Backcountry Roads Take Me Home

It has been another fun week in Denali, and my favorite week so far.  Every week seems to get better and seems like I could describe it with the title about being jacks of all trades that I used for my last post.


I spent one morning with General Ranger Sarah Hayes hiking the Triple Lakes Trail.  I hadn't gotten a chance to get out on the 9 mile and change trail yet, and you really can't beat doing that kind of thing for work.  We were looking for signs of human impact on the trail.  Where people were creating social trails, using the facilities and not packing out their toilet paper, that sort of thing. We were also keeping track of the number of people we saw on the trail, as well as how they were using it, for hiking, trail running etc.

While we were out we saw a muskrat that appeared to have taken up residence in a beaver dam.
 












               

The next day I spent at the Savage Box, the check station at mile 15 on the park road, as far as visitors can drive in their personal vehicles.  Even though this is my second ProRanger internship and I normally spend all of my time with the Visitor and Resource Protection division, Ranger Page is loaning me out for a day or so here and there so that I can experience more of what goes on in the park. 

The box is staffed by Interp rangers and volunteers. I spent the day with Susan and her son Matt, who volunteer in the park, and with Anna Moore, Interpretation Ranger.

They give brief talks to the buses that take visitors farther into the park, as well as record the number of passengers, the time, and the bus number.  They also record when employees and people with special permits go past the check station.

And they make sure people who are camping at Teklanika have the proper paperwork and all the supplies they will need and that they are aware of the rules of the road.  Camping at Teklanika is the exception for driving past mile 15, and visitors must stay for three nights and only drive to the campground and then back out of the park, taking buses if they want to venture anywhere else. 

Though we didn't have anyone drive past the check station without a permit, which happens now and then, my time at the savage box was not entirely unrelated to law enforcement.  While there I was practically able to conduct my own investigation.  A park employee had found a ring while hiking on the Savage Loop trail and turned it in to us at the box.  A few hours later a bus driver came by and asked if we had seen a ring, saying she had a passenger who had lost one and was very upset. After taking down some information, we decided the best chance of reuniting the woman, who was leaving in the morning, and her ring was to let the bus driver take it back to the bus depot, as we still had a few hours left of our shift at the box and had no cell service in the area.






The 4th of July was an eventful day at the park.  In the morning I went with Ranger Syvertsen to investigate a suspicious vehicle parked at the Triple Lakes trailhead.  The car was parked perpendicular to the road where people usually park parallel, had the keys on the dashboard, and an open beer can near the driver's seat.  We searched the beginnings of the nearby trails and around the bridge over the Nenana but couldn't find anyone.  Ranger Syvertsen left his card and later got a call from the owner of the vehicle; everything was okay.


That afternoon I helped respond to my first medical call in the park.  A young woman was feeling ill and on the way to the visitor center to get help began vomiting.  She also complained of pain in her abdomen and lower back and could no longer walk. Ranger Page and I responded with Rangers Hayes and Ellis. Ranger Page and I arrived in the patrol vehicle and located the woman, who was with her boyfriend and a park employee who placed the call.  Ranger Page and Ranger Hayes began treatment, while Ranger Ellis and I brought the ambulance to the most strategic location and got the stretcher out.  The woman was on a trail close to the road but through some thick brush and trees.  Ranger Ellis and I parked the ambulance in a pull out close by and brought the stretcher down the trail.  The woman ended up being able to stand on her own and we got her in the stretcher and back to the ambulance.  We drove her into the canyon nearby to Canyon Clinic, where they continued treatment.  Afterwards, the ambulance was cleaned and prepped to go out again and we had a briefing.

On the way back to the ranger station there was a huge moose jam, the largest I had seen yet, with ten or fifteen cars on each side of the road at first.  There was a mother with two calves attracting everyones attention.  Ranger Page drove through the area a few times to get people moving along.

I was only supposed to work a half day, so at this point I left.  I went to the visitor center to take care of some important business that I will mention shortly.  When I returned to c-camp and the ranger station area I saw that everyone was near the ambulance again and went over to hear that there was another, pretty similar medical call with someone vomiting.  Then I went to the gym and Ranger Page texted me that there had been a third medical call, for an older woman potentially having a heart attack.  Since I was in the gym in the ranger station building I came outside to talk to everyone, who were around the ambulance again.





That evening we had a BBQ in C-Camp for the 4th of July, with some supplies donated by the All Employee association and picked up by Ranger Page and I.








