Kenai resident Ryan Marquis and his family have made a tradition of staying at Barber Cabin in Chugach National Forest — a 320 square foot log cabin on the shore of Lower Russian Lake approximately 3.5 miles from the Russian Lakes trailhead — for several years.
"It's a nice hike in, but it's a really well-maintained trail — you can get in and out really easily," Marquis said. "It's a nice, secluded cabin on a lake, ... a nice place to go spend a few days."
The cabin includes tools for splitting firewood — which Marquis said his family usually brings from the trailhead in a wagon — and a metal canoe for boating on Lower Russian Lake.
Barber Cabin can be rented for a daily fee of $45. The Forest Service beginning Jan. 1 will boost the daily rate for Barber Cabin and the 40 other rental cabins in Chugach National Forest between $15 and $65.
The Forest Service will phase in the fee change over a three-year period. Barber Cabin will cost $75 per day during the peak season —May 15 to August 31 — and $50 per day the rest of the year.
Some 143 cabins in the Tongass National Forest will see similar rate increases.
Rising maintenance costs
Seward District Recreation Program Leader John Eavis of Chugach National Forest oversees maintenance of the 18 cabins in the district. He said inflation has driven up the cost of materials and transportation for his workers. Most of Eavis' cabins are within 2-15 miles of a trailhead, but three on the eastern peninsula are accessible only by floatplane, which Eavis estimated costs around $800 per trip.
"(Maintenance needs) can be a pretty wide variety of wear and tear from users, weather, and aging," Eavis said.
Items that often need to be repaired or replaced include chimneys, woodstoves, windows, bunks and counters, decks and stairs, and boats. In addition, Eavis said his crews have to dig new outhouse pits every three to ten years, depending on a site's popularity.
Chugach National Forest says it spent about $314,500 on its cabins in 2015. Of that expense, $140,000 — about 44 percent — has come from fees, with the rest being funded by federal appropriations that Eavis said have shrunk in recent years.
Based on inflation and use trends, the U.S. Forest Service calculated that Chugach will spend $368,000 on its cabins in 2019. After the third year of rental rate increases, the Forest Service expects fees to fund 70 percent of this cost.
The Forest Service says "revenue from cabin rental fees has remained mostly static since the 1990s, (while) operations and maintenance costs have changed over time."
Currently, most of the Chugach cabins cost $35 per day in the peak season, with four that cost $25 per day and eleven that cost $45 per day. Non-peak daily rates are $25, $35, or $45.
In the first year after the rate change, all rentals will be set at $50.
For many cabins, this will remain the permanent non-peak rate. However, 20 high-use cabins will see a peak-season increase to $60 per day in the second year, and an increase to $75 the next year.
Two $100 cabins
Two cabins near Cordova accessible only by plane — at Martin Lake and Nellie Martin River — will increase to $100 per day by the end of year three.
Marquis said the increased prices wouldn't make him hesitant about using the cabins.
"We started going to different cabins years ago, in part because of how cheap they were," Marquis said. "It was a cheap way to do vacations locally, but even at (the increased) price, I think it's worth it. It's a good value still."
It remains to be seen whether the price chance will reduce visits. In 2014, there were 14,719 nights the Forest Service cabins were rented in Alaska, and an estimated 27,513 vistors, according to Jeffrey Miller of the National Forest Service.
'Nicest cabins I've seen'
Lisa Beranek, a member of the Kenai Peninsula Outdoor club, said she has rented Chugach's cabins at Upper Russian River, Aspen Flats, Resurrection River, and the Barber and Dale Clemens cabins — at daily rates that currently range from $35 to $45 but will rise after three years to between $60 to $75.
Beranek said that while $45 is a usual daily price for cabins she has rented in the past — both in Chugach and elsewhere — local cabins compare favorably to others she's visited.
"As someone who's lived outside the state of Alaska and enjoyed public-use cabins on federal and state land, some of the cabins up here are the nicest cabins I've ever seen or stayed in," Beranek said. "In parts of the Lower 48 I've paid $45 to stay in a fire lookout that has a giant hole in the roof and rain coming in around the woodstove. So I think as long as funds are being spent responsibly and efficiently to take care of those cabins and keep them in good condition for future use, then I'm totally OK with that."
The new fees will begin Jan. 1 with reservations accepted up to six months in advance, and popular cabins, such as the new Spencer Bench cabin, accessible via an Alaska Railroad Whistlestop train, book up rapidly.
Spencer Bench opened June 1 this year and it was booked for all but five nights for the rest of the year, according to Jeffrey Miller of the Forest Service. "It was an amazing first year," Miller said. "There was huge interest."
For summer rentals, the train and cabin can be booked at a one-stop shop through the Alaska Railroad. Winter reservations are available for those willing to hike, snowshoe, or ski -- although there is no established route -- and can be made mid-September to mid-May through www.recreation.gov.
Used with permission from the Peninsula Clarion. Reach Clarion reporter Ben Boettger at ben.boettger@peninsulaclarion.com. Mike Campbell of Alaska Dispatch News contributed to this report.
When it comes to renting Forest Service cabins, timing is everything. Rentals can be made at www.recreation.gov six months in advance, meaning that reservations for the long days of June are being made now.