The 'road' off the Hatcher Pass road to the parking lot for the Reed Lakes trail is something like a video game as you dodge potholes and rocks for 2 miles, lost points are punctuated by a loud thud under the car. The parking lot was packed Friday about noon. It turned out the Colony High School cross country team was up there doing a practice run.
Part of my upbringing taught me that things you work hardest for are the sweetest. So having a hard-to-get-to trailhead, and then a trail that makes the spectacular scenery a job to see makes a certain amount of sense. Part of the charm is that this trail isn't packed - though Alaska has more than enough people who are willing to put up with the driving and walking conditions of this hike.
And many, I think, relish the hardships. Besides the mud, much of the trail disappears and reappears along the stretch of boulders you go through.
However, because of the poor quality and maintenance of the trails, they get really muddy. Because they go up fairly steeply, they are very slippery. So people begin to walk off the trail creating new trails. Or they make shortcuts across the switchbacks, leading to places for rainwater to start worse erosion.
Eventually, this spectacular area is going to be badly scarred by an increasing number of cuts through the flowers and tundra. So, putting in decently designed trails and cutting off the shortcuts and educating hikers would serve the beauty of this area much better.
But unlike the trail along Exit Glacier, which is in a national park, Reed Lakes is just part of state land.
Given our oil money surplus, the problem isn't money. It's long term planning and prioritizing how to use the money we collectively have to make our collective lives better.
To do the things that we can't do by ourselves - like save our beautiful land from erosion because too many people want to hike there, but the trails can't support them all.
Steve and all you remaining Alaskans
ReplyDeleteTwelve hundred dollars added to two thousand plus during what is a national recession in the states--new enticements for migration?
I am reminded of needed alternative, something that some of us were working on years ago with Kay Brown, Walter Hickel and others: to use some of Alaska's oil wealth to establish private foundations controlled by citizen boards to oversee public benefit capital and operating investments.
It was an idea that went nowhere. I don't know if it was discussed while this one time 'bonus' was decided. If it was, it certainly didn't carry the day.
And I, as a former life-long Alaskan, just weep.