Petersville earns top honor

Valley Life editor

A national Web site ranking the top 10 places in the country to snowmachine recently highlighted Petersville - the only Alaska location to be included on the list.

America's Best, a Web site that releases top 10 lists for a wide variety of subjects, ranked Petersville as the ninth-best place to snowmachine in America for 2005. Hatcher Pass ranked ninth among the top 10 places in the country to cross-country ski, two spots behind Kincaid Park in Anchorage, in the 2004 version of the lists.

For those who snowmachine in the Petersville area, they don't need some list on the Internet to tell them what they already know - Petersville is the nirvana of Alaska snowmachining.

"It's the best place in the state to snowmachine. It's close to home, everybody knows somebody who has a cabin up there," Tobey West, a Palmer snowmachiner, told the Frontiersman for a 2002 story. "We usually ride up there a couple weekends a month because it's closer to home and we can make a good day out of it."

Petersville has something to offer virtually every type of rider - there is Peter's Hill for those looking to climb a bit, and there's a seemingly endless amount of trails in the low-lying areas for riders looking to stick to established areas.

Becoming such a popular place does have its disadvantages, however.

"It used to be that Petersville was the best-kept secret among snowmachiners," said Palmer snowmachiner Tony Grover. "But, my God, drive up there after we get a bunch of snow, and you'll find people everywhere. It seems like everybody is up there now."