Backpacking in Denali National Park, Alaska #1 Unit29

View stick to my heart

Our very first backpacking in Alaska!

On the previous blog entry I described the permit system. The first unit we got was Unit29. The park ranger had some suggestions for the route in Unit29.  

The park camper bus left the visitor center area at 10 a.m, and we arrived the starting area around noon. After we had lunch we started hiking!

Starting here

Based on the park ranger's advice, we had chosen the less brushy route, however, the route was still full of blush and uneven terrain. Well, this is the Alaska experience. We tried to find a game trail to be easier, but we were slow due to real off-trail. As you can see in the left picture, there are no tall trees, but there are full small size trees. Retrospectively we should have walked along the river to go to the top. We hadn't know yet that how time-consuming walking through the bushes. Important tip here is that we need to notify the fact humans are approaching to the bear by chatting or saying "hey bear!" Surprising bear is the most dangerous situation in the Denali. If bears know a human approaching they ran away and avoid unexpected meeting. When bears are surprised they might charge you.

Nice weather and great views

As you can see in the pictures, there was a snow storm a couple of days before we arrived. It was just a thin snow layer, but we still walked on the snow patches. 

Despite the bush-whack walks, the view was magnificent. Luckily the weather was great, too! The picture in the right was the place we had snack. Sitting on the meadow surrounded by beautiful mountains with fresh snow was priceless. 

tent

Around 4 p.m., we started looking for a good place to spend a night: dry and flat space to pitch a tent, with ideally a good view. And we found it! On the top of a small hill. I can't ask a better place. There is a great view of whole mountains from the camping spot! We didn't see anybody on the hike. It was absolute solitude.
We climbed a small hill to have a dinner. Cooking area should be 30 meters away from a tent, since bears might notice the food smell. Their smelling is exceptionally good. We had Japanese curry and rice. Yummmmmmmmy! It is already delicious at home, and it got even tastier in the wilderness. Later we found bear's huge footprints near the tentsite, but oh well. We hope that bears wouldn't come and went to sleep.

Next day, we decided to climb up to the Igloo mountain. Unit29 is the Igloo Mountain. We left our backpacks before the final scree portion (of course food is in the bear-proof canisters) and carried only water and some snacks. Right after we started climbing the scree, I heard some voice. It was sort of shouting. I thought that somebody telling that human existence for bears, like "Hey, bear!" thing. 

5 seconds later, I again heard, "Gahhh"

Another 5 seconds later, I heard it again. I said to Mr.N, "There is a weird sound. Somebody there?"

Mr.N said, "I don't hear anything."

For hearing, I am better than Mr.N.  For vision, Mr.N is better than me.

I heard "Gah Gah Gah" again! Then again! Finally Mr.N said he heard it. Now we knew it is from some type of animal. Then 300 meters away, Mr.N found a bear! Mr.N pointed a rock far away. Wow. Grizzly bear! My first grizzly bear encounter in person in my life!  Can you see a bear on the rock (in the center of picture) below photo?

Grizzly bear

I didn't know a bear's voice is so loud. It was really loud. LOUD. It echoed in the valley. Then the bear went to a place behind the hill where we couldn't see. Then a few minutes later the bear appeared again. Mr.N spotted the bear. 

Mr.N said, "Oh two! Mother and a cub!" 

Bears obviously didn't notice us before, because they came to the direction we were. The wind direction was from our side to the bear side, so they didn't smell us.

Below is the two bears! One mother ahead and a cub behind. They were walking, but the picture below (no.1) was the moment the mother stopped and noticed us. The left arrow indicates the mother and the right for her cub. 

No.1 the mother noticed us

Then a few moment later is the picture below (no.2). Can you see the difference between picture no.1 and no.2? You can tell based on the snow area. 
Yup, the mother stays exactly the same place, but the cub proceeded and entered the snow patch portion. The mother was looking at our direction and like, "Are they humans?!?!" She seemed not very good at vision.

No.2 the mother is frozen

Then the no.3 picture below. Now the mother was scared. She was like, "There are humans! I need to run away!" She turned around quickly and started walking fast. But the cub? The cub proceeded a little in picture no.3 compared to no.2 photo. 

