Spring Break, 2018!

By Sean Zumwalt

Spring Break, the period of time where universities take time off and is frequently accompanied by riotous gatherings and parties in warmer climates. Places such as Cancun and Daytona Beach will be overly crowded and well attended regardless of one’s educational standings. However, the ski season is still in session and there is no time for that nonsense. An opportunity arose and part of the team took advantage of an invitation that will leave a lasting impression. Vince and I set off on a voyage that started at sea and had us heading South West into Cochrane Bay, where lies a gem called the Paulson Bay Cabin.  This cabin offers a secluded getaway for relaxation and recreation. The trip was planned out for five days and four nights in a remote location where a group of men would anchor down and scope some ascending routes with the hopes of skiing big lines.

Our group met in Indian, Alaska, where the boat was parked and we would all carpool together to save some money. The direction we needed to drive in currently had white-out weather and our fearless leader, Brian, drove with white knuckles the entire way while hauling the boat behind us. After successfully making it to Whittier, we loaded the boat with all of our gear and were ready for launch.

 

 

 

The seas were not very nice to us that day but we managed to make it to the bluff where the cabin sits. Once arriving on shore, we started unloading the boat and shoveling out a trail to get to the cabin where we would start making ourselves at home. The weather continued to provide us with a lot more snow and the storm continued well into the night. We were able to take the skis out for a bit to do some navigating and get a small ski session back to the cabin. Due to the large amount of snow, any low angle terrain was impossible to move in. Most of the riding that day had to be in our uphill track to get any momentum.

 

After our first night, we woke up to more snow coming down and poor visibility. The storm continued on throughout the day. We still planned on exploring and making a day out of it despite the conditions. We followed our skin track from the day prior until it was time for us to break trail again and started going up a ridge line to gain elevation. Visibility started to get worse. We found a good vantage point to pick and choose some decent lines.  After descending down a few hundred feet, we came across a bowl that looked promising, but again, with poor visibility, it was uncertain where we would end up. After carefully discussing our options, we traversed to an area where we decided to drop in. This ski run provided us with some deep snow and the first powder shots of the trip.

 

Once the group reconvened, we had to discuss our options. We either climb back up the way we came down to find our skin track or stay down low and head towards the cabin. We decided to stay down low as the weather continued to dump snow.

Navigating our way back to the Cabin

After a long day of touring and skiing, we hunkered down for the night and played a few games of cribbage before bed.  It had quit snowing the next morning and we decided this would be the day to take the boat out and explore a different area in Prince William Sound. We loaded up and set sail for another shoreline. We reached our destination and we anchored the boat. We soon worked our way uphill to set a route that would get us out of tree line and we continued to break trail until we were content with the elevation gain. The plan was to ski down close to shoreline and get back on our skin track to do multiple laps. Our first run dropped us into a steep gully, and Vince and I will admit, this was probably the steepest thing we’ve ever had our skis on. The steepness allowed us to really surf through the soft snow and we came out of this with nothing but smiles and giggles. We circled around to where our skin track started and went back up for round two. On the way up, I was having trouble with one of my bindings so I had to pull over and let the others go ahead. When I got everything working properly I started back up the hill. Along the way, I heard a very loud woomph, and felt the ground sink a few inches. I froze, looked around, and didn’t see any cracks in the snow nor other signs of an avalanche nearby. Then I thought “maybe it was up ahead where the rest of the group was,” so I hurried to try and get a better view. I finally had Vince in sight and asked if he heard the noise and felt the ground sink. He said he did. Our guess was it could have been a small earthquake.

When we got to where we were ready to start skiing, Brian said this may be the last run due to the timing of low tide. We strapped up and took a new ski route down to the boat. The tide did get lower but the boat was still in deep enough water to freely move around. One of our group members volunteered to stay on shore to watch the tide if we wanted to make one more run. So that’s what we did, and we wanted to take one more shot down the steep gully.

Brian: “So far so good?”    Vince and Sean: “So good so far.”

 

Back at home enjoying the sunset

Why so serious?

The cabin was a great asset for drying out our wet clothes, sleeping, cooking meals, and playing cribbage. Other than that, we spent most of our time outside. One of the other extracurricular activities that took place besides skiing was working on a world class sled track and having the sled racers attempt to set records. The most noticeable racers were Brian and Vince, in the time range of sub 14 seconds.

Brian using the ridiculous salute technique to stay in balance

 The trail maintenance crew at work

Vince demonstrating a proper sweeping arm while making a sharp turn.

