Resurrection Pass

I start for the summit first thing in the morning. It's still drizzling but not too hard. The pass is through a gulch with snow covered peaks on both sides. the tops of the peaks are about 4000 feet and the pass is at 2500 feet. The vegetation is tundra and stunted mountain hemlocks.

This is my official summit picture. Hmm, pretty rough. I lost my hat somewhere by Swan lake where I had stopped for lunch. The trail from here to hope was muddy on this side. I say many tracks of moose, bear, and wolf. I pass through many areas of tall grass that send the mind wondering. I try to make a lot of noise so I don't startle any unsuspecting bears. Making noise when hiking solo is not an easy task. I stayed another night at Caribou Creek, about 6 miles from the Hope trailhead and 10 miles from the town Hope. near Caribou Creek the creek is near the trail and salmon have come up here to spawn. I keep my eyes on the banks looking for bears fishing. I see plenty of salmon remnants but no bears. Towards the end of the trail a momma black bear and three cubs cross the trail ahead. I keep my distance and make my prescience known. She watches me until the cubs pass into the forest and

she follows. I wait a few minutes to make sure they have moved on. I finally arrive at the trailhead and old ghost town near Gold Gulch, shown in the picture. The place is a literal ghost town with not a soul in sight. there are several cars in the parking lot and that's it. I head up the road for Hope, hoping to hitch a ride. After 3 miles a backpacker who had hiked Devil's Pass stopped and gave me a lift the 80 miles back to Anchorage. This is a great trail one that I would like to do again. Next time I will include Devil's Pass or the southern part of the trail which was washed out the year I hiked.

-Eric Belaski
August 2000