russian lakes trail

Jo-Ann

Three riders. Perfect conditions, meaning no downed trees to cross, only a few areas with water on the trail, no crashes. Fifty-nine piles of bear scat but no other sign of the critters, except the note in a cabin logbook talking about a bear than gnawed on the door.

Jo-Ann at the cabin door... see the tooth marks?

A grouse chick didn't know what to do when her mom & sibling scurried down the trail in front of us. I stepped off the trail and carried my bike around it.

hey, little birdy!

We met a trail crew at the lake when we stopped to eat lunch on the breezy shore, away from the bugs. The guys had finished working on another cabin and used bikes and BOB trailers to get around on the trail. Everything fit into the float plane and they waved as they took off, headed back to Seward.

Can't believe how much gear they fit in the plane body & floats!

Wildflowers in the sloping meadows.

Lisa enters the meadow.

The window to ride this trail is very short. After the downed trees are cleared and snow fields melt and dry, but before the cow parsnip has overgrown the trail and before bears are abundant fishing for the salmon that swim upstream to spawn. We caught the window just right.