Great Timing on My Denali Bikepacking Trip

post by  Corrine

The forecast for Denali National Park seemed almost unbelievable. I had to check it again. 

Three days of sunny 70-degree Fahrenheit weather with no wind?! That almost never happens in in the park. And that nearly perfect weather would start in two days. Excellent timing to get my August Bikepack Every Month Challenge done. With nothing else planned I decided to take advantage of this window of opportunity.

And it gets better. A portion of the Denali Park Road would remain closed to automobile and bus traffic for the remainder of the season although it would open up to bikers and hikers in a couple of weeks. The road has been closed at mile 43 (out of 92 miles) just east of Polychrome Pass for five years due to construction of a bridge over the Pretty Rocks slide area. But bikers and hikers have been allowed to take a five-mile detour on a gravel bar around the construction area. This would be the last season to experience the second half of the park road without buses and other vehicles. 

The detour has multiple water crossings and some rocky terrain, but it is usually doable if the water levels aren’t too high. I reached out to friends who had done it recently and it sounded like I should be able to make it around. 

The timing was perfect for me to do a bikepacking trip in Denali.

Trip Preparations

Although I was fine going by myself, it would be nice to have someone else along for the stream crossings on the detour. But who else would have last minute free time? Eric wasn’t available. I asked several friends if they wanted to join me but unfortunately none could make it.

As I was pondering this, I got a text from a new friend, Neal, asking if I wanted to bike up Murphy Dome Road that afternoon. 

I had just met Neal the weekend before when he joined in on a longer ride that friends had organized. He had started long-distance biking a couple of years ago and loved doing multiday trips. He is an optimistic, fun person to ride with, he was about my speed, and more importantly, he had flexible time off due to being retired from the military. He also spends his free time fixing up old, discarded bikes to give away to those who need them, so his bike mechanic skills are extraordinaire. The perfect travel partner! I texted him my plans and asked if he wanted to come along. It took him just minutes to check his calendar for family commitments before saying yes. Once again, perfect timing made this happen.

Next, I reached out to my former patients, Jenna and Simon Hamm, who own Camp Denali near the end of the park road. Earlier, they had invited me to stop and say hi if I was ever out that way. I texted to see if they would be around and Jenna texted back saying they were around. She also said that if Neal and I made it out there, we could spend the night and get dinner and breakfast. Wow! Camp Denali is a high-end backcountry lodge in a magnificent setting normally costing hundreds of dollars per person per night. I couldn’t believe their generosity. I told Jenna that we would try our darndest to get there but it would depend on whether we could get across the streams on the detour. 

Jenna and Simon Hamm who own Camp Denali

So, the plan was set. Neal and I would bike to Igloo Creek Campground on day one, then to Camp Denali on day two, back to Igloo Creek on day three, then back to our vehicles on the final day. 

But when I rechecked the weather forecast one final time before we left, I saw that NOAA had put out a high wind warning for the Denali area that would start the evening of our third day. They were calling for sustained 30-40 mph winds with gusts to 70 mph. That was not good! I decided to still go for it; we could always do a big push out from Camp Denali on day three and hopefully get done before the winds really picked up. I told Eric to inReach message me with any changes in that forecast. 

To Igloo Creek Campground

Day one went as planned. We drove to the park, got our reservations and backcountry permits, and finally started biking around noon. The first nine miles of the park road are a steady uphill grind with 1300 feet of climbing but it’s on pavement so it isn’t too bad. The weather was great, and we weren’t in a hurry. We stopped often for photos, especially of Denali, out in all her glory. We got to the campground with plenty of time for a walk before dinner and an early bedtime. We planned to get up early the next morning since it would be a long day, especially with the unknown gravel bar detour.

To Camp Denali

We woke to another glorious day, and we were packed up and biking by 7 AM. First was the big climb over Sable Pass where we got a fairly close glimpse of a bear that ran off when it spied us. Then our quick descent to the road closure was delayed by a three-bus traffic jam. They kept trading places and turning sideways to give all the tourists a good look at a caribou walking down the road. It finally left the road, and we were able to bomb downhill. 

Bus traffic jam due to caribou on the road - And Denali is out, too!

Then it was time for the off-road adventure. We first had to carry our bikes and then bags down steep stairs the park service has installed for people to access the gravel bar. The traverse ended up being pretty easy. It has multiple stream crossings, but none were more than shin deep. Most were bikeable. I brought waterproof socks and a light pair of river shoes to wear for those. Enough bikers have done the detour so that we were able to follow their tire tracks. We opted to walk some chunky gravel areas, but the detour also has nice firm sandy areas that follow game trails. They are like buffed out single track in places. About halfway across, a big caribou came trotting across the gravel bar and crossed a stream really close to us. Less than two hours later we were pushing up the final stream bed back to the road. 

