Gilmore Trail to Chena Lakes

This was one of the most versatile trail rides I’ve been on in a long time. Eight of us started out from the pull out at 4 mile Gilmore Trail Road around 10:15 in the morning. Plan was to see if we could make it to Chena Lake’s without 1) getting lost or 2) having to turn back due to overflow in the valley.

The first leg of the trail up the road and then down the Gilmore Trail towards the Iowa drainage and the view of the Chena Valley and Alaska Range in the background was fantastic, couldn’t ask for a better day for riding. I did say this was versatile and that was caused by the various trail conditions. First we had an easy run on some nice powder and a 6 foot wide trail which soon turned into about 3 foot wide with all the brush overhanging. At the bottom of the valley we still had the overhanging brush and then some overflow to content with. But then it opened up and we were back to a nice trail.

Once we hit the Adventure road junction, we rode on and along Chena Hot Springs Road and ditch banged for a mile or two until we got to Foxboro Road which we took to the Chena Hot Springs Winter Trail. At this point we headed down the Winter Trail and only had to pull over once for a dog team which of course was at the narrowest part of trail so all our sleds were buried in the trees, thank goodness for reverse .

Down the Winter Trail to the Potlatch Trail and from there to the Chena Lake Flood Control project and down the Floodway about half way down where we crossed the road again and hit the drainage ditch trail. Once we got to the Weir, Stoney lead us down river for about 10 miles to a turn off through the tree and onto another slough. On the river we did pass another sledder and a dog team but at least we had lots of room to pass each other.

So it was back to Adventure Road and up the Gilmore Trail to the rigs where Stoney and Larry started a fire and we all cooked some hot dogs on a stick.

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