Left to Right: Vince using snow shoes as a legal method to add weight to the sled, Sean and Vince nervously watching Brian attempting to use a smaller, sleeker sled to break a record.

The next morning was our last full day at the Cabin and it turned out to be some of the best weather of the voyage. We decided to stay nearby and use our old skin track to travel. We came across the bowl we scoped out earlier and chose a section of it that was glowing at us. The sun was out and it was a warmer day. The snow was heavier and we saw a lot of loose snow avalanches on the steeper terrain.  We got our last few runs of the trip this day.

 

Testing Snow Pack as we saw a lot of Loose Snow Avalanches

Vince Skiing Trees

Back to our old skin track

Finding our way back to the cabin

Back to drying wet clothes and enjoying our last night together

Our last morning consisted of packing our things, cleaning the cabin, and getting ready to load up the boat. Once we had everything on shore, we loaded all of our gear onto the boat and bid adieu to the Paulson Bay Cabin. The seas were smooth for the most part until we got closer to Whittier. The winds had picked up and the swells grew. Once we got to the dock, we had to wait for Brian to drive the truck and trailer down to us. It was cold, windy, and I could barely feel my fingers. The snow was blowing sideways. I told Vince, “I’ll be right back, I’m going to go grab an ice cream.” He gave me a repulsive look and replied, “This is the worst time to be eating ice cream!”

Loading up to head back to civilization

 

The Trio Visits Girdwood

By Sean Zumwalt
Photos courtesy of Vince Stewart and Suzanne Weist

 

February 10^th was a weekend where plans seemed to have tumbled. But the resiliency of the VRS Skimo team somehow finds ways to prevail and overcome obstacles. The first obstacle occurred earlier in the week when we figured out we would not have enough people committed to renting an Airbnb in Girdwood for Saturday night. So, that meant we had to settle for a long day trip. Then the trickle effect happened. Friday night, we were invited to our favorite meeting spot, Cynosure Brewery, and we were stood up by one of our team members who we won’t mention. Our team member Marty was leaving that weekend to Central America so he would not make this trip. Also, we’ve been without Ryan and Charity for ages. Who knows where Ryan is really living these days, we’ve tracked IP addresses locating him in Colorado; And Charity, she’s on a plane either working or going to visit Ryan. Oh well, like I stated earlier, this team has the ability to bounce back and be creative when we are tested, and in the end we still love each other.

The original plan was to ski Sunnyside Mountain starting in Girdwood. Weather was to be decent with high cloud coverage and mild temperatures in the twenties. Vince, Suz, and I ended up driving out of Anchorage at about 9:30 A.M. We stopped by Froth & Forage for a breakfast sandwich and donuts. The next stop was to pick up a beacon and ski poles from a friend, Pautzke, who Vince and Suz know. Pautzke was also going to be joining us on the trip but would get a later start. After grabbing the beacon and ski poles, we passed the Aleyeska Resort and found the parking lot where the CPG Snow Cat trail starts. We got everything situated, and were on our way to find the snow cat trail. The snow cat has not been able to travel the trail yet due to the lack of snow. Vince, who has done this trip before, informed us the trail is much easier to travel on when it is nicely groomed.

The trail started out nice and flat until approaching Winner Creek. We had a very interesting discussion on the voice of Sam Smith, the English singer-songwriter. Vince isn’t quite a fan of his voice, so I continued to whistle or sing any Sam Smith song I could remember to hopefully get them stuck in his head. Suz had her ear buds in as she led the way, which was smart because what Vince and I were discussing would give her a headache. I was trailing Vince most of the way and at one point he turned around and did a fake wave as if he saw Pautzke and I fell for it. I knew something was up when he waved because the look on his face had to be some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen. We laughed, and I said, “you’re an idiot.”

Shortly after crossing the Snow Cat Bridge near Winner Creek, Vince received a text from Pautzke asking where we were at because he reached fresh snow and didn’t see our tracks. We started to think, “Maybe we were on the wrong trail? How could he of passed us without seeing him?” Maybe he could have taken the Winner Creek trail instead, but Vince assured us we were on the right trail.

