Whittier to Seward Hwy via Portage Pass, Lake, and Creek

An obvious and attractive line across the narrow Kenai isthmus, it took eleven of us only five hours in wind and rain to go from Whittier to the Seward Highway by way of Portage Pass, Portage Lake and Portage Creek.

While I am sure it has been done many times, I post it here as it is an excellent beginner’s route, so long as all are in dry suits and PFDs should a beginner somehow end up overturned in Portage Lake with its near-sheer walls and cold glacial water. A canoeist died there about a year ago according to an article in the Anchorage Daily News.

The hike across the pass took an hour, the lake paddle another, and the float downstream a couple more with an hour-long break en route. Quite scenic, close, and well-suited to packrafting. More varied and without the wood and air boats of the Winner Creek–Twenty-MIle route but equally easy, if only half as long.