I headed down to Seward, AK on the train this morning at 6:30 am to make into Seward at about 11 am to ride the Lost Lake trail / Primrose trail. It was voted on in the local forums here in Alaska as the best singletrack ride in Alaska. The train was a little more expensive then driving but well worth the forgoing the hassle of driving plus it only dropped me off 5 miles from the trailhead. I was a little worried making my ride back as boarding began at 5 and the train left at 6 that left me with about 5 hours to finish the 15 miles of singletrack and the 22 miles of pavement that I would have to ride to the trailhead and back to the train station.
The gravel road to the trailhead was a nice precursor to what I would be doing for the next few miles on the trail. Within the first 100 yards of trail I was quickly stopped due to a flat in my rear tire which was no problem as I always pack 2 tubes in my backpack. After fixing my flat I steadily climbed up to the top of the lake where I wasnt afforded much of a view due to the clouds that were hanging out. The trail was also fairly wet making some of the climbs a little trickier due to the wet rocks. It also had a few stream crossing but nothing that would cause you to get your feet soaked. There were also quite a few backpackers on the trail as its a fairly popular backpacking trail.
After splitting off the Lost Lake trail to descend down the Primrose trail I was stopped by my second flat. I was getting a little worried as this was my last tube and I hadn't packed a patch kit. The descent down Primrose was fantastic, everything I could of hoped for. Half way down the descent though I got my third and final flat as I had nothing to fix it. I stopped some backpackers and tried using a light to melt the tube as to seal the tube but had no luck. I started my 3 mile hike out of the trail hoping to hitch-hike a ride so as to catch my train.
At this point it was 4 pm and I had two hours to walk 17 miles to the train station. When I got out to the Seward Highway I tried flagging people down but had 10 cars pass me with no signs of stopping. Luckily I saw a highway trooper going in the opposite direction and waved him down. He ran my license and then was nice enough to give me a ride back into Seward even though he was headed home. I made it time to catch the train where I ended up sleeping most of the way.
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