Bear Creek Loop - Take 2

 

Some routes are just not meant to be.  

At least, it seems that way for us with the Bear Creek Loop off of the Richardson Hwy.  

We learned about this 16-mile trip from Hilary Saucy, when she posted it to the Fairbanks Area Hiking Club Facebook page last year. Excited about the prospect of a close-to-Fairbanks alpine ridge hike we hadn’t even known about, Eric got the gpx track from Hilary. Since a couple of our out-of-state trips got canceled this summer due to COVID-19, it was a great summer to try the Bear Creek trip. Or so we thought. 

Two weeks ago, we tackled the route and got only about 2 miles along the southern ridge before almost getting blown away by 50-60 mph winds.  This weekend the weather forecast prediction was sunny and warm with low winds.  I kept checking, and the forecast stayed the same (except for the addition of a slight chance of afternoon showers).  I asked Eric if he wanted to try the loop again.  Despite a long list of chores, he agreed.  I’m such a bad influence! But when the weather is good, chores can wait.

We planned to do Bear Creek on Saturday, camp out, and then bike somewhere on Sunday. Saturday, we were out the door by 5:30 AM.  We stopped at Donnelly Creek campground and set up our tent.  After our planned long day, we wanted that chore already done.  Just before leaving, we noticed that a more isolated campsite was free and moved there, just carrying the set-up tent and sleeping bags as a unit.  Aren’t we clever?  

We were at the trailhead and hiking by 9.  The skies weren’t sunny, as forecasted, but surely the clouds would burn off.  We decided to go up the north ridge of Bear Creek this time, doing the loop clockwise.  The first section is very steep but goes through open woods with less brush than the south ridge. You get views a lot quicker, too.  

The trail goes straight uphill right from the road!

Cool looking twisted aspen trees

View down to Bear Creek

Shortly after attaining alpine, at about 1.5 miles, the route gets less steep.  The ridge is wide and open but has some longish wetter stretches. We picked our way through about a half-mile of tussocky areas but managed to keep our feet dry.  The south ridge is much drier, but we preferred the openness and views of the north ridge. The difference between the two is stark, almost like two different worlds. 

Just after breaking out from the trees.

Wide open walking but beware of all the golden areas - they are tussocky and wet

Lots of melt pools in the tussocky fields

As we hiked higher, we entered the clouds.  At first it wasn’t too bad. But eventually Eric had to check the Gaia app on his phone. Eric had started using his phone for navigation after Jay Cable posted about doing the same during the AlaskAcross. It had worked well so far this summer. Eric checked the gpx track he had gotten from Hilary.  We were a bit off route and had to climb down to the north headwaters of Bear Creek.

Foggy

Following a game trail down to get back on track

We didn’t mind losing elevation, since Hilary’s route took us through a beautiful little valley with a couple of small lakes, a great place to camp.  We had lunch and – following Hilary’s route – headed up and over a pass, crossed a stream, and climbed higher. 

Nice valley for lunch

Crossing a stream on the other side of the low pass

It's getting foggier as we climb higher

But as we climbed, the clouds got thicker.  We also started getting into snow.  Snow plus fog equaled near-whiteout conditions.  The views from up there were probably amazing, but we could see almost nothing. I finally had to take my glasses off because of the condensation.  (We did hike through a croaking covey of rock ptarmigan, seeing only their silhouettes, which was kind of cool. Listen to "Male Calls" here.)  

We kept checking our position on Gaia but were still getting off track. The phone doesn’t work quite as well as my eTrex30, which I should have brought along. (For one thing, phone touch screens don’t work well when wet with condensation or rain.) 

After about a mile of trudging through wet snow and wind, we stopped on a knoll, struggling to figure out how to get back on the right route. We could see very little around us. Then we realized we had more than mile to go at this elevation – even a bit higher – in the cold and wind. Our tracks, sinking 4-6 inches into the snow, were easily visible behind us. We agreed it was time to turn around. 

White out conditions

While disappointed, we were happy to descend out of the clouds.  Then it started to rain.  Where was our warm and sunny day?  If I had known, I would have stayed home in Fairbanks where it was sunny and 70F.  But here we were, having an adventure, so we put on our rain gear and continued.  

We went too far to the left and had to go down this steep rocky slope - luckily before the rain started

We made it down going slowly and carefully

The rain let up and we contemplated trying to hike over to the southern ridge to complete a truncated loop.  Then the clouds lowered, bringing more rain.  Nope, we wanted this adventure finished!  We headed down the northern ridge.  The rain stopped but then just as we dried out and started warming, the rain started again.  

Moment of sun beams shining down

Just before dropping off the ridge.

Glad to almost be back to the car

After 17.5 miles and 12.5 hours, we got back to our car, dripping wet.  We could see better weather to the west and north.  We got into the car and drove north, hoping the rain didn’t extend to the campground. We could eat dinner and go to bed in our already-set-up tent. Remember our cleverness? We could decide in the morning if we wanted any more adventures.  

When we got to the campground at around 10 PM, it was raining.  We realized only then that our campsite had no picnic table.  We would have to either cook on the soggy ground or on our car. I turned to Eric.

 “F*#% this, let’s go home.”  He didn’t hesitate. “Yep,” he replied.  

We threw the sleeping bags and wet tent into the car.  Was Delta Junction’s Buffalo Center Drive-In open until 11?  We could hope. 

NOT QUITE OVER

As we started driving, I said, “Thank goodness this adventure is over.  It wasn’t what I was planning for this weekend.”  Eric reminded me that we weren’t home, so the adventure wasn’t necessarily over yet.  

Moments later we saw an RV not quite pulled off on a part of the road with almost no shoulder.  We stopped and an older gentleman jumped out, saying they had run out of gas.  We offered to take him the 30 miles to Delta to get gas.  

During the drive, the man, who had lived in Anchorage for 40 years, said he and his wife were helping take their grandson to UAF. The man’s daughter and wife were driving up in a different car. However, the wife and daughter were on the Parks Highway while he had accidentally taken the Glenn. He didn’t realize his mistake until north of Glennallen.  Wow.  How does a 40-year Alaskan not know the difference between the Parks and Glenn highways?!  Eric and I couldn’t even look at each other or we would start laughing.

We knew we would drive the man back to his vehicle. While he was getting his gas, we realized we wouldn’t go by the Buffalo Center Drive-in until well after 11PM. 

“The gas station has pizza by the slice, you want one?” I asked Eric.

Eric sighed and kind of laughed. “Sure.” 

So, we had dinner. Well, that and some chips and candy. An hour after picking the man up, we headed for home, finally making it to bed at around 2 AM.

On the way, we listened to Hidden Brain podcasts to help keep us awake.  One was about happiness and how experiences (especially recounting and thinking back on more difficult experiences) give us more happiness than buying things.  We decided that we would get a lot of happiness thinking back about this weekend!

Our course overlaid on top of Hilary's course.  You can see where we got off up high.