The Hand Tram
This was one of the funnest things I did while in Alaska: in Girdwood, I went on a hike along Crow Creek to an old hand tram, which required pulling myself across a very high gorge in a little box with only my hands. At the other end of the creek was this small 10 ft. waterfall in a neat little gorge.
I started off the hike at the Crow Creek Mine, an interesting place where you can pan for gold and look at the old miner buildings. It costs money to go in there, but since I was just going on a hike to the hand tram, the lady there was very nice, gave me directions to the trail, and I didn’t have to pay anything. The hike follows through a forest, joining up with the historic Iditarod National Historic Trail. This is not part of the famous annual Iditarod race route, but the historic trail actually goes further than the 1100 miles from Nome to Anchorage, and continues on through Girdwood to Seward, and includes a total of 2300 miles of interconnecting trails.
After awhile of hiking, you eventually come to a dead-end. A massive gorge across Crow Creek that cannot be crossed. Oh, but it can be crossed. Here I find the hand tram, a little cage that you crawl into, and pull yourself across the creek on a pulley system. It is a very neat experience, but at first I found it a little daunting. I’m slightly uncomfortable with heights, and here I am in this little box, pulling myself across the creek, and it is very very high above the creek. Is this thing even safe? It also required a lot of strength for a single person to pull yourself across. Good thing I ate my Wheaties in the morning. By the time I got to the other side, though, I was having balls of fun. That is good, too, because I still had to go back across again.
On the other side of Crow Creek, the trail winds up and down to a neat little gorge on Winner Creek (yes, it is a winner – ha ha). At Winner Creek is a small 10 foot high falls. It is not a spectacular waterfall, but it is in such a beautiful setting. This whole trail is just awesome, definitely one of the highlights of my trip to Alaska. It was raining quite hard here though, making it difficult to photograph.
After visiting this little gorge, it was time to go back across the Hand Tram. I stopped in the middle of the creek to take some photos looking down. See below. Once I made it to the other side, I noticed a couple hikers had come up behind me, waiting to cross on the tram. After I got out, they had to pull the tram back across to their side. But they were pulling it the wrong way, and the tram kept slamming into the structure on my side. I yelled across to them to “Pull it the other way! You are pulling it the wrong way!” But they just didn’t get it. I even tried to help them get it started, but they just pulled it back, slamming it again into the structure. Finally, I gave up trying to help and left them to their own devices. They probably thought I had somehow tied it up so they couldn’t pull it back across. I wonder if they ever figured it out? Come on guys, it is not rocket science!
Here’s a snap of the Hand Tram:
View from the Hand Tram in the middle of the creek:
