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Temptation - Tanaina Traverse
By Joe Anders
We did a fun traverse from the Snowhawk cabins to Stuckagain heights and thought other MCA members might like to know about the route. On Aug. 23, Raj Choudhury, Greg Mc Duffie and I set off under clear skies to bag Temptation and both Tanaina's.
We staged a car at Stuckagain Heights, below the burned out restaurant. Drove around to Fort Richardson and parked in front of the bridge over Ship Creek. Hiked up the road to the Ship Creek dam, then up the trail to lower Snowhawk cabin. The grass was wet and we got soaked, but it was a trail - kept us from having to beat brush! Continued up Snowhawk valley to upper Snowhawk cabin, then up the SW slope of Temptation. Great views of Ship Valley. We hiked down and across the ridge that connects Temptation and East Tanaina. It's a very pleasant walk up to about 1/2 mile from East Tanaina, then it gets pretty tough. The ridge becomes broken up into large, steep blocks that are climbable but composed of rotten, exposed rock. We tried climbing a couple, then decided to traverse around the east side of the ridge. Found a gully that took us up to the ridge between Koktoya and East Tanaina, then walked up that ridge to the summit. Another pleasant ridge walk got us to West Tanaina, then we dropped down to Long Lake, hiked out to the Dome and took the trail down to Stuckagain Heights. Counted over 50 sheep on the side of Mt. Elliot, only one other person. Beautiful weather, long day - great hike! It's wonderful to live so close to such an incredable park!
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