Alaska Day 8 - Ptarmigan Creek Trail

It is overcast and drizzling as I type this this morning. But Dark Skies suggests that the drizzle will ebb and vanish by early afternoon so we are going to wait it out before doing a hike. Who knows, maybe the sun will make an appearance (doubt it).

Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin into the future....

We first drove into Seward to take another quick look around. It was raining a bit more heavily. It seems Seward, which is 36 miles south of where we are staying, has worse weather, at least lately, than we do. When we retraced our drive back to the Ptarmigan Lake Campground (though nowhere near the lake) the rain had ceased though it was just as cloudy. At 12:50 we hoisted our packs and set out under cloudy skies with an air temperature around 61F. Perhaps our best weather yet.The Ptarmigan Creek Trail runs along the creek of the same name towards Ptarmigan Lake about 3.5 distant. It looked nice a nice easy trek through a forest with a creek to keep us company.

In short order the creek, which we had heard first, came into view. Flowing quickly the creek waters area light gray perhaps with a tinge of very pale blue thrown in. I don’t know what causes the color but I suspect glacial sediments, glacial flour, could well play a role. It is striking in its way. As we walked along the creek along the excellently made trail we enjoyed the forest and host of plants that filled our views. Little did we know that impression would soon change.

Ptarmigan Creek is a fast flowing stream. I am not sure what gives the water this light grayish with hints of blue color but suspect the stream may be glacially fed so glacial flour, sediments from the glacier, plays a role.

--July 16 2019 at 12:58. Seward, AK, United States

This is perhaps the best view of the valley that Ptarmigan Creek is flowing through. At least it is pretty much the best we get.

--July 16 2019 at 13:25. Seward, AK, United States

After about 1.25 miles the trail ascends away from the creek. Up to this point plants had encroached on the trail now and then. That quickly changed as we moved away from the creek. Fire weed, cow parsnip, devils club (maybe), ferns, and all sorts of other plants were over growing the trail. Frequently you could not see the trail through the plants you were pushing away from yourself as you bashed your way down the trail. Of course being wet - it had rained earlier and sprinkled still now and then - the plants transferred copious water from their leaves to us. It isn’t exactly hard but it is frustrating and tiresome walking.

Somewhere along the way we were supposed to get a good view of the valley. We saw something that could have been the valley, but there was only a hint of it because numerous trees (I suspect many western red cedars) were a bit lower than they should otherwise have been. The mountains on the far side were plainly visible. At about the 2.5 mile mark, annoyance levels with the heavy chest-high plant growth along the trail (more for Mom and Dad than I) reached the point where it was decided enough was enough. We were probably less than a mile from Ptarmigan Lake but the excessive overgrowth showed no signs of letting up. We decided to turn around and forgo seeing the lake.

The trail is in that mass of greenery somewhere. For the past 1.25 miles or so the amount of foliage we have had to push through has been increasing. Along with that increase has come an increase in frustration. At about 2.4 miles, a bit beyond where a good vista should be but a bit less than a mile from Ptarmigan Lake, we decided enough was enough. We would turn back at this point.

--July 16 2019 at 14:45. Seward, AK, United States

Heading back. We never saw much of the valley below but as you can see the mountains are visible today even with the whisks of clouds hanging on their flanks.

--July 16 2019 at 14:47. Seward, AK, United States

Now and then the trail would open up and be free of invading plants. It is a lovely trail when it opens up like this.

--July 16 2019 at 15:10. Seward, AK, United States

The journey back seemed a bit less annoying and I thought I was getting less wet. The latter might have actually been true. I think we took about as long to return as we did to venture out.

At A Glance

• Total Distance: About 4.8 miles on an out-and-back trail
• total Ascent and Descent: About 400 feet up and down. Most of the ascent is on the way out and down over about 1.25 miles.
• Time Taken: We were out for 3.5 hours and took just over a half hour in breaks.
• Weather: Overcast with some sprinkles. When we started it was about 61F and rose to 64 by the time we finished.