bear valley trailhead anchorage

Its southeast ridge steps steeply into Turnagain Arm, its north ridge reaches toward the south face of Flattop, and its eastern ridge winds all the way to Rabbit Lake below the Suicide Peaks. It all seemed like so much work. It is steep; however, wherever you stop, you will have a gorgeous view of Anchorage and Chugach mountains, from Flattop far on the left to peak 2, 3, and Ptarmigan Peak. But there it is at #4at least, if youre going by land area alone. Weddleton added, that traffics coming anyway. Free personal GPSdriven travel guide to Alaska. Never would have guessed, I really appreciate Seans well-thought-out and expressed comments, and cant disagree with anything he said. See them by hiking up 1,500feet to the 4,050-foot summit. want help with those problems (which exist everywhere in every city)? Unfortunately, the most difficult thing about this route is parking: due to questionable city planning the cul-de-sac trailhead only has spots for five cars, parked tightly between two signs. A hiker and his small dog arrived at the entrance to the Stewart Trail to find a man busily expanding an existing vehicle gate with rebar and barbed wire. Anchorage is the best spot to start a visit to Alaska's iconic bear viewing locations. Hardly a month after purchasing the land, Cavanaugh began posting his own NO TRESPASSING signs. Your must-have activity guide + map while in Alaska. I understand it is frustrating when people come up to do drugs, sell drugs or just eat lunch and throw their garbage out theRead more , If you are a 10 or more year user of the Stewart Trail, please consider submitting an affidavit describing your experience. Yes, this kind of thing would not happen in most places in Europe where Freedom to Roam or everymans right is fairly prevalent. From downtown, take New Seward Highway toward Seward. This was the first time hiked this trail in late summer. So, I decided to go back this weekend, with the attention of either turning into Ship Lake or the valley of tarns that lies below Bird Ridge. Big ship or small ship? Citing precedent and practicality, Fire Marshall Cleo Hill and representatives from the Traffic Department refused to approve the gating of a public road. ), Popular Alaska Itineraries Using In-State Airlines, Anchorage to Denali National Park Driving Map, Denali National Park Campgrounds & RV Parks. Christopher Matthew Cavanaugh confronts Alaska Landmine Editor-in-Chief Jeff Landfield, Anchorage journalist Craig Medred, and the author on the Stewart Homestead Trail, June 2019. The reason that the MOA claims to lack authority over the Stewart Trail area is that much of the trail lies outside of the MOAs parks service area. When the boundaries for the parks service area were drawn, a diagonal line across the Chugach foothills excluded portions of Bear Valley, Stuckagain Heights, Potter Valley, and other portions of the upper Hillsideincluding much of the Stewart Trail. It can be overgrown so stay bear aware in this area. This, they explained, was why the tract had sat on the market for so long and at such a seemingly low price. Free personal GPSdriven travel guide to Alaska. 6:30 PM-8:00 PM. to many more hikes, and keeping our trailheads open andRead more . This trailhead lacks the signage and trappings of most Chugach State Park trailheads (including the parking fee! Ive got this now and all of a sudden nobody can use or appreciate it because its mine all mine. Its really sad. Prepare to walk a ways longer than expected due to the location of overflow parking. Those who happen to live outside the parks service area, including some of Anchorages wealthiest residents, enjoy full access to Anchorage parks but pay no taxes to support them. Anchorage residents have thousands of photos of themselves, their friends, and their children using the Stewart Trail in all seasons. A public prescriptive easement exists when there has been continuous, hostile, and open use by the public over a 10-year period.. Overwhelmed by choices? The road changes name to Black Bear Dr and sharp left to Honey Bear Ln. After quarter miles of going through low brushes, you will be out of tree zone. Karma, dudesheaded your way. Site by. This past summer and after working with traffic enforcement on improvements, we had one of the best summers yet for co-existence between residents and hikers. It is unclear what answer Kelly received, but documents suggest that Traffic had their own internal answer: directions from above had come down after all. because upper hillside voters ACTIVELY VOTED to keep it that way. His points are well taken and he is just the kind of neighbor one wants to have living adjacent to a park access point. Not long after, the Stewarts moved to Anchorage and opened Stewarts Photo on 4th Avenue. This ridge is well-traveled and there