I'm alive and returned to the continental US this morning safely and soundly. I had spent the past week and a half in Alaska with the majority of my stay in the backcountry of Denali National Park. I just wanted to say that it was a phenomenal experience and saw some of the most gorgeous views. I wish my camera could have captured things better so you could've seen it as I had. Anyway, the link directly below are pictures that I took and wrote some captions to. After that is a retelling of my trip. It'll be long and somewhat detailed since i'm using this e-mail as somewhat of a memory/journal of what happened. So those that don't care can just go to the link and be content. Those that do care, can keep on reading about my trip in more detail.
Allen's Denali Photos
This trip came about because one of my best friends is getting married and this is the "bachelor party" that he planned. Definitely unconventional, but I can't say I don't approve of a great trip like this one.
Gearing up for the trip we expected bad weather. This time of the year in Alaska is the tail end of the rainy season and the tail end of the mosquito season. We hope that both would be not as much of a factor. Unfortunately, the weather forecast leading up to our arrival into alaska on friday, august 5th, wasn't looking so hot(lots of rain). Expected, but still a downer. Our band of six guys were Ian, Todd, Trevor, Matt, Sain, and myself. Ian, Trevor, Matt, and Sain were arriving into Anchorage from Chicago, Todd from Austin, and myself from Portland. My plane trip was an uneventful 4 hours. I immediately spotted the party at the baggage claim and we set off from there. We loaded/crammed all of our gear in our rental minvan and we were on our way. Let me take a second to do a quick rant on our rental. We were given the Chevy Uplander and it is leaps and bound worse than any automobile ever made. Alarm bells sound off for no reason. Doors don't open for no reason. When we want doors to open, the automatic doors want to close on us and vice versa. The engineers must have been drinking paint while designing this car. There is no other explanation for their idiocy. They should be fired and then tarred and feathered in an open square in every major city in the U.S. Worst vehicle ever.
We made a quick trip to REI in Anchorage for some supplies and talked with an employee that got a kick out this being a bachelor party. He suggested we go to the "Great Alaskan Bush Company" on our way back in anchorage. I'll let you decide where this is a) a company specializing in fauna or b) a strip club.
The drive from Anchorage to the Denali park entrance is 6 hours. We had to stop and camp out partway through our drive. It was really weird that it never got fully dark. The sun goes down and the sky darkens for a few hours everyday, but it never gets pitch black dark. Anyway, we end up camping in what should have been an aphid farm. Those little things were everywhere. This was only a taste of the insects that were to be encountered. We got up the next morning really early since we wanted to be at the park to get in line for permits as quickly as possible. We were ready to get our permits but were a little clueless as to where to go in the park. Denali National Park is unlike any other national park that I've ever been to in that it is completely trailless. Rather than getting permits for trails, a backpacking group would request permits for a zone. The entire park is split up into 40 some odd zones. Each zone has a limit for the number of people allowed. This usually ranges from 2 to 8. They do this to keep the feeling of wilderness in the park. The entire duration of our backpacking trip was spent without seeing another person out there. That was really really cool. Being that we had a rather large group of 6, we were more or less forced into the Kantishna Hills area(zones 42, 41, and 40). This wasn't bad at all because of the possibility of amazing views of the Alaskan Range. But these views were completely dependent on the weather cooperating. A trifecta of obstacles(rain, clouds, and smoke from fires) stood in our way of seeing the range and it was already overcast and lightly drizzling outside of the wilderness center. We were distributed our six bear canisters and were ready to go.
We headed out to the mercantile to pack up our stuff and get supplies finalized. We had a last lunch and waited at the bus stop. We were unaware that we needed bus tickets so part of the group went to fetch those. The bus still hadn't come so we didn't lose any time. The bus arrived at 2 pm and we hopped on. It is a 6 hour bus ride from the populated park area to our zone. Along the way, the bus stopped for breaks and for any views of wildlife. We were able to see a grizzly bear on a hill/point. That was pretty cool. We finally make it out to our destination at 8 p.m. and we're off.
As inferred before, Denali National Park places a lot of emphasis on a wilderness experience. Just as a backpacker shouldn't need to see any other backpackers outside of his/her group, a tourist on a tour bus shouldn't have to see any backpackers in the distance. So, it was necessary for us to get out of sight of the road and ride up and over the first ridge. Our plan was to follow an old miner's road, but we were stopped some time on the road since the road seemed to vanish. It split off into a private road, but we figured we shouldn't take that since we were warned not to disturb any of the private residences that are in the first part of the first zone. We decided to start our trailless adventure. We ended up following a creek and up a long incline of tundra and brush. This was a day of firsts. Our first encounter with mosquitos became an annoyance and I was immediately turned into a buffet. I seemed to be the lucky one that attracted most of the mosquitos. This was also our first encounter with tundra. Think of tundra as a thin layer of soil and vegetation, but under it is a really really big pillow. It's really cool at first, but it gets old fast when you realize it's really tough to walk through. Walking on flat tundra even feels like uphill because you sink down into the "pillow" and have to lift your leg back out and sink in again. We finally make it over the ridge and barely out of sight of the road. We have pop tarts for dinner, set up camp, and go to sleep at 1 am.
We wake up the next morning refreshed, but soon discover that we aren't where we think we are. We think we are a couple of miles ahead of our current position, so we march forward. For the most part, things are uneventful that day except that it was painful. We had a big problem on our hands, water. The vast majority of the creeks and rivers had heavy metal in them and were therefore undrinkable. This is due to the area that we were in used to be a mining area. Unfortunately, the mining contaminated many water sources downstream as well. Because of this, it was necessary for us to get to Spruce Lake for water. We filled up out of a dingy spring on the top of a peak early in the day, but outside of that we had no other choice for water. Thank goodness that the day was cloudy and the temperatures were cool because any sun or heat and we would have been dying of dehydration. Another reason to label the day as painful was that Spruce Lake was rather far away and we had to really work hard to get there in time. Doing this without trails and on unfamiliar terrain made things doubly hard. My least favorite part of the entire ordeal is running into thick brush or a ravine which meant having to either climb down to hack through the brush or climb up to avoid the ravine if possible. Brush is just annoying because it is just difficult to push and pull your way through. You can easily get snagged or struck by branches whipping back at you. Visibility is low so it's hard to watch your step. Towards the end of the day we were walking on a plateau and came to a point where we had to descend to the bottom. "Lucky" for us that the entire stretch to the bottom was thick brush that we had to fight through. Imagine you're on top of a massive hill looking downward and all you can see are hedges and bushes your height packed together all the way down. I'd say that was easily the irking sequence of the day. But once we bushwhacked our way to the bottom, it's as if we just slaughtered an army and were celebrating a battle victory with high fives all around. It was kind of like getting runner's high, except it was ten times better. We finally end up at Spruce Lake after a little more climbing and hiking. We set up camp and are just ridiculously tired. The dehydrated food that day tasted like a feast for a set of 6 kings. The other highlight of the day was a short glimpse of the cascades and maneuvering around a caribou.
