About Us Join Trails Events
Photos Links Homer Home

Baycrest Trails
To get there, coming from Soldotna/Kenai, turn left onto Rogers Loop just past the Borough Baling Facility but before the Bluff Point Scenic Look-Out. Go down about 1/8 mile and look for the Trailhead sign on your left. Coming from Homer, turn right just before the Bluff Point Look-Out, near the Baycrest Hotel, and go down about 1/4 mile and look for the sign on your right

  • Homestead Loop (5KM)- From the trail head, up the east side of the loop, this trail takes you across an open meadow, across Diamond Creek, up through some trees and up Pitzman Hill, where it eventually lets out into the open just below the Cottonwood Cabin (private property), and the intersection with the Sunset Loop. From here it travels west across open terrain to the old Homestead site (there's a bench there).There are nice views offered from this point. From this point there's a nice long downhill down the "seis" trail, across Diamond Creek again where it turns back east down a long straight-away, till it meets up again with the main trail to the Trailhead. This trail could be classified moderate-difficult.

  • Raven's Way Loop(4.8)- From the main trailhead, head either through the woods or on the main trail down a short distance and turn left down a long straightaway and just after the trail breaks out into the open, turn left at the intersection for Ravens Way. This trail heads out through open flat meadows and climbs a short hill and through some trees before turning back toward a point where it joins again with the Homestead Loop. This is a fairly easy loop with great opportunities to work on your technique.

  • Headwaters (5KM)- Stay on the Homestead Loop till it meets with the "4 corners" 4-way intersection with the 1K cut-off. Turn left and head down through the woods crossing several fun "dips" (Killer Hill, Sitzmark Hill and Death Valley) till the trail turns left, crossing Diamond Creek.and back up through the woods. The trail then follows the creek valley, winding up and down through the trees, till it comes out at the base of Pitzman Hill and meets with the Homestead Loop again. This is a fun trail with a lot of interesting terrain.

  • Demonstration Forest Trail ( 2.5KM)- This trail, named for the piece of land it's located on, heads down the main trail again, past the 4-way intersection, across Diamond Creek to a junction with the Homestead Loop. Keep left and follow the loop out through a large open meadow. Keep left again, (there's a right that goes "through the woods" to Homestead Loop) and cross-over a bridge and up through the trees to get back to the trailhead.

  • Sunset Loop (4KM)- From the top of the east corner of Homestead Loop, head up-hill a little to a "Y", and keep right.. .(This description assumes you start from the east side of the loop.) There are several trails off of this trail that are private, so just continue to ski up the hill. This is a fairly steady, fairly difficult climb. Once you reach the top, the trail heads west crossing several driveways, (again, please respect private property), before heading down to the left again at the Communications Site. The trail then heads back east again through some open territory offering some fantastic views of Kachemak Bay, Mt Augustine, and Cape Douglas. It winds back up the hill again a little before going down "Awesome Hill", (this hill if a LOT of fun), to return to the intersection with the NE corner of Homestead trail. About half-way across this open area at the top, there is a branch to the right, called "Far Side", that travels down the hill and joins up with the NW corner of the Homestead Loop, at the bench.

*Note: All trail descriptions describe travel from one direction. Our trails have no particular direction to follow (no arrows). These descriptions are just to familiarize new skiers with our system. All distances are from nearest trailhead.

McNeil Trails
These trails consist basically of a 7 1/2K loop starting at the school and travels a short distance across a meadow before winding through some trees and heading up a long gradual hill. At the top of the hill it opens up and offers some fantastic views of Kachemak Bay. (Sit down on the bench and enjoy the view awhile.) The trail then heads back down the hill and through the trees, across the muskeg meadow again, and returns to the school.