Kayaking at Eklutna Lake

Yesterday we piled in the car and headed up to Eklutna Lake to check out the scenery and do some kayaking. This was our first venture into real bear territory but fortunately we loaded up on “bear bells” beforehand at the Anchorage REI store so that bears, which are attracted to the smell of money, stayed miles away.

The drive was a scenic one as the weather cleared out for the first time we’ve been here. Sunny skies surrounded us as we drove north to Eklutna. After an hour’s drive or so, we pulled into the parking lot at Eklutna State Park and wandered over to get our kayaks.

We split up into Team Brown and Team Blue and shoved off for an hour’s paddle around the beautiful lake. I didn’t appreciate how big the lake was until we were on it. It took Hallie and me quite a bit of work to get from one side to the other. Most of the time we pulled our paddles in and let the substantial wind push us around, cruising slowly down the shoreline. After we’d had our fill of drifting, we spent the next 30 minutes fighting the wind to get our boat back to the landing spot. Whew!

I only realized later that we had missed a chance to go see Eklutna glacier, which loomed just behind the bend in the lake. We hope to find time to go back, rent mountain bikes, and ride up to the edge of the glacier.

After our lake adventure, we aimlessly wandered through the horrible Anchorage rush-hour traffic to get gas at Costco. Then we wandered back through the same horrible traffic to grab supper and a beer at Moose’s Tooth, a local pizza joint and brewery. The pizza was nicely priced, the beer was fantastic, and the wait was just 5 minutes. Win!

After our bellies were full (and our muscles still sore!), we spent a quiet evening back at our rental. All in all, not a bad day!