ok, finally alaska pic (lots)

[wayne-o]

alska is BIG country, these relative young mountains are just in your face, it messed up my distance perception, it might look a mile , more like 3 when you got there. no trail system at all, just huge zones where only 6 people per zone per night are allowed. bushwacking at times got tough especially in hill grades where you're fighting willow and firs all the time, the river bed is easier, but always on a rolling rocky bed. all these pics are small links, if anyone wants the huge pixel file for details, i'll be glad to email you the big pic link.


oh yea, click on the piece of paper besides the word reply and only your text will show and the reply won't have all the pics in it again too (thanks)



have to use nails to keep the bears from chewing on it

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walking the river bed

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momma bear and baby bear prints

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looking back at where we walked from

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a closer of a 2 river meeting glacier drainage

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a more active melt with silt river braid on the left while another river braid joins in with no deposits

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the group, randy, brian, jeff, and me

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some camp pics

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mt sheep on the hill side

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one day it rained and i slept a lot, i'll get brian to post his soon...
more pics on next post

[EdK]

*****sigh****.......damn!!!

[GreatDivide14]

Great pics. Wonderful. Fantastic. Outstanding. Magnificent. Gorgeous. Hurry up and post the rest, Brian! We're waiting...

Such magnificent country. I have to get up there sometime when I'm not a broke college student. I fancy myself pretty adventurous, what with my solo trips in seldom visited, largely unknown territory, but there's just something missing when you know there's a trail crew half a mile away hacking out a six-lane highway for screaming kids in Eddie Bauer fleece. There aren't many places left where you can still find "adventure" (the word has been tainted by too many multicolored tourist brochures) in its purest form. I've never been anywhere with Alaska-grade potential for losing civilization and finding yourself in the process. I long for the kind of remote place where self-reliance is a requirement instead of a fantasy. Grizzlies and really big mountains are good too.

So where exactly were you? Denali was in some of the pictures...were you in the park, or just nearby? I recognize the Hex's in the camp picture, but what's the smaller tent? Looks weathertight and well-proportioned; maybe I want one for my future Alaska trips. What did you use for raingear? I imagine pounding through soggy willow demands good stuff (on a thrilling 1 1/2-hour alder fest by headlamp this past summer, I at least had the luxury of dry leaves, which I understand are rare in AK). How were the bugs? Did the skeeters live up to the legends, or were they blessedly dead by the time you got there?

Great...I have a huge lab report due on Monday, and my mind is even less focused on it than it was before. I'll be thinking about Alaska all month. Thanks a bunch. Seriously, though, great pics, great trip report, I want a bigger backpack and a month off. We're waiting, Brian...

[wayne-o]

the entire trip was in denali park, they recently expanded it from 2 million to 6 million acres. the liitle tent was a rei betamid type copy, not a bad tent, the guy took it back after the trip cause some stitching frayed on its maiden voyage. i just use that hex for about all conditions now. everyone had a differnt rain set up, i use marmot oracle jacket and full zip precip pants for my shells period. we actually had incredibly good weather on our week, only one day of rain (36 hours worth) but more a light steady rain all that time, just cold enough to eliminate bugs altogther this trip, a few months earlier and they would of drove us in our tents we were told. we're going back, maybe next year, 2 years at the most, its well worth it if you want to see true wilderness

[KeithEA]

Fantastic!!!!!!!! Brings back memories. The cloudy stream is coming off of a glacier. The silt is rock flour. (ground up rock from the glacier sliding and carving under tremondus pressure) If you were to fall in the silt will get into the weave of your clothes and the weight will pull you down. What about the lowbush cranberries? I all ways liked this time of the year up there. It would rain on you but when the clouds lifted you could see where the snow was working it way down the mountains. Keith

[wayne-o]

that silt would kill your filter too!! thats was some really fine silt. we were kinda always waried of alking through "berry" areas as the bears were stuffin themselves getting ready to go into hibernation soon and berry were on the munchie list they told us. mother nature gave us a treat as the rains on wednesday made for vice nice window dressing on the mts the balance of the week for us.

[Jay H]

Great picture Wayne! I love Denali, i've been there twice, had backcountry permits for the Savage and Sanctuary River as well as Polychrome Mountain. I instantly flashed back memories to my trips there.

Psst, if you want something even better than Denali (in my opinion), check out Wrangell St. Elias. I went there this year as a fly in and it is absolutely amazing, instead of being 20 miles from the High One, you are in any one of the 4 mountain ranges of the Wrangells, the Chugachs, etc. etc. In either case, can't beat the Alaska Range for grandeur in North America anyway, you never realize how far you are away from Denali until somebody tells you... :)

Jay

[GreatDivide14]

*groan* I'm supposed to be working on a chemistry lab report. Instead, I'm at TopoZone planning routes through Lake Clark, Wrangell-St-Elias and Gates of the Arctic, and when I'm frustrated with the small map sections, I'm surfing gear sites trying to decide between a GoLite Hut 1 and a BD Beta Light for said routes. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!?

[Jay H]

Lake Clark is one of the least used or THE least visited National Park in the country I think, I know it's real popular with big game hunters...

If you have any questions about W-SE, I can try to help, I loved the area, it is fantastic, lots of stuff to do, whether your into mountaineering Blackburn/Churchill, as well Wrangell, Sanford, and Drum. Or if you're insane, Mt St. Elias looms. Or if you want to kayak icy bay or just backpack, lots of options and lots of geology to study.

Gates of the Artic was a place I was considering going to do a kayak tour on the Koyukyuk and since I've never been above the arctic circle, it was enticing, but we wound up doing WSE, cause of the time. I couldn't spend much more than 2 weeks up there cause I was headed to Seattle to meet friends and go climb Mt Rainier.

Jay