The Wood River via The Flats

[john]

The conversation was getting spread over a couple different topics, so I figured a new one to combine this would be good.

Paul: Sat the 9th is the only open day for me to try this run, sorry you're tied up, maybe next year we can add it as a FST ride, if we get it tracked

txcanyon: Yes, this Saturday the 9th.

Darrell: I was thinking of also starting from So Cushman and using the Ice Bridge, then go over the Buttes or around the base from there. I plan to get a couple GPS points plotted to use as "go to" locations and will post those on here for others who are coming to load into their GPS, always better to have more than one navigator.

I think it'd be shorter to run the Bonnifield and over the Buttes to the farthest southern point on the Buttes Loop run I did, track at http://www.snowtravelers.org/maps/Clear ... _Loop.html shown as point 076 (64.6082939 -147.8388602) need to verify the Log/Lat.

Then point south to Willow Creek which should be about 14.5 miles from there (as the crow flies), basically following the Bonnifield as shown on the Topo, so maybe 25 or more winding and turning as a trail does through the fields and willows. On a straight line it's about 18 and half miles to the Wood River, but you know how that goes, no way are we making a straight line

I'll work on finding a secure place to park rigs and also post when I know more on this.

So far it looks like

Myself
Bashley
txcanyon
Darrell -?
maybe Tyler (grandson)

Like to know so I can get an idea of how many rigs/trailers need a spot to park.

[john]

I'm 90% sure we have a secure location to park rigs near So. Cushman, I'll post the location after I get final OK on it.

As I see it, we have 3 route options:

1) River to Willow Creek and then on to the Wood. This is already done and not what I'm hoping to accomplish.

2) Bonnifield to Clear Creek Buttes, over the Buttes and down the Bonnifield to the wood. The GPS waypoints below follow this tentative route.

3) Ride the road to Blair Lakes, turn south and head towards Japan Hills and Wood. I'm wondering if this is the route Darrell was talking about, it would be about right for time and there are some good trails along this route.

Option 1, not what I really want to do, prefer to get a land route to the Wood.

Option 2, my preference but the Bonnifield as currently shown goes right into the burn area and may be blocked requiring some diversion or chain saw work, but heck this is an exploratory trip.

Option 3, looks like the easiest, but would be like riding down the highway, not my preference.

The initial GPS points I've plotted are following and would appreciate others that are coming along add them t your GPS. These are NAD 83 and set in DMS.

TOPO! GPS Data Format DegMinSec NAD83 ElevFeet UTC-Time
001,64,36,30,-147,50,20,NA,03/06/2013,17:16:30,
002,64,34,48,-147,50,43,476,03/06/2013,17:22:47,
003,64,31,0,-147,50,30,505,03/06/2013,17:28:15,
004,64,29,30,-147,52,39,538,03/06/2013,17:28:58,
005,64,26,51,-147,52,5,570,03/06/2013,17:30:37,
006,64,25,15,-147,51,11,603,03/06/2013,17:30:50,
007,64,24,36,-147,53,19,638,03/06/2013,17:30:53,
008,64,23,5,-147,57,2,672,03/06/2013,17:31:02,
009,64,20,42,-147,57,29,702,03/06/2013,17:31:08,

[john]

Were set for parking at Altrol's on Van Horn near Peger, we'll take the dike to Cushman and then cross the ice bridge and go from there.

How does 9:00 AM for a departure time sound to everyone who's going ?

Might bring extra gas if you can carry it, just in case

[txcanyon]

Sounds great. How long do you think we will be out? I have a 1.5gal gas can, and can strap it to my sled, but it will obscure my tail/brake light.

[john]

but it will obscure my tail/brake light.

Just don't stop

Time depends on how far we can get, I plan to be home by 6:00 or so, maybe later, of course if we run short on fuel all bets are off.

[AK Wanderer]

Hey John: Is a Ft. Wainwright Rec. Pass required for any (or all) of these proposed routes?
Tom

[john]

Yes, we don't leave the FT WW rec lands till were almost at the Wood.

Getting a RAP is easy.

Go to http://usartrak.com/

Click Get RAP. Enter basic info requested.

You then get a RAP number back. Click on Home

Click on Login, enter RAP # and password you set up

We'll be in zones : 201,202,203,206,205

Select "Off Road" for activity and click Check In.