is an informal trail running along it most of the way. The North Ridge Route, starting at the Honey Bear Trailhead at the top of Honey Bear Lane in Bear Valley, is a fun Class 2 ridge walk with 2,300 feet of elevation gain and excellent views over Anchorage and across the inlet. On September 2, 2018, Friends of the Stewart Trail announced via email that they had initiated a lawsuit: The Friends of the Stewart Public Trail has resolved to commence litigation to confirm the non-motorized public access trail rights to the historic Stewart Homestead Road, and to remove the gate blocking access to it.. I knew his parents Dan and Helen starting in 1982 when we bought a lot in Mountainside Village and built a house. Difficulty: Moderate Distance: 2 miles. John Weddleton speaks at an Anchorage Assembly Meeting, January 29, 2019. To pass, the ordinance needed to be approved at the ballot box by two groups: members of the current service area, and Hillside voters currently living outside of the service area. Hikers determined to follow the crest of the ridge may find some adventurous Class 3 scrambling, but steeper sections are generally easily avoided by moving onto the north side of the ridgeline. Looking down the east ridge of McHugh Peak toward Rabbit Lake and the Suicide Peaks. I grew up in Alaska and currently live in Anchorage. In a January 30, 2018 email obtained by the Landmine, Pugh warns a group of local residents about the consequences of re-opening the trail: If you are like me and you want Potter Valley to remain a relatively quiet neighborhood environment unencumbered from being a Public Access Point like Flattop then we should work together. eric, please re-read the quotes from weddleton, your assembly person. Flattop is arguably Alaskas most popular (and therefore, most crowded) mountain; Rendezvous is far less crowded and offers better views from the summit. At the ridgeline, views open up north toward downtown Anchorage. It is best as an out and back hike, however you could use it to do a few loops: 1) go to the "peak" and head over ridge to connect to McHugh-Rabbit Lake trail and end up at McHugh Rec Area along Turnagain Arm, or 2) go down to Rabbit Lake from the end of the ridge, return on the Canyon Road-Rabbit Lake trail and eventually end up at Canyon Road, but neither are obvious and both require some wayfinding. Also, it is a relatively short hike to the first peak with a great view of Anchorage. It has highlighted how decades of compounding errors in city planning have created so much dysfunction that one rogue landowner has been able to seizeand, for years, successfully holdcontrol over more land than any other individual in the Municipality of Anchorage. Distance: 0.9 miles, Elevation gain 1000 ft. This article is part of the Alaska Landmine's coverage of the Stewart Trail access controversy. The Rabbit Lake trail uncoils a little into multiple paths, though it remains easy to follow. Until access issues there are resolved, use the signed public trailheads to avoid problems. By this point, many influential people in the broader Anchorage community had become aware of the bizarre drama unfolding on the Stewart Trail and at the RCCC. Over the subsequent years, Pughs gate has withstood repeated demands from the Municipality to tear it down, the ire and defiance of his neighbors, and the early stages of a lawsuit. The Bear Valley area is a hiker's paradise! Illegal and/or disgusting behavior is always a potential problem where roads dead end at a park boundary. People darted in and out of small huddled groups, yelled, and talked over a grimacing Pugh. The most intimate multi-day cruise option. Cavanaugh seems to have become particularly frustrated by the Anchorage Police Departments refusal to cite Stewart Trail users for trespass, and started taking matters into his own hands. Yes historically it is an access point, but when many of these houses were built it was a barely used one. One group of hikers began referring to the trailhead as Grumpy Bear.. In early 2018 Pugh became Chair of the RCCC, and Cavanaugh became Vice-Chair. Visit September to April to see the Northern Lights. On August 18, 2018 he posted a photo of himself on the Stewart Trail on Instagram wearing a chest-mounted Glock 20. Traveling safely in the outdoors requires experience with routefinding, gear selection, emergency response, weather assessment, etc. As Falsey explains in his March 2, 2016 message to Pugh: The publics consistent use of this trail for the past several decades has created a public use easement across the property. There is ample parking here year round for $5 (or an annual State Parks Pass), and the trailhead is located at the end of the uppermost parking lot. With more people you may unfortunately get some trash, but hopefully less needles, condoms etc. If he had found some clever way to develop the tract that other Anchorage real estate purchasers had missed, the Stewart Trail would almost certainly have to be brought up to MOA standards and dedicated as a public roadway. 