We started in Girdwood at the Alyeska Hotel. We hiked up the upper Winner Creek trail to the pass and down the other side to the Twenty Mile River. At the river, we inflated our packrafts and floated back out to the Seward Highway. The hike was about 1

Scott taking the high road over a creek crossing.

We saw a number of really nice waterfalls on the hike.

We were only halfway there, but Scott was already fired up to start paddling.

Check out the trail in the background of this photo. Last year when we did this hike, the trail was about half-built and we did a good amount of bushwhacking. Now, its a super-highway all the way up and over the pass (but not yet all the way down to the

Linda and I, with upper Winner Creek in the valley below.

This was a neat tarn at the pass. On one end it had an outlet that flowed down to Winner Creek, on the other end it had an outlet that went down the other side to Twenty Mile River.

It was raining when we did this trip last year, so I was amazed at the scenery this time around. Plus, we had the whole place to ourselves. We didn't even see any other (human) foot prints anywhere on the trail.

Lunch break at the top of the pass.

Heading down the other side towards the Twenty Mile, I couldn't believe the amount of work that's been put into this trail. Boardwalks!? Even stairs in a few places!? But then, about half-way down the trail abruptly ended and we had to follow a much mor

Down at the river, we inflated the packrafts. The river was pretty high (21 feet at the gauge). The first mile or so was probably class II because of potential for sweepers and strainers, then class I the rest of the way.

It was Scott's first time in a packraft, but damn it looks good on him!

Of course, it looks good on Linda also.