·Steve Chisgar, Clint Chisgar, Jim Barr
·Left the Denali park entrance on camper bus:2:00pm, Monday Sept. 5, 2011.
·Bus dropped us off at the Toklat River rest stop at 3:30pm on Monday, Sept. 5, 2011.
·Took a short hike from the Toklat rest stop at 4:00pm on Monday, Sept. 5, 2011.
·Hike ended at 11:00am on Thursday, Sept. 8.
After returning home from the first hike, I immediately began thinking about a second attempt to make McGonagall Pass.I had learned from my two mistakes in 2010 and wanted to give it another chance.Labor Day is simply a great time to visit Denali and to make this hike - - mostly because of two reasons:1) Not as many mosquitoes, 2) the river may be lower than in mid-summer.I decided that Labor Day, 2011, I was definitely going back.The main question was: should I go alone? Or could I find a hiking partner or two that could accompany me? Would my wife let me go a second year? Would I tell my Mother in advance?
I was at a church function in October, 2010 when I met a guy that happened to be wearing an “Alaska” baseball hat. His name was Steve and we started a conversation about Alaska. He and his wife had just taken a cruise to Alaska, and of course, I told him about what I had just done in Denali. Steve and I hit it off pretty well together (rednecks usually do). [He doesn’t know this, but over the course of several months, I watched Steve from a distance… and I liked him and his family very much - - almost enough to make me ask him to be my hiking buddy - - but not quite]. Steve and Roxanne have (3) kids, and the youngest is a teenage young man. I finally got up enough nerve to ask Steve if he and Clint would like to try the 2011 hike with me. He thought about it for a while - - it was taking too long, so I sent him this picture:
Steve finally gave me the answer I was looking for: YES.A big factor in his decision was taking Clint with us. Steve rightly viewed this trip as a wonderful memory for his teenage son. Around this time we had Steve and his family over to view my pictures and videos from 2010. I could tell Roxanne thought I was crazy. However, she cautiously agreed to this and I did my best to assure her that I would bring Steve and Clint back home safely.At the same time, I advised her to make extra copies of any life insurance policies that Steve had. :)
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| This picture served as bait for Steve to decide to join me on the hike. |
Three Alabama rednecks in the wilderness of Alaska - - this should be interesting. During the spring and summer of 2011, we planned our dates and gear list.We purchased bus tickets and arranged for airline tickets and a rental car. It was great fun planning the trip.
Finally, the big day arrived, and we met Steve and Clint at the Huntsville airport. The plane rides to Anchorage seemed to take forever but we talked and talked and talked … about our adventure that was about to begin. After arriving in Anchorage, we rented a car, drove to the Walmart in Wasilla for final purchases.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2011 (Labor Day)
We arrived at the backcountry office at around 9am, only to find that Unit 20 (the main unit we needed) was not available until Wednesday night. We quickly made alternate plans to hike and camp along the Toklat River on the first day (Monday night), then to begin our hike on Tuesday in Unit 20. I knew deep down that this change in plans might mean jeopardizing a full hike to McGonagall Pass, but we had no choice.
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| Clint Chisgar is ready for the journey. |
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| Steve and Clint filling out the proper paperwork. |
We had a couple hours to kill before the bus left at 2pm, so we packed our packs, walked to the Visitor center, watched the Denali movie, called home one last time.It was different speaking to Linda this year… she was not nearly as nervous as in 2010 - - I think because Steve and Clint were with me. I wondered how Steve’s call with Roxanne went, if it was as tense as my goodbye call with Linda in 2010. Anyway, 1:45pm finally rolled around and we made our way onto the bus. The trip to Toklat was non-eventful, but we passed the time looking and watching for wildlife, which was plentiful. Dall sheep, Arctic Fox, Grizzlies, Moose, Caribou.
We arrived at the Toklat River rest stop which is an interesting place to stop. It’s a large, open area, mostly used as a bathroom break for bus riders. There is a “building” there – which is actually a tent-like Quonset hut, where the NPS sells books and answers questions.
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| Steve and Clint about to descend to the river bottom. |
We set-up our tents and began cooking supper.The NPS requires backcountry campers in Denali to form a triangle:tent site, cook-site, bear-can storage… each 100 yards apart.We stepped off 100 yards to find a cook-site. We had our bear-cans with us as they make great stools to sit on while you eat. We had pretty much finished eating and we began telling jokes and really getting to know one another. As I recall, we were talking about our all-time favorite movies. By chance, I happened to stand up. I happened to look over Steve’s left shoulder… and saw a bear just 20 yards behind him.
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| Camping along the Toklat River. |
I immediately said something obvious like: “Ok, there’s a bear right behind you.”I didn’t shout, but I said it very quickly. Adrenaline began to rush through me.Steve and Clint both stood up and turned around to see the bear. There was a moment - - a moment where all four of us (us 3, and the bear) just looked at each other, wondering what to do next. It was during those few seconds that I (and Steve and Clint said the same thing) remembered what we were supposed to do.I remember asking myself:“what should we do now?” and being a little surprised that I was able to think clearly. I really don’t know what I expected… but I think I had convinced myself that a bear experience would always end in disaster.