 

 

 

 

 

After continuing our climb, we started to hear a dog’s bark up ahead of us, but the dog was not in sight. Vince told us the bark was from Bentley, Pautzke’s dog. Apparently Bentley gets excited for the ski portion. We ran into Pautzke and Bentley making their way down the trail. We found out there is another way to get to the snow cat trail and that is how we missed seeing each other. Pautzke wanted to make another run with us but his split board ended up with a small fracture and could not be used to climb. We discussed the best skiing options on the hill and Pautzke’s opinion stirred us towards going up Notch Mountain instead of Sunnyside, due to better snow conditions. From there, we said our farewell and continued up the cat track towards the Chugach Powder Guide’s Hut. On our arrival to the CPG Hut, we decided to make ourselves at home for a bit and have lunch.

 

 

Finally got Cell Reception

 

CPG Hut

Lunch Time

That Couloir on lookers left…. Maybe next trip.

After wrapping up with lunch, Suz decided she would stay in the cabin and get cozy while Vince and I would venture off to get higher on the mountain and put in some good lines. We climbed for about a good half hour and found ourselves a good spot to changeover to downhill mode. The view was incredible. There are plenty of mountains in the Girdwood area that are in need of skiing. The snow was deep with a crusted over surface. Not the best skiing at top but it was worth the extra effort to reach our final elevation.

 

 

 

 

 

Vince Getting Sendy

We finally made our way back to the CPG Hut where we would meet up with Suz. We noticed another set of skis and as we approached the front door, we heard the sound of a crying baby. As we walked in, there was a father with his little one and a half year old boy sitting on a bench and Suz was sitting at the table drinking hot tea. The father and son made a day trip up to the cabin and stopped for a rest. After enjoying another breather, Vince, Suz, and I decided it was our time to make it down. The lower half of the mountain had better snow and wasn’t affected so much by the wind. I practiced on my tree skiing while Vince offered skiing advice to Suz. At one point, I hid in the trees and waited for them, particularly Vince, as I had a snow ball in my hand waiting to tag him. He made his way down and when he was about ten feet away I released the snow ball and barely missed. Vince said he knew I was up to something because he saw me smiling in the trees.

“Dude, this is going to be epic. Is the GoPro on?”

Mischievously waiting to hit Vince with a snow ball.

 

Ski Tracks.

The cat track finally narrowed and it was time for tight, narrow, fast skiing. I was ahead of Vince and Suz, occasionally turning around to see if I could hear them or see them. One time, I saw two people in the distance and assumed it was them. They were a lot closer to me than I thought, so I let loose and didn’t bother to stop again until I was unbearably overheating and needed to take off a few layers. As I was putting my stuff away, a man and woman were skiing down the same trail, they were the ones I saw behind me, not Vince and Suz. I felt a little guilty for assuming that was them and taking off on my own because it would be dark soon. I was already close to where we parked so I continued on my way. Once at the truck, I got comfortable, ate a piece of Vince’s donut, had some candy, and got warm while I waited. After a while, Suz and Vince were able to do the same as they approached the truck.

Warm and Cozy in the Truck

We had to stop by Pautzke’s house to drop off the beacon and poles we borrowed and talked about our day over a few libations. We didn’t want to extend our stay so we left and decided to eat at Chair 5, where we shared photos and videos with each other of our excursion. Vince forgot his wallet at home, and Suz offered to cover my meal since I drove. Thank you Suz! We made it a fun and memorable day despite how plans fell through earlier in the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bike the Russian Lakes Trail, with Two Spare Bike Tubes.

By Sean Zumwalt

Photos Courtesy of:
Vince Stewart
Suzanne Weist
Casey King
Whitney Froehlich

The Barber Cabin lies in the Eastern Kenai Peninsula of South-Eastern Alaska, and can be accessed by driving to one of my favorite places, Cooper Landing. The headwaters of Alaska’s famous Kenai River offers some of the best fishing and rafting in the state. Cooper Landing is a quaint town, yet it is filled with plenty of adventures and memories I’ve made there. Thanks to Vince and Suz, they booked the Barber Cabin for this particular weekend. Vince and I met the day before we left to talk about logistics and what we expected to get out of this trip. We narrowed it down to: biking the Russian Lakes trail, hunting grouse, and fishing.

 

DAY 1

I had everything packed after my meeting with Vince so I could start making my way down to Cooper Landing after work on Friday. Vince had to pick up Suz early Friday morning from the airport and they were going to spend the rest of the day packing. They were planning on leaving around 2 in the afternoon.

I was able to leave Anchorage around 4:45 P.M., and shortly after, I get a call from Vince,

“Hey, where are you?”

Assuming they had already left, I said, “I’m headed out of town now, just coming up on Bird Ridge.”

“Suz and I just got done packing and we still need to go to the store.”

