Beach Lake's Other Trail: Where Chugiak Walks While the Dog Teams Run

"Dedicated to mushing Aug 1 - April 15." That line sits at the top of the Chugiak Dog Mushers Association's map page for the Beach Lake Sled Dog Trails. Behind it are more than 16 miles of groomed trail that club members have built and maintained over several decades, winding through birch forest, spruce bog, open meadow and lakeshore. The trails are dedicated by the Anchorage Assembly, and Parks and Recreation manages them as mushing-only for those eight and a half months each year.

For a long time, the rule meant that anyone without a dog team had no legal way to walk around Beach Lake for most of the year. Since 2024, there has been one. A separate gravel multiuse trail now runs through the park, and the Municipality's 2026 capital budget pays to extend it toward Chugiak High School. When the mushing season takes over the sled dog trails this fall, walkers still have their own route.

The Mushing Calendar Has Already Started

The dog teams are already out on the trails. Snow isn't the starting signal. CDMA has held dryland races every fall since 2014, in which dogs pull bikes, scooters and wheeled rigs or run beside their humans in canicross. The club schedules them for fall "after the temperatures drops, to allow for the safety and well-being of the dogs."

This weekend, October 3 and 4, 2026, is the Dryland Derby, a two-day championship with a $2,000 purse. Saturday's bikejor and scooter classes start at 9 a.m., followed by the 4-dog rig and a mass-start canicross. Every class uses the 2-mile trail. Racers must be CDMA members, but the club says anyone is welcome to come watch, volunteer or try the sport.

Once the snow comes, the season keeps going all winter. Here is what the club has posted, with races held at Beach Lake Park Trails unless noted otherwise:

Two of these show how much of the park the season uses. The Junior/Senior Night Race runs after dark on the 2-mile loop, with check-in at 6 p.m. and the start at 6:30. The Solo Sweepstakes covers four loops totaling roughly 80 miles on the Beach Lake sled dog trails.

Not every October event belongs to the mushers. On Friday, October 9, 2026, Eagle River/Chugiak Parks and Recreation runs Boo at the Beach, a Haunted Trail at Beach Lake Chalet from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The recommended age is 12 and up, but 6:30 to 7:30 is a family-friendly hour when kids can walk through before full dark. A "Scaredy Cat" exit along the trail offers an easy way out. This year there is no trick-or-treat trail, and the event is going all-in on the haunted route. Tickets are available online or at the door.

Why the Walking Trail Took So Long

Until a few years ago, the seasonal dedication created a real problem. In 2022, Chugach Mountain Bike Riders summed it up this way: the mushing trails were open to multiuse only from April 16 to July 31, and the existing arrangement "does not provide any year-round legal option for hikers, bikers, or other multiuse path activities around Beach Lake." At the time, the only multiuse path was a quarter-mile gravel segment at Beach Lake Lodge. Over the years, people had worn social trails from the parking lot toward the canoe landing and the beach at the north end of the park, cutting across the lakeside mushing trail along the way.

A trail counter study, begun in fall 2022 after the trails went to mushing-only management, measured the gap. Preliminary data showed 569 multiuse passes, or 89 percent of traffic, and 59 mushing-team passes, or 11 percent. Hikers, bikers, boaters and dog walkers were on that stretch 8 days out of 10. Mushers used it about 1 day in 4. CMBR also pointed to the safety issue for both groups, noting that "off-leash dogs are the greatest danger to mushers" and that every mushing trail at Beach Lake carries two-way traffic.

The design CMBR backed called for an 8-foot-wide gravel path in a 12-foot clearing, set at least 25 feet back from the lake. It would cross a single two-way mushing trail with 250-foot sight lines, using split-rail fencing and signs to keep the two uses apart.

The Municipality's approval went further than that early concept. On December 13, 2023, the Urban Design Commission unanimously approved about 4.0 miles of new nonmotorized multiuse trail in two phases, along with relocation of about 1.9 miles of mushing trail. The commission adopted the written resolution on January 10, 2024. That same month, CMBR put out a request for contractors to design and build about 1.5 miles of hardened gravel trail.

The work went quickly. At the November 18, 2024 meeting of the Eagle River/Chugiak Parks and Recreation Board of Supervisors, staff reported that "Beach Lake Trail work is complete except for some small punch list items," with progress "helped by a long fall." In 2025, CMBR coordinated construction of another mile of the Northern Extension Coastal Trail around Beach Lake, part of a route connecting Eagle River to the Inlet along the Historic Iditarod Trail.

The published updates confirm that real mileage of non-mushing trail now exists at Beach Lake. They don't confirm that all four approved miles are finished, so the posted signs at the trailhead are the best guide to which segments are open.

Where the Trail Goes Next

The next piece is in the 2026 approved capital budget. Project PR2026002, Beach Lake Multiuse to Chugiak High School, extends the multiuse trail from its current end to Chugiak High School. It is planned as a four-season gravel trail "intended for all types of non-motorized trail use." The budget describes it as one link in a separated trail running from Eagle River to Knik Arm. The schedule runs from May 2026 to December 2028.

The project has $500,000 for 2026. The money is a transfer from the Eagle River/Chugiak Parks and Recreation service area's capital fund, not a bond, and the department plans to apply for more grant funding. The Board of Supervisors added it to the budget request through Resolution 2025-014. These pages give a schedule, not a construction report, so they don't show whether crews have started work this fall.

There is another link further out. The Municipality's 2026 Recreational Trails Plan lists Project 68, the Coastal Trail North Extension from Beach Lake Park to Mirror and Edmonds Lake, as high priority. On the plan map the route is drawn as a hatched line, because cultural-resource questions and the exact alignment still need to be worked out. The plan also notes that most of its projects are still proposals and will need more public process before they are funded and built. If both projects are built, Beach Lake would sit in the middle of a non-mushing corridor that runs from Eagle River to the high school and on toward Mirror Lake.

Using the Park Between Now and April 15

With the mushing trails and the multiuse trail both in place, here is how the park divides up through spring.

1. Leave the posted mushing trails to the teams. From August 1 to April 15 they are mushing-only, and every mushing trail at Beach Lake carries two-way traffic.
2. Keep your dog on a leash on the multiuse trail. Municipal trail rules require dogs to be leashed and owners to pick up after them.
3. Skiers have their own map. The Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage posts a Beach Lake/Chugiak High School ski map with routes graded green, blue and red, including one labeled the Old Lighted Loop. NSAA says the average first grooming day in Anchorage is November 11 and that ski tracks need 2 to 3 inches of consolidated base. That is an areawide average, not a Beach Lake forecast. For young skiers, Chugiak-Eagle River Nordic Ski Club's 2026–27 Junior Nordic registration opens October 11.
4. Check conditions before you go. In winter, Parks and Recreation grooms the Beach Lake trails, checks the ice, clears access areas and plows parking, and posts updates on its site and social channels. CDMA posts its own trail reports on Facebook.
5. The Chalet can be rented. Beach Lake Chalet's posted hourly rates are $35 for the small room, $70 for the main room and $90 for specialty exclusive use.

For the next week, the Derby runs this weekend on the 2-mile trail, and Boo at the Beach fills Beach Lake Chalet, at 17300 S Birchwood Loop Road, on the evening of Friday, October 9.

If you're weighing how much space you need for dogs, skis or a trail at the end of the street, Sarah Helgoe would be glad to talk through how places like Beach Lake fit into daily life in Chugiak. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.