Halfway Into The Wild

For those who have read John Krakauer's book Into the Wild, and/or have seen the movie, my goal of making it into "The Bus", in spite of two previous failed attempts, makes perfect sense. The story of 22 year old Chris McCandless and his adventures as he ran away from society and his family in an attempt to find something or some way of living that made sense to him resonates strongly for many wilderness-oriented people in Alaska (after all, that is why we live here). I first read the book in 1997, shortly after it was published, when I lived in Missoula, and found it an excellent read, and very thought-provoking. Many people have criticized Chris for being stupid and unprepared as he made his way from Fairbanks, south along the Parks highway, heading for his hike in on the Stampede Trail. And if he done some studying of the area, he would have found it easy to work his way back out from the bus where he met his end, 8 miles east of the Teklanika River, on the Stampede trail. This bus had been driven out there many years ago and used by hunters as shelter, when he came upon it in the spring of 1992. When some local people have belittled him and his unfortunate demise, I reminded them of how courageous he really was. I certainly would never hop freight trains in the middle of the night. Or come into Los Angeles with nothing, no job and very little money, not knowing a soul. Or, kayak the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, without any previous experience! He was hard on his family, cutting them off from contact, and I'm sure he had his reasons, but that is the only thing I feel he did that was "stupid", for lack of a better word. His feelings of alienation from our materialistic society were shared by me, and most of my friends, at different times in our lives, he just decided to do something about it, which turned out badly.

My first failed attempt out the Stampede trail was early last March, with my friend Erik. It was a beautiful mild sunny day, right around freezing. We skied in on classic touring skis at about noon. Unfortunately, the coordinates we had obtained were false, from Google Earth, someone must have deliberately put misleading ones in. I hadn't read the book in ten years or so, so forgot that the bus is really just 8 miles past the Teklanika River, or about 20 miles from the end of the driveable section of the trail, on the trail. The coordinates we had put it just east of the Savage River, 10 miles in, about a mile north of the Stampede Trail. So we got to the Savage River quickly, and went up a mile, then ski-whacked through thick black spruce and alder, trying to find the bus. After a couple hours of that, thrashing around blindly, which wore us out, we headed back.

My second attempt was in mid-April, I camped out near 8-mile lake to get an early start in the morning. It was about 15 degrees when I packed up to get ready for my ski. My little husky/lab mix Mattie was with me. It was a bright sunny spring day, and unfortunately, by the time we got to the Savage River, 10 miles in, the snow turned to slop as it warmed up to near 45 degrees. By the time I had lunch, the slop on the trail was 4-6 inches deep, and unski-able because my kick zone would clog up with the sticky stuff. So I had to just shuffle along as best I could. I decided to turn back, and it took me over five hours to get back, after taking just 2 hours to get in.

This time, I thought, maybe a fall attempt would work, if the rivers were low enough. My goal was to fast-pack in and out the 38 or so miles in 10-14 hours. It was a quick 90 mile drive south on the Parks Highway to just north of Healy, where the Stampede trail takes off to the west. The fall colors were out in full display, and the south chinook winds were blowing, warming the temperature up to 50-55 degrees. We had a very wet summer this year though, July through mid-August, so I wasn't sure how that would play out. Also, freezing levels had come down to around 6000 feet; the Teklanika River, the biggest one to ford, and the one that prevented Chris from getting out in July and August, 1992 is glacial-fed, it's flow is directly and quickly affected by the amount of glacial melting that occurs in it's headwaters. So those two factors were on my mind when I reached there this last saturday, the 13th of Sept. Unfortunately, the first sections of the trail were a swamp, huge puddles for a couple miles. When the trail reaches the bottom of a draw, about four miles in, and follows two streams, it was then covered in even more water. As you can see above, here is one of the TEN stream crossings on the trail I had to go through in two miles. I had my running shoes on, and my trekking poles, with about 20 lbs. of food/water/clothes in my pack. I was able to run about five of the eight miles in to the Savage River. Though twice, it was so muddy, my left shoe got sucked off my foot, to which I responded with great and creative cursing.

There were some actual nice sections of trail, as you can see here, where the footing was excellent, and on these I was able to keep running at a comfortable 8-9 mile/minute pace. But these sections were fairly short. We got to the Savage River in about 90 min., and I knew it wasn't going to be easy further on. The Savage is normally not that big, but I had to go upstream a ways to find a decent ford. It was running fast, and when I crossed, was almost up to my knees. But we pressed on, and just about a half-mile from the Teklanika River, I ran into two guys who were also trying to make it to the bus. They turned back, saying the river was too high, dangerous even. Of course I had to see for myself, so we ran further and got to the Teklanika.


Here it is. Running very fast, faster than I can run! And, at least 5 feet deep in the middle. No one is getting across that. So, we walked about a mile upstream to where it splits into four braids. The smallest braid, which we came to, was still running very fast, 3-4 feet deep in the middle, and about ten feet wide. I probably could have jumped that, but then the other braids were faster, deeper, and wider. At this time Mattie plunged into the first braid, and was swept off her feet! She went whirling downstream, and I ran after her. In a few seconds she managed to get her front paws on the bank, and I grabbed her collar and pulled her in. Close call! That was that, we headed back. I decided to try a spur trail on our return that is a little shorter, that cuts across the valley more directly. I had skied on it of course twice in March, and April. As you can see, it just looks like grass/tundra. But what it really is, is a giant bog. This three mile section was very arduous, mostly underwater, and even the higher tussocks were soggy. Slow going. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Here is what the majority of the rest of the trail looked like, heading back. One big sloppy mud puddle essentially. Not having been here before in the summer, I had to wonder, is it always like
that during the warm season? Or was our wet July/August mainly responsible. It had rained a couple of days before this outing in the area, but it didn't seem like alot, from the data I saw.

One other factor, which may have been responsible for the high water in the Teklanika River was snowmelt. As you can see, there was snow on the peaks above about 5000 feet, which was all melting. This certainly didn't work in my favor.

When we got back to my trusty Ford Escape and I began loading all my wet muddy gear up, I looked back and got a peak of part of Denali through the clouds. So, even though my third bus attempt was hindered by the high water on the Teklanika River, seeing sights like this, made it all worthwhile. It was a short 8 hour trail day, but my feet were battered and bruised from the cobblestones on the Stampede Trail, and I had a minor case of trenchfoot, from them being soaked all day. This just makes me more determined to finish the job. Which is going to happen in this coming February or March. When I have a day off, and the temperature is between +10 and freezing. Then, I can ski the 40 mile round trip in 10 hours or so. It's not steep, and at those temperatures, the snow conditions will be optimal. And of course, I'll just slide right across those rivers and that boggy tundra.