Leslie Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Our big activity for today was a hike from the campground to Tolosona mud springs. The mud springs are caused by methane bubbling up from coal beds deep underground.
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The dead trees along the side were caused by an increase in the mud flow after the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake.
The trail is described as primitive – I would second that. It was extremely muddy and crosses several areas of muskeg. If you recall from Petersburg in the southeast, muskeg is a swampy area that is partially underwater. There were places where it was impossible not to walk in cold water ankle deep. This picture doesn’t do the trail justice. Without our hiking poles it would have been impossible to get through the swamp. The poles are useful in determining how deep the water is -- before stepping in.
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We saw a number of animal tracks along the trail and thought it might have been bear. When we got to the mud springs, there were very clear moose tracks. Here’s an moose tracks followed by small moose tracks. (But no moose)
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Around the springs I saw some pretty wild flowers.
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A family of ptarmigans was slightly off the trail. There must have been a nest nearby because there were 6-8 of the birds.
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Notice the very shallow roots on this tree. That is typical of a tree that lives in permafrost. The permafrost doesn’t allow the roots to grow deep.
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Parts of the trail had this unique trail marker. You can see the old trail marker just below.
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Mud Spring
Robert, Wednesday, July 16
We hiked to Mud Spring today. It is located about a mile from the campground along what is described as a primitive trail. The trail is actually far better than many improved trails I have hiked. The only drawback to the trail itself is that it goes through muskeg. For those not familiar with the term, think “swamp.” There were numerous mud holes along a third of the trail. It was impossible to keep your feet dry unless you were wearing rubber boots that reached at least mid-calf (we weren’t). We only lost the trail one time on the way up but found it again pretty quickly. One thing is certain, mud spring correctly describes the spring. The spring was located in the middle of a large expanse of willow. The spring was a clearing about 100 feet in diameter that consisted of dried mud, not so dried mud, and several pools of water. The water bubbled with methane gas and supposedly was salty. To say it was uninspiring puts it mildly. Fortunately Leslie suggested we take our hiking poles. They made it easier to take giant steps across some of the mud holes on the trail. The whole hike took slightly less than two hours and it was good to just get out and walk. We saw lots of moose tracks and thousands of mosquitoes. When we got back to the campsite, there was a nice breeze which kept the mosquitoes away so we sat outside for a while after washing the mud off of our shoes. After dinner, we built a campfire but as the breeze slacked, the mosquitoes returned enough that we came inside.
We hiked to Mud Spring today. It is located about a mile from the campground along what is described as a primitive trail. The trail is actually far better than many improved trails I have hiked. The only drawback to the trail itself is that it goes through muskeg. For those not familiar with the term, think “swamp.” There were numerous mud holes along a third of the trail. It was impossible to keep your feet dry unless you were wearing rubber boots that reached at least mid-calf (we weren’t). We only lost the trail one time on the way up but found it again pretty quickly. One thing is certain, mud spring correctly describes the spring. The spring was located in the middle of a large expanse of willow. The spring was a clearing about 100 feet in diameter that consisted of dried mud, not so dried mud, and several pools of water. The water bubbled with methane gas and supposedly was salty. To say it was uninspiring puts it mildly. Fortunately Leslie suggested we take our hiking poles. They made it easier to take giant steps across some of the mud holes on the trail. The whole hike took slightly less than two hours and it was good to just get out and walk. We saw lots of moose tracks and thousands of mosquitoes. When we got back to the campsite, there was a nice breeze which kept the mosquitoes away so we sat outside for a while after washing the mud off of our shoes. After dinner, we built a campfire but as the breeze slacked, the mosquitoes returned enough that we came inside.
Map to Glennallen
I had been wondering if I could add a map to our blog. Here's my first attempt at linking to a mapquest view of our location.
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Glennallen&state=AK#a/maps/m::4:62.109196:-145.546402:0::/e
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Glennallen&state=AK#a/maps/m::4:62.109196:-145.546402:0::/e
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