The fact that the day was so grueling really shed some light on how much different walking on a trail is from navigating without a trail. A trail is so simple to walk on because you follow it and it should generally take you in a semi-optimal path that avoids all the hinderences that a trailless hike stacks in front of you. Rather than planning the path to take with a limited view in front of you to avoid ravines and bushwhacking through thick brush, trails provide a clear path to a destination.
The next morning, Ian and Trevor spotted a big moose. They attempted to wake the rest of us up, but the moose gave them a cold hard stare that basically meant "i'll kill you if you don't shut up". That was the end of that. We all awoke to a gorgeous sight. The clouds and smoke had cleared giving way to a phenomenal view of the Alaskan Range and McKinley in sight. After patching up feet and whatnot, we had a light hike that day planned to get to the next zone. The light hike was greatly appreciated after the death march that we had to go through the day before. Unfortunately, our light hike turned for the worse when Sain dislocated his shoulder leading the way through some heavy brush. He made a bunch of attempts to pop it back in, but was unsuccessful. Eventually he toughed it out and hike the last 1/4 mile to our destination and we took care of it there. We put together a makeshift medical tarp with trekking poles and a rain fly to keep sain shaded as he kept trying to pop his shoulder back in. Thanks to Matt's field guide, a 2-person technique with Trevor's assistance did the trick. We basically did nothing but relax, took pictures, and played cards that day. The Alaskan Range and Mount McKinley was just beautiful to look at in the meantime. McKinley is so huge and overpowering.
The next day we had planned to stay where we were and that's exactly what we did. It was a great spot because we had a good water source nearby. We found good water to be rare enough that this was quite a luxury. We did get antsy, so we headed off on a day hike to a relatively nearby peak. That turned out really well. There were great 360 degree views all around. Unfortunately, our second casualty occured on the way back to our basecamp. Trevor aggravated his knee and it was painful. The rest of the night was much like the previous night. Lots of cards with a great view.
Our next day was planned to go to a nearby lake(good water) to spend the night, but unfortunately, I had to be a big idiot and misstep with my right foot into a ditch and twist up my ankle. It was decided that instead of going to the lake, we would just head back to the road and try to make it out of the backcountry. This was because my ankle didn't hurt all that much at the moment since it would stay loose from the hiking and my boot would prevent the swelling, but waiting a day would be painful. Hats off to the rest of the crew to put up with that and march their way back to the road. It was an absolutely grueling day. Things were horrible again because we had to conserve water, but also because the sun and heat were out in full force. Despite what you may think about alaska, it does get hot. It's not all ice and snow. Trucking through tundra was painstakingly slow and tiresome and ten times worse with the sun beating down. We had to ford 3 rivers/creeks that day and we didn't bother taking our boots off. This had an effect of a pool in our boots as we hiked. It wasn't that big of a deal at the time, but after 8 hours of hiking, our feet were destroyed. Crossing water is just another thing that you have to plan for. You don't want to cross moving water in bad spots. Sometimes it's worth the effort to take a look up and downstream for better crossing points. Crossing moving bodies of water is taken with great care because footing is bad and it's easy to lose your balance and fall over especially if the force of current is strong enough. A 4th and final casualty occurred on our final water crossing. Ian dislocated his shoulder while i tried to capture a picture of him dunking his head in the river for fun. Luckily he was able to pop his back in pretty quickly with the direction of Sain. We were pretty battered and beaten. The last 2 miles we absolutely blasted toward the road. Not quite lightspeed, but pretty close.
We collapsed at the road just before 9 pm. We took off our boots and our feet were absolutely disgusting. We were slightly afraid of "trenchfoot" since our boots had been waterlogged all day, but after some airing, our feet slowly started to look more and more normal. As of right now, I don't have full feeling in my big toe of my right foot. The other guys have similar symptoms in varying toes, so its probably just some nerve thing that will hopefully work itself out over the next couple of weeks. As Trevor informed us, we are probably just going to be more susceptible to frostbite in the corresponding toes. Since I don't plan on getting near to the point of frostbite anyhow, I'm not too concerned.
It turns out we missed the busses for the day, so we had a light dry dinner of peanut butter and jelly pitas and broke out our sleeping bags on the side of the road. We were able to pick up a bus between 6 and 7 am and we were on our 6 hour bus ride back. We weren't ever able to get to a good water source again prior to noonish the previous day so we were getting to the point of dehydration. A group of japanese tourists were very kind in giving us some water that they weren't in need of. It's funny how something as simple as water can seem like a priceless offering. It was really nice of them to offer it to us.
The busdriver that we had on the way back was a really nice lady. She told us about a group of juvenile and delinquent backpackers that she was driving the other day. She overhead them talking about just screwing the rules and camping in forbidden areas(sight of road, etc.). She spoke up and told them that they probably shouldn't do that. They just said, "who's gonna care anyway?". Well, she dropped them off and they were like, "oh crap, we forgot our tent!". Talk about a bunch of boneheads. Then they just said the they'd go back with the bus. But the bus wasn't going to be going back. It was going to stay out overnight and go back in the morning. The backpackers were getting nervous and saying, "but they can't just leave us out here!". The busdriver just said, "have a good time" and drove off. That's awesome.
On our first day of hiking, we came across a tent, but no person. It turns out, that was the tent of somebody who had been missing for the past few weeks. Rangers found the tent some time back and found a journal. The last entry was July 21 or 22 and it read something like, "i'm going to go get water". Knowing what we know, going to get water in that area is impossible. There are no sources. It's kind of scary as to how this guy disappeared, but it seems like he wasn't prepared at all for this kind of stuff. The busdriver was telling us how he didn't have any serious backpacking gear. It was all stuff he got at walmart and the guy was a paranoid schizophrenic. Pretty weird.
Anyway, we finally get back to the wilderness center and return our bear cans and take showers at the mercantile(that felt so good!). We head out to the campsite that we had at the park entrance. Now, we go on and ease our way into civilization with a fire, grillin' hotdogs, and knockin' back silver bullets. Good times.
Just as a sidenote, I am a terrible cardplayer and I tend to get angry and swear a lot when I do something stupid or just plain suck(this happens a lot).
Anyway, the next day we start our drive back and stop an hour out of anchorage and stay at an inn. The requirement was a hot tub. They had one but it was ridiculously small. We made due though. Matt bought napoleon dynamite at a local wal mart and we watched that in the car. That was the only redeeming quality of the Chevy Uplander. It had a dvd player. Btw, Alaska is not only a big state, but the residents are big people. At walmart, the vast majority of clothing was in the L, XL, XXL, and XXXL. We passed by a strip mall with a store that specialized in women's clothing sizes 8-14. Right next door was a store called "classic woman" for sizes 14-24. Now, I don't have any idea what size 24 is, but I hope that no woman, for the sake of health, is a size 24.
Anyway, we screw around and watch movies in our room for the night while drinking beer and sleep the night away. The next day, we roll into anchorage and finish napoleon dynamite during the ride. We take in a movie, "march of the penguins", and then waste time eating and at best buy before our flight out. My flight out went smoothly, except that i got into seattle at 1:30 am and didn't have a flight until 7 am to portland. I slept on some chairs and read. My flight to portland was on a prop plane. I'd never ridden in one before and it was pretty cool.
