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Katmai Bop, Katmai National Park
You can do hikes of any length and duration in this Park, from day hikes to multi-week. The "Katmai Bop" is a route Colin Dukes and I just completed, and like every hike in Katmai, there are no trails, but all cross country. We departed the Three Forks Overlook, headed up the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes past Mount Griggs to the Knife Creek Glacier terminus. We cruised past Broken Mountain, Novarupta (Site of the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century), around Falling Mountain and on to Katmai Pass. I considered this portion, far and away, the most boring of the trip, unless you love ash, and lots of it! From the pass we headed down the Katmai River for Katmai Bay. A few miles before actually getting there we were forced into the Alaskan bush due to the river and mud (many river/creek fords, none a big problem), and from here things went downhill rapidly. Alders and head high dense grasses, Devils Club and Salmon Berry bushes slowed our pace to a crawl, averaging perhaps 1/2 mile an hour under grulingly hard conditions. Since our plan was to hit the bay then ascend Alagogshak Creek, we rapidly understood this would be a 10 day boring bush-whack in itself. Instead, we headed uphill, spending the next 11 hours thrashing through the weeds and ridge walking to Topographers Peak. Water can be a huge issue ridge walking, so you need to melt snow. The crux of our trip occured the next day (#5)decending and ascending a small drainage canyon feeding the Alagogshak. A 120' near vertical decent and ascent on wet grasses made things very dicey. If not for a few alders to hang on to, we would have beed in deep bear scat! Having my ice ax out may have been handy. We continued ridge walking up to a saddle below Mount Martin (instep crampons recommended), a smoking volcano. In a whiteout we map and compassed down the other side, exiting back to our starting point down Windy Creek early on day eight. This is one spectacular trip! Must have's are repellent, and a head net is handy in the bush. The alders will rip anything not securely fastened to your pack (Colin lost his ice ax). Water is an issue in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, in the brush, and on the ridges. We brought a water filter (for ash) but never used it. Email me (janoflamingo@comcast.net) if I can be of any assistance to your planned trip to Katmai. For a week long adventure, this trip is an absolute classic! Bears? We expected to see hundreds, but saw only a mom and her cubs. We did carry pepper spray and a backpacking electric fence, which helped us to sleep better at night. Bears were all over the place at the tourist stop, Brooks Camp, and likely Katmai Bay, but not on our route since the berries were not ripe yet. There were, however, bear tracks galore along our entire route, even in the higher mountains and glaciers (no big crevasse issues, no rope). We also saw many caribou tracks and a few wolf and moose tracks. Great journey. It was an honor to be there.
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