3rd backpacking! Our 3rd backpacking was 2 nights in Unit26 then 2 nights in Unit27. Because these units are next each other, we could combine the Unit26 and 27 permits and did 4 nights 5 day backpacking.
<Day1>
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| vast! |
We took off the Denali National park bus and started walking in the Unit26. Then immediately light rain started. We put on rain gears. Soon we heard thunder. Hummm. We wondered if it was safe to continue going up to the ridge. Since ridges are the most dangerous place to be under thunderstorm. We stopped and assessed the sky if more thunder would come. Although a lot of grey clouds were around, no more thunders were heard. So we decided to continue. Rain was not so bad: mostly drizzling. After nice climbing we reached the ridge. It was not raining on the ridge and the view was dynamic and cool.
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| A group of Dall sheep |
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| Dall sheep |
We wander around the ridge area, and saw white spots on the further up ridge. What are they? We walked towards those and found out they are Dall sheep! Dall sheep habitats only in Alaska and northern Canada. Males have bigger horns and females have smaller ones. I had never seen them. They are so cute!!! It was extremely exciting to see wildlife. They were eating tundra and kept moving slowly. They eat for a few seconds, move a few steps, then eat, and repeat. Observing them was really precious and even I forgot I was carrying a heavy backpack while I was standing. After we enjoyed them a while, we searched a camping spot and pitched a tent. It was hard to find a perfect spot, since everywhere was exposed. We saw raining on the other valley, so we knew eventually rain would come to us.
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| rain in the distance |
As you can see in the right picture, on the ridge I was under the sun at that moment, but in the distance it was raining. One of the valleys raining in the picture is Savage river we had backpacked until previous day. From the ridge it was amazing to see the dynamics of weather in Alaska. Raining is kind of regional: it is clear how nonsense to check weather forecast of Denali National Park. Even the next unit is quite different weather within the Denali National Park, and there are 87 units in the park!
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| 1st and 2nd nights' home |
Anyhow, we picked a place and made it home for 2 days. What a beautiful spot! All the magnificent mountains are visible from "home". Also it was interesting to see how weather changes in Denali. Clouds and sun moves a lot. The view changed literally every minutes. We ate Japanese curry dinner (Yum!) with gorgeous scenery.
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| clouds rolling in |
After dinner clouds were rolling from the other side of the ridge (right picture), and we were in the fog. Soon we went to bed, and rain came at night.
<Day2>
Next morning I woke up by the sound of rain pouring the tent. Ah, okay it was the rainy day. We had a breakfast, then went back to a sleeping bag. When everything is wet, it is super cold in general, even if it is above freezing point. I slept long but surprisingly I was able to take a nap after breakfast. We slept in until 11 a.m. or so, and we had lunch. It was still wet, but the rain stopped although it was full of grey clouds. So we decided to walk on the ridge to the east side, because we planned to go to west the next day.
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| 2 dall sheep |
We hiked up to the hill that you can see in the left picture. Can you see two Dall sheep in the picture? They were laying down. Very cute! On our previous backpacks we didn't even see one Dall sheep, but on this ridge we already saw 15 of them. Maybe there are good plants for them there.
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| So cute!!! |
The right picture was taken when we got closer to the Dall sheep. I took a picture with zoom. They are very calm and peaceful animal. His facial expression is warm. I admire them living in the harsh environment.
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| nom nom nom |
We hiked up to the hill and came back to the same point and saw the same 2 Dall sheep were eating. This left picture is one of my favorites from Denali trip.
After a walk rain came back so we ate dinner and went to bed. During night rain continued and it became snow.
<Day3>
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| caribou in the snow |
I went out from tent in the morning and saw all white. AND cold! Really cold. Good thing was it became sunny! So we decided to take time and let wet tent and wet sleeping bag dry in the sun. As sun rose up, it became much warmer. Extra pleased for the sun after cold 2 days. During breakfast, 2 caribou showed up in the snow. They were eating breakfast, too. They are both males and once they sparred (not a serious fight, but practice of fight). Interesting! Then one point both caribou ran to the left quickly. I was wondering what happened and kept observing. Then we saw a small fox running away from the caribou. Ha. Maybe caribou were surprised by the fox and ran quickly then made the fox run away. So much wildlife!
