TRIAL BY TRAIL

HATCHER PASS — Anyone who’s been following plans for a potential ski resort in the Valley could be forgiven if the activity off of Palmer-Fishhook Road on Saturday was mistaken for a vision of things to come.

At the bottom of a gentle sledding hill, a group of would-be snowboarders, some older than others but none who’d yet graduated from high school, crawled up to where lessons were about to begin, boards strapped to their feet.

When the instructor said so, each took a turn riding maybe 30 yards down a gradual slope. All of them seemed a bit wobbly, though some more than others.

Off on one side, cross-country skiers whizzed by, many who had arrived without skis or skill ready to try something new. An instructor up the trail was dishing out advice.

And if Winter Trails Day offered a whiff of the long-planned, often-delayed and much-discussed Hatcher Pass ski area, the Mat-Su Borough staff there that day probably didn’t have time for such musings. They had their hands full organizing things.

Warren Templin, outdoor recreation specialist for the borough, said the number of people who turned out impressed him.

“I think we’ve had the best turnout we’ve ever had,” he said as he took a break from making sure the hot water at the snack table stayed hot and lining up instructors for the various classes that day.

Over the years, he said, it’s grown quite a bit. Two years ago, the event was a mostly staid affair with maybe a dozen participants on hand at any one time. People filtered in and out and by the end, usually about 130 people had come and gone. This year, Templin said, about an hour after the event started he’d already gotten a headcount of 125 people. The parking lot by the sledding hill had 60 cars in it. More folks were further up the road.

He said usually REI, which is on hand to loan out equipment, gets a headcount by checking how many people have filled out forms to borrow things. But, Templin said, a surge of people that morning had kind-of overwhelmed that system.

“It was hard to keep up with the paperwork,” he said.

The list of things to do that day was long — cross-country skiing clinics, a tour of the state parks’ rescue cache, snowboarding and downhill skiing classes, a demonstration on the proper use of avalanche beacons.

Templin himself was due, a few minutes after he spoke, to help out on the snowboarding class. And the ski patrol was on hand to take care of anyone who was hurt. By late morningthey’d already had their first patient.

“One little girl cut her cheek,” Templin said.

The point of all this, he said, is to get people interested in outdoor winter sports and show exactly what the pass has to offer. He said there are cross-country ski trails all around the place, both on borough and state land.

It’s cheap and easy fun available all year. Well, all winter, if you’re talking about the borough’s parking lot, which sits just off Palmer-Fishhook Road well before the switchbacks.

“This area here is open pretty much just in the winter,” Templin said. “If we leave it open in the summer people come up here and try to live here,” he said.

And while Templin did a lot of hard work getting the word out about trails day — spreading the information to various schools and organizations — he couldn’t discount the hand Mother Nature played in Saturday’s turnout.

“What a wonderful day,” he said, taking in the sunshine.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.