Plans

• Hike some trails near Anchorage while waiting for gear shipment from Denver.

• Denali State Park: 3 day backpacking trip.

• Yukon River, Yukon Territory:  15 day canoe trip from Whitehorse to Dawson City.

• Kluane National Park, Yukon Territory:  Backpacking trip.

• Dempster Hiway into the Tombstone Mountains north of Dawson City, Yukon Territory:  Backpacking trip.

• Olympic National Park, Washington:  Hike and backpack.

• Mount Rainer National Park:  Backpack the Wonderland Trail around the mountain.

• Return to Denver in early September.

• Hike the Hayduke Trail which goes from Zion National Park to Arches National Park through Utah and Arizona, in October and November.

Hikes and Floats

June 20 - 27:  Aaron went on a number of short backpacking trips and day hikes.  All of the trailheads he started from were within a half-hour drive from Anchorage.  Leaving the wilderness in northern Alaska did not get Aaron completely away from the wildlife.  While camping on the Kenai Peninsula, he heard noises outside his tent in the middle of the night.  When he looked out, there was a huge brown bear about 40 feet from his tent, eating the nearby vegetation.  The bear eventually wandered off and Aaron went back to sleep.

Aaron often talks as he is hiking, just to make noise and give bears a warning that he is coming.  Near the end of one of his hikes, his talking must have alerted a bear because Aaron suddenly heard what sounded like an animal out of his line of sight.  Aaron talked some more and heard the animal running away from him and sounding very large.  A little ways down the trail there was a very large pile of bear scat, and just beyond that, a very large bear paw print in the mud.  Another day, while hiking to a lake along what was more of a route than a trail, Aaron spooked a moose.  It was only about 20 feet away from him and ran off pretty quickly. 

June 29 - 30:  Aaron hiked up the Eagle Valley in the Chugach Mountains east of Anchorage so that he could float down the Eagle River in his inflatable raft.  It was a braided river, and it was not always easy to choose the best branch of the river to follow.  The dangers in the river were sweepers, fallen trees leaning over the river, and sleepers, fallen trees submerged in the river.  There was one sweeper that Aaron saw up ahead and was almost able to avoid, but the current from the main branch of the river worked against him.  His raft flipped and he went for an unplanned short swim.  Fortunately, he had the presence of mind to hang on to his paddle and grab the raft before it floated away.  And somehow his hat stayed on his head.  He didn't lose any gear and the drybag is was packed in did its job.  He finished the rest of the float without any other problems, but found a bear wandering around the parking lot at the end of the trip. 

July 2 - 4:  Aaron did a 3-day backpacking trip in Denali State Park.  He traversed the Kesugi Ridge that gave a beautiful, clear view of Denali, the spectacular 20,320 foot tall mountain.  Aaron only saw one bear off in the distance.  The hike was hot and buggy, but the breeze above the tree line along the top of the ridge helped a lot to keep the worst of the bugs away.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a breeze to help keep the mosquitoes and flies away at camp at night. 

July 8-22:  On July 8 Aaron left Whitehorse, YT, on his 400+ mile canoe trip down the Yukon River.  He was about half way down the river in Carmacks on July 15, and will complete his trip on July 22 in Dawson City, YT. 

Near the beginning of his trip, Aaron paddled the length of Lake Laberge.  The wind across the lake caused 2½ foot swells that angled into his canoe, making the lake seem much longer than its 30 mile length.  Continuing down the river, Aaron was able to cover 50 miles on good days, less than that on the days when he had rain and headwinds. 

The river is running fuller and faster than he expected for this time of year.  Spring and summer arrived late.  The river normally peaks around the second week on June, but is running at the high water mark right now.  Since the willows on the river's sand bars are still standing in about a foot of water, Aaron had to change his plans and camp on the river's banks instead of on the sand bars.  He hasn't seen any bears on the river and the mosquitoes haven't been too bad. 

Aaron's ride through the Five Finger Rapids just north of Carmacks was uneventful - that is, he shot straight through and was at no risk of being capsized.  A couple days later he got more rain than he could ever remember seeing before.  Bailing the rainwater out of the canoe was not much of a problem, but when the wind really picked up it was pretty tough to keep the canoe headed straight down the river by himself.  Aaron completed his canoe trip on July 22, and rode a shuttle bus back to Whitehorse the next day.

July 24-26:  Aaron's plans to backpack in Kluane National Park in the Yukon Territory were changed by an aggressive grizzly.  The Park Service would not let any solo hikers into the wilderness, so Aaron headed back to the Anchorage area instead, hoping that the topper that he ordered for his truck would arrive soon so he could leave the area altogether and continue with his other trip plans.