Airs Hill Trail Lower re-route section with full bench construction

Family on the new trail behind the Tetlin Visitor Center leading to an abandoned trapper's homestead.

SAGA Crews involving 10 crewmembers and 3 crew leaders worked hard to create two new hiking trails in 5 weeks.

"Where can we hike?” is a popular question from summer visitors to the Tetlin Refuge.  Located along the Alaska Highway, the only road entering the 49^th state, Tetlin Refuge is the gateway to the “Great Land” and the first refuge encountered by motorists.  As one of two Alaskan refuges on the road system (Kenai’s the other), Tetlin shares with Kenai a legal purpose to provide “opportunities for interpretation and environmental education.”

Since 2002, Tetlin Refuge has improved existing hiking trails and also created new hiking opportunities. Through a cooperative agreement with the local Americorps affiliate, the Southeast Alaska Guidance Association (SAGA), two - 8 person youth trail crews worked for 6 weeks building new trails this summer.  Adjacent to the Tetlin visitor center the SAGA crew built an easy half-mile hiking trail that winds through a deciduous/spruce forest to end in a clearing marked by two remnant cabins of an abandoned trapper’s homestead. The Refuge is developing a self-guided trail brochure and will also offer guided interpretive walks to the site next summer.

The Airs Hill Trail is located in one of the few upland areas on the Refuge near the Alaska/Canada border. Meanders through a beautiful birch aspen/spruce forest. This moderate hiking trail invites the more adventurous visitor. The original 7 mile trail  leading to a cabin on Mirror Lake was used primarily by snowmachines and ATVs for hunting and trapping. SAGA re-routed 5 miles of the original trail this summer since some parts were too steep and muddy for regular use. Work is still needed on a 2 mile trail section where a 1991 fire left deadfall and thick aspen re-growth to be cleared.  Plans call for the original Airs Hill trail to be restored as a multi-use trail for snowmachines in the winter and hiking and pack horses in the summer.