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...
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