Hope, the Resurrection Trail and Seward
May 20th, 2008
The old mining town of Hope on the Turnigan Arm is no longer a town. It is, however, an interesting collection of classic Alaskan “compounds” tucked in the trees and surrounded by junk. It’s also has a nice campground. We drove past Hope up to the Resurrection trailhead and camped beside the road. We picked this trail 
because not only had we heard good things, but it runs up the valley at low elevation and we hoped it would be mostly free of snow. The whole “early season” thing is a mixed blessing right now. There’s no crowds, but some things just aren’t thawed out yet. We took the bikes off the back, did some brake and tire maintenance, and rolled out. The trail was very beautiful rolling single-track. Even though I was so sore from the hike the day before I was limping I was very excited to do some riding on the spiffy new bike I bought last summer and it actually felt pretty good to pedal. About 7 miles in however, we hit the snow and it was over. It was a short but fun ride.
Next we headed to the small port of Seward. Seward is a beautiful little town surrounded by the Chugach and is the main jumping-off point for people checking out the Kenai Fjords and is a main stop for cruise ships. We’re hoping to get out on the water in either Valdez or Haines so we headed to the mountains instead. 
Our target was Exit Glacier, a small glacier that comes down off of the Harding Icefield which the Kenai park provides a road and visitor center for. Our plan was to run up there and check it out in the evening before camp. Now, winter on the Kenai was an especially long and snowy this year, as we’ve seen on the trails, but we were still a little surprised to find that the road to Exit wasn’t plowed yet! They had plowed about 5 of the 7 mile road, abruptly stopping without a sign or anything. With the road ending in snow and a towering awesome glacier above, leading to an icecap… there was only one thing to do: ski tour!
Yo Evan! Looks like the trip is pretty sick and you are having a blast up in the north country. Hit me up when you get back.