It was a pretty awesome trip.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Alaska Journal - Sain
The reason behind my trip to Alaska is because my good friend and colleague Ian is getting married in January. His idea of a bachelor party is to spend a week backpacking out in the wilderness of the Denali National Park in Alaska. His fiance isn't so keen on doing such a trip in the future. :) Five of us, Todd, Matt, Trevor, Allen, and I, took up on Ian's "bachelor party". Trevor was the only one of us who has done trail-less backpacking. Ian and Allen are backpacking enthusiasts. Matt has done camping and some backpacking. Todd and I were novices.
We planned the trip as such: Fly in to Anchorage, AK on 8/5, drive out to Denali (6 hours), spend the night, head out into the back country on 8/6, return to the park facilities on 8/11, camp at the park for 2 nights until 8/13, then drive back to Anchorage and fly out. We made adjustments. ;)
Everyone's flight out to Anchorage was on-time and uneventful, so we met up without problems. Trevor, Matt, Ian and I flew out together out of Chicago while Todd came from Austin and Allen from Portland. We picked up our rental van and we were off! Kind of...
We were stopping at Subway/Burger King for dinner at Anchorage when lo and behold, we spotted the store that's taken hundreds of dollars from us in the past few months preparing for this trip: REI. So we figured we might as well give them more money. :p We finished up our supplies and told an employee about our bachelor party trip. He was amused and suggested we skip Denali and go to the "Great Alaskan Bush Company" for a proper bachelor party instead. Apparently it's the best place in Anchorage since the bus driver at Denali also suggested the same place. :D
After getting dinner we started our drive to the Denali park entrance. We decided to stop and camp at a camp site around 11pm. It never got fully dark at Alaska. The sun goes down and the sky darkens but you can still see. We got up early to go get our permits and bear canisters from the park rangers the next day.
Denali is separated into regions. A group needs to get permits to camp in a region. You are allowed to hike into a region during the day, but you can only camp in the region for which you have a permit. Furthermore, the regions have restrictions on the number of people allowed per day. Most of the regions have a limit of around 4 people. There were a few 6 and 8 and a couple of 12. Luckily, the 12 people regions that we were stuck with have the possibility of great views of the Alaskan range. The view is weather dictated and frequently obstructed by rain, clouds, and fire smoke. We decided on the Kantishna Hills (regions 42, 41, and 40). The reasoning behind the regions is to keep the wilderness wild, both for preservation and enjoyment. They want it so that everyone that goes to Denali, both hard core backpackers and the tourist buses, see untamed wilderness rather than each other.
The bear canisters we received were basically black plastic cylinders. They have a lid that you unlock and take off. They are officially referred to as Bear Resistant Food Container. I love how they say "Resistant", not "Proof". :)
We took over the porch outside the mercantile to pack up our stuff and get lunch. We finally got on a bus at 2pm to take us closer to our regions and away from populated park areas. It was a 6 hour bus ride... The bus stopped frequently along the way and we saw quiet a bit of wildlife, including ptarmigan, caribou, a grizzly bear far off in the distance, and sheep off in the distance as well. The weather was fairly sunny, but there was a lot of smoke obscuring the mountain ranges. Apparently smoke from random fires is quite common.
We reached our drop off point at 8pm and headed off. We needed to get out of sight of the road before we camp so that tourists on a tour bus wouldn't see us, just as we wouldn't see them or other backpackers. Our plan was to follow an old mining road. However, the road split off into a private road, which we didn't take since we were told not to disturb the private residences. So we started our trail-less adventure. We started by following up a creek, followed by an incline of brush and tundra. We barely made it out of sight of the road at 11pm when we decided to make camp. We had pop tarts for dinner. :p
The tundra was tough to walk on, but the brush was the killer. Walking on tundra was like walking on pillows. The impact is gentle, but it requires effort to continuously pull your feet back out. Furthermore, the vegetation growing on top is often uneven and treacherous. The brush consisted of bushes that grew as tall as us. They took a lot of energy and concentration to push through. We tried to avoid them as much as possible on our trip but there were a lot of brush to hack through.
After hiking for an hour or 2 the next morning, we realized that we were not where we thought we were. Good thing Ian had his GPS and loaded it with the topographical maps. We were not as far in into the wilderness as we had hoped. This turned out to be a pretty big problem because of water. The area we were in, Kantishna, used to be a mining area. As such, much of the water has been contaminated with heavy metal. Therefore, we had to get to Spruce Lake for water. A 13 mile hike. Through tundra. And brush. Morale dropped considerably until we found a dingy spring on the top of a peak. Amazing what difference water makes. All this time the weather was cool and cloudy.
At the end of day 2, the first real day of hiking, we had to go down a steep hill that was covered with brush. That was painful. Limited visibility, sideway branches, treacherous footing, scrapes all over your forearms. When we came out at the bottom by the river bank I was screaming in frustration swinging at branches with a branch I had picked up. :p And when we had to go back UP to get to Spruce Lake... Hoo boy. Tired, pissed, and looking for something to hurt. ^_^ The freeze dried food that night tasted amazing. One positive highlight of the day was spotting a caribou maybe 100 yards away and then maneuvering around it. :)
Ian and Trevor spotted a big moose at the lake the next morning and tried to wake the rest of us. However the moose gave them dirty looks whenever they tried so they decided to shut up instead. :) When we did wake up, we were treated to a gorgeous sight. The gray low clouds were gone, the sun was out, no smoke, and the Alaskan range was in plain view. Mckinley was still stabbing into clouds higher up, but it was obvious that it was going to have to reveal itself to us. After a hot breakfast of oatmeal, the first time I can remember ever LIKING oatmeal, we bandaged up our feet and headed out.
Day 3 was supposed to consist of a light hike to the next potable water source in the next region. Mckinley came out around lunch time, giving us a great inspirational view. We sat around our pita breads gushing over how lucky we were. Unfortunately, the light hike decided some additional excitement is required. I was leading the way down some brush to a river crossing when I dislocated my left shoulder. It's a recurring problem for me so I wasn't too worried. However, I usually have access to a bed or flat soft surface to reduce it. No such luck in the brush. I was lucky there was a place where I could even lay out. To make matters worse my shoulder refused to go back in. Ian, Trevor, and Allen went on ahead to set up camp while I gave a few more tries. After Trevor came back, 20 min later, I gave up and decided to tough it out to the camp site. The guys were great and helped me out a lot, holding branches and such out of the way. Thanks to a backpacker field manual Matt had brought, we tried a different technique that finally succeeded. After that we basically relaxed, took lots of pictures with Mckinley, played cards, and ate. We were just in awe of the majesty of Mckinley and the spread of the mountain range. The panoramic view was so uplifting. It was truly a great camp site.