As you probably guessed from the title of the post, this week I got to take my first backcountry trip in the Denali wilderness.  I found a few folks who had roughly the same time off as me, Rilee and Jake, and we made our plans.  The park has divided the backcountry up into units and only allows a certain number of people to overnight in each one.  The unit we had originally planned to go to was booked up.  I also didn't realize that Jake, who has spent a few summers here and was sort of taking the lead on trip planning could only stay for one night.  After scrambling a bit and heading down to the backcountry information desk in the visitor center myself, we were all on the same page.  I picked up a bear canister and made plans to spend a few more nights, heading into the adjacent unit.




We took the afternoon camper bus (which has seats removed in the back for backpacks) on thursday to unit six, the farthest I had been in the park, around mile 37 or 38.  I even discovered that the buses are run by Aramark, which is based out of Philadelphia.










The trip got exciting almost immediately, as we saw a grizzly bear and her two large cubs from the bus.

After departing the bus, we crossed over some hills into the Teklanika river valley.  This part of the park has no trees, and is more of an alpine tundra type ecosystem.  The hills were very spongey and difficult to walk on, but once we got on top of them and saw the views of the valleys and mountains I knew the trip would be worth it.  There is just so much of the park that is not visible from the road, including the real splendor of the Alaska range.  On the way down the other side of the hills we fought through some thick willows and alders, making sure to clap and yell frequently, as not only had we seen the bears from the bus, but we spooked a bear that was hidden in some bushes at a fairly close distance.  Luckily it was quite scared of people and took off.

We hiked around ten miles or so into the back of the valley, where the river is spawned by melting glaciers in the mountains.  It wasn't until after midnight that we reached the area we decided to camp in, but with it never getting dark and all the only way I could tell was that my feet were hurting.  On the way we crossed the Teklanika river.  It was wide and braided in this area so the crossing wasn't difficult.  Unfortunately, it began a little unexpectedly, when we were walking along the edge of one of the braids and it began to flow right up against a small cliff and we had to go in.  It is often unavoidable, but I really hate getting my boots completely soaked.  We pressed on in wet boots, crossing several more braids and covering many miles until we we decided to settle down in a nice flat area on the side of the river with good visibility.  There wasn't any clear water close by, and the Teklanika was so silty we decided not to filter it.  Luckily we had enough water left to cook and for the evening. I always seem to carry my water all day and drink/use it at the end, rather than drinking it throughout the day and filtering more. We made sure to create a golden triangle with our cook site, tents, and where we left our bear canisters, all at least 100 yards away from each other.

The next morning we went even farther back into the valley, to try and get a closer view of some of the glaciers and to find clear running water. Here we saw another bear, this one a little less afraid of people. We were a fair distance apart and going in opposite directions so we carried on our way.

I thought the way these rocks broke was really cool

We walked probably a majority of the way back out of the valley, crossed the Teklanika again and crossed back over the low spongey hills.  Here Jake left Rilee and I, as he could only stay out for one night.  Rilee and I continued over the hills, there were three in between us and the East Toklat River valley where we were heading.  The elevation didn't change drastically, but going over the hills was still a long slog.  While up there we saw a caribou at a large distance and another bear with a cub also at a pretty far distance.  We altered our course slightly and carried on. 

We hiked around 15 miles that day before we got down to the river and set up camp, this time on a gravel bar right next to some of the water, the only flat place with good visibility.  Again, we cooked our dinner away from our campsite and put the bear canister somewhere else as well. 

The next morning we ate some breakfast and Rilee began to follow the river back to the road, as she could only stay for two nights.  I headed farther back into the valley, again trying to get closer to some of the glaciers.  I planned to stay a third night by myself, as I had the time free and didn't want to waste it.  

After a few hours however, I reach a point where I would have had to cross some fairly swift water.  I was tired from the previous two days, and my feet weren't in the best shape due to spending a lot of time in wet boots and then too much time in my sandals to avoid the boots.  So I wasn't really feeling up to it, and being by myself I decided it would be best not to cross.  Since it was still fairly early I decided to head back to the road as well.  When you do a backcountry trip here, you just have to get back to the road and flag down any of the green buses.  If they have space they will take you back to the front country.  

Bridge over the East fork of the Toklat River

I made it to the road, skirting around the Sable Pass closure, an area off limits to hiking because it is some of the best grizzly bear habitat in the park.  This was now the farthest I had been down the road, somewhere around mile 43.  I only waited ten or fifteen minutes, the second bus that passed me was a green transit bus and had room.  From the bus we saw a caribou right next to the road and another bear that was pretty close.  As we were watching the bear a cyclist came by, and the bus driver said he wouldn't want to be that guy and referred to him as "meals on wheels."  After a long few days I enjoyed the bus ride back to C-Camp.  My first backcountry trip in Denali was a success.