“Alright, I can take my time getting there.”

A few hours later, and a few bathroom breaks along the way, I arrived at the Russian Lakes Trail Head. I thought about waiting for Vince and Suz, but it was going to get dark soon. My head lamp was packed away deep somewhere in my bag and I only had one light accessible on my bike. The trail was mostly flat with some areas of slight elevation.

There are elements of intrinsic beauty in the simplification of a house built on the log cabin idea.    Gustav Stickly

Upon arriving, I unpacked my things and laid them out on one of the top bunks. Luckily, I still had enough light in the cabin to do so. By the time the sun had finally set, I lit some candles and attempted to start a fire in the wood stove. The Barber Cabin has a uniqueness which makes it special, and its perception valuable. However, it should not be shared alone. Luckily, someone had left behind a recent edition of Backpacker’s Magazine, and I was able to stay occupied while I waited for Vince and Suz.

While staring out the window, I could see a glare of light in the distance. “That must be them,” I thought. I stepped outside and yelled as loud as I could, “Vince! Suz!” A faint reply back, “Hi Sean!.” As time went by, I could finally hear their bear bells ringing and their conversation. When they arrived, I was relieved to have company.

We stayed up late, making certain the fire in the wood stove would last us the whole night as the crisp Autumn air would slowly creep into the cabin. After Vince and Suz unpacked all of their things, we had some music playing and talked about the recent events happening around the world, discussed politics, and shared funny stories to procure a jovial spirit before bed.

DAY 2

It was early in the morning, I’m not certain what time it was. I heard the door shut and Vince quietly telling Suz that there were a lot of fish jumping in the lake. I fell back asleep, and apparently so did Vince and Suz. We didn’t get out of bed until it was close to noon. Brunch consisted of bacon and eggs with a tad of Siracha, and a tortilla. I ended up cooking all of the bacon I had brought. Suz cooked a majority of the eggs she brought,  and Vince berated Suz and me for not saving enough bacon and eggs for the next morning because we were expecting our friends, Whitney and Casey, to arrive at some point that day. Luckily I had brought two of Leah’s famous breakfast scones she had baked earlier in the week for the next morning.

After brunch, Vince wanted to make an attempt to throw his fishing line in the water. Suz volunteered to wash dishes and I filled up water bottles. Looking across the lake, Vince thought he saw a bear or a moose. When it started moving, we noticed it was a large grizzly bear. It bellowed a short, loud, huffing noise, and would run in and out of the lake as if it were distraught. The show lasted for a good ten minutes until the bear ran out of sight. We thought maybe she was searching for her cub.

 

 

It was close to one o’clock in the afternoon and Vince and I started to prepare for our twenty-one mile bike ride on the Russian Lakes Trail. The only preparation Vince had forgotten to do before he left Anchorage was to purchase another bike tube, but he did bring a patch kit. I felt comfortable with just having a patch kit, but I also knew Vince was notorious for getting flat tires. Two weeks before this we did a bike trip and he had gotten two flats in a four mile stretch. Oh well, we’ll just spend some time patching a flat if that was the case. Suz was going to spend her time taking the boat out on the lake to fish and await the arrival of Casey and Whitney.

Vince and I rode our bikes out to the parking lot where we had parked our vehicles. Along the way, Vince asked if I had my car keys, which I did. Apparently, he forgot his. He needed to get into his car to get the .22 for grouse hunting, but since we were committed already, we did not turn around. So, there would be no grouse hunting this trip. We put the bikes in the truck and started driving to the main road. Along the way, we saw Casey and Whitney driving in. We stopped, rolled down the window, and told them where we were going. The trail head we were heading to starts at the end of Snug Harbor Road, about twenty miles away. By the time we got there and started our bike ride, it was close to 2 P.M.

The trail started with some nice rolling down hills, with a few muddy spots and large puddles of water. I was riding a fat tire bike, which felt like a monster truck going through the swampy sections. Some of the hills required us to dismount and walk our bikes. Not too many roots or large rocks. We saw a few folks along the way. There were two hunters heading the other direction on bikes with bike trailers.

After some thrilling downhill descents, we’ve finally come to the Upper Russian Lake, which is the half way point along the trail. I was behind Vince, and when I approached him, he pointed down at his back tire. It was flat. We took out the patch kit and started to go to work on it. After the patch was put on, we pumped some air into the tube and the patch didn’t hold. So, we tried again, and we got the same result. Maybe the glue needs more time to dry, we thought. Instead of sitting around and waiting for the glue to dry, Vince insisted we walk with our bikes to cover more ground. After a half hour of walking, we tried again and it didn’t work. We decided to use different patches with a new layer of glue. We started walking again and decided to wait an hour.

