Hidden Creek - Skilak Lake Hike

It's another gloomy day so we head down to Sterling Highway and over to Skilak Lake Road to check out the Hidden Creek / Skilak Lake Trail

 Just over 3 miles and no elevation gain - a good hike for a possible rainy day.  It is misting lightly as we head out

 Its a beautiful trail

 Lots of boardwalks to get through the muddy spots

 The trail goes through a 1996 burn area

 The two sections actually make a loop so we go for the Lake first

It doesn't take long for it to come into view.  Skilak Lake is 15 miles long and 2 to 4 miles wide, making it the second-largest lake on the Kenai Refuge

 More boardwalk

 Then it changes to river rock

 We arrive at the Lake behind a couple vans of guided hikers but we find a separate trail to the Lake

 It doesn't take Tucson long to dive in

 This family of ducks was just milling about

 The lake is very clear

 and so is this Bear paw print

 There's a fishing boat out on the point so head that way to see what's biting

 Tucson has his nose to the ground and is in hot pursuit of something

Another bear paw print

 We pass a beautiful marsh our left.

 and a few bear scat piles along the trail.

 We reach about 50 feet from the fishermen and I was trying to get a picture when Gary yelled - Bear! Bear!  A black bear was trying to climb the tree and slid down getting Gary's attention.  

So we have a bear with the Marsh to its back, the Lake in front, us behind and the fishermen ahead.  It was trying to decide which way to go so we just kept making noise and slowly backed away back to the trail.

 We catch the Hidden Creek trail to finish the loop, hoping it doesn't take us straight back to the Bear.  I sing Amazing Grace as we hike because I read somewhere that it scares off bears.

 We come across a primitive campground with campers who just caught some beautiful Red Salmon - looks good enough to eat.  They had seen a Grizzly with two cubs earlier in the day and had shot a warning shot at the Bear we saw when it wandered in the night before.

 As the next run of Salmon comes in so will the bear.  We continue to head back towards the truck

 Doesn't look like we are out of the woods yet.  Another refrain or two of Amazing Grace.

 We make it back without spotting another bear and stop into the Hidden Lake campground to check it out.  National Forest and only $10/night.

 A quick stop at Wildman's for ice-cream

 Everyone enjoys the treat!

Another beautiful hike.  Weather permitting we will attempt the Harding Ice field since we have recovered from the Lost Lake hike.