Thursday, June 16, 2016

Denali, AK - Groans Were Made

It’s been a long time and I’ve missed hiking. I’ve been sitting too long, time to lace up the hiking boots and get out on the trail. And what better place to find a trail than in Denali. What a marvelous hike. Marvelous because the trail was so cool and the views were superb. A nice slow switchback up the side of a slope, a long traverse across the side of a mountain and a swift stair-stepping route down the face of a rocky cliff. It must have taken ages to build this trail and I’ll show you some of the cuts that the builders made and the steps they put in. But, needless to say, it was a cool trail and we had a great time. The views, of Denali and the park? A second day of Denali. We are so lucky.

However, I’ll have to admit that during the hike - ‘groans were made.’

Have you ever heard the phrase: ‘Mistakes were made?’ You know, when someone doesn’t want to admit that they made mistakes they throw it into the passive tense and it comes out anonymously: ‘Mistakes were made.’ By whom? Who knows? They just happened. Well, today on the trail, let me just say that ‘Groans were made.’ No information about who made those groans, no indication about why or how often. Just an anonymous ‘Groans were made.’

We got 5 miles down the road and Gary realized that he had forgotten his phone. So we made a 180, headed back, grabbed the phone and started again. We got our picture at the Denali sign which we had not taken time to do before and headed down the park road to Savage Campground.
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Our goal was to park at the campground trailhead, hike the trail which ended at the Savage River shuttle stop, take the shuttle back to our car and leave. Bathrooms are a welcome sight at any trail head. but check out these doors. These are truly bear-proof. How many bolts are there?
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The first part of the trail was through waist-high brush interspersed with lots of pine trees.
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Of course, I’m thinking that there might be a bear around every curve in the trail, hiding in the brush. I was adamant that Gary should carry our bear spray but realized later that it was not necessary with all the hikers on this trail. (Gary loves it when I make him look dweebie.) (We heard several days later that a bear WAS on this trail. Two hikers rounded a corner, saw the bear, put their backpacks down to distract it and slowly backed away. Today, 5 days later, the trail is closed and so is the road in. The lesson: if it’s Denali - carry bear spray. We were the only ones who had bear spray on the day we hiked.)

Then we began the inexorable climb up the hill. Lots of switchbacks, lots of huffing and puffing. Groans were made.
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When you see a zig zag line on a trail map, you can be pretty sure that there is a steep uphill slog. I knew that the top of the hill was not the top of the hike since it’s a 4+ mile hike and I was right. But the view was stupendous. Denali, the whole valley, the Savage River below and the road through the park curving around the hills and mountains.
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The wind was plenty strong along this part of the trail. Gary caught me barely balanced on two feet.
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The next part of the trail was a long traverse across the face of the mountain. Again, we were facing Denali the and the valley the whole time so there was not a bad view in sight. We were impressed with the work that went into the building of this trail. Someone had cut out huge boulders, placed them in the exact right spot, channeled the waters seeping out of the mountain and in the end made a glorious trail for us and all other hikers.
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Time for lunch. And, that’s Denali in the background.
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The last part of the trail was the steep descent back to the shuttle stop and the Savage River bed. Tunnels were carved through the rock,
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huge rocks were placed exactly right for stepping down the ridge line. Perfect. Steep, rock-filled and switchbacks galore. I’m sure glad that I didn’t climb up this way - that would be a real huffer of a climb.
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This little guy had no trouble scrambling over the rocks. Then he posed.
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The flowers made a colorful hill. Many of the things in Denali are big but there are many smaller pleasures also.
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Back at the road we got on the shuttle and rode back to our car. Wonderful trail, a bit challenging but the pay-off views are just stupendous. But, you know, groans were made.

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