We decided that we would spend day and night 4 at the same spot. We had a good water source, terrific view, and tired bodies. :) We took our time before wonderlust gripped us and we headed off on a day hike to a nearby peak of about 4000 feet elevation. There were great views and fairly gentle terrain with no brush. Unfortunately Trevor aggravated his right knee and had problems with downhill from then on. He used the 2nd set of trekking poles that I was borrowing from Ian from that day on.
The plan for day 5 is a decent hike of a couple of miles to a lake for the night, crossing 2 rivers. Unfortunately Allen had a misstep and twisted up his right ankle. Allen was still able to walk, but we decided that we would head for the road out that day instead of the lake. It was doubtful how his ankle would hold up the next day. Consequently day 5 turned into another long distance death march. The terrific weather turned against us. We had to conserve what water we had. (We were able to refill at a lake at lunch.) Marching across the tundra in the sun was like walking through a desert. Treacherous footing made you want to step in the lower, possibly wet parts, which meant more energy pulling your foot out. The sun was beating down upon us. I tied my towel around my head to stop the sweat from stinging my eyes. We crossed 3 rivers that day and they were deep enough that our boots got wet inside. Hiking in wet boots was very destructive to most of our feet. I think my feet escaped in the best condition. I have the feet "conditioning" from kendo to thank I think. :p
Our final accident happened at the last river crossing. After the crossing Ian decided to take a fun picture by dunking his head in the water. However his right hand slipped and with the fatigue and whatnots his right shoulder popped out. Ian's shoulder has had problems before, but he never fully dislocated it. We reduced it quickly with the same method I used and proceeded on our way. We saw some beaver constructions by the last river.
The GPS indicated a trail from the road to a Ranger Station so we decided to head for it. We missed the Station but found the trail. It was one "foot" wide. One foot as in you can fit your foot in it and walk one foot in front of the other. It was like taking a sobriety test. ^_^ Still, it was a blessing. It meant packed ground unlike the tundra and paths through the brush. The trail opened up more as we got closer to the road and we were able to make great time for the last 2 miles to the road.
We collapsed at the road around 9pm. The last bus passed around 6. We were too tired to make any effort to set up camp or get water for hot meals so we made do with peanut butter and jelly pitas and slept on the side fo the road. We took the first bus going in at 6am and commenced our 6 hour bus ride back. A group of Japanese tourists were kind enough to share their water with us on the bus. It was interesting that there were quiet a few Japanese tourists there. It looked like most of them were not out for the backpacking like we were, but they were camping at the camp sites and doing some pretty serious day hikes.
The bus driver back was a nice lady. Her first question to us was "Did you see anyone out there?" We were like "Um... no." She then informed us that apparently someone has been missing for 3 weeks out in the backcountry and a search has commenced. We did recall seeing and hearing planes and helicopters starting day 3 of our hike. We had come across a tent after our first night, but no person. We're pretty certain that was the tent the rangers found. Apparently the guy went out with cheap gear and was not an experienced backpacker. He was from Anchorage and had psychological problems. His journal's last entry was around 7/21, "Going to get water." At Denali they only track you as you go out, not coming back. You are responsible for telling people on the outside your itinerary so they can inform the authorities of problems.
We finally returned back to the wilderness center and returned our bear cannisters. The showers at the mercantile were great. We did the more touristy things for the rest of the day, picking out souvenirs and such and getting beer and hot dogs for dinner... and more cards.
We decided to skip the final night at the camp grounds and headed to a hotel an hour out of Anchorage for our last night. Hot tub was an absolute requirement. It was small but we made do. The last day, 8/13, we drove into Anchorage and caught "March of the Penguins." I was so tired I dozed off a couple of times. :p I'm sure I would've dozed even if it was an action film instead. After the movie Todd and Ian demonstrated their DDR skills at the arcade. I don't think Todd was tired enough given his performance, lol. We wasted more time at Best Buy before finally heading to the airport and depart for our homes.
It was definitely an exciting, memorable trip. ^_^ I think I would like to do more camping and outdoors stuff. However, trail-less hiking on tundra is not at the top of the list. :) Sigh, more things to burn more money on...
We planned the trip as such: Fly in to Anchorage, AK on 8/5, drive out to Denali (6 hours), spend the night, head out into the back country on 8/6, return to the park facilities on 8/11, camp at the park for 2 nights until 8/13, then drive back to Anchorage and fly out. We made adjustments. ;)
Everyone's flight out to Anchorage was on-time and uneventful, so we met up without problems. Trevor, Matt, Ian and I flew out together out of Chicago while Todd came from Austin and Allen from Portland. We picked up our rental van and we were off! Kind of...
We were stopping at Subway/Burger King for dinner at Anchorage when lo and behold, we spotted the store that's taken hundreds of dollars from us in the past few months preparing for this trip: REI. So we figured we might as well give them more money. :p We finished up our supplies and told an employee about our bachelor party trip. He was amused and suggested we skip Denali and go to the "Great Alaskan Bush Company" for a proper bachelor party instead. Apparently it's the best place in Anchorage since the bus driver at Denali also suggested the same place. :D
After getting dinner we started our drive to the Denali park entrance. We decided to stop and camp at a camp site around 11pm. It never got fully dark at Alaska. The sun goes down and the sky darkens but you can still see. We got up early to go get our permits and bear canisters from the park rangers the next day.
Denali is separated into regions. A group needs to get permits to camp in a region. You are allowed to hike into a region during the day, but you can only camp in the region for which you have a permit. Furthermore, the regions have restrictions on the number of people allowed per day. Most of the regions have a limit of around 4 people. There were a few 6 and 8 and a couple of 12. Luckily, the 12 people regions that we were stuck with have the possibility of great views of the Alaskan range. The view is weather dictated and frequently obstructed by rain, clouds, and fire smoke. We decided on the Kantishna Hills (regions 42, 41, and 40). The reasoning behind the regions is to keep the wilderness wild, both for preservation and enjoyment. They want it so that everyone that goes to Denali, both hard core backpackers and the tourist buses, see untamed wilderness rather than each other.
The bear canisters we received were basically black plastic cylinders. They have a lid that you unlock and take off. They are officially referred to as Bear Resistant Food Container. I love how they say "Resistant", not "Proof". :)
We took over the porch outside the mercantile to pack up our stuff and get lunch. We finally got on a bus at 2pm to take us closer to our regions and away from populated park areas. It was a 6 hour bus ride... The bus stopped frequently along the way and we saw quiet a bit of wildlife, including ptarmigan, caribou, a grizzly bear far off in the distance, and sheep off in the distance as well. The weather was fairly sunny, but there was a lot of smoke obscuring the mountain ranges. Apparently smoke from random fires is quite common.
We reached our drop off point at 8pm and headed off. We needed to get out of sight of the road before we camp so that tourists on a tour bus wouldn't see us, just as we wouldn't see them or other backpackers. Our plan was to follow an old mining road. However, the road split off into a private road, which we didn't take since we were told not to disturb the private residences. So we started our trail-less adventure. We started by following up a creek, followed by an incline of brush and tundra. We barely made it out of sight of the road at 11pm when we decided to make camp. We had pop tarts for dinner. :p
The tundra was tough to walk on, but the brush was the killer. Walking on tundra was like walking on pillows. The impact is gentle, but it requires effort to continuously pull your feet back out. Furthermore, the vegetation growing on top is often uneven and treacherous. The brush consisted of bushes that grew as tall as us. They took a lot of energy and concentration to push through. We tried to avoid them as much as possible on our trip but there were a lot of brush to hack through.
