The Walkabout: Denali: The Call of the Wild

So here I'd just like to post pictures from the last few days in Denali National Park. After spending the entire day under the mountain's watchful gaze, the backcountry portion of the day was underway. The hiking didn't begin until 6pm! Anywhere else that would have been a deathwish, guaranteeing hours of hiking in the darkness. But here in the Alaskan summer, I knew I still had hours of daylight remaining.

Consulting my map and compass, I charted a course across the terrain that would ideally minimize river crossings and take me to an area flat and high enough to sleep on and to have a commanding view of the landscape (to see and prepare for approaching beasts). I was off...back into the wild.

Over the next few days I would descend deep into the Denali backcountry towards the Sunset and Sunrise Glaciers...crossing six raging rivers, scrambling mountains, skirting across plateaus, charging through thick vegetation, ripping one of the only two shirts I had (for the whole month and a half!) to shreds, and narrowly escaping wildlife encounters. It was on this leg of the Walkabout where I was given one of the stories that I usually tell people about when they ask, "Were you ever scared?" After this trek?...YUUUUP! ...

So it was about 10pm this same day, and I had just crossed my third and most heinously deep and fast river. The sun was getting low enough now that I wasn't going to be able to dry my clothes off and the temperature would soon begin to drop. I had to find a place to sleep! Well I wasn't going to sleep on the river bed for a number of reasons...1) I didn't want to be swept away in the event of a flash flood and 2) I didn't want anything bigger than me to have the highground advantage (Come on...thats the first thing you learn in every war movie). So I scrambled up onto this plateau and as I stood erect to gaze upon this newly discovered ground, I was struck motionless...paralyzed with fear (Credit to Andie for that one). I had just accidentally stumbled my way into the middle of a Grizzly Bear den! Not just one...but a network of them! Does that mean I've literally been in a "web of destruction" now? Gathering my wits about me, I carefully took the next hour (yes it took that long) to meander around this area of ill-repute. With my shotgun glued to my hands, twice I bushwacked through eye-level brush...charging through it like a hot knife through butter. Unfortunately both of these times I would find yet another bear den. Motivated by fear I charged through some of the thickest and most impassable vegetation I've ever experienced. Thus causing my shirt and forearms to be annihilated by unforgiving branches. Looking back this was all a stupid idea, but I was determined to get to the higher ground...now only 1/4 mile away. Thankfully my loud and obnoxiously frightening singing had cleared out all the dens before I ever got to them...or so I believed. I made it to the top!

What started off as one of the most mentally freeing experiences of my life, this day's hike turned ominous and uncertain very quickly. But by the time I reached the higher ground and left the dens behind me, I stripped out of my soaked clothes and became increasingly re-acquainted with freedom once again.

Sunsets have a way of giving all of your life's bad thoughts the universe's biggest middle finger.

Not to be forgotten, while all the tourons crowded amongst themselves to share the view of Denali, I was thankful to have her all to myself. For hours, I just sat and stared at her (still talking about a mountain here by the way...). Leaning up against my downed backpack, I didn't have a thought in my head. Just consumed by awe and the silence that accompanied it. I will never forget this moment...ever.

Nor will I forget the countless wildlife sightings I had. In one day I saw, three Grizzlies, two foxes, dozens of carribou, and most importantly for me...the lone Grey Wolf....one of, if not the most romanticized creatures in all the animal kingdom.

Well a lot happened over these days but there's a taste. Here is a sample of some of the photos over that time. Enjoy!

Oh this is my final Denali post I think. It was funny...when I emerged from the backcountry I was drenched in sweat, soaked from the river crossing, had a ravaged shirt, my forearms were doused in dry blood, and was walking with a shotgun resting across my shoulder. The tourons that did NOT run away screaming from the mere appearance of me asked if I was ok and then requested a photo opportunity with the lunatic who just spent over a week alone in the Denali backcountry. I was happy to...then I proceeded to pass out on the bus ride out of the park!

Not a bad view from the start...

Having Denali as a reference point made land navigation very easy

First or second river crossing - thigh high. Also that plateau ahead is where the bear den was and that grassy mountain top beyond it is where I intended to make camp...the high ground.

As the river flows

Third river crossing of the day....took a solid 20 minutes to cross this freezing 40 foot path of destruction. It doesn't look like it but it went passed my waist

Salvation

I'm addicted to sunsets

To the left, the drainage to Sunrise glacier; to the right, the drainage from Sunset Glacier

Rest for the weary

This is what someone looks like after they walk into a Grizzly Bear den

This is what someone looks like when they realized they walked through a Grizzly bear den and is still alive enough to take a selfie

Sigh


500 foot square apartment in Alexandria: $1200/month; 4,724,735.16 acres to yourself in the remote Denali National Park backcountry: $0 (maybe sore feet)

Not a bad front porch if you ask me

My guests in the morning

What am I looking at? Wouldn't you like to know!

Can you find my tent?

My breakfast companion

Hydration compliments of gravity

Back on the river bed

Oh there you are Denali

Mental clarity was achieved here

Its always important to stop and turn around to see where you've been...the view is never what you'd expect

Cripes!

The Jewel of the North

Poster for "The Walkabout" Movie?

Not a great picture but this stick is the only reason why my body and pack did not get whisked away by the river torrents. Doesn't look like much but it made it through some hair raising moments.