Location: Long Lake Trailhead in the Matanuska Lake State Rec. Area
Date: Wednesday, May 15th
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 pm starts
Long Lake Trailhead in the Matanuska Lakes State recreation area. We have white, yellow, orange and red courses.
Directions: Head out the Glenn Highway from Anchorage; after the Glenn and the Parks split, continue on the Glenn Highway towards Palmer. Pass the main access to the Matanuska Lakes Rec area (about mile 36) – you’re close but that’s NOT what you want. You’ll come over the top of the hill and around a bend, and exactly at mile 38 (there’s a milepost there on the right) you’ll make a left onto S Colleen St. From there it’s a zig-zag in, but only about 1.5 miles. You follow brown signs for Canoe Lake, Irene Lake, Long Lake. You’ll pass a fee station, I think at Irene lake access; you’ll need to stop and buy a $7 parking pass, and continue on to Long Lake Trailhead. We will of course have orienteering signs/controls up to mark the route.
It’s a bit of a drive, but we think using this map is worth it. We’ll have starts from 5 to 7 PM; the orange (4.6 Km) and red (5.1 km) courses sound short but the going is slow and there’s no straight lines, so we expect 1 to 2 hours, depending on your walk/run ratio and success navigating.
The white and yellow courses are on the long side for their level – dictated by the available routes. We measured by actually walking those courses: white is 1.4 miles and yellow is 3.1 miles.
Given the drive, we’ll have extra snacks available.
There are a good number of prickly bushes, so wear long pants. The scenery can be spectacular from parts of these courses.