Weather: 

Morning: Partly Cloudy and Warm
  Afternoon: Sunny and 60 Degrees turning into Rain
  Evening: Sunny and Cool

 

  Journal Entry:

We arrived at Denali National Park at 7:30 a.m. after a long night of driving. It was so exciting to be here. We had read so much about the park and had heard how beautiful and exciting the park was.

 

Our first step was to pick where we wanted to stay while we were in the backcountry. 
We were lucky and were able to get our three top choices. We signed up to spend our first two nights in Unit 31,  our next three nights in Unit 9,  and our sixth and final night in Unit 11.  Since there are no trails in Denali we would have to use maps and compasses to guide us around each of the units. The amount of lines and symbols on the maps were overwhelming and even rather scary. We were happy that we had a little experience reading maps with hiking before and that Matt had been on an orienteering team (cross-country racing using maps as a guide) in middle school.

 

We also had to watch a 40-minute video that told us all about how to treat the environment and how to avoid being attacked and killed by Grizzly bears or other wild animals. It was during that video that it really hit me that we were going out into the wilderness on our own. There would be no one else within miles to help us if we got into trouble. Gulp!!!

 

 

Luckily, we did not have a lot of time to ponder this because we only had 40 minutes to double-check our backpacks to make sure we had everything we needed before we caught the 9:30 a.m. Camper Bus. Before we caught the bus we had to call our parents to let them know what units we would be in and that we would call them on the afternoon of Friday (August 30, 2002). If they did not hear from us by that time,  they should call the park and send out the search parties.

 

 

Chuck was the driver on our Camper Bus. He said it would take us about three hours to get to Polychrome Mountain where we would head into the backcountry. He "roared" off at 20 miles per hour and we sat back to enjoy the views. As we rose up out of the lower regions of the park, the trees slowly slipped away (Tree line was about 2,700 feet) giving way to the low brush and shrubs of the tundra. We saw our first wildlife around the Savage River (mile 14.8) and it was a quite a sight, a Grizzly Bear. This bear was gobbling up berries and barely raised its head to notice our bus. Chuck said that one bear would eat up to 100,000 wild blueberries a day. Wild blueberries are much smaller than blueberries bought at the supermarket. They are only about the size of a pea.  The mountains were also getting larger and more jagged as we moved slowly through the park. The Primrose Ridge sharply lifted its craggy peaks toward the sky. (Mile 16).  After about an hour and a half of driving we reached the Telanika Rest Stop. This not only gave us a great chance to stretch our legs but also gave us a great view of the braided and twisted Telanika River.  After a 20-minute break we were off again. Around Mile 33, we came to Igloo Mountain (4,800 feet). On the lower slopes of this mountain, we spotted our first Dall sheep (which looked like small white specks).  There were six of them grazing on the alpine tundra. Shortly afterwards, we saw several caribou, who had huge antlers, off to the south.

 

When we crossed the East Fork of the Telanika River, we spotted another Grizzly Bear, who was digging around in the gravel bed trying to find edible roots. After crossing over the East Fork River, we started our steep climb up, up, and up to Polychrome Pass (3,800 Feet). This was a scary ride with the edges of the bus often seeming to hang over the sharp cliffs on the side of the road. At the Polychrome Pass Rest Stop, we got off the bus to head into the backcountry wilderness. We took a breath to take in the beautiful views from up there. There were huge plains that were created by glaciers long ago. As the glaciers receded they left lots of gravel that formed into gravel and river beds, huge boulders (glacial erratics), and chunks of ice that melted forming depressions that slowly filled with water to form kettle ponds. Further back beyond the plains were the huge mountains of the Alaskan Range. These snow covered mountains rose to over 7,000 feet high. On the sides of the mountains (Alaska Mountain Range) you could still see the remnants of the glaciers.  After a quick check to make sure we had taken everything off of the bus, we headed into the backcountry. It was beautiful. There was the colorful Polychrome Mountain to the northwest of us with a smaller ridge in front of us. Our plan consisted of several steps.  First, we would hike up to the top of the ridge and along it before we headed down into the creek valley. Then we would follow the creek to the north until we reached the East Fork River. The leaves up here on the little trees and shrubs that covered the ground were beginning to turn their fall colors. That's right!!! August 24 and the leaves are already lighting up the sides of the mountain with their bright light greens, yellows, reds, and oranges.

 

It was a steep climb with our heavy packs (Matt's backpack= 60 lbs., Christina's backpack = 45 lbs.) to get onto that ridge it was good hiking up there on the low grassy like dry tundra. On top of this ridge, we hiked along toward our destination admiring all the time admiring the views of the Alaska Range (South) , Polychrome Mountain to the Northwest, Caribou further along the ridge, and the Wyoming hills (North).  Like so often happens in Alaska, a storm quickly blew in and as the rains started to fall the first clap of thunder rang out. Although it was good hiking, the thunder and lightning made it was time to get off the ridge where we were the tallest objects around and head down into our creek valley. As we headed down the other side of the ridge, the terrain turned from dry tundra to wet tundra, which consisted of low shrubs (mainly blueberries),  swampy bogs, and Willow Hammocks.  The willow hammocks are the worse. Not only can you not see bears but the get you soaked and trip you up when your feet get tangled in them. The going was tough, we were tired, and we were moving slow. We finally made it to the creek bed where we were able to pick up the pace a bit. After about an hour, as the rain began to let up we stopped and set up camp for the night. To be safe from bears, we had to set our tent up 300 feet from where we cooked and kept our bear resistant containers (where we stored our food). We were tired but as we dried out and ate our dinner (chicken and rice (Yummy!!!)) our spirits lifted. No sooner had we finished eating and washing up (probably about 6 pm,) that we crawled into bed and fell fast asleep.