No.3 Mother turned around

No.4 picture the mother and the cub at the same place. I guess she told the cub to turn around? 

No.4 Mother told cub to turn around? 

Then the cub turned around (picture no.5 below). My guess of cub's feeling is, "Mom, we just came here, why are we going back? I'm hungry!"

No.5 Cub turned around 

No.5 and no.6 picture is like 1 second apart. The distance between mother and cub got much bigger in no.6 picture. The mother was extremely fast. She seemed she was really scared. At the moment one the no.6 picture, the cub seemed that it didn't understand why she needed to run so fast. In fact the cub didn't move much since no.5 picture moment. The mom ran up to the hill top (the very right arrow in the no.6 photo). She was super fast, so the cub had a bit hard time catching up her, but she waited for the cub at the top of the hill. She ran up the really rocky, steep hill in 10 seconds. The cub was slower but still only took 30 seconds. I would need 10 minutes! You might not notice, but the terrain is not smooth and take time to walk around (at least for us humans). Once the cub reached the top, they went over the hill so we couldn't see them any more. 

No.6 Mother got fast

Oh wow. What an experience! It was amazing to see mother and cub grizzly bears! AND very rare experience to hear grizzly cub's sounds for a long time! I was glad they are still scared of humans (and didn't come to us). 

On the way to Igloo mountain

Exciting! 
After this big event, we continued climbing to the Igloo mountain. We climbed up the scree and continued on the ridge. The ridge we hiked up is in the right picture. View was spectacular. Snow covered mountains can be seen all directions. This was wonderful! The picture at beginning of this blog entry is one of the photos I took from the top of Igloo mountain. Full of real nature at Igloo with amazing view. The Igloo scenery sticks to my heart for life for sure. 

Another grizzly

After hitting the summit we went down and continued walking on the ridge. This was the area the mother and cub ran away. When we turned right and saw the next meadow area: we saw this (left picture). Another grizzly bear! A big solo male bear! He was digging a lot! Grizzly bears dig a lot. During the backpack, we saw hundreds of holes dug by grizzlies. We were surprised that in the same area at the same time frame we saw three bears! It was just two hours later we saw the mother/cub bears. The big bear noticed us, but he had no concern. We were far enough. He kept digging. The  bear was on the ridge and that was the way we wanted to go. He glanced at us but he was like, "OK. I dig here." The bear didn't move, meaning we had to change the route. While we were discussing, he went down the hill and disappeared. Lucky. We carried on hiking. We passed the area the bear was then a bit later we stopped to take off jacket. It got warmer. Then just 25 meters away we saw the male bear calmly walking toward the direction we first saw him. Wow. It was close! It seemed like he was hiding somewhere for us to go away. Probably he wanted to go to the direction we were. It was an open area and we didn't see a hint of him hiding. Wow bears are very good at hiding. He was a beautiful brown bear! The brown was monotonous and shiny. He walk slowly, calmly, and confident way.  He is the most handsome bear I have ever seen. Later in the distance we saw him on the hill where we camped the last night. He might smelled our last night's dinner? 

Ridge walk view

We extremely enjoyed the ridge walk: no bushwhacks, and continuous amazing view! We saw some snow patches with bear footprints. Some are big footprints with small one. I am sure some of them were from the bears we saw.
Then started descending toward valley. When we came down near the creek in the gully, we saw a wolverine!!!! Actually, first Mr.N said, "Bear!" Then we realized that it was a wolverine. It is super rare to see it. The wolverine noticed our noise and ran away. 

Caribou's antler

When we reached the area the wolverine was and found a caribou's antler with probably fresh blood (it was red as you can see in the picture). Since wolverines' food is dead animals, so maybe it was eating the caribou carcass. Maybe this carcass attracted bears as well. Since with in 2 km radius, we saw 3 bears and a wolverine within 3 hours. Whoa. We were like in the National Geographic documentary!  

2nd night campsite

Soon we found a spot for the night and had a great evening. Again we had a great view of mountain. Only one day, but snow melted drastically. A week before there was a snowstorm, but sun hit those and snow melt very quickly. Probably the site we camped was full of snow a couple of days before. 

It was super fun 2-day backpack! 

Our Alaska trip was continued....stay tune.