Traverse Alaska

Lake Clark Traverse, Part II

We got pounded with snow and wind for 15 hours in the tent. I was surprised to wake up the next morning to find our little three season tent still standing. I wouldn’t call it “nice” out the next day, but the wind and snow had stopped and that was good enough for us. 

We packed up quickly and headed across the next valley. We were anxious to get down to Twin Lakes where we were getting picked up the following day. We had slept at 5200 feet and the lake was at around 2500, so we figured the weather would be a lot better down there.

Our first glimpse of the Lower Twin Lake…

We got down to the final slope and finally saw the sun. But then we saw the nasty bushwhack that came between us and the lake. This is a beautiful area and we would love to come back here and explore around the other side of the lake.

Resting before the bushwhack…

We go through the worst part of the bushwhack and came out into the sun. We decided to rest and take a lunch break now that we were out of the bad weather. The mosquitoes found us within two minutes of us stopping…

We traversed along the lake as long as our legs would take us and found a good place to camp. This was one of our prettiest campsites of the summer. We didn’t spend too much time outside, though, the mosquitoes were thick!

The next day we had a few minutes of peace before the bugs found us…

After hours and hours of traversing along the lake we finally made it to our pickup spot!

Our ride out…

The pilot asked if we were in a hurry to get back to Anchorage, and if not, if we didn’t mind stopping at the other end of the lake to visit the Park Rangers, who were his friends. We said that was fine, of course. We took off from one end of the lake and were back at the other end within minutes. It was crazy to see all of that land that we traversed on foot go by in just minutes.

We stopped at the Park Ranger cabin and chatted with them about our adventures and got some good info on places to explore the next time we are in the area.

About an hour later, we took off back for Anchorage…

Flight home…

The plane face!

A cool river near Lake Clark Pass…

We flew by some awesome glaciers…

Two hours later, we arrived back in Anchorage at Lake Hood…

Turquoise Lake to Twin Lake Traverse, Lake Clark National Park

Early August we flew to Lake Clark National Park to do a traverse. We got dropped off on Turquoise Lake.

We hiked up onto the ridge above Turquoise Lake to camp. The plan was to stay there and explore for two nights and then continue on towards Twin Lakes.

Napping above Turquoise Lake…

The next day we explored a ridge line above our camp. It snowed off an on all day. It was August 5th.

Because the wind was blowing hard off and on, we had to keep moving the tent that night. The final resting place for the tent was in this hole. It was the only protection from the wind that we could find. Later along the way, we would see a hole in the ground and say, “Hey, that looks like a good camping hole.”

Near our first camp…

The next day we packed up and headed over the first pass. We got blasted with wind in our face as soon as we came over the pass. You can see our route in this photo. We headed up the valley to the right of the patch of the snow and up over the low point on the ridge line to the right. The wind was so strong that it knocked us both down at times.

Arriving over the next we thought we might get a break from the wind, but instead we could see a band of snow blowing sideways down the next valley. Good times!

The view from the second pass…

We fought our way down into the next valley and up into a cool gorge where we had to maneuver around boulders. The gorge narrowed considerably and I wondered it we were going to be able to find a way out. Soon we came up on an almost vertical wall of snow and a very steep scree field. We decided the scree slope was less steep and clawed our way up it in the wind and snow.

The scree field from the top…

Over the top of the last pass for the day the wind now pushed us from behind. This was a cool area, but we really didn’t get to enjoy it much. We quickly setup our tent, made dinner during a half hour weather break, and then into the tent to wait out the storm for another 15 hours.

 More to come!                 

More Denali Highway

Waterfall Creek and Alpine Creek, Denali Highway

The Denali Highway is different than the park in many ways. There are not as many rules. I’m not sure there are any rules. You can drive, camp, build a fire, ride an ATV, hunt and fish anywhere. I love that Denali National Park does all the work it does to protect the land from people. It is so necessary. We definitely need to work to protect this planet from ourselves.

But sometimes it’s annoying to have to follow all of the rules, ride the bus, get a permit for this, and a permit for that, watch a video and listen to people lecture you on Leave No Trace principles. Yeah, I got it.

So for that there is the Denali Highway. Outside of Denali National Park, but still in a very beautiful and scenic area of Alaska, and surprisingly not trashed. The visitors here are a little more rough than the ones you see in the park, a lot more Alaskan, and a whole lot cooler (except for the ones who crap on the side of the road and leave toilet paper, or the ones who bring their ten person family filled RV into a full campground in the middle of the night and proceed to feed their kids marshmallows and let them run all over the campground until 2 am).

After leaving the park Brian and I took some well needed showers near the park entrance and headed east across the state on the Denali Highway.

Brian has a knack for finding really cool places, just by looking at a map. He had this route mapped out up Waterfall Creek, and it did not disappoint.

You don’t have to go in very far for this hike and there are two cool lakes as a reward near the end.

Wildflower meadow.

