The 2005 trail choice was finally announced in late spring: Byers Lake, Denali State Park. We were heading north! Despite my love for south central Alaska, I was thrilled to finally enter into Denali State Park. I grew up in Willow, south of the park, with a stunning view of Denali. The mountain was 300 miles north of the local lookout spot. But with the summit at approximately four miles above sea level, it was so vast that I felt I could reach out and touch it. Granted, we wouldn’t be too near the mountain in terms of hiking, but it was exciting to explore the wilderness surrounding The Great One, and be in the park itself.
This year my mom would, unfortunately, not be joining us. My best childhood friend had heard enough of my ravings about the group and was finally convinced to sign up. Mom said she wanted to give me and my friend a chance to experience the trail together. However, I’m not convinced it was really Latanya's presence so much as the “senior citizen” treatment Mom had received the year before (of which I am partly, and regrettably, guilty) that lead her to stay home.
The ride to the trailhead took several hours from Anchorage. It was nearly two hours just to my hometown of Willow, and then several more past Talkeetna Junction, Trapper Creek, and into the long stretch of vast wilderness between Trapper Creek and Fairbanks.
By the time we finally pulled over and collected our bags at the trailhead, it was nearing midday. We lightened our loads as we ate an early lunch, stretched, and worked ourselves up to hit the trail. We were joined by one more backpacker at the trailhead, a dear, dear woman named Jane Smith. I didn’t know Jane very well at the time; little did I know that we would soon become close friends. Eventually I would even follow her and her husband south to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for my first real job after school.
The first day of hiking was pretty short and simple. In fact, the plan this year wasn’t all that difficult in general. Byers Lake sits right against the Parks Highway. The camp site was on the other side of the lake, giving us less than 2.5 miles of trail to cover that afternoon. Latanya, my childhood buddy, and I hiked together and caught up after years of being apart at separate universities. We laughed and reminisced over childhood memories.
As we walked we also listened to Mindy, our group nurse, vent about her frustrations in wilderness survival training preceding the trip. Despite her long career as a nurse, this was her first year as nurse on the trail. In training, they had gone over a variety of worst case scenarios, in which nearly every case ended with “There’s nothing you can do; just make them comfortable.” Not used to such a dismal outlook for her patients, Mindy was a bit of a nervous reck. They had given her a little red backpacker's pillow as her aid in comforting her patients. The camp joke quickly evolved into “making us comfortable” as a solution to nearly everything. The red pillow was quickly produced at the slightest sign of scratches or aches of any kind.
Day two through four were all planned as long day hikes. Trail guides talked of beautiful lookouts toward Denali through various routes up a mountainside abutting the campsite. Unfortunately, by the night of day-one, the weather turned from sunny to overcast, with dense fog and drizzling rain. In southern trails this would not have been such an issue. However, the trail guide warned of these conditions and strongly cautioned against hiking in them, due to poor site of the trail, and easy disorientation.
One day of rain and low fog turned into several, leaving us stuck at camp nearly the entire week. At one point clouds lifted enough for us to check out a nearby waterfall, which was lovely. By this time it also felt good just to stretch our legs and get out of the tents. During our time together stuck at camp, we played many games of Phase Ten, some of which lasted several hours. Finally, on day four, one group decided to hike the rest of the way around the lake, back to the ranger station at the road. There they rented kayaks and brought them over to our site, where we took turns floating around on the lake. Loons floated nearby, fish jumped, mosquitoes hovered in swarms above the lake, and minos scurried around under the surface.
It was rather surprising that we never saw bear or moose on the trail, since they are so common around the park. We did see bear scat, and even a large, fresh paw print. But it was the morning of our last day that we received an unexpected guest to our site. As we finished our oatmeal and began to pack up our tents, we all turned and looked toward the trail as a large wolf walked up the path. At first we oohed and awed, thinking it might be a husky mix that had trotted ahead of its owner. But we surveyed the large paws, heard no sign of a hiking companion, and quickly realized that we were dealing with a notoriously unpredictable wild animal. At that, we scurried together to appear very large and loud and frighten him away. Even the red pillow was called into play to hold high and make us look tall and vicious. Thinking we must be crazy, he did finally wander off.
While this year was not the most adventurous, or even remotely difficult, it was still a wonderful repose from daily life, and a welcome break from buildings and traffic. To this day I have not returned to reattempt the trails east of the campsite. However, I recommend the site to any who wishes to see Denali State Park without the greater risks of some of the more remote and less trafficked trails.
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