Birthday Hike at Winner Creek

We met up and drove down to Girdwood where we first had lunch at the Bake Shop. There were eight of us so we had to take two cars.











The upside of two cars is we could leave one near Crow Creek Mine where the trail ends up. Here's the map of the trail which begins just behind the tram at the Alyeska Hotel. The sign is at the bottom of the red trail (if you double click any picture you can see it larger, and see where it says "You are here" on the map - also where the N sign is.)























They've put in a fair bit of board walk on the trail. Part of me doesn't like the idea, but I remember the first time I started out on this trail, probably in the mid 80s, it was all mud, so we really had to turn back, even with boots on.













Something like this, but it got worse.











Eventually you cross a bridge over the gorge.























Then a half- [.2] mile[s] later you get to the tram to cross over the next gorge.















































While you could pull yourself across, having someone on either side pulling the rope for you really helps.

It's nice to still have non motorized machinery that functions as well as this pulley tram system.



























Here's the trail sign just past the tram.










Here we're close to the Crow Creek Road where we parked the second car. Then we ferried a few people back to the other car and then back to get the rest who hiked down the Crow Creek Road.












After we got home, we then went off to our friends' house for home made long-life noodles.







And then the cake.

All in all it was a very nice triple birthday party.