Hey, guess what we’re going to do on our first day in Anchorage? Visit a museum? Go shopping? Out to eat? Nope, and I’m sure you guessed that we took a hike - up to the top of Flattop, a 3550’ mountain with a pancake top (makes it shorter to climb). I don’t know why mountains draw us as flies to honey. The view, the challenge, the people along the trail. Whatever. We love to climb. Well, we love to summit, we have to climb.
Flattop is such an iconic peak to climb that you can take a shuttle from town or take a taxi. When we got there, the parking lot was close to full though as we were changing into our hiking boots, about 9 full vans left. However, the parking lot quickly filled and we got this view looking down as we were descending. I’m sure that this lot was full all day. Plus, there’s another lot down the canyon.
At times it is steep, at times you cruise through a saddle to the next climb.The trail is being loved to death and the width of the trail, the shortcuts that people take to avoid switchbacks, the short side trails to overviews all tell that this is not a solitary hike where one communes with nature but a hike where one marches in line to the top with everyone else.
Even though this sign is here, people still cut corners and get off the trail, making their own.
Here’s the goal - Flattop Mountain.
If we had thought that a Wednesday morning would have fewer hikers, we were quickly disillusioned. Although, maybe I should hike on a Saturday if I want to see crowds marching in step to the top.
There were steps in some steep places but in most places it was boulders, rocks and scree. In fact, the wooden steps were often worn out, often tilted which made hikers jump from edge to edge and often had scree on them which made footing more difficult. But it was a fun hike and there were lots of others having a great time.
At the last saddle before the final climb to the top, we rested and then tackled the hill. I’ll have to admit that I got about 85% up Flattop but decided that scree, boulder scrambling and the angle were not my favorite. I like to have at least one foot firmly on terra firma and this hike requires a bit of jumping from boulder to boulder. One foot down, one foot in the air - nope, and I headed back down to the saddle to wait for Gary the mountain goat.
He climbed up as I watched him and then he disappeared over the top. His pictures tell me what he did up there.
I actually am in this next picture - but not big enough to locate.
Here is the view I had looking up. Lots of people on the trail.
Me? I enjoyed myself talking with whoever else sat down on the bench I as on. First a young couple, she was a teacher, he was a teacher but quit after 2 years and joined the army. They loved it up here. I told them to tell Gary hello when they saw him. Another was an older woman with a dog named Minx who quietly waited with me while she hiked up. She gave me the names of a few trails that we’d like.
Gary finally came down. I could tell which little dot on the hill he was because he was the only one in a white shirt and light shorts. Everyone else wears black these days. We’re the only ones in light colors.
At the bottom we took some other pictures.
Of course we saw hang gliders, this guy jumped off of Flattop, swooped down, the air currents carried him back up to the top so he could jump off again. He must have done that 5 times as we climbed.
Back down the peak we were getting into our car and heard a young man ask a Taxi driver if he could ride back with him. Nope, the taxi driver said because he already had a ride. So we asked him to come with us. Taxis are very common here and so is the shuttle which starts from downtown and brings people to hike. This is a very popular mountain to climb.
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