Watching a teenager roll and tumble down Mount Baldy in early February, Pete Panarese wondered how serious the young man's injuries would be. Anticipation of deep gashes and blunt trauma gave way to another concern when he saw an object fly off the hiker's pack partway down the 200-yard slope.
It was some sort of ice ax, with a combination pick and adze on one end and a spike on the other. The tool faithfully followed its owner to the bottom of the slope, offering multiple opportunities for impalement.
After the young man stood up -- shaken but unbloodied -- and started brushing snow off his clothes, another thought occurred to Panarese: "Somebody is going to be killed or seriously hurt if nothing is done to fix this trail." It wasn't the first time the thought had crossed his mind.
Panarese is a former park ranger and superintendent of Chugach State Park. He knows the park and its trails well. As a member of the Chugach State Park Citizen Advisory Board, he's requested legislative grants to fix the Mount Baldy Trail and several others in the state park. I'm also on the advisory board, which is how I became familiar with the public need and the board's reasoning.
Loving it to death
Much of the terrain in the park's 700 square miles consists of rock, snow or ice, even in summer. However, trails snake up many of the picturesque valleys and climb the peaks closest to roads. Trails nearest the Anchorage metropolitan area and its largest satellite communities -- Eagle River and Chugiak -- receive the most use.
Many of the trails were pioneered and developed before the park was established in 1970, typically without any planning or public expense. But predictably, as recreational use increased, the wear and tear of hiking boots eroded sloping trails and turned flatter sections into muddy gashes.
The cliché applies: Alaskans are loving the park to death.
One of the most popular park destinations, and probably the most frequently climbed peak in Alaska, is Flattop. Access to the peak is facilitated by a road, a large parking area, and several trails. Locals have been making trails to the top of Flattop since at least the early 1960s. The most heavily used trail, zigzagging up the side closest to the parking area, has been rerouted and repaired several times by park staff and volunteers, but still sports some hazardous sections.
More than a million dollars have been spent on parking and other improvements to support recreational use of Flattop and surrounding areas. Relatively little of that has gone to improving trails, but it's worth noting that much less has been spent on the Mount Baldy Trail.
The Mount Baldy Trail was not designed or constructed by an expert. Like the first trails on Flattop, it was trampled, gouged, and scraped into the slope by hard-soled hiking boots and subsequently eroded by runoff. Rather than negotiating the slope in a series of switchbacks, avoiding areas where running water is likely to wash the trail away, hikers just started climbing straight up and down. They still do. Such a trail isn't sustainable. And, as Panarese is quick to point out, it isn't safe. Slips, common enough on loose gravel and scree, are impossible to avoid on days when the trail is rain-slickened or icy, unless one comes equipped with microspikes, a less-aggressive cousin of crampons.
Panarese didn't notice any kind of ice-gripping devices on the teenager who cartwheeled down the 200-yard slope -- or on his partner. Panarese has seen lots of families and teenagers climbing Mount Baldy and most are unequipped or ill-equipped for the steep, slippery trail. Ill-equipped includes hikers using lightweight grippers, the ones with stainless-steel coils or teensy-weensy carbide tacks that grip poorly on slopes and tend to slip off your boots when you need them the most. Typically, they work better for crossing a frosty parking lot in your loafers.
Fixing the Mount Baldy Trail
Nobody who owns a house expects to live there for 40 or 50 years without replacing the roof or paying for other major repairs. Roads need repaving. Things wear out. Trails are no different.
The operating budget for Chugach State Park seldom includes funds for trail maintenance. Recognizing the problem, the Chugach State Park Citizen Advisory Board considered public input and developed a short list of trails that need rerouting, repairs or designs to make them safer and more sustainable. Sustainable trails cost much less to maintain.
Rather than advocating all choices equally, the advisory board has dished out a smorgasbord of trail projects, hoping park users and legislators will find one or more they can support. Most of the trails are in Eagle River Valley, mainly because the area has many of the park's least sustainable trails amid a rapidly growing community.
The Mount Baldy Trail begins at the end of Skyline Drive and ascends straight to the summit. Like other so-called social trails, it has been worn into the slope by hikers with no thought towards sustainability. As a section becomes difficult to traverse, people pioneer another trail across the adjacent tundra and rocks, braiding the trail and increasing overall erosion.
Panarese estimates 25,000 people climbed Mount Baldy last year, and the number of visitors is growing. Because the peak is easily accessible, relatively low, and close to town, the trail attracts families with young children or groups of teens. But the existing trail is no walk in the park. In the past two decades, unchecked erosion from foot traffic and runoff has increased the hazards. Designing and constructing a safe, sustainable trail up Mount Baldy would cost about $78,000.
Other proposals
Another project in the valley would fix the far end of the South Fork Valley Trail, which begins near Mile 7.5 Hiland Road. An estimated 21,000 people used the trail last year. The first three miles, up to the bridge, were realigned and rehabilitated several years ago. At that time, trail crews brushed out a new trail alignment that would avoid wet and eroded segments upstream from the bridge. Constructing the trail would cost $40,000.
Other proposed projects include rehabilitating the Mile High and Crow Pass trails and designing a trail into Ram Valley, north of the Eagle River Nature Center. A steep and unsustainable social trail into Ram Valley crosses private property and no parking is provided. An alternate route would cost about $18,000 to design.
The only project proposed outside of Eagle River Valley would design and construct a sustainable trail that climbs 2,000 feet up the south side of Flattop from the east end of Canyon Road. The trailhead also serves the Rabbit Lake Trail, and Panarese estimates more than 30,700 visitors used the trailhead in 2013. The park plans to improve parking at the trailhead this summer. Accommodating more trail users will exacerbate wear and tear on existing trails up the south side of Flattop. A sustainable trail up the south side of Flattop would cost an estimated $90,400.
Until now, few of the advisory board's ideas have garnered legislative support. Some legislators have other park-related priorities, such as building a long-needed maintenance building for the Eagle River Nature Center. Others just haven't been willing to sponsor funding for park trails in their area. There are too many competing interests.
The only trail proposal that seems to have a hope of being funded this year is the Mount Baldy Trail. Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, and Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, have submitted the Mount Baldy rehabilitation project in their capital request to the co-chairs of the House and Senate Finance Committee. They might appreciate some encouragement from constituents.
Baldy could be Eagle Rivers Flattop
Here's something you might mention to other Eagle River legislators. It's not just about safety. Building a sustainable trail on Mount Baldy will reduce the perennial demand for trail repairs and encourage more visits to Eagle River.
It is also a matter of fairness. Anchorage has Flattop. Palmer and Wasilla have Bodenburg Butte. Both destinations have reasonably sustainable trails, although work still needs to be done. Mount Baldy could be Eagle River's Flattop.
In 1970, Anchorage had 48,000 residents. Since then trails leading up Flattop were relocated and improved as use increased. Eagle River and Chugiak have about 35,000 residents, but the Mount Baldy Trail is still dangerous and unsustainable.
Securing a grant for fixing the Mount Baldy trail would be a nice parting gift for Dyson, who is retiring this year after 18 years representing Eagle River in Juneau. I know we're supposed to be the ones to give him the retirement gift, but he claims his memory is getting worse, so maybe he won't notice.
Rick Sinnott is a former Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist. The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch. Contact him at rickjsinnott@gmail.com.