dry. Farther away, especially toward the SE, were considerably higher mountains, some with snow or glaciers on them. If Lupe had gotten an early start here this morning, it looked like it would have been fun and relatively easy to continue along the ridgelines to either Roundtop (4,787 ft.) or Vista Peak (4,987 ft.).
Unfortunately, Lupe didn’t have time to explore farther along the ridges connecting to other mountains. She had a gorgeous evening, but it was evening. The sun was getting close to the horizon. Loop couldn’t even stay at the summit of Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks for too long before she would have to start back.
On the return, Lupe did not down climb to get past the rock spines near the middle high point. She stayed higher this time, and managed to find a slightly less daunting and troublesome way through. Loop again found herself near the top of the middle high point. This time, since SPHP couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility that the middle high point was actually the true summit, she did climb to the top.
In truth, from here, the middle summit did look just as high as the third high point had been.
The top of Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks’ middle summit was a very small area. With the sun only half an hour from setting now, Lupe could only stay a few minutes. SPHP congratulated her on making it to the top of both of Blacktail Ptarmigan Rock’s highest points. The Carolina Dog seemed quite pleased by the praise and attention.
The sun set before Lupe made it down off Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks, but for a while she enjoyed the long twilight of the far N. Although she again passed close to Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks’ first high point, Loop never did go to the top. She did revisit Mount Baldy at dusk. By the time she made it to Baldy, the city lights of Eagle River and Anchorage glittered beneath the deep black of space.
The descent from Baldy took a long time. With only the aide of a weak flashlight, SPHP slowly, uncertainly, tried to navigate the very steep slope that the trail from the W came up. Some places the trail was so braided, it seemed like the whole mountain was trail. Other spots, Lupe had to help search for signs of any trail at all. Sometimes the flashlight revealed only a dark abyss ahead, mandating a course correction.
After losing what seemed like a lot of elevation, Lupe finally came to some switchbacks on a fairly good path. It felt like the worst must be over. However, the switchbacks suddenly ended at a drop off. After a tricky down climb, Lupe found the switchbacks again, but finding and losing the switchbacks recurred with distressing frequency.
Near the end, the slope diminished. The trail became more consistent. Ahead was a tower with red lights that SPHP suspected the gravel road from the trailhead must go to. This proved to be the case. Lupe came to the road before getting to the tower, and was soon back at the trailhead.
Middle of the night. Time for a quick bite, and a long snooze. Perhaps to dream again of those glorious fleeting moments in the blue Alaskan sky atop the soaring pinnacle of Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks. (12:10 AM, 41°F)
Trailhead Directions: From the curve at the NE corner of Eagle River Loop Road in the town of Eagle River, take Skyline Road (a R turn, if heading N). Skyline Road winds with many curves up through a residential neighborhood eventually leading into or becoming Golden Eagle Drive. The trailhead is at the end of Golden Eagle Drive.
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