After hiking for an hour or 2 the next morning, we realized that we were not where we thought we were. Good thing Ian had his GPS and loaded it with the topographical maps. We were not as far in into the wilderness as we had hoped. This turned out to be a pretty big problem because of water. The area we were in, Kantishna, used to be a mining area. As such, much of the water has been contaminated with heavy metal. Therefore, we had to get to Spruce Lake for water. A 13 mile hike. Through tundra. And brush. Morale dropped considerably until we found a dingy spring on the top of a peak. Amazing what difference water makes. All this time the weather was cool and cloudy.
At the end of day 2, the first real day of hiking, we had to go down a steep hill that was covered with brush. That was painful. Limited visibility, sideway branches, treacherous footing, scrapes all over your forearms. When we came out at the bottom by the river bank I was screaming in frustration swinging at branches with a branch I had picked up. :p And when we had to go back UP to get to Spruce Lake... Hoo boy. Tired, pissed, and looking for something to hurt. ^_^ The freeze dried food that night tasted amazing. One positive highlight of the day was spotting a caribou maybe 100 yards away and then maneuvering around it. :)
Ian and Trevor spotted a big moose at the lake the next morning and tried to wake the rest of us. However the moose gave them dirty looks whenever they tried so they decided to shut up instead. :) When we did wake up, we were treated to a gorgeous sight. The gray low clouds were gone, the sun was out, no smoke, and the Alaskan range was in plain view. Mckinley was still stabbing into clouds higher up, but it was obvious that it was going to have to reveal itself to us. After a hot breakfast of oatmeal, the first time I can remember ever LIKING oatmeal, we bandaged up our feet and headed out.
Day 3 was supposed to consist of a light hike to the next potable water source in the next region. Mckinley came out around lunch time, giving us a great inspirational view. We sat around our pita breads gushing over how lucky we were. Unfortunately, the light hike decided some additional excitement is required. I was leading the way down some brush to a river crossing when I dislocated my left shoulder. It's a recurring problem for me so I wasn't too worried. However, I usually have access to a bed or flat soft surface to reduce it. No such luck in the brush. I was lucky there was a place where I could even lay out. To make matters worse my shoulder refused to go back in. Ian, Trevor, and Allen went on ahead to set up camp while I gave a few more tries. After Trevor came back, 20 min later, I gave up and decided to tough it out to the camp site. The guys were great and helped me out a lot, holding branches and such out of the way. Thanks to a backpacker field manual Matt had brought, we tried a different technique that finally succeeded. After that we basically relaxed, took lots of pictures with Mckinley, played cards, and ate. We were just in awe of the majesty of Mckinley and the spread of the mountain range. The panoramic view was so uplifting. It was truly a great camp site.
We decided that we would spend day and night 4 at the same spot. We had a good water source, terrific view, and tired bodies. :) We took our time before wonderlust gripped us and we headed off on a day hike to a nearby peak of about 4000 feet elevation. There were great views and fairly gentle terrain with no brush. Unfortunately Trevor aggravated his right knee and had problems with downhill from then on. He used the 2nd set of trekking poles that I was borrowing from Ian from that day on.
The plan for day 5 is a decent hike of a couple of miles to a lake for the night, crossing 2 rivers. Unfortunately Allen had a misstep and twisted up his right ankle. Allen was still able to walk, but we decided that we would head for the road out that day instead of the lake. It was doubtful how his ankle would hold up the next day. Consequently day 5 turned into another long distance death march. The terrific weather turned against us. We had to conserve what water we had. (We were able to refill at a lake at lunch.) Marching across the tundra in the sun was like walking through a desert. Treacherous footing made you want to step in the lower, possibly wet parts, which meant more energy pulling your foot out. The sun was beating down upon us. I tied my towel around my head to stop the sweat from stinging my eyes. We crossed 3 rivers that day and they were deep enough that our boots got wet inside. Hiking in wet boots was very destructive to most of our feet. I think my feet escaped in the best condition. I have the feet "conditioning" from kendo to thank I think. :p
Our final accident happened at the last river crossing. After the crossing Ian decided to take a fun picture by dunking his head in the water. However his right hand slipped and with the fatigue and whatnots his right shoulder popped out. Ian's shoulder has had problems before, but he never fully dislocated it. We reduced it quickly with the same method I used and proceeded on our way. We saw some beaver constructions by the last river.
The GPS indicated a trail from the road to a Ranger Station so we decided to head for it. We missed the Station but found the trail. It was one "foot" wide. One foot as in you can fit your foot in it and walk one foot in front of the other. It was like taking a sobriety test. ^_^ Still, it was a blessing. It meant packed ground unlike the tundra and paths through the brush. The trail opened up more as we got closer to the road and we were able to make great time for the last 2 miles to the road.
We collapsed at the road around 9pm. The last bus passed around 6. We were too tired to make any effort to set up camp or get water for hot meals so we made do with peanut butter and jelly pitas and slept on the side fo the road. We took the first bus going in at 6am and commenced our 6 hour bus ride back. A group of Japanese tourists were kind enough to share their water with us on the bus. It was interesting that there were quiet a few Japanese tourists there. It looked like most of them were not out for the backpacking like we were, but they were camping at the camp sites and doing some pretty serious day hikes.
The bus driver back was a nice lady. Her first question to us was "Did you see anyone out there?" We were like "Um... no." She then informed us that apparently someone has been missing for 3 weeks out in the backcountry and a search has commenced. We did recall seeing and hearing planes and helicopters starting day 3 of our hike. We had come across a tent after our first night, but no person. We're pretty certain that was the tent the rangers found. Apparently the guy went out with cheap gear and was not an experienced backpacker. He was from Anchorage and had psychological problems. His journal's last entry was around 7/21, "Going to get water." At Denali they only track you as you go out, not coming back. You are responsible for telling people on the outside your itinerary so they can inform the authorities of problems.
We finally returned back to the wilderness center and returned our bear cannisters. The showers at the mercantile were great. We did the more touristy things for the rest of the day, picking out souvenirs and such and getting beer and hot dogs for dinner... and more cards.
We decided to skip the final night at the camp grounds and headed to a hotel an hour out of Anchorage for our last night. Hot tub was an absolute requirement. It was small but we made do. The last day, 8/13, we drove into Anchorage and caught "March of the Penguins." I was so tired I dozed off a couple of times. :p I'm sure I would've dozed even if it was an action film instead. After the movie Todd and Ian demonstrated their DDR skills at the arcade. I don't think Todd was tired enough given his performance, lol. We wasted more time at Best Buy before finally heading to the airport and depart for our homes.
