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Thread: Toklat River- Area 32- Denali National Park, Alaska- June 2005

  1. #1

    Toklat River- Area 32- Denali National Park, Alaska- June 2005

    Alaska is second to none of all my wilderness experiences. You really have to see it to believe it. It is awesome to see the earth untrammeled by humans. This weekend trip was during the full moon and the summer solstice which only happens every 28 years up there. That means that the moon and the sun never go down for about a 22 hour period. They seem to chase each other around the horizon. The sun never set completely that day, and it was magical to say the least. It was a summer I will never forget.

    This was a weekend we got off from our boss, so we decided to explore an area in Denali Park that we were looking at since we arrived in Alaska. The Toklat River is the remains of a very large glacier that once came off the north buttress of Denali. The ice is long gone, but the evidence remains. We caught the camper bus on Friday morning early, for we had a about a 70 mile ride to get to our stop to pack it in to the area we were permitted for. We did our bear safety class on Thursday, got our bear container, and called it an evening. We were up bright and early and met our bus about 8:30 am. The ride out to the Toklat stop was awesome! We took it all in, seeing Grizzly's, Caribou, and some really big Moose on the way out there. Our stop at Polychrome Pass was incredible. The views were unreal, and so was the endless expanse of tundra.

    After this awesome tour ride, we finally arrived at the Toklat stop. We unloaded, pounded down some snacks and hit the river bed. The Toklat is a large series of river braids with rounded rocks. Basically there is not a flat spot to step and we had no flat ground for 7 miles. We did about 4 miles and ran into some rangers sitting on a rather large log in the middle of the Toklat. They tell us the area is closed because of a Grizzly kill of a Moose in Cabin Creek. We were kind of shocked, since we just got our permit the night before. We pulled out our map and we were heading for a few drainage's south of where they had seen the kill. So they said we could continue on, since our destination was far enough away to not provoke a territorial attack from the Bear.

    We continued on, and eventually got to the area we were shooting for. I tell you, Tundra is as hard, if not harder to hike in snow when you are post holing. The skeeters were unreal! I would look at Jared, and he had a black cloud of skeeters just hovering around him like some Pig Pen impersonation from the cartoon Peanuts. We were using 100% Deet, and they were still trying to get at us. We found a really windy spot and they virtually vanished. We set up shop and put our liquor in the glacial water running in the drainage and set off for some exploring. We finally settled in with some drinks and dinner and called it a night.

    Minus the winds, it was so quiet out there. I did an AM recon of the tundra and found a huge berry patch and picked wild blueberries and salmon berries and made pancakes with them. What a yummy treat! We decided to try to get a close up view of Polychrome Peak, so we started up the drainage up from camp. As we moved along we saw big Grizzly tracks, with smaller ones near them. Great, we have a mother with cubs in the area, time to sing to the bears and keep our eyes and ears out. We then stumble upon the skeletal remains of a Caribou, and we realize at this point that this is a feeding den for a bear, and we move to higher ground, so we can at least get a visual if we have a visitor moving through the willow below us. We get up on top of the ridge and it is all tundra, with huge holes in it. Grizzly's hunting Ground Squirrel. We did however get treated to some really amazing views and the area was in such a natural state, we made tracks lightly as to not disturb the ecosystem here. An amazing hike for the day, and then it was back to camp. More drinks and dinner, and we crashed out again. One of the best nights sleep I have ever had. About 8:00 AM (The only reason I knew this was my watch, sure could not tell midnight from this time because the sun never went down) I hear heavy foot fall in our camp, and so does Jared. We just lay still and we hear it move off to the North. We exit the tents after we know it is gone, and we had a Bear in our camp for sure. Spooky! We decide to make breakfast and pack it up to go. We have a rather uneventful walk out of the Toklat, minus seeing some Caribou right before we got to the road. We park it on a rock just up from the Toklat stop to wait for our camper bus out of there, and out of nowhere here comes this Grizzly right up to the bush next to the road. Yeah, me and Jared were a bit nervous, and a tourist bus, which never pick up backpackers rolls up and tells us to get on. We ride over to the stop and find out that there was a mother and cubs and another male right out of our view. Spooky! We make it to the Toklat, exhausted, but fullfilled to have been out of camp for a few days, doing our own thing out there. An amazing and thrilling wilderness experience that I will never forget. I will be 58 when the summer solstice happens again with a full moon in tow, I think I might have to round up Jared and head back. I love Alaska.

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  3. #2
    Outdoorsman gnwatts's Avatar
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    Pretty cool.
    Grizzlies kind of freak me out.

  4. #3
    dammit. why do you guys keep posting nostalgic trips that make me jealous with bitter rage? ha! love that toklat area in denali. the last time i was there i had a nice little run in with a wolf, but i could only get one photo before he ran off. i've never been able to draw a permit for 32 though...

    solstice tomorrow, always a party in AK...

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by gnwatts View Post
    Pretty cool.
    Grizzlies kind of freak me out.
    thank god those grizz in denali are pretty human friendly, since they've never been habituated to human food. pretty safe place to backpack, as far as grizz country goes.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by CarpeyBiggs View Post
    dammit. why do you guys keep posting nostalgic trips that make me jealous with bitter rage? ha! love that toklat area in denali. the last time i was there i had a nice little run in with a wolf, but i could only get one photo before he ran off. i've never been able to draw a permit for 32 though...

    solstice tomorrow, always a party in AK...
    We actually had 31 and 32 out there. But when we met the rangers, they said stay out of 31, and stick to 32. They were really worried about a territorial charge from this particular bear. I guess they had run in's with this one bear all summer. That is why they were out there, hanging out 3 1/2 miles from the road. Crazy.

    Yeah, AK was crazy during the Solstice. I am sure good times are to be had. My friend is doing a summer job at the 24 golf course by Otto Lake. Wish I was up there with him.

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