Steep stairs!

Lots of stream crossings

Close up caribou.  Notice the rocky terrain.

Some parts were like buffed out single track

Next were all the passes and hills. We pedaled up Highway Pass then to Stony Dome where we had lunch. Denali was still out though clouds were moving in. A Camp Denali bus was parked at the lookout and a couple of hikers were heading to it. Perfect timing. One hiker was the lodge naturalist, Lily, so I told her to let the Hamms know that we would be there by dinner time! Then Neal and I had to bike up Grassy Pass and finally Thoroughfare Pass and the Eielson Visitor Center (closed for the season) before a long 25-mile mostly downhill ride to the side road to Camp Denali. The final half mile uphill to the lodge is so steep that we opted to push our bikes. The camp manager came out and generously helped me push my bike the final bit. We had just enough time for hot showers (such luxury!) and to get settled in our cabin before it was dinner time.

This road is steeper than it looks

Camp Denali is an amazing place to spend a few nights. Although it is expensive, I would highly recommend it. The staff is phenomenal, the cabins are great, and the food is gourmet quality. They lead daily hikes and adventures, and they have evening lectures by visiting well-known authors, naturalists, and artists. We wished we had time to relax and partake of all they had to offer.

Cute cabin where we spent the night

But unfortunately, the high wind warning forecast had not changed. We would have to ride almost 90 miles the next day to finish before the winds arrived. So, it would be another early bedtime and even earlier morning start.

Finishing Our Ride

Our morning started at 6 AM. After a steep half-mile downhill, the 25 miles back up to Eielson is mostly uphill (2300 feet elevation gain). Fortunately, with fresher legs and a little tailwind, it took less time than we expected. We started seeing more bikers, some headed out like us and some headed in (we made sure they all knew about the high wind warning). Two young men from Fairbanks, Dax and Micah, hopscotched with us on the way back. They were stronger riders, but one crashed when a ground squirrel ran in front of him. He was okay but a little shook up and had some nasty road rash down his side. I made sure he was okay physically while Neal made sure his bike was okay. (It pays to have a bike mechanic and a doctor around!) He was able to continue biking, albeit being a bit more cautious. They had bus tickets and planned to take the bus back after they made it around the gravel bar section. 

It's a long uphill climb back to Eielson

We ended up seeing 14 bikers on our way out from Camp Denali

That got Neal and me to thinking. Maybe we should try to catch a bus back, too, and save ourselves 43 miles of riding. The more we thought about it, the more we liked that idea. That way, we would be done biking before the winds got too strong. But we didn’t have bus tickets, so we weren’t sure they would let us on. 

We got back to the steep stairs only to find the area in a bit of chaos with a bunch of people all standing around on the other side of the bridge. When Neal took his bike to the top first, he found out that the stairs were closed due to a bear in the area. (Of course, we had no way of knowing this until we were up the stairs.) They had not let anybody go down the stairs for about four hours. I arrived to find out that they hadn’t wanted to let us to go back down to get our bags. Fortunately, the bear had finally moved on just before we arrived, so they let us retrieve our bags. An earlier biker had to wait four hours to retrieve his bike after bringing his bags up first. The park is serious about keeping people 300 yards away from bears, if possible, to minimize bear-human interactions.

By now there were five of us with bikes wanting to get on a bus, but each bus has room for only two bikes. And the buses only come every 30 minutes or so. Plus, there were hikers wanting to get on the buses, too. We managed to get it all sorted out with the help of a dispatcher, and I ended up on the next bus with Andy, the unfortunate biker who had had to wait four hours. 

We spent the bus ride back talking and bonding over our shared experiences in Denali Park and the coincidence that we were both doctors. He lives outside of Leavenworth, WA and is considering a move, possibly to Alaska. I was able to share my insights about outdoor adventuring and practicing medicine here. We decided to meet up in Healy for dinner. Although Andy wasn’t happy about his four-hour wait, he did admit that if the timing had been different, we wouldn’t have met. So, that serendipitous timing worked out well. 

Andy, the physician-biker who I got to bond with on the bus ride out of the park

In fact, the timing this entire trip – planned and unplanned – worked out just right. The good weather forecast, meeting Neal just days earlier and then having him text me about biking, the Hamms being at Camp Denali and having space for us, the bad weather forecast that forced us to leave early but allowed me to have a fun encounter with a fellow physician biker. Timing really was everything in making this trip an amazing experience. 

My Age--And My Stupidity--Revealed on Long Hike Near Central

 

Post by Eric 

It’s getting harder for me to do stupid things. At least, with minimal consequences. 

 

This past Saturday I did a moderately hard hike. And I am suffering for it. My lower back is really sore. It takes me a while to stand up straight after sitting for a bit, so I do a lot of hunched-over walking. 