Also as we were standing there looking at each other (and the bear), we realized that the bear was actually a bear cub, and the mother bear was some distance behind the cub.As we were instructed in the videos - - we stood our ground and began to speak to the bears in low, calm voices:“Hey bear, hey bear, nothing to see here, bear”. At the same time, we slowly waved our hands over our heads (also as instructed by the videos). The cub stood on his (her?) hind legs to get a better look at us… then moved quickly away from us, off to the right, back toward the mother. We didn’t panic, and we stood our ground. We did make certain that our bear cans were securely closed.
Apparently, there was a patch of bear-berries where the bears were, and they were simply eating, as we were. After a few moments, the mother moved off to the right, out of site, and the cub followed her. We were full of excitement and thrilled to have had this experience. It was exhilarating that we were not frozen in fear, neither did we run away.
Just minutes after the experience, we took this picture. You can see where our bear cans were positioned.Clint is standing where the bear cub was (too close!).
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| At the site of the bear encounter. Clint is standing where the bear was. |
Needless to say, we had a little trouble going to sleep that night. Or at least I did.At the same time, I was absolutely thrilled that we had encountered the bears and will never forget the experience. The sunset that night was spectacular:
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| Incredible sunset at Toklat River |
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| Sunset at the Toklat River |
I woke up early and took a few pictures alone.After Clint and Steve woke up, we had some breakfast, freshened up, packed up camp, and headed back to the rest stop to catch another bus to Wonder Lake.
We caught a bus at around 10:30am heading toward Wonder Lake. The bus was completely full and we happened to sit next to some interesting people. There was a group of 7 or 8 Russian young people who we spoke with. They had just spent the summer working in fisheries in Seward and were taking a short vacation before returning home to Russia. The guy I sat next to on the bus told me they had never been to the US before, and were only visiting Denali before returning home. It was the second year in a row that I met an interesting person on the bus ride (see Brian in 2010). But the highlight of the ride into the park was seeing a pack of wolves- 9 of them near Highway Pass. We were told this is extremely rare. I wondered what I would do if I ever heard wolves howling at night.
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| We were really lucky to see this pack of 9 wolves. |
Arriving at the river, we changed our hiking boots into tennis shoes, brought especially for the river crossing. We carefully packed our backpacks so that clothes and camera were packed within plastic bags within my backpack.
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| Steve and Clint depart the Wonder Lake Campground along the park road. |
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| On the way to the McKinley River, we hiked over many grizzly tracks. |
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| Steve scouting our path to cross the river. |
Since I had crossed the river the previous year I felt like I had an advantage over Steve and Clint.However, in 2011, I had much more difficulty with the coldness of the water.About 1/3 the way across the river, I had to stop and massage my feet because they were completely frozen.I could not tolerate the pain. After a few minutes of rubbing my feet, I would continue on.Steve and Clint were patient with me, and we finally made it across in about 2 hours.
We set up our tents on the south side of the river and went to sleep by dark.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
Today would be our hardest day during the hike. We woke up early, took a few pictures and made a couple hilarious videos summarizing our experiences.
After that, we started the hike to Turtle Hill. We had found the trailhead (the one that I couldn’t locate in 2010), and took off. The hike was full of memories for me… especially remembering the difficulties I had with the trail the year before.When we had hiked about a mile toward Turtle Hill, we saw a herd of Caribou. They were as intrigued with us as we were with them. We got some amazing pictures. We watched the caribou for a few minutes and continued up the long trail to Turtle Hill. These are a couple of my favorite pictures:
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| At sunrise on the McKinley River Bar |
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| Caribou near ridge south of the McKinley River. |
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| Family of Caribou |
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| We spooked the Caribou and they took off toward the east. |
There were literally billions and billions of blueberries in this stretch of hiking.More than once, we would stop to pick a few and eat them. Every so often, we would stop, drop our packs and lie down to rest. After the rest, we would resume hiking, and we all noticed that we had blueberry stains on our rears.
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| A few of the zillions of blueberries |
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| Jim takes a break. |
Upon arriving at Turtle Hill, we rested again. We noticed a strange sound of birds. It was kind of strange to hear. The sound never did seem to go away.We began searching the skies for the source of the sound, and finally located many birds (geese?) flying around high above us in a strange pattern. We wondered if they were practicing for their long migration journey. They never did seem to leave. [Feb. 2013 update: John Miller of Fairbanks is certain these are Sand Hill Cranes. They were amazing! Thanks John!]
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| Unknown birds flying over Turtle Hill |
At this point, I passed the furthest point I had made during my entire hike the previous year.Crossing the Clearwater was interesting. We chose to do something that I do not advise at all… we crossed in our bare naked feet. The cold water combined with the uneven, rocky bottom of the creek presented a challenge, but all three of us agreed it was much easier to cross than the McKinley. The Clearwater is only one braid, some 50 feet across. On the south side of the river, we put our hiking socks and boots back on and continued our hike.
