DENALI NATIONAL PARK
ZONE 28 - JUNE 30, 2000 TO JULY 2, 2000
In July 1995, I came to Denali National Park somewhat
hesitantly. The neighboring Denali State Park had glowing reviews in some of the
trail magazines, and I expected it to have fewer people and more peace that the
National Park. The NPS ranger disagreed however: “Hike in Denali National Park
if you want to see wildlife. Besides, we limit the number of permits we issue
in each zone of the park. Once you leave the main road, you won’t see a soul.”
The NPS ranger was correct as it turned out, and in 1995 we
saw more wildlife (including grizzly, moose, caribou,
and
dall sheep) than I have ever seen on the trail. In July 2000, I returned with a
few friends:
Sikle,
The Camel, and
Smoky flew in from Charlotte.
The Joker flew in from Chicago,
and Candy A and
I scored a direct flight from
Atlanta. We planned a 17 mile hike to the infamous bus featured on the cover of
Into The Wild, and after a late morning arrival at the park
we secured a
permit required for the hike. It was easier to get than I anticipated and we
were set to leave the following morning on a park bus to reach our drop-off
point.
At the backcountry office, we discovered that the park
campground was full but a local suggested we squat along US 3 at a psuedo
camping area tucked among some low lying bushes. We drove toward Healy and
quickly found the site a few miles out of town. After some 360’s in the rental
car, we pitched our tents and headed back to town for pizzas, beer, and local
music. An acoustic guitarist cranked a few tunes at the local
pizza joint and the place was packed with
vacationers. Unfortunately, we had to
cut the night short since none of us were packed and ready for the 10am bus
departure. Around
midnight, we headed back to the campsite, loaded our packs, and watched Smoky
crush a Styrofoam cooler which he used as a seat - go figure. We sat around the
campfire and had a few beers as Candy A sacked out. Around 2am, he stumbled out
of his tent and was convinced that it was 7am (since the sun still clung to the
horizon.)
The next morning, a
few of the boyz and I hit the road around 9:15am. We stopped briefly at a small
outfitter to get a new stove (since my old MSR quit working). We also loaded up
on breakfast and a few last minute supplies at the local Quickie Mart.
Our bus pick-up
was scheduled for 10:30am at Riley Creek, just inside the Denali National Park
boundary.
I nearly got a hernia when I passed Smoky’s pack to the driver
as we loaded it in the emergency exit of the bus. I estimated it
at 80 pounds and wondered for a minute if The Joker had “rocked” Smoky’s
pack. Actually, it was the sweatshirt, multiple t-shirts, and jeans that
weighted him down (but their lives were short-lived as they met their demise in
an impromptu – and illegal – campfire on the bank of the Teklanika River.)
It took an hour to ride the park bus to Zone 28,
our
drop-off point on the Teklanika. I mapped the most direct route to the
infamous bus and intended on an immediate climb over
the ridge to our northwest. The approach from Teklanika Campground is better,
but we didn’t realize this until later in the day (and we paid dearly for the
mistake.)
The first mile was a cruise as we hiked through ankle high
bush and followed the river along a wide creek bank. We had a brief moment of
excitement as Candy A's boots fell from his backpack during a ford of the Teklanika;
but he ran after them and eventually grabbed the shoelaces a half mile
downstream, just before they disappeared into the canyon.
At this point, we had a critical decision to make – follow
a drainage over the ridge or continue along the river bank. Initially, the
latter made sense (and was strongly supported by Smoky who was already laboring
under the back-busting pack.) The canyon looked deceptively easy from a distance
(although the topographical lines indicated otherwise). So we agreed to push
forward until the canyon walls forced us up the ridge.
Moose, grizzly, and wolf tracks covered the sandy shores of
the river. We all expected to see wildlife at any moment but the
distraction
was short-lived. The canyon walls quickly forced us up the ridge and through
thick alder and brush. Some of the bush exceeded six feet in height and we spent
the entire afternoon fighting our way through it with mosquitoes blitzing our
ears. After three hours, we had hiked only a mile. The bad karma continued
until 5pm when we finally returned to the Teklanika River
where we spotted a campsite two hours earlier while high on the ridge. After a
short break on the sandy bank (and Smoky’s cremation of his wardrobe), we
decided that we had picked a poor campsite. The canyon squeezed the Teklanika
into a raging Class 4-5 grey soup, and the campsite would be dangerous if a
storm hit during the night. We also had another problem. Our water source, a
small stream across the river, required a ford. The Joker, a whitewater
kayaker, easily convinced us that any attempt to cross the Teklanika
here could be fatal.
So we trudged on (much to Smoky’s dissatisfaction) for
about 90 minutes until we reached a moderately flat area about 20 feet above the
Teklanika River. The area was covered with boulders that had fallen from the
canyon walls, but it was 7pm and none of us had the energy to go any further
(nor did we see a suitable campsite up ahead).
So we stopped, beaten and exhausted, to camp on a pile of
rocks for the night - thank God for the Thermarest. Pumping water was
very difficult
this evening. The decent to the river was steep and covered with scree and the Teklanika was milky
and rock laden from the glacial melt. We cooked up some dinner this
evening and actually had an enjoyable evening until about 11pm
when we crashed.