It was definitely an exciting, memorable trip. ^_^ I think I would like to do more camping and outdoors stuff. However, trail-less hiking on tundra is not at the top of the list. :) Sigh, more things to burn more money on...
Alaska Journal - 8/12 & 8/13 - Last Two Days
8/12
The next morning we broke camp and made the 4 hour drive to Wasilla where our hot tob was waiting. After swinging by the local Wal-mart to get swim suits and a copy of Napolean Dynamite, we checked into the hotel and hit up the hot-tub. It was small, but did the trick. We had a nice pizza dinner, watched some TV, and slept. Not much to say :).
8/13
The last day of our trip was upon us. After sleeping in, we headed on down to Anchorage where we caught The March of the Penguins and then hit up Best Buy to some time before returning the rental car and heading home. Here is a pic of us at the airport, all in one piece (ok...so maybe 5 of us could not exactly feel all 10 of our toes ... but they were all still attached).
What a great trip with great friends.
The next morning we broke camp and made the 4 hour drive to Wasilla where our hot tob was waiting. After swinging by the local Wal-mart to get swim suits and a copy of Napolean Dynamite, we checked into the hotel and hit up the hot-tub. It was small, but did the trick. We had a nice pizza dinner, watched some TV, and slept. Not much to say :).
8/13
The last day of our trip was upon us. After sleeping in, we headed on down to Anchorage where we caught The March of the Penguins and then hit up Best Buy to some time before returning the rental car and heading home. Here is a pic of us at the airport, all in one piece (ok...so maybe 5 of us could not exactly feel all 10 of our toes ... but they were all still attached).
What a great trip with great friends.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Alaska Journal - 8/11 - Riding Out
The bus picked us up at about 6:30 AM this morning. We were basically out of water. Luckily some friendly Japanese tourists gave us some of theirs. We found out from the bus driver the story of the dead skitso backpacker on the trip home, as well as where to get some food when we got out.
After showering we headed into "Glitter Gulch" (the touristy town outside the park) and grabbed these giant subs at Bub's. They hit the spot. We then headed back to Riley Creep campground and the camp store where we had a 6-pack while playing some cards and looking for a hotel with a hottub. Eventually Todd and Allen came through. After finishing the 6-pack we decided to head back to camp. I made the comment that we should get some more beer and this is when Todd freaked out. For the first time on the trip he had an opinion about something. He thought that I meant that we were only going to get another 6-pack, and this really bothered him. After I explained to him that I meant a 12-pack, everything was good to go. So, after getting the beer, we headed back to camp and drank up while playing cards again.
After we finished the 12-pack, Sain and Todd went to the store to buy hot dogs and firewood (and more beer) while the rest of us setup camp. They returned and we ate some delicious ball-parks cooked over a fire while drinking more beer. We then had cigars (a first for Allen and sorta a first for Sain) while playing more cards.
It was good to be back to civilization.
After showering we headed into "Glitter Gulch" (the touristy town outside the park) and grabbed these giant subs at Bub's. They hit the spot. We then headed back to Riley Creep campground and the camp store where we had a 6-pack while playing some cards and looking for a hotel with a hottub. Eventually Todd and Allen came through. After finishing the 6-pack we decided to head back to camp. I made the comment that we should get some more beer and this is when Todd freaked out. For the first time on the trip he had an opinion about something. He thought that I meant that we were only going to get another 6-pack, and this really bothered him. After I explained to him that I meant a 12-pack, everything was good to go. So, after getting the beer, we headed back to camp and drank up while playing cards again.
After we finished the 12-pack, Sain and Todd went to the store to buy hot dogs and firewood (and more beer) while the rest of us setup camp. They returned and we ate some delicious ball-parks cooked over a fire while drinking more beer. We then had cigars (a first for Allen and sorta a first for Sain) while playing more cards.
It was good to be back to civilization.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Alaska Journal - 8/10 - Another Easy Day?
Day 5 was supposed to be another nice easy day. We planned to hike as close to the border of 41 as possible (with access to good water) to prepare for our final hike on Day 6. We took our time breaking camp, playing some cards and such, and finally headed out at about 11. After crossing a river, we were climbing out of the little depression surround the river when Allen twisted his ankle. Allen has had ankle problems in the past, and we decided at that time that it would be best to try to hike out that day before his ankle swelled up a lot. This was no small task. It was already past noon, and we were 7+ miles from the road.
We first headed to a couple of small lakes that were on the topo and had safe water. They luckily were there, and we got there around 3:30 and filled up our water while we ate a quick lunch. We then headed on down Moose river towards a trail I found on my GPS and ultimately the road. This part of the trip was painful. Rather than the normal nice tundra that is like walking on pillows (note that walking on pillows is not like laying on pillows -- it sucks), this tundra had these crazy 9" high sprouts of earth with grass on top, each separated by a few inches. You can't step on them because they sorta fall over and you loose your balance and risk spraining your ankle, so you have to walk in between them. Sometimes this fails though, because they are too cloes and you just go careening around until you catch your balance. Other times the space between them is filled with water. To make matters worse, the sun was out in full force, and we had to conserve water because there were no more water sources for the rest of the trip.
Anyway, we finally made it past this and headed down to the Moose River. This was a slightly larger river than we were used to, so fording it was a bit difficult. The cold water felt great on our bodies though. Here is a picture of Trevor and I crossing.
So after crossing the river I decided it would be a good idea to get my head wet in the river. I could have just wet my hat, but decided it would make a good picture to dunk my head in. So, I proceeded to make a tripod with my right hand and my two feet. My hand slipped off the rock, my shoulder popped out, and down I went. I was able to pop it back in using the same technique that Sain used 2 days earlier on the first try. At least now I know how to pop my shoulder back in when I dislocate it again in the future.
Anyway, the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We slogged through some marsh and saw some amazing beaver structures. We eventually found the trail I saw on my GPS and chugged out to the road where we were able to inspect our feet which had hiked in water-slogged boots all day long. The results were not pretty. I have some nice pix of my feet in the photo gallery, but will not show them here :).
Here is one of the beaver dam pictures:
We got to the road at 9pm, 3 hours after the last bus, and camped on the side of the road (no tents). After some PBJ pitas for dinner, we crashed.
We first headed to a couple of small lakes that were on the topo and had safe water. They luckily were there, and we got there around 3:30 and filled up our water while we ate a quick lunch. We then headed on down Moose river towards a trail I found on my GPS and ultimately the road. This part of the trip was painful. Rather than the normal nice tundra that is like walking on pillows (note that walking on pillows is not like laying on pillows -- it sucks), this tundra had these crazy 9" high sprouts of earth with grass on top, each separated by a few inches. You can't step on them because they sorta fall over and you loose your balance and risk spraining your ankle, so you have to walk in between them. Sometimes this fails though, because they are too cloes and you just go careening around until you catch your balance. Other times the space between them is filled with water. To make matters worse, the sun was out in full force, and we had to conserve water because there were no more water sources for the rest of the trip.
