Outdoors/Adventure

Summit splendor: Blueberries on Mount Baldy in Eagle River

Reaching the top of Mount Baldy on a Sunday afternoon, a group of children posed for a photo alongside the American flag posted there and then promptly asked a chaperoning mother/iPhone photographer what was on the menu.

Turns out orange slices, cookies or snack bars -- tasty treats though they are -- aren't absolutely necessary for a snack on the roughly 3,280-foot summit.

Nature provides, and its candy was just seconds away.

Just past Mount Baldy's small, flat summit overlooking the community of Eagle River, and to the left of the ridge trail that continues toward Black Tail Rocks and Round Top, the tundra was dotted with a bounty of blueberries.

Granted, a return visit last week discovered some of the blueberries weren't yet fully ripe, but they were on the cusp of making for plentiful picking. And that was good enough to furnish a trail treat before the descent.

Those abundant blueberries are just one of the splendors of Mount Baldy, an imminently accessible and moderate trip in Chugach State Park that affords hikers, provided the weather cooperates, gorgeous vistas of the Eagle River community, Knik Arm, Mount Susitna and several peaks in the Chugach Mountains.

Could it be easier? The Baldy trailhead at the end of Skyline Drive is just minutes from downtown Eagle River, and a half-hour, tops, from Anchorage. Parking at the trailhead is ample, and free. At just a mile or so to the summit, with an elevation gain of perhaps 1,400 feet, the hike is manageable and time-efficient.

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That makes it a terrific after-work jaunt, or a quick journey that doesn't kill an entire morning or afternoon.

Plus, trail improvements by a Student Conservation Association crew in the summer of 2014 have transformed the hike into a safer journey and made the trail more sustainable.

Student Conservation workers spent six weeks widening the lower trail, cutting in switchbacks that make for better footing and less-taxing hiking, according to Eileen Kazura, the organization's Alaska program manager.

The city's Youth Employment and Parks Program did more than three weeks of additional work on the trail, Kazura said. All that made what was once primarily a straight-up-the-mountain hike into a more indirect route on the lower half of the mountain.

"It still works for runners,'' Kazura said. "And now family groups can enjoy it too.''

Badly is one of the most-traveled hikes in the Eagle River area, likely second only to the South Fork trailhead off Hiland Road.

The Baldy trailhead features two options.

The trail on the right, past the blue gate, is the traditional up-trail, and the steeper of the two options. The trail on the left, past the red gate, is a less direct route to the summit, but also presents a more gradual, forgiving climb.

Your best bet: Make it a loop hike by taking the traditional trail up Baldy and descending on the more moderate slopes of the lower trail.

The traditional up-trail until 2014 basically required a fairly straight, though steep, climb all the way to the summit. In wet conditions, getting purchase on the climb could be difficult and descending that trail in less-than-ideal conditions could be particularly tricky.

But the 2014 improvements included a series of switchbacks cut into a new trail, which reduced the steepness of the climb on the lower half of the trail and also reduced erosion.

There are still short, steep sections on the up-trail, pitched enough to make for slow going. Yet the trail gets wider on the upper half of the climb, so hikers can improvise their own switchbacks of sorts, without leaving the trail and trampling tundra. Hiking laterally, and yet still vertically, in short sections – think of a diagonal route on a 45-degree angle -- makes for a longer hike while reducing the steepness of the climb.

In any event, a steady, non-stop hike on the ascent of Baldy will get a hiker to the summit flag in perhaps 45 minutes or less. Once on top, check out the names and messages written and scratched on the piece of lumber, anchored by a circle of big rocks, from which the flag flies.

On a clear summit day, look down the valley to the left, just past the flag and the down-trail, and the ridge route to it will be obvious. That trail furnishes a safe descent and, for ambitious types, is good for downhill running.

Before you head down this time of year, though, treat yourself. Just off the ridge trail, on the left, blueberries await.

Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr

IF YOU GO

Length: About 1 mile.

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Elevation gain: About 1,400 feet.

Parking fee: None.

Directions: From Anchorage, take Glenn Highway north. Exit at Hiland Road/Eagle River Loop Road and follow Eagle River Loop Road about 3.3 miles to Skyline Road on your right. Take Skyline 2.7 miles to end of road and trailhead.

Doyle Woody

Doyle Woody covered hockey and other sports for the Anchorage Daily News for 34 years.

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