The Birch Hill trails had dried out fairly well before the snow and rain earlier in the week. Today, to avoid muddy conditions on the Tower Direct, we took the Sunnyside and Cliffside trails to access the Fort Wainwright alpine hill. We found dry footing for walking and enjoyable vistas. Also, the mosquitoes haven’t discovered us yet.

Once we reached FWW, we did one ascent under the chair lift. The snow left from the ski jumps had diminished significantly since last week, but the hill was still a steep 840 m uphill.

The SCUM dryland schedule involves ascending Ester Dome on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. (meet at the bike trails parking lot at 1 mile Ester Dome Road) and doing FWW hill ascents on Fridays at 10 a.m. (meeting in South Birch Hill parking lot). We sometimes change up the workouts depending on trail and weather conditions, so be punctual. Today Robert Hannon was 3 minutes late and didn’t get the change of venue so did his first FWW ascent alone. He did join us for our return hike up Cliffside, Sunnyside and Outhouse. The overachieving SCUM also did South Tower–completing the Birch Bakken course.

We welcome all comers and variations in the courses are frequently taken depending upon the schedule and fitness of participants.