29 June 2019 // Saturday around 11AM I pulled up to my friend Jesse’s (@jrosenstein) house to rendezvous for the hike. Chase (@chaseburnett) was already there. We drove an hour and a half from Anchorage to get the beginning of the Mint Hut Trail. When we arrived, we prepared ourselves.
It was a scorchingly hot day. The first three miles seemed to fly by. But by mile 5, we were really beginning to feel the effects of the heat. The sun was beating down on us relentlessly, and whenever we would take a break in the shade (of a bush) to catch our breaths, the flies would swarm us and try to dig into our skin. Chase said he thought they were trying to lay their eggs in us.
Luckily for us, there’s a river that runs adjacent to the Gold Mint trail. Every so often we would have to step over small streams, and frequently we splashed our faces with the water to cool down.
We began to see tips of some beautiful peaks. The mountain peaks in this area are craggier and more menacing than in other areas of Alaska. A gorgeous backdrop that only Alaska can offer.
At the end of the seemingly never-ending eight-mile flat stretch, the final obstacle, about 3/4 of a mile steep incline laid before us. The final nail in the coffin which would inevitably lead to me passing out from heat exhaustion (so I thought). Jesse, somehow seemingly unaffected by the heat, left Chase and I behind as we struggled to put one foot in front of the other. We took no less than 20 breaks during this short, final ascent. Adding to the difficulty were small boulder fields, and the fact that steep cliff dropping off into oblivion was on our right side made us consider each step very carefully.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity in hell, we rounded a corner in the mountain, and there it stood before us in all it’s mythical glory- the Mint Hut!
We setup our tents, rested, ate, and went to explore some more (this time without our heavy packs to weigh us down). The mountains covered the sun, providing us with a perpetual source of shade, and the flies were all gone. That night, I decided to sleep in the Mint Hut instead of my tent, and I had the place all to myself.
The next day we left early in order to take advantage of the cooler weather. Smoke from the forest fire decided to show up, and covered the sun to cool us down. The hike back to the trailhead was way easier than the day before. We took about five breaks in total.
By the end of this hike, me and Jesse had accomplished our goal of hiking 100 miles together this Summer, and I had finally gotten to do my dream hike. Mission accomplished.