Hideout Trail

Today I sat down to work on my darn intern portfolio that thankfully will be done and turned in next week, and I got a call to go hiking instead. Since I was looking for any excuse to get out of working on the portfolio, of course I went.

Here's a view about halfway up:


We hiked Hideout Trail, it's a 3-mile round-trip trail that overlooks Skilak Lake. You climb about 850 feet, and at the top are at an elevation of 1,535 feet, so you get some great views. It's a 'moderate' climb- the way up was climbing the whole way- with switchbacks so it wasn't as steep, but I was breathing pretty hard by the end. Coming back going downhill was a lot nicer.

From the top:

At the top, there's a rocky ridge where we sat and ate lunch. It was beautiful, but would have been even better had the sun been out, by the end we were getting really chilly- a cold wind was coming up and on the ridge we were really exposed. The views were beautiful though.

The lake is Skilak lake- it's HUGE- what is seen here is only about half of the actual lake. The Kenai river runs into Skilak- you can see it in the picture, and it comes out a the other end of the lake. The water is that brilliant glacial blue, but didn't really show up well in the pictures. Bear Mountain and Russian Mountain are two that can be seen from here.

Two views from the top: