McCallum Creek

In January Jeff and I took advantage of a three day weekend to head down to the McCallum creek area, which is towards the bottom of the Delta range. We weren't able to find too much great skiing (mostly because we were looking in the wrong spot), but we got a couple good turns in, enjoyed some great views, and did a lot of scouting for out next trip down there.

Mountains on the ski in.

Me kicking it to our camping spot. When we crested this little ridge we were met by about 50 caribou, who promptly ran off, not to be seen again for the rest of the trip.

Mountains off to our east.

The first day out we climbed about 2/3 of the way up this peak and skied down. A bunch of it was tore up by caribou, but there was some decent snow to be found.

Chilling out at the campsite. We got a little snow the first night that we were out.

The moon over our campsite.

Jeff rocking down a ridge. Little did we know that just out of sight that ridge would end in a cliff, so we ended up having to climb back up to where this photo was taken from.

In the tent. After a day of climbing around looking for skiing spots, and finding few, we collapsed into the tent, eschewing hot food for granola and sandwiches.

Dawn breaking on the mountains.

And again.

Sunrise (or maybe it's sunset...I'm not for sure) coming up over the hills.

Tracks set against the sun.

Tolovana Hot Springs

Before the year was over I took a trip to the Tolovana Hot Springs with Sam, Jeff, Margaret, Jared, and Chris. The springs are pretty cool; it's an 11 mile trip in to a couple of cabins that they have set up close to the springs. One of the tubs wasn't the warmest in the world, but the tub closer to the actual hot springs felt great.

The crew at the parking lot. It was -10 with probably 15 mph winds. Jeff's eye ball actually froze as he skied over Tolovana Dome.

Margaret and Jared. Jeff and I were on skis and everyone else was on foot, so we ended up making it in to the cabin about an hour before they did.

Margaret and Chris.

Margaret and I in the cabin. I'm rocking the BCG (birth control goggles). They're pretty tough to break, I've got a couple pair, and they're so unbelieveably emo.

Beers on the wood-burning stove. All the beer we carried in was frozen when we arrived, so we had to thaw it out on the stove. Two beers, 11 miles of dehydrating hiking, and soaking in hot tub is a pretty potent combination.

Chris approves of the trip.

Lee's Cabin

Just before Thanksgiving last year I took a trip up to the White Mountains to stay in one of the BLM's cabins. Originally a couple of other people were going to go, but they ended up having to work, so it was just me rocking it. We hadn't gotten much snowfall yet, so I ended up taking snowshoes to save my skis. The cabin was surprisingly nice. It had a stove and lantern in it, along with some goodies left behind by other campers. I attribute all of this partially to the fact that the main users were snowmachiners and ATVers, who can drag more crap with them. I took advantage, though.

Lee's cabin, named after a local who died of cancer and apparently loved coming up to the Whites.

View west of the cabin.

Me chilling on the cabin porch. It was up to 25 during the day, which was pretty nice.

On the way out I detoured and climbed up Wickersham Dome because I had some extra time. It was a nice little kick in the rear to end the trip. This is the view north from the Dome.

Looking south.

Now for something entirely different...

Over Halloween, I went to Victoria, British Columbia, to play in an ultimate tournament with some ultimate players from Fairbanks. Going by the name Mustache Rodeo, we rolled into town sporting mustaches (well, I couldn't, but the other guys did), jean shorts, and salmon pink tank tops, easily responsible for bringing the most outrageous uniform to the tournament. Not only that, but we traveled in style, riding individual scooters in squadron form anywhere we went. It was a good time, the fields were softened by rain and perfect for making bids, and the ultimate was awesome.

The team

Me after a day of laying out

Mustache Rodeo rocking it scooter style

End of Season bike trip

With fall about to end and a three day weekend to take advantage of, Sam, Chris, and I decided to ride our bikes down to Delta Junction, then kick around the Deltas for a day. We took two bikes and a car so that we could get back quickly and so that people could take occasional breaks from riding. We ended up biking down in a day, camping near the terminus of the Canwell Glacier, then taking a day hike back up the glacier a bit.

Sam rocking it on his bike. His bike had an extremely comfortable cushioned seat, as opposed to the hard small mountain bike seat that gave me some pretty rad saddle soreness by the end of the day.

The mountains at a stop along the way.

Sam and Chris kicking it.

Sam hiking up the glacier.

Lower Miller and the ridges rising next to the Canwell. The fall colors were beautiful...made me wish I'd gotten out in September more than I did.

Pretty sweet ice fall. We hiked out to this point to check it out, then turned around and finished the hike. It had rained pretty heavily the night before, so we were universally soaked bush-whacking through all the shrubs.

Sam and Chris on their way off the glacier.

Little glacial stream coming off the Canwell.

Steese Trip

At the start of July, several of us took a trip up to the Pinnell Mountain Trail in the Steese National Conservation Area. It's a 27 mile trail along alpine tundra. The first day was pretty cloudy, with intermittent rain and poor visibility. Things started to clear, up, though, when we arrived at the first cabin that afternoon. The next day the weather was much better, and despite a late start we reached the second cabin by 1, so we decided to just finish the trail that day. All told, a pretty hike with ever-present good scenery and some nice elevation changes.

The mountains in the distance at our first cabin.

Jeff checking out the view.

Priya and I at the second cabin, looking more like homesteaders than backpackers.

A brazen marmot. They were all over the area surrounding the second cabin, and some of them didn't give a crap about how close they were to humans.

Here are some of the shots that Sam took. This is Priya and I near Porky, I think. Priya's rocking the head net? Why? Apparently her memory is too short to realize that the mosquito situation in the Steese dominated the one down in Denali.

Pretty sweet view. I think Sam got most of these on the way out...he only hiked for a day.

Quinn and Margaret eating lunch.

Another nice pic. The mountains of Alaska are awesome, in part because you get so much variety. The character of the Steese is totally different from Denali.

The last picture is of a money rainbow that Sam saw on his way out. Sadly, it was totally hidden from our view.

Denali is Awesome

The biggest trip that I've taken since being up in Alaska was spending a week in Denali National Park. Hiking a trail-less pristine wilderness is absolutely incredible. The park is about the size of Massachusets, so the 60 miles that Priya and I covered aren't even close to enough time spent in the park. It was gorgeous. We hiked through tundra, high tundra, up mountains, along glacial rivers, in the rain and in the heat of the sun, all while trying to avoid the swarms of mosquitoes that followed us like (literally) black clouds. The bus ride into the park itself was pretty sweet, and getting dropped off at a semi-random junction in the road and let go into the wilderness was awesome. Hang on, because there are a ton of pictures on this one. Despite my foreknowledge that these pictures can't possibly describing how incredible the trip was, I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

Priya and I on the bus ride in. That day was beautiful, affording incredible views of the Alaska Range.

One of said views.

Priya at Stony Creek. This is where we got dropped off of the bus.

Climbing over a rock outcropping. The first day we discovered how cold glacial streams are on the feet, how hard it is to get boots dry, and what lengths we were willing to go to to avoid getting our feet more wet.

Mountains across the stream from our first campsite.

Me on our first climb up to a plateau betweent two creeks. This climb was followed shortly by a fairly large thunderstorm. As we were traveling on a bare plateau at the time, it was less than cool.

Me on a gravel bar next to Clearwater Creek. Gravel bars were our friends...they meant no trudging through tundra (which is kind of like walking on irregularly shaped foot deep sponges), and if they were wide enough no river crossings.

Our first mosquito-free dinner in three days. This particular creek just happened to have enough breeze blowing through to keep the bugs away. It also let us dry out our gear a bit. After camping at Clearwater that night, we followed Moonlight Creek a ways until Priya got tired of it and decided we just climb straight up to the ridge. After several hours of 'schwacking through dense tangles of trees, we made it to the ridge, where we experienced incredibly smooth hiking. Lots of up and down, but few mosquitoes and high, dry tundra. Awesome.

Priya hiking the ridge.

Our first big climb on the ridge. The other side was a mess of scree...pretty rough going trying to get down safely.

Priya at the edge of one of the peaks we climbed over.

Me hiking the ridge. Unfortunately, smoke from a forest fire had blown in, so we didn't have the best of views. Hiking that ridge, though, gave me the most incredible edge-of-the-earth feeling that I've ever experienced.

Another shot of mountains along the ridge.

A picture from the last day of the hike. We climbed the peak just past those clouds expecting to have another 5- miles of peak climbing only to find...a road. We had been hiking the Kantishna Hills, and it turns out that the area we were in still had small, but active, mines operating in it, and there was a road to get back to them. So those last 5-7 miles went by way faster than we were expecting.

A griz rumbling around near the bus. We didn't see any griz on foot, which disappointed me. I still haven't see any bear on foot since I've been in Alaska.

The griz wandering between our bus and the wilderness photographers in front of us.

Cool view of the sun over the mountains on our way out. Denali is awesome.