Revisiting Upper Ohmer Lake Cabin

We've enjoyed visiting the Upper Ohmer Lake Cabin in the Kenai Wildlife Refuge a couple times before, but it is usually booked far in advance so I was pleasantly surprised when I check in mid-November and January 1-3 was available. Although I've blogged about it before I thought I'd give a photo journal of the trip.

Upper Ohmer Lake from Skilak Lake Road looking towards the Alaska Range and with a glowing sunset.

View of the lake and hills from inside the cabin

I brought my yoga mat and kept up my practice in the cabin

Such a cute little outhouse, though I still can't figure out why it has a hinged lower and upper door

View of mountains beyond the cabin from the walking trail to it

The cabin looks so cozy tucked in by the lake with smoke meandering out of the chimney. This is as close to sunshine as the lake and cabin get in the winter.

We did a bushwacking hike up the hill across the lake. View of Skilak Lake from up there.

More bushwacking, which included log balancing!

There was "just" enough snow to pull a sled with our gear

It is a fast downhill walk to the cabin from the road and only .3 miles

This trail and cabin is handicap accessible

The weather was getting colder so our first night there the ice was moaning which was a weird sound that sounded like a drunk moose (or what we imagine one might sound like!), and the next morning when Doug was out on the lake pulling down logs across for firewood it moaned as he was on it and he felt the vibration.

The nights were beautiful with an almost full moon so we went walking on the road after dark. While elsewhere on the peninsula things are very icy, the trails were not icy and walking the road was comfortable though there was ice under a scant bit of snow. 

It was good to get away and boil life down to the basics of eating, getting wood and staying warm, playing games and doing all sorts of tech-free activities like walking around the lake. We probably could have skated but there was maybe a 1/4 inch of snow on the lake so we opted to walk it instead. My aunt and uncle joined us the second day and they appreciated this place as much as we do (they had never been there before).

Our big adventure was bushwacking--hiking up the hills across the lake and then they go up and up and up some more and then down, through the brush and Devil's Club, balancing on logs, plowing through grass and stepping over downed trees. We finally came out onto the road to the Skilak Lake Campground a little over an hour later a mile or two away. While hiking the road back to the cabin we saw plenty of wild cat tracks, probably lynx.

It is amazing how time morphs when out in the woods. It felt like we were gone a long time, but it was only two nights. We've got this place on our "favorites" list!