Backcountry

Well I finally did it! I went backpacking in the park! It's taken 2 months for me to get a trip orgranized but I finally went. It was a great trip, unlike any backpacking I've ever done. In Denali there are no trails so where you backpack you are making your own trail. It's hard to get used to because you're not supposed to walk in a straight line because that will eventually create a trail. The rangers work very hard to keep this park as wild and pristine as possible. We started out in Section 34 just past the Eielson Visitor's Center at mile 66. We hiked along Moose Creek to the edge of Section 33 where we had reserved our camping permit for. It took us 4 long hours to get to the ridge but we were rewarded with an awesome camp spot. We had also been really lucky on the bus out too, the wolves here are very hard to see because there are not a lot of them. Alex had been talking all morning about just wanting to see a wolf and the mountain and he'd be happy. About 2 hours into our ride a woman spotted a wolf in the woods and we were able to watch it for awhile. We were all really excitied and happy about that spotting until an hour later when we saw another wolf walking down the road!!! It came within 5 feet of our bus at a nice trot and I got a great picture of it. That by far made the trip a success before we even broke trail.

We rode the camper bus out which is specifically for people heading out to camp, it will drop you off at any location along the road. Our driver has been driving in Denali for 31 years and was a wealth of knowledge. The bus system in Denali is probably one of the coolest thigns I've been able to experience here. If you ever come to Denali make sure you ride a VTS shuttle and talk to the drivers they are amazing people with a lot of information to share.

Hiking to our site was rough because it was through wet tundra which soaked all of our feet within 15 minutes. Also going uphill on tundra is exhausting because it's like walking on a sponge. You go to step up and instead all of your energy is absorbed into the ground. Once we got to our campsite we spotted 4 bears in the area. They all were pretty far off and didn't come towards us so we ate dinner and watched them graze for a bit. We were all pretty exhausted so after a couple of card games we called it a night. We woke up to rain and clouds which was too bad because Sunday had been a really pretty day with broken clouds and sunshine. As we made breakfast I spotted 3 bears, a mother and 2 cubs, we had watched them last night but this time they were much closer. We cooked and watched them for a bit. Then 2 Caribou crossed the cubs path and startled them which was really fun to watch. Then the bears started to move towards us and we retreated to our tent site. The seemed aware of us but after about 30 minutes it was clear they weren't going to come and shake our hands any time soon. We packed up and headed out but it was a tad nerve racking to be as close as we were to them and try not to cross thier path on the way out. The hike out was nice, mostly downhill and on a river bed. We were acutely aware of potential bear areas and doing our best to avoid them. After having lunch we had to cross a river and ended up stumbling upon a bear carcass. That was by far the most unsettling experience of the trip. The bear's skull and claws where laying ontop of a pile of skin and fur which was on a strange pile of branches. We opted not to exlpore too long because the site looked more like a kill site than a place where the animal laid down and never got back up again. We hustled out of there and hiked along a canyon river to an opening where we met up with the park road again. The next day we returned our bear can and told the ranger about what we found. She said it looked like the bear had been dead for awhile but if anything killed it it would have been another bear and then they would have stashed the meat under the branches.

All in all the trip was awesome, I got close enough to bears but not too close. The Denali bears as Alex puts it, "are really friendly." Which they are because the rangers work so hard at keeping them wild and not exposed to human food.

I hope you all enjoy the photos of the trip. I've changed how I am posting the photos, I am now making each trip a set so you can view them in order if you'd like. Once the photos are posted I will add a direct link at the bottom of this post that you can follow to see the photos of just this trip. Hopefully tonight I will have those photos posted for you all to enjoy!

Click here to see the photos from Backpacking!