Anyway, we finally made it past this and headed down to the Moose River. This was a slightly larger river than we were used to, so fording it was a bit difficult. The cold water felt great on our bodies though. Here is a picture of Trevor and I crossing.
So after crossing the river I decided it would be a good idea to get my head wet in the river. I could have just wet my hat, but decided it would make a good picture to dunk my head in. So, I proceeded to make a tripod with my right hand and my two feet. My hand slipped off the rock, my shoulder popped out, and down I went. I was able to pop it back in using the same technique that Sain used 2 days earlier on the first try. At least now I know how to pop my shoulder back in when I dislocate it again in the future.
Anyway, the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We slogged through some marsh and saw some amazing beaver structures. We eventually found the trail I saw on my GPS and chugged out to the road where we were able to inspect our feet which had hiked in water-slogged boots all day long. The results were not pretty. I have some nice pix of my feet in the photo gallery, but will not show them here :).
Here is one of the beaver dam pictures:
We got to the road at 9pm, 3 hours after the last bus, and camped on the side of the road (no tents). After some PBJ pitas for dinner, we crashed.
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
Alaska Journal - 8/9 - Day of Relaxation
Day 4 was a day of rest and feasting. We were supposed to move from region 40 back to 41, but because we were right on the border we decided we were good to go, especially since we wanted Sain to nurse his shoulder a bit. Having missed a hot dinner the first nite, we fired up one of our freeze-dried dinners for lunch (after sleeping in and playing cards on a beautiful day). After lunch and some more cards, we headed out on a nice day hike up to the top of a nearby peak. It was a nice 4-5 mile hike (with no packs) to the top, most of which was along the ridge (easy going). The views at the top were amazing. You could basically spin in a circle and see mountains all around you. One of the best views I have ever seen.
There are some other great pictures in the Photo Gallery ... especially the stitched panoramics that Allen took.
The trip down was a little problematic. Trevor aggrivated his knee, which was not good.
After getting to the bottom, we had another large hot dinner, and then proceeded to play some more cards. Here is a pic of us playing cards in our mosquitoe nets:
There are some other great pictures in the Photo Gallery ... especially the stitched panoramics that Allen took.
The trip down was a little problematic. Trevor aggrivated his knee, which was not good.
After getting to the bottom, we had another large hot dinner, and then proceeded to play some more cards. Here is a pic of us playing cards in our mosquitoe nets:
Monday, August 8, 2005
Alaska Journal - 8/8 - Poor Sain
After the brutal 2nd day, we decided to do a nice short day on Day 3 to get just over the border into region 40 (our permit told us to go there). Trevor woke up around 7:30 on this morning when a drop of condensation fell in his eye. Before he could fal back asleep, he heard some sounds outside the tent. So, he looked out and, just outside our camp and down at the lake was a giant bull moose drinking and eating the plants. He immediately woke me up. It was amazing. We tried to get the others to wake up, but every time we whisperred their names the bull would turn his head and look at us while firing lightning bolts from his eyes. I wanted to post a pic of the moose, but sadly my camera had condesation on the lense from the nite, and the picture came out bad. Hopefully Trev's will look better when he gets it developed.
After a little bit more rest, we got out of bed to find that the smoke had lifted from the valley. McKinely was still in the clouds, but the rest of the Alaskan range was out in full force. It was breathtaking.
After a nice hot breakfast of oatmeal, we set off on our short trip. As we went along, McKinley came out of the clouds and showed itself for the first time on our trip. From this point onward, about 80% of the pictures we took incorporated the 20K foot monster in some way or another.
After crossing a river and being about 5 minutes from a possible camp location, we were busting through some brush when Sain's shoulder got dislocated. Allen and I went on ahead and setup camp on top of a hill while Sain tried to pop it back in. After failing for a while, he decided to come on up to camp and try to get it popped in there. His technique kept failing, and we found a new one in Matt's The Backpacker's Field Manual, Revised and Updated: A Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Backcountry Skills by Rick Curtis. With the help of Trevor, Sain was able to get his shoulder back in. This book was very helpful during the course of our trip, and we would all highly recommend it. At only $10 on Amazon, you can't go wrong.
The rest of the day we spent relaxing and playing cards. It was great. That night we had picture time. I am not going to link all of the pictures here ... so check them out in the Gallery. I will put one of just McKinely though.
I would like to point out that the only reason that we were able to take this nice pictures at night is because Wang, I mean Allen, carried his tripod the whole trip. We made fun of him for it at every possible opportunity, but all in all it was a good thing that he brought it out.
After a little bit more rest, we got out of bed to find that the smoke had lifted from the valley. McKinely was still in the clouds, but the rest of the Alaskan range was out in full force. It was breathtaking.
After a nice hot breakfast of oatmeal, we set off on our short trip. As we went along, McKinley came out of the clouds and showed itself for the first time on our trip. From this point onward, about 80% of the pictures we took incorporated the 20K foot monster in some way or another.
After crossing a river and being about 5 minutes from a possible camp location, we were busting through some brush when Sain's shoulder got dislocated. Allen and I went on ahead and setup camp on top of a hill while Sain tried to pop it back in. After failing for a while, he decided to come on up to camp and try to get it popped in there. His technique kept failing, and we found a new one in Matt's The Backpacker's Field Manual, Revised and Updated: A Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Backcountry Skills by Rick Curtis. With the help of Trevor, Sain was able to get his shoulder back in. This book was very helpful during the course of our trip, and we would all highly recommend it. At only $10 on Amazon, you can't go wrong.
The rest of the day we spent relaxing and playing cards. It was great. That night we had picture time. I am not going to link all of the pictures here ... so check them out in the Gallery. I will put one of just McKinely though.
I would like to point out that the only reason that we were able to take this nice pictures at night is because Wang, I mean Allen, carried his tripod the whole trip. We made fun of him for it at every possible opportunity, but all in all it was a good thing that he brought it out.
Sunday, August 7, 2005
Alaska Journal - 8/7 - Day of Doom
Our second day turned out to be a death march. After finding out that all the water around us for miles was, for the most part. contaminated, we got an early start for a long day. So, after some more Pop-Tarts, we started out. After about 30 minutes of hiking we made it to the top of a peak.
I pulled out my GPS and found out that we had not come nearly as far as we thought we had the night before, and that our hike for the day was going to be even longer than planned. We did find a small spring at the top of this peak and filled our water from it. This was probably not the best of things, but we were out of water and needed to drink. After filling up our water, we set out again.
After hiking along the ridge for a ways, we came to the one sign of recent human activity -- a tent. However, there were no people around. We would later find out that this tent belonged to a skitso guy who was out there who went missing. Since we were there they have started looking for his body. They found a journal at his site that was last dated on July 17th. Anyway, we thought that this was pretty freaky.
After hiking a bit farther, we came across our first major wildlife of the trip -- a Caribou.
The hike was pretty uneventful for a while. We just chugged along, fighting our way through ravines and chugging over the tundra. Eventually we headed back up to the ridge and followed that most of the way to our destination ... Spruce Lake ... our first source of non-toxic water. This worked great until it came time to get down from the ridge, which happenned to be surrounded by 10ft high thick brush. After fighting through this for about 30 minutes, we finally got to the river at the bottom, and eventually to our camp at Spruce Lake.
