This weekend two of my colleagues (Ali and Karen) and I went
to Palmer for a local art/rhubarb fest.
What a gorgeous day it was: perfect warm weather (low 70’s!!), blue
skies and fun times with good people. Palmer is a very cute little town, which apparently is one of the
oldest settlements in this area. I was surprised to find interesting antique shops, a nice art gallery, a store selling probably over 100 kinds of
teas from all over the world, all kinds of original foods and fun miscellaneous items, a restaurant with only about four items on the
menu but all finely prepared, an excellent coffee shop....etc. Oh! And I almost forgot the most important! A FINE CHOCOLATE FACTORY where I might have bought a thing or two. So overall, that day in Palmer was a very
good time.
On the way back, we drove by a sign indicating “Eklutna
Lake”. According to Karen the lake offered some nice scenery and paddlers who were willing to go the whole length of it could be gratified with a nice view on a
glacier. I stored this comment in a
corner of my little brain for a day when I would look for something to do.
The next day, I woke up to gray skies and drizzly weather. How was I going to make the best out of this rainy day?
After thinking about it for at least a whole minute... Eureka!! I remembered Eklutna Lake! I
quickly packed my boat, my wing paddle, my gear and my GPS and an hour later, I was
pulling into the parking lot of the lake.
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| Putting in at Eklutna Lake |
Shortly after I put on, the sun started piercing through the
clouds. I paddled
hard, only stopping occasionally to take a few pictures. The scenery was gorgeous but today, my focus
was the workout. I had not done
that in a while and it felt good to get back into the nitty-gritty of the wing paddle
forward stroke. The conditions were perfect as the lake was completely flat: no wind and not a single wave. A flatty's paradise. And no, I am not becoming a flatty!
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| Flatness... |
I was expecting a 4 mile paddle to the end of the
lake. After 3 miles, I reached a
bend from which I could see the mouth of the Eklutna River. I certainly looked like it was no more than a mile away. Two miles later, I realized I had lots
of room from improvement in terms of gauging distances. I ended up paddling another 4 miles from that
bend! A mile… yeah right!
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| The mouth of the Eklutna river |
After reaching the mouth of the river I hung out for a few
minutes, checked out some moose tracks in the sand, let the scenery sink in for
a while, and observed a little birdie, who seemed not to mind my presence. I could see a glacier indeed but it was
rather high up, hanging from one of the mountains surrounding me.
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| My birdie friend |
I finally made my way back, and made a point of paddling the whole
length of the lake without stopping... Except for this last shot below. OK, just one stop then. I ended up
paddling almost 14 miles in about 3.5 hours, including a few picture stops on the way up. This felt like a great workout with a
wonderful scenery as a bonus and what had started as a dreary morning turned
into a magnificent blue bird sky day.
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