We decided to head up to the pass behind Waterfall Creek and the intent was to descend down to Alpine Creek and head back out to the road that way. But looking down into the next valley, it was raining and really steep to get down to. So we decided to head back the way we came. On a nice day though, this would be a very cool traverse.

We started the hike about 10 miles east of the Susitna River bridge, and just past the lodge at Alpine Creek. A map of our route below…

Cathedral Mountain, the good old days, and being spent…

Cathedral Mountain was our choice for the last day of our week in Denali National Park. It seemed perfect because it only required about 1.5 miles of walking and about 1200 feet of elevation gain. We could get up high, but only take about an hour to get up there.

Funny how this kind of hike has become a rest day. What have I turned myself into? Some sort of strange crunchy granola, outdoors, hiking pole wielding, fit version of myself, unrecognizable by my friends on the east coast. Gone are the days where “rest day” meant a night off from drinking beer, then staying in bed eating ice cream, watching reruns of Sex and the City, and maybe getting up to get a pastry at the coffee shop across the street or walk to the music store down the block. Philly is a long way off. Some might say this is a better version of me. I’m not so sure.

I’m kidding of course. Although I do miss the East Coast. There are many things they do better. Food. Live music. Humor. To name a few.

But they don’t do this. Cathedral Mountain, woah, so worth it. And this would be a great hike to take visitors from the Lower 48 on. Not too strenuous,  but they would get to get off the bus and explore a little and get fantastic views of the park. Some photos…

Looking back down at the road from the top.

Cathedral actually has many summits, this was another one across from us.

I believe this marmot was waiting for us to leave, because the summit was full of holes, which was his home. He looked so desperate clinging to the side of this rock, so we didn’t stay long.

Ahhh, life is pretty good when you don’t have to work. Soon these days will be over. This trip took place at the end of July, but as I write this it is August 23rd and work is only two weeks away. I have to say after THIS month, I think I’m ready. More to come…

Gravel Mountain, A Day of many Bears

Apparently this day was the day when the grizzly bears wanted to be seen. We saw eight grizzly bears on our way out on the bus this day. We took a proper rest day the day before, and were ready to hike again. It was nice to see so many bears, but I was a little reluctant to get off the bus.

Bears on the Teklanika.

Bear crossing the Teklanika river. We actually got to watch him swim across the river, very cute.

Young bear on the hill right by the bus. Unfortunately I don’t yet have a good zoom lens for my camera, so this is what I get.

We watched this bear from the bus. We saw the caribou carcass and heard that people on the bus the day before got to watch a pack of wolves take down a caribou and eat it right next to the road. They left some scraps and this bear was running around in circles trying to find it. You could tell that he could smell it, but couldn’t find it in the brush. Eventually he got it in his line of sight and darted straight for it. Very cool to watch.

More freaking bears.

Finally we got off the bus and didn’t see any more bears. That doesn’t mean they weren’t there. Funny story. We got dropped off at the Stony Dome, intending to climb up Gravel Mountain and head down the other side. We headed up the creek and up a ridge. I kept looking back at the road and saw many, many buses stopping on the bridge where we got dropped off. And they would stay for a long time. If you have ridden the bus in Denali, you know what that means. It probably means they see a bear.

I shrugged it off and told myself they must be looking on the OTHER side of the road. Turns out the weren’t on the other side. More below…

Herd of Caribou on top of the Gravel Mountain ridge. Denali is in the clouds in the background.

On the final ridge up Gravel Mountain. It got really windy and it was a little exposed and I kept falling over. I didn’t feel comfortable on the knife edge ridge in the wind, so I told Brian to head up to the summit quick and I sat and took pictures. You can see him near the peak in the background.

The views behind Gravel Mountain are quite nice.

When Brian came back, we headed down the broad ridge on the opposite side from where we came up, towards Eilson Visitor Center.

Eventually, we could see a bus coming, but were still a half mile away from the road, so we ran. Luckily they stopped to look at some caribou down in the valley. We caught the bus and headed back to camp.

On the way back we passed by the bridge where we got dropped off. The bus driver said, “This is where we saw the grizzly bear sow and two cubs eariler this morning.” I asked the teenage kid next to me, “What time was that at?” His eyes got wide and said, “Were you the hikers up on that ridge?” I said, “Yeah, why?”

His whole family went into a story about how there were three bears on the same ridge behind us and we were moving on a collision course with them. They said the bus driver joked that maybe they would see the first death by grizzly bear even in the park. These Denali bus drivers are hilarious, seriously.

But we never saw the bears so they must have stopped or gone a different way. Whew.

Back at camp our “kitchen” had blown over in the wind.

Dutch oven enchiladas, thanks to our friend Harter who made these for us in Moab a few years ago.

Our route up and down Gravel Mountain. There is a pretty cool spot that you could camp at behind Stony Dome that is flat and has a great view of Denali. It would be a good place to camp if you had the backcountry permit 11 and didn’t have a lot of time to travel far from the road.

Only one more day in Denali, then we head to the Denali Highway…