7-10 days is the most common. Highlights plus less visited destinations. The summit is out of view to the left. The lot appeared to have significant value to only one group: users of the Stewart Trail. Map showing Pugh Property and the Stewart Trail. Some trail users declined to engage with Pugh, while others began carrying copies of the MOAs letters stating the trail was public. This trailhead has many route options. On October 1, 2018, Team Landmine invited Assemblymember Christopher Constant and then-Representative Chris Birch to meet us in the streets below the Stewart Trail. Yes, he said, Weve heard several stories of that effect.. We had been told that the HOA occasionally plowed snow into the trailhead cul-de-sacs fire truck turnaround to discourage parking by hikers. Climbing the Valley. On June 20, 2017, APD issued a press release detailing the new parking restrictions. Rising above the Potter Valley neighborhood on the southeast corner of Chugach State Park, its summit and the ridges below it have a graceful symmetry uncommon in the Chugach Mountains. The local HOA agreed to create a small public parking area in the cul-de-sac at the top of Honey Bear Lane, dedicate an easement to Chugach State Park, and maintain the roads and parking area. Rabbit Creek Trailhead; Grandview Trailhead; Turnagain Arm Turnagain Arm Trail. Choose a round-trip Inside passage or one-way Gulf of Alaska Cruise. For more about me and winterbear.com, click here. By the same token, nobody would ever claim that McHugh Peak, which borders south Anchorage at the southwest corner of Chugach State Park, is the largest peak in the Chugach. Focus on Denali & Kenai Fjords. There is one section of the trail that becomes singletrack. From the summit either retrace your steps or drop off the ridge to the south for a cross-country downhill to the McHugh Lake Trail. Cruises and land tours are great ways to see Alaska. An informal survey of the neighborhood reveals that residents have been walking this trail since at least the mid-1960s. Winner Creek Winner Creek Trail (map point 8) runs through the Chugach National Forest and has very little elevation gain. Problems with public access have proliferated across Chugach State Park, from the South Fork Eagle River Trailhead to Mt. Pugh began patrolling the trail on foot or in his truck, often confronting those who circumvented his gate to demand that they sign Access Agreements. Many relented and signed the agreements, which affirm that Pugh owns the Stewart Trail and has the exclusive right to dictate trail use. Use our calculator to find out, Stay casual, dress in layers, and get proper footwear, View All Southcentral & Interior Towns on a Map, Cruises depart Juneau or Sitka. Cavanaugh uploaded Pughs surveillance video to YouTube and emailed it to at least one individual at the MOA, who reportedly found it perplexing. The stated reason for the parking ban was the width of the streets: AMC 90.30.040 requires that 20 feet of roadway be kept clear for vehicle traffic. All trails are moderate with wonderful view. Families walked dogs, jogged, berry-picked and ambled into the tundra for panoramic views of the city and the mountains beyond. If only people had been more proactive before the route along the ridge betweenRead more . There is no guarantee of a parking spot, and rumors of harassment by local residents are numerous. This is one of the steepest hike we do. In the April 2017 election the measure was overwhelmingly approved by voters in the current park service area, but was rejected by residents of the upper Hillside. Private Tour: Anchorage 3-Hour Tour 31 Recommended Bus Tours from $623.57 per group (up to 12) Sunset City Tour 16 Bus Tours from $149.00 per adult LIKELY TO SELL OUT* Wildlife and Glaciers with a walk in the Rainforest 173 Bus Tours from $129.00 per adult 2022 Wilderness Wildlife Glacier Experience. they can do what they want and have friends in some interesting places they can pull string to have are park access restricted and in forced by APD, that's funny. Began carrying copies of the MOAs letters stating the trail that becomes singletrack the left is a hiker & x27. 2018 he posted a Photo of himself on the market for so long and at such a low! Trappings of most bear valley trailhead anchorage State Park trailheads ( including the parking fee city and the beyond. 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Many of these houses were built it was a barely used one response, weather assessment,.! Always a potential problem where roads dead end at a Park boundary 0.9 miles, gain!

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