Eklutna by Ice

Well, Anchorage just set a new record and needless to say it’s not one we are excited about! This February we logged 37 days without any snowfall, a record that had stood since 1958. Thanks to the lack of snowfall and warmer temperatures it’s hard to find a trail in Anchorage that you can stay upright on because of all the ice.  The positive side to this is that despite the lack of snow it has been cold enough to keep a nice layer of bare ice on most the lakes which make for great ice skating.

I had heard Eklutna was supposed to be good for skating so we made plans to meet our friend Will at the Bold Airstrip at the south-east end of the lake and check out the ice. Word has it during the winter you can land on the ice, but we didn’t bring rocks to throw out of the plane to check the ice so we decided to play it safe and land on the strip.

We had seen open leads around the lake but fortunately it wasn’t hard to get on the ice once we landed

Cautious at first, but the ice seemed to be at least 8-10 inches thick.

   

Two weeks ago I fell while working out (ok, maybe doing box jumps at 34 weeks wasn’t the brightest idea) and was put in a splint for a possible radial head fracture. Thankfully of all the cracked bones to have this one hasn’t been bad. After one week of a splint and only needing a couple doses of Tylenol it seems to be back to normal. Despite it feeling great I’m sure it wouldn’t feel good to fall on it again so I was being very careful and concentrating on staying upright.

Saying hello in the bright ice!

Even ice with a little bit of water on top made the skating super smooth and speedy and the view spectacular!

Flying out we enjoyed the beautiful reflections and texture of the ice.

Mosaic ice!

Another fun day just a quick 40 min flight from Anchorage. Eklutna is also easily accessed by a road that brings you to the other end of the lake. From the road, there is a trail running down the side of the lake to the airstrip. We saw a few fat bikers while we were out and a few days later I heard of people skating the length of the lake.