While we let the tent have sunlight, we hiked ups to the Margaret mountain which was behind our tent. Below picture was take from the mountain. It was sunny enough to see Denali. Fresh snow was really pretty. Because it was really sunny, the snow quickly melted. On the way to the mountain was much more snow when we hiked down.
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| Nice view |
When we came down from the mountain, the 2 caribou we saw were still around and now posed for me. As you can see the ground is no more snow compared to the morning caribou photo.
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| So cool |
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| Female group |
After pleasant walk in the morning, we came back to our campsite. Now the tent was completely dry! Yay. Also, the tent got sun and had green house effect: inside was hot and sleeping bag was also entirely dry! We packed up and left for that day's destination, unit27. On the way we saw a group of Dall sheep. This time all females. All of them were laying down in the middle of hill. They were munching: probably the food was going to the 2nd stomach. The cute observation: one of them stood up and dig a little on the ground to make a more comfy smooth bed to lay down. What I like about their faces is that they are smiling (at least look like) and they look happy. That makes me very happy.
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| Male group |
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| 3rd night camp spot |
We enjoyed observing them and started walking again. Then within 20 minutes, we saw another group of Dall sheep. Now all males! We saw at least 11 of them in the group. The picture contains Alaska facts. 1. You might notice Dall sheep trail on the hill. There are occasional game trails in Denali. At lower elevation in the bush, usually moose made them. Here at higher elevation mostly Dall sheep made them. 2. Can you see small pond at the bottom of hill? There are occasional ponds. It is great for us campers to have them. Water was one of our concerns to camp on the ridge, but it was no problem. Then we found a nice spot for the 3rd night campsite and pitched a tent. It was a great spot with Denali view. Super!
<Day4>
At first our plan was to stay the same spot for another night, but the ridge was really windy and cold, we decided to hike down some and camp less windy spot. It turned out the day4's spot was great. It was on the top of hill and we could see the all the vast area below the hill. The lower area had bushes. It was a great area for moose. Indeed we spotted moose. I first saw a shining spot in the bush. At first I thought it might be a rock reflecting sunlight. Soon I noticed the shining spot was moving. It turned out bull's antler reflecting the sunlight. He was bedding. During our dinner preparation and middle of dinner he stayed there. Then he stood up and started eating leaves. About 20 minutes of eating around, he started walking toward to the right. Then we spotted another bull in the far right. It looked like the first bull(#1) going to the another bull (#2). #1 stopped 100 meters before the spot #2 was standing. #1 and #2 looked each other for 15 minutes. Then #1 moved 3 steps to the #2. Then they stared at each other for 10 minutes. Then #2 moved to the #1 for a couple of steps. Another 10 minutes of no moving at all. This procedure was repeated. Each 10 minutes they got close only a few steps. After more than 1 hour, finally they met and started fighting with antlers. WOW. In the mating season, this is what bulls are doing! We were more than 200 meters away, but we were able to hear big noise when antlers hit together.
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| FIGHT |
The battle itself was not so long: 7-8 minutes. Then #1 was chased away. The winning one stayed the same place and made sure the loser went away. #1 seemed frustrated. He was away from #2 about 100 meters. He slashed his antlers. Seems it was angry. Then I saw a fox was running away from the irritated moose. This was ultra rare experience. This kind of long observation can be done with only backpacking not from a bus. This was really exciting incident!!!!! The next morning we still saw the 2 bull down there. Actually we had to go through their area to finish the backpack. Although people think grizzly bears are the most dangerous, in fact moose is the biggest size animal in Denali and more accidents/injuries occur by moose than anything else. The moose bulls are 1600 pounds. They could charge humans and no way to win. We kept the facts in mind, we were careful walking in the bush.
Overall this 3rd backpacking was full of wildlife experience and I had so excitement.
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