I woke up the following morning with The Camel whining at my tent door. As it turned out, he had a
good reason for it. The Camel fell waist-deep into the river while getting
water at about 7:30am. The rest of us were asleep and didn’t hear his pleas for
help. Fortunately, he grabbed a small bush along the bank and avoided disaster.
So, we were up early this morning and made a decision to
get the hell o
ut of the canyon. The Camel went first to scout out the climb and
the terrain on the other side of the canyon wall. He was at the top of the
ridge when the rest of us started up the steep incline.
It was a tough and
brutal hike out. The canyon walls were covered with various boulders and scree.
It took us at least an hour to climb the ridge, and Smoky was having a tough time with
his heavy pack. Finally, The Camel and I decided to put him out of his misery
and shot it out to see who would haul the backpack the
remaining 300 feet. (The Camel got
the honor.)
Once on top the scenery was amazing. After crawling along
in the canyon, we now had 360 degree views which included the surrounding
mountains, the Teklanika River, and the entire valley of Zone 28. Forest fires
were raging east of the park and there was a lot of smoke in the air, but the views
were still spectacular. We took a long break at the ridge and
discussed our mission to hike to the bus. The
Joker read a few pages of Into The Wild and matched the words with the
scenery in front of us. Our goal was to position tonight's campsite within a
day-hike of the bus. As the day passed on, however, it became clear that this
was not going to happen. We identified a campsite sitting high above a small
canyon, and hiked through the spongy tundra down to it. The campsite sat forty
feet above a mini-canyon centered with a small creek flowing east to the Teklanika River.
Once there, we set up camp around 5:30pm, chilled out for
an hour, made a water/bath run to the creek, and cooked some dinner in a cloud
of mosquitoes. The wind died down this evening, and the mosey's were quite
aggressive. The skeeter jacket came in handy during dinner, but I was content
to lay in my tent and watch the insects attack Smoky’s socks as he and the
others played Euchre and drank some spirits.
I tried to sleep during the night,
but awoke constantly as the wind fought to rip my fly from the tent.
Around 5am, it succeeded, and I spent the rest of the morning buried in my
sleeping bag for protection from the cold wind. All of us were up
early as a result, and by 8:30am decided to
hike out today. There was little chance we would make the bus, and at least two
members of the group were in favor of heading back to the
road.
We did a dry breakfast this morning
so we could get on the trail within
an hour, then spent most of the day climbing over the ridge to 3800' and to a
pass that dropped us back to the Teqlanika River. We loaded up with water from
a drainage stream during
our climb up the ridge (which was a fortunate find) and
did some sledding on a patch of snow near the crest. This was a nice diversion
after a long climb to the ridge. We rode 2 and 4
people at a time down the steep
slope, and the Thermarest cooked down the hill with
all the extra weight. The trick was to bail
out before the large puddle at the base of the snow bank. It collected the melt water from the snowfield and was a
soak-fest for
anyone that hit it. All said, the sledding was a major moral booster. The
climb to get here was tough, but on the open grass it was nothing like the
canyon. I mixed up some Kool-Aide, Iodine, and snow as we departed
for the road. The mix made for
a pretty righteous slushie (after I let it melt for 30 minutes.)
After 45 more minutes of climbing, we finally made it to a pass that gave us a view of the
Denali Park Road and the Teklanika River.
We were thrilled and estimated that we'd be standing on the road in
an hour. So after a few pictures, we hit the trail. Unfortunately, the alder
and bush were 6-8 feet tall at the lower elevations and extremely
difficult to
push through - even during the descent. The Joker and I took turns breaking trail
and bruising our shins. Moose tracks were everywhere and so were the
mosquitoes. After about an hour of hot, jungle style bushwhacking we
eventually made it to the Teklanika River and the spot we had stopped two days
earlier to discuss the climb up the drainage. It would have been hell either
way.
Except for the river crossing, the final mile to the road
was fairly easy. A ranger stopped to check our permit as we waited for the park
bus. He asked where we had hiked during the last few days and we told him we
had been in the canyon. The ranger said he had only been in there once, in
1987, to search for (and eventually find) the body of a missing woman. She was
an experienced backpacker, but had gone solo and somehow fallen, injured
herself, and drowned in the river. Apparently, it is very rare for anyone to go
in the canyon, including the park staff.
We split our group in two to catch a ride out this
evening. The first bus had only
two seats which we filled immediately, so the
rest of us caught a second and much less crowded shuttle
back to our cars. We
returned the bear canisters to the visitor's center and then headed across US 3
to some cabins situated above a vendor area near the park
entrance. We ate some pizza, drank many beers, and played Euchre to cap the
night. Rain rolled in this evening but we were undercover
by this point.
All said, this was a very challenging trip (much like my
last visit here), and we ended up seeing more wildlife
from the bus than we did on the trail. Nonetheless, I still
enjoyed it and I look forward to making another trip here in the future.
~
BirdShooter