This completed about 13 miles of hiking...about 5 more miles than the suggested amount for tundra hiking.
We setup camp about 100 yards from the Spruce Lake, and had an amazing hot dinner. It was probably the best meal I have ever had. Freeze-dried Beef Stroganoff is soooo amazing after a long day of hiking. We also has tea and such. The mosquitos were a bit heavy, but we did not even care we were so tired and hungry.
I pulled out my GPS and found out that we had not come nearly as far as we thought we had the night before, and that our hike for the day was going to be even longer than planned. We did find a small spring at the top of this peak and filled our water from it. This was probably not the best of things, but we were out of water and needed to drink. After filling up our water, we set out again.
After hiking along the ridge for a ways, we came to the one sign of recent human activity -- a tent. However, there were no people around. We would later find out that this tent belonged to a skitso guy who was out there who went missing. Since we were there they have started looking for his body. They found a journal at his site that was last dated on July 17th. Anyway, we thought that this was pretty freaky.
After hiking a bit farther, we came across our first major wildlife of the trip -- a Caribou.
The hike was pretty uneventful for a while. We just chugged along, fighting our way through ravines and chugging over the tundra. Eventually we headed back up to the ridge and followed that most of the way to our destination ... Spruce Lake ... our first source of non-toxic water. This worked great until it came time to get down from the ridge, which happenned to be surrounded by 10ft high thick brush. After fighting through this for about 30 minutes, we finally got to the river at the bottom, and eventually to our camp at Spruce Lake.
This completed about 13 miles of hiking...about 5 more miles than the suggested amount for tundra hiking.
We setup camp about 100 yards from the Spruce Lake, and had an amazing hot dinner. It was probably the best meal I have ever had. Freeze-dried Beef Stroganoff is soooo amazing after a long day of hiking. We also has tea and such. The mosquitos were a bit heavy, but we did not even care we were so tired and hungry.
Saturday, August 6, 2005
Alaska Journal - 8/6 - It Begins
On the morning of the 6th we woke up around 6AM and drove the final 100 miles up the Denali so that we could get to the backcountry office when it opened at 9am. We got our permits for zones 40, 41, and 42. These zones are basically on the west end of the Park (the entrance is on the East). Because of this, we had to catch a 6 hour bus ride before starting our trip. It also meant that we were closer to McKinely, which is even farter West. They are pretty stingy with permits at Denali -- a limitted number of people (generally less that 5) are allowed in each zone each night. This is great because it minimizes the impact that people have on the backcountry (which, by the way, has no trails), and also prevents you from seeing people during the course of your travels.
Anyway, after getting our permits we hit up the camp store and packed up out stuff and got our last real meal. We then caught the 2pm bus (after a bit of chaos) which we road until about 8pm. That's right ... we started our first day's trek at 8pm. Here is a pic of us right after we got started.
The first day out was a bit of a mess. We were dropped off in a region that we were not allowed to camp in, and were supposed to follow an old mining road a ways to get out of that region. However, we left thought we were not on the right road when we came to a sign that said "Private Drive", and, having been warned about avoiding the private property in this area, we left the road and started the trail-less hiking. Later we figured out that we were actually supposed to just stick to the private road, but oh well.
So we started up a creek for a ways, and then started to climb up a pass to where we wanted to crash for the night. This did not go so well. I was recovering from an illness and we were low on water. How could we be low on water when we started up a stream you might ask? Well, remember how we were travelling up an old mining road? Turns out like all the water in this area was contaminated with dangerous levels of heavy metals (iron) and was bad to drink.
Anyway, we finally got out of sight of the road and the no-camp zone, and setup camp. After a quick dinner of pop-tarts (yug) we crashed for the night.
Anyway, after getting our permits we hit up the camp store and packed up out stuff and got our last real meal. We then caught the 2pm bus (after a bit of chaos) which we road until about 8pm. That's right ... we started our first day's trek at 8pm. Here is a pic of us right after we got started.
The first day out was a bit of a mess. We were dropped off in a region that we were not allowed to camp in, and were supposed to follow an old mining road a ways to get out of that region. However, we left thought we were not on the right road when we came to a sign that said "Private Drive", and, having been warned about avoiding the private property in this area, we left the road and started the trail-less hiking. Later we figured out that we were actually supposed to just stick to the private road, but oh well.
So we started up a creek for a ways, and then started to climb up a pass to where we wanted to crash for the night. This did not go so well. I was recovering from an illness and we were low on water. How could we be low on water when we started up a stream you might ask? Well, remember how we were travelling up an old mining road? Turns out like all the water in this area was contaminated with dangerous levels of heavy metals (iron) and was bad to drink.
Anyway, we finally got out of sight of the road and the no-camp zone, and setup camp. After a quick dinner of pop-tarts (yug) we crashed for the night.
Friday, August 5, 2005
Alaska Jounral - 8/5 - Day of Travel
We began our trip on Friday, the 5th of August. Matt, Sain, Trevor and I left from Chicago while Allen left from Portland and Todd from Austin. We met up in the Anchorage Airport around 7pm. Coming from 3 different parts of the country ... especially with my travel luck ... was a bit risky, but worked out just fine. After collecting our baggage, we set out and got into our wonderful rental car, a Chevy Minivan. This thing was a piece of crap. It had "automatic" doors, which basically meant that they had a mind of their own -- opened when you wanted them to close and visa versa. Very annoying. I am perfectly capable of opening doors thank you very much.
Here is a picture of us before we headed out. From left to right, Ian, Todd, Trevor, Matt, Allen (aka Wang (from Caddyshack)), and Sain.
Anyway, we hopped into the car, swung by REI for some fuel and other important items (like Trevor's "Adventure Hat") and then grabbed some grub. We also found out (without asking) about the best strip club in Anchorage -- the Alaskan Bush Company. Apparently that is where all the fishermen go, and therefore is the classiest place around. Sorta scary eh?
After finishing up with food and REI, it was getting close to 9 (although the sun was still going strong), so we piled into the loaded van and set off North towards Denali. We made it about 140 miles before pulling off to the side of the road in the Troublesome Creek roadside camping (home of about 1 million aphids) where we crashed for the nite.
Here is a picture of us before we headed out. From left to right, Ian, Todd, Trevor, Matt, Allen (aka Wang (from Caddyshack)), and Sain.
Anyway, we hopped into the car, swung by REI for some fuel and other important items (like Trevor's "Adventure Hat") and then grabbed some grub. We also found out (without asking) about the best strip club in Anchorage -- the Alaskan Bush Company. Apparently that is where all the fishermen go, and therefore is the classiest place around. Sorta scary eh?
After finishing up with food and REI, it was getting close to 9 (although the sun was still going strong), so we piled into the loaded van and set off North towards Denali. We made it about 140 miles before pulling off to the side of the road in the Troublesome Creek roadside camping (home of about 1 million aphids) where we crashed for the nite.
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