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Published: July 30th 2011
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So, immediately I need to preface the next two blogs with the fact that the photos don’t do the scenery justice. The Alaskan landscape is simply too mammoth, too epic, too grandiose to capture. Normally I say let the photos speak for themselves, as I’m not a talented writer and my limited vocabulary isn’t enough to describe the views; this time around you’ll simply have to go to Alaska. It is incredible, beyond what I thought it would be, and I’ve decided these two blogs don’t do it justice (and I’m starting med school so I’m short on time). That said…
My brother Darren and I jumped a flight to Anchorage, then a 5 hour bus to Denali National Park, and finally a 5 hour bus into Wonder Lake campground at the heart of the park. During the ride in we had our first views of caribou, moose, grizzly, and tons of birds I can’t remember.
We had fantastic weather the first few hours on the way in, then spent the next 36 hours in the rain except for the few hours it snowed on us (yes, it does snow in Alaska in July). We managed to make a
quick hike up a small valley Darren and I saw on our way in, we had a surprise visit from a caribou, made it up to a nice curve in the bend when we walked across a monster wolf track, and turned back in time to make our bus back to our camp.
The next day the weather cleared and we were excited to start our backcountry hike. As we boarded the bus, the driver mentioned they had seen an angry 500 pound grizzly with a scratched up face at the pass we wanted to start our hike at. Instead of rolling the dice we made friends with a group of three locals, April, Evan, and Dave, who had gotten the week off, were camping in the unit next to us, and were going to hike in from a few miles down the road. We stuck with them and ended up with a group of five walking into one of the most amazing wildernesses I’ve ever seen.
Denali doesn’t have groomed, maintained trails. You simply find an area that looks good, walk in, continue talking enough to alert the grizzlies, and then walk out. If you plan on
spending the night, you need to bid for a specific unit (most are limited to 6 people per night) before you go in. We ended up on unit 13 as it had a view of McKinley and with only 30% of people visiting the park getting a decent view of the mountain, we wanted to have as much of a chance as possible.
It started to clear up as soon as we hit the riverbed below the Eielson visitor center where we hiked in. As we crossed the riverbeds and hiked across the strewn rocks and small grass tundra we caught a brief glimpse of the mountain. We hiked a few miles until we came to the stagnant end of the Muldrow Glacier; this part of the glacier had become covered with moss over time, which ended up becoming covered in dirt, then grass, and finally trees. It looked more like a small hill than a pile of ice as we walked directly below it along the creek deriving from its run off. We’d see how wrong we were the next day…
After hiking another few miles along the creek we set up camp at a fork with
one arm continuing along the glacier and the other going up a small valley towards a 9,000 foot mountain with a small glacier of its own. Around midnight McKinley finally showed itself in full view (sunset was around 12:30 a.m.) and we had amazing views for the next 48 hours. The next day Darren and I did a quick hike up the valley, and then headed up a few thousand feet to climb over the ridge. We were surprised with one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen. As we peaked the ridge, the entire Alaskan range came into view, with the active (icy) portion of the Muldrow glacier in front of it, and the glacier’s creek broadly braiding next to our ridge. Even more surprising were the incredibly blue lakes and rivers covering the interior of the Muldrow glacier; these were not even 200 yards from where we had hiked the night before! The 36 hours of rain/snow, the several miles of hiking across untamed trail, and the general stankiness of our being was completely worth it simply for that view!
We hiked out after our second night in the backcountry (fourth night camping) by hiking out
Alaskan Range
Muldrow in front the six(ish) miles then jumping back on a bus for 4 more hours. Heading off to a hostel a few miles south of the park we plugged back in to the world by showering up, heading to a townie bar, getting a pizza, nachos, a few micro brews, and hitting up our e-mails on our iPhones. Coordinating with our brother Ryan and checking in with our rents, we headed south for Kenai Fjords National Park…
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