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.