Done.

[AK Wanderer]

Thanks. I'm all in!

[larry morris]

WELL?
How did it go? End up in Fox? Looks like you had a great day for a ride.

[john]

To the Wood River

Not this year. We left Altrol’s parking lot around 9:00, thank you Dave Bridges for letting use us your lot to park and headed to the Ice Bridge, all went good to Clear Creek Buttes with one or two little side trips trying to decide which way we wanted to go.

Anyway, once we dropped off the south end on the Buttes we turned south and followed a trapper’s track to nowhere Back tracked to the Bonnifield and headed south once more. There was a track of sorts, not recently used, but definable and it was heading in the direction we wanted to go and was the Bonnifield Trail.

This got us about half the way to the Wood until we came to a creek/stream that the ice had caved in. It was about 6 to 8 feet deep and maybe 15 to 20 feet across, so we stopped and back tracked a half mile or so and tried to find a way to get around it. We were right in the middle of the burn area and kept hitting stumps and down trees. After working on this for a bit we decided to go back to the trapper trail we found and follow it east to the Blair Lakes fuel road. Of course we didn’t bring any chain saw and even if we did I had no intention of spending all day cutting a new trail to cross the creek.

Great ride on the trapper line all the way to the fuel road and hot, almost too hot I know I was sweating most of the time during this section of the run. Well we headed south again towards Blair Lakes on the road and finally turned around at the new gate that said something to the effect of 4 targets and Laser Targeting Area, humm, hope they don’t have moving targets on their list of laser practice

We decided to head back to the rigs and take the road, it was smooth and fast, almost to fast as the last 3 pictures will show. Seems John’s (txcanyon) 800 Cat decided it wanted its belly scratched and didn’t quite make one of the turns, up and over the beam he goes, sled is on side and John is OK, so after petting his poor sled we set it so the tracks were facing downward again and headed for home.

Of course I didn’t have the video camera going at time nor was I close enough to him even if I did, would of have been a great action shot, but we did get some pictures We ended up putting on a total of 87 and half miles for the day.

Pictures are in the gallery

[john]

Interactive Map, Attempt to Wood River.

http://www.snowtravelers.org/maps/Attem ... River.html

[txcanyon]

Couple of pictures below. First one is where I crashed and how fast I was going when I laid her down... Only cracked my windscreen and broke the key off. Needless to say it was very scary, and the fact I had snow caked inside my helmet only solidifies their requirement when riding. (and buckled as well as when I hit 95.5 mph it flew up and over my eyes)
Overall it was a very enjoyable ride. There was a moment when I went off into the trees and managed to weave in and around them for a good bit. Well john decided to come looking for me. I managed to get back to the spot where we stopped for a break and had to wait for him. I can't believe he managed to steer the ole BeastCat where I went, (and he mentioned something about my turns being too sharp)



Secod picture is the whole trip as seen by my Andriod app

[Darrell]

So what to do next? I have phone number for Ft. Wainwright crew that was to clear this trail to start with if you think there is anything to get out of a phone call to them. Adam Davis at work 361-1166 cell 687-3866.

I also see the http://www.facebook.com/grandadventurefilm?ref=stream guy posted a map with their route to the wood. Scale is to small to see much, so far no track from them, so what to do about that?

Run down Rex trail come in from that end?

Anyone been to the mouth of Willow creek where grand adventure may have come out to Tanana?

Have heard that there is a trail along the south boundary of Army land to the wood. Excess from Blair lake, anyone?

Bonniefield is trail in name only, but is any trail that goes across the flat?

[john]

I emailed the Grand Adventures guys a week or so a go and he said he'd see about getting me a track log after they got back from Phase 2.

We talked about this as well, and ya, you could run the Tanana to Willow Crk to Wood, but I was hoping to find an overland route rather than the river / creek they took.

It looks to me like one could go to Blair Lakes and take the trail on the south side and head to the Wood, we were fairly close at that point per the map. That might work for this year, I'm thinking about doing a trip next season and see if we can cross that creek that was caved in and get to Willow Creek, but it may be easier to just do the Blair Lakes and find a route from there to the Wood.

[john]

One more map of the days ride

TOPO!map-1.jpg