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| Steve crossing the Clearwater Creek |
After crossing Cache Creek, we decided to push onward.Steve wanted to keep hiking until around 9pm and we did.We made it a few couple more miles toward the pass. By the time we stopped and set-up our tents, we were about 12 miles from Wonder Lake. It was a marvelous feeling being so much further than last year’s hike already. Tomorrow promised a great experience, but little did we know it would be full of surprises.
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| Antler's found near Cache Creek. |
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011
When I woke up Thursday morning, I was very excited. The 2010 hike had ended in disappointment, and TODAY might be the day we made it to the top! However, as soon as I got out of the tent, I noticed Steve was already up. He walked over to me and told me he had been sick the entire night.
I was shocked. Sick? Out of all the problems we had to face - - rivers, bears, cold, achey-muscles, getting lost, etc…. I never imagined one of us getting “sick”. Actually, the very first thought in my mind was one of concern. We were literally 11 miles from the nearest ‘civilization’… what would we do if Steve required real medical care?
Steve said he felt a nausea that just wouldn’t go away. During the night, Steve had dry heaves every so often. Steve and I chatted for a while and it became obvious that Steve could not continue hiking forward. It was only when I heard Steve go through a dry heave spell that I began to believe this could be a serious situation. I insisted that we plan to head back to Wonder Lake. Steve didn’t feel right that his sickness would call an end to our trip, but to me… it just wasn’t worth taking a chance. What if his condition worsened? Steve did insist that we wait a couple hours to see if he improved.
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| The view toward McGonagall Pass |
"I found that I could not set out with the intent of having a particular experience - my goal instead was to be open to what that day was giving me and accept it. Expectations generally led to disappointment, but being open to whatever was there for me to discover led to awareness and delight, even when conditions were rough."
Steve being sick in no way ruined the hike. Clint wasn’t thrilled to hear that we would not be making it all the way to the Pass… so, while Steve stayed at the camp, Clint and I decided to walk a mile or so further to see anything different. We made it to the second crossing of Cache Creek when we decided to turn around.
We soon arrived back at the camp. Steve had not improved at all and still felt nauseous. We loaded up our packs and began the journey back. Every once in a while Steve would have to stop and dry heave. I was convinced we made the right decision. It was tough listening to Steve. We couldn’t figure out what it was from. The first thought was giardia, but it didn’t seem likely. We also considered dehydration. I suspected the iodine pills, which made the water taste nasty. I don’t think we really ever determined the exact cause.
That night, we made it all the way back to the river but we didn’t cross it. At about 4:00am, I was rudely awakened by hearing Steve … “Hey bear”, “Hey bear”. I could easily hear Steve through our filament-thin tents walls. “What you got Steve?” “I don’t know Jim, but something’s out there”. I could hear it.
Ugh. This was one of my fears, to be inside the tent and have a bear walk up to the tents. I started doing my own “Hey bear”, and could hear more rustling just outside our tents. Something was out there. I scrambled to get my pants on (it was freezing outside), and in the process I knocked the right lens out of my eye glasses.The timing was just wonderful. So, here we are: inside our tents, it’s dark, it’s freezing, we’re scared, I can only see through one lens… and I hear Clint mumble: “Would you guys shut-up”. What a classic sleepy teenager response. We eventually made it outside the tents, and by the time we did, whatever it was had moved on. We never did find out whether it was a bear or caribou or moose. It was one of those three - - it was a large animal.
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| Steve breaks down camp - rainbow in background. |
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| At morning's first light - a rainbow. |
We crossed the river easily and hiked the last 3 miles to the trailhead/park road to Wonder Lake.Steve continued to have bouts of dry heaves all the way back to the campground. When we arrived at the trailhead, I wanted to take a picture of the sign stating “McKinleyBar Trail” but there was a 15 passenger shuttle van parked RIGHT in front of the sign. There are six million acres of land at Denali and the Roadhouse van chose to park in the exact wrong spot. No worries, I knew there was a strong likelihood that the driver left the keys in the van. I was right. We got our picture without the van in the way. Steve and Clint laughed at the thought of the driver coming back wondering who had moved it. It’s not like I stole the van, I just moved it.
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| I did not steal this van. |
We made it back to the campground at Wonder Lake, had lunch, and waited for the next bus to take us back.
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| Clint and Steve back at the trailhead. |
We made it back to the campground at Wonder Lake, had lunch, and waited for the next bus to take us back.
We happened to catch a bus that was a typical green bus. Instead of being mixed with other backpackers and hikers, we found ourselves riding with typical tourists (not the camper bus). One person I remember was a lady about my age from somewhere in the eastern US. She walked back on the bus and was putting-down Wonder Lake… “Not impressive”. We didn’t talk much on the way back.
We arrived back at the park entrance, called home, and headed for the Subway in Glitter Gulch.
So, 2011 was another year without reaching the goal of McGonagall Pass.It was not obvious that I would attempt it again. It would take some time to think about it.It was not until February or March of 2012 that I decided I would attempt it a third time.
Click on this link to continue to Chapter 3:
Chapter 3: 2012 - "The Completion"
Click on this link to continue to Chapter 3:
Chapter 3: 2012 - "The Completion"