Our last hope remained in the hour that had passed and we attempted one more time to inflate the tube. With a little bit of air, it looked promising. We put the tube in the tire and back on the bike. We then continued to inflate until we heard a hissing noise from inside the tire. Our patch kit had failed again. Vince became frustrated. He then mentioned he read about someone who got a flat tire and didn’t have anything to fix it so they stuffed grass into the tire to act as a tube. Vince was willing, so that’s what we did. I grabbed ground moss, which was soft and I reckoned it would be a decent barrier between the tire and the wheel. When we were done, the wheel felt like it weighed ten pounds. We installed the wheel back on the bike and gave it a try. It seemed to be working for the most part, but Vince said it felt like he was riding in sand. It was probably close to seven o’clock and it was starting to get dark. Luckily, I had a light on my bike and we utilized it the rest of the way out. Vince apologized to me for having to walk most of the time, but how could I be angry with him? He was already going through a lot of suffering and he needed encouragement. Vince reminded me of Frodo, in Lord of the Rings, and I was Sam. “And yet their wills did not yield, and they struggled on.” 
– J.R.R. Tolkien

At one point, Vince stopped and looked back at me. He looked exhausted. He asked if he could have some of the cheese that I had brought for a snack. He cut off a large portion and had some sausage meat to go with it. I also offered him the beer I brought for him, which was meant to be more of a victory beer, not a replenishing agent. We got back on the bikes and rode a little further listening to tunes from Vince’s outdoor speaker. After a while, Vince turned to me and said, “that was the best beer I’ve ever had.” He looked a lot better after we stopped for a snack. After continuously riding downhill and dismounting the bikes to walk uphill, we finally made it to the Barber Cabin cutoff. We walked the rest of the way to the cabin and could finally see lights from a distance. Suz greeted us at the door. We’re finally done!, was the thought that kept running through my head. I’m sure Vince felt the same. We learned a few lessons that day. Vince swore he will always carry two extra sets of tubes.

“Why not seize the pleasure at once? — How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!”
―Jane Austen

While Vince and I were on the trail, the girls had managed to head across the lake to collect wood and bring it back to the cabin. This was no easy feat. This was a gesture Vince and I are most thankful for. If it wasn’t for them, we would have had a very uncomfortable sleep that night.

Suz leading the way

Vince and I changed into clean clothes and dinner consisted of Fettuccine Alfredo, Gold Fish Crackers, and Oreos. We talked about our adventures that day and then played a dice game, Left Center Right. The MVP of the game happened to be Whitney, winning 3 games? I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and say she won 4 games.

The girls were the first to go to sleep while Vince and I had some more celebrating to do. Vince was still hungry so he had some more fettuccine and added the leftover sausage we had from our bike trip. Maddie, Casey’s dog, was staring at Vince while he was eating and I instigated  he should feed her because she was probably hungry. Vince gave her a few bites and a few slices of cheese. We then proceeded to bed.

Throughout the night, Vince would kindly get out of bed and add more wood to the fire. During one of his quests, he stepped in Maddie’s poop, or so he thought; but it happened to be vomit, and we all heard about it.

Poor Maddie. Bouncing back after being betrayed by Vince.

Day 3

The rain drops on the roof of the cabin woke me up. It was right before noon and people started making conversation. We started packing as we casually ate breakfast and started cleaning up the cabin. I went to wash out dishes from the night before and filled up water bottles. Casey and Whitney were just about all packed up and were heading out before us. Vince, Suz, and I wanted to stick around and do a little bit of fishing.

After Vince, Suz, and I took the boat to the mouth of the lake to fish and had no luck, we decided to try fishing out of the boat in the middle of the lake. I asked Vince and Suz if we should have taken our stuff out of the cabin in case the new renters come through. Vince was sure he had the cabin booked for Sunday night as well. A moment later, a lady’s voice from the dock yelled, “Excuse me, is that your stuff in the cabin!? Would you mind if we moved it out on the deck so we could move our stuff in!?” We rushed back to shore and removed our things. This was our sign it was time for us to head back home.

On our way back to Anchorage, we stopped at the Girdwood Brewery. This is when we received a group text and found out why Maddie was sick the night before:

(There may have been others who witnessed Vince giving Maddie food but they will be left unnamed)