ChillyChugach

Arrived at Glen Alps about 8:30.  Was the ONLY car at the second lot.  Woohoo!  Kinda shuffled/ran the first mile past powerlines and towards little O'Malley.  When the going got steep, slowed it down and "power hiked". Did some more shuffle running through the ballfield.  I guess I think of the ballfield as junk miles before getting wherever you're going... And here's where I was going:  MOUNT WILLIWAW! The picture is from the east end of the ballfield - right before dropping down into the valley that contains the Williwaw lakes. Slid down on some handy scree.  Stopped to empty shoe rocks. Continued on towards the west buttress of Williwaw, staying right-ish to funnel into the south ridge route.  Thought clouds were gonna start filling in, but it stayed only partly cloudy.  Whew! I went up the rocks that are to the right of the snow in the center of the picture.  There's a definite RIGHT way through - go too far right or too far left

It was an early, EARLY start for us.  We loaded the Nissan with our trusty "hike bikes" and were rolling towards Eklutna by 5:30AM. Excitement ran high.  Drew and I had read a lot about Bashful, and although it sounded like a fairly adventurous undertaking, we had complete confidence of reaching the summit with minimal mishap. Arrived at Eklutna lake.  Unloaded beater bikes.  Riding at 6:36AM. We knew that it was about 11 miles of gravel grinding until hitting the East Fork trail, which is where we would ditch our bikes and begin the REAL hike. The first miles passed a bit chilly, but we soon forgot about the cold altogether as we entered the realm of  the largest peaks western Chugach has to offer.    As we came to East Fork and prepared to leave the bikes, we got a good look at the south ridge of Bashful: We strolled along the river, passing through what I can only describe as "fairytale forest" The grass and trees closed in the further