This weekend, a few friends and I paid our post-Thanksgiving exercise dues on a great overnight trip to a public use cabin on the shores of Eklutna Lake, about an hour from Anchorage. Before trekking out to the cabin, Rebecca, Katy and I did a side-hike up the Twin Peaks trail—and I do mean UP. It was about 2.5 miles straight uphill with beautiful views near the top of Eklutna Lake.
Eklutna Lake
The trail was very snowy and picturesque and in great packed condition most of the way up—snowshoes not necessary.
Twin Peaks hike scenery
No animal encounters this time (unlike a quick hike we took just a few days after I arrived, wherein we had to jump behind some trees when this moose started running down the trail towards us) but we did see some big wolf-like prints and lots of bunny tracks. I’m sure the bunny and the wolf were just out for a nice jog together.
After hiking back down the mountain, we picked up our stuff at the car and hiked 3 miles out to the Yuditna public use cabin where our friends were waiting for us with the fire roaring and the whiskey pouring. It was just about dark when we arrived—around 4:30 pm—so we had many hours to eat, drink, and play cards. We thought it would be a good idea to put one extra log on the fire before bed to keep us warm—which turned out to cause the temperature in there to increase to an estimated 95 degrees. At least. Seriously. It was that hot. Here’s the cabin by the light of day, with a little dusting of falling snow:
Yuditna cabin
And the view from our front porch:
Turquoise lake