 

I wasn’t in shape to do the hike. Not by a long shot. I hadn’t done a run or a hike in more than a month. (Except for a test run last Wednesday to see if my sore knee was up for the hike.) I had done some biking, but that takes different muscles. My last run of 10+ miles was in January. My last hike over 10 miles was last summer. 

 

But I’ve done things like that in the past. Sure, I suffered a bit, but not like this. And not for as long. I suppose the problem with my back might have something to do with the herniated disc I got earlier this year, but that seems fine. This ache feels very different. And, of course, I’m now 66 years old. Friggin’ age!

 

Enough bitching. Let me tell you about the hike. 

Portage Creek Road to Miller House Road 

 

This little adventure started a couple of years ago. Nikki and I had been texting back and forth about doing new adventures. I told her about a route that I had traced years ago on a map connecting ridge lines between Eagle Summit and Ketchum Dome behind Circle Hot Springs. Nikki was intrigued, so we started talking about doing it as a run. 

 

Mike, Nikki's husband, is a fish and wildlife trooper and pilot. He had flown over and been in that area many times. He knew much of that route had an ATV trail. At some point, we pivoted from running my original route to mountain biking a slightly shorter route. Mike thought it would be possible and was interested in coming. Corrine hadn't been interested in the run, but she was interested in trying it on bike.

 

That plan was to bike from Portage Creek Road (the road that runs past Circle Hot Springs into the hills south of the old resort) along the ATV trail and then down the mining road to Miller House (a location along the Steese Highway on USGS maps that used to be a roadhouse). We figured it was about 24 miles.

 

Two years ago we gave it a shot. 

 

The First Attempt

 

That attempt was fun but wasn’t successful. We weren't quite sure where the route started off Portage Creek Road, but we did know that an ATV trail took off from the high point of that road where it crosses a path and headed in the right direction, so we took that. That lead us up a really steep trail to the top of a low dome. The dome wasn’t high, but it was a massive hike-a-bike. From there we could see the ATV trail we were supposed to be on way down below us. It leaves Portage Creek Road about a mile farther from where we started. There wasn't much of a trail connecting our dome to the main trail, so we rode and walked our bikes down the tundra-covered side of the dome. 

 

We were delighted to reach the ATV trail, but it had taken us over an hour to travel the 2 miles to get there. (Hiking the main trail to that point took just 20 minutes.) We were finally able to ride for a bit, but soon we were pushing our bikes up another steep hill. Then another. Then another.

 

We went another 4.5 miles before deciding to turn around. We had gone 6.5 miles in three hours. Not knowing what lay ahead, we weren’t sure we had enough time, food, and water to go another 16 miles. You can read a report of that trip HERE.

 

This Attempt

 

Me hiking with Mike. Photo by Nikki

For our second attempt, we decided to hike. We shortened it up a bit by planning to drive up the Miller House mining road and camping where the ATV trail took off, then driving one vehicle around to Portage Creek mine road. We figured the hike would be about 18 miles. And by “we” I mean Nikki, Mike and I (and two of their dogs). Corrine decided against doing the hike. Something about not being in shape for that long of a hike. She was glad of her decision after her ancient, bent-over, limping husband got home. Friggin’ age! Friggin’ stupidity!

Our camping spot off the Miller House mining road

This time after reaching our previous endpoint, we pushed on. 

 

The ridge hiking was nice. (And much nicer on the uphills than hike-a-bike!) We occasionally dropped into boggy, buggy saddles. Some were more boggy than others, but all were buggy. Often, we were out of the wind in those low points, so the bugs got to be really annoying. But then we would hike out of the bog into a breeze, and the bugs would be mostly gone. 

Look closely and you can see all the bugs

At one point, Mike pointed out how bizarre it is to be hiking on top of a ridge and be in a swamp. I remembered puzzling over that after moving to the Interior from Southcentral. The mountains around Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula have a few swamps up high, but they are small. Nothing like Interior ridge swamps. If you haven’t experienced any yet, hike the Granite Tors Trail. That has a dandy swamp up top.

One of the not-too-wet swampy areas. I forgot to take a pic in the bad swamps!

The day was mostly nice with scattered clouds. At one point the sky started spitting, and we could see the shower coming toward us. We put on rain gear, but the rain lasted only about 15 minutes. When it was over, we quickly peeled. It wasn’t particularly hot, but it was too warm to wear rain gear while hiking unless you really needed it. 

Nikki the optimist still has her sunglasses on!

 

Wildlife

We saw quite a few ptarmigan, but I got only this lousy photo

Outside of many bugs, we saw only a few birds, though several ptarmigan. It’s amazing how you can hike a ridge in Interior Alaska with views for miles and not see any big or even biggish animals. They are out there, but they are spread out over a vast area.

 

That said, we did see something awesome the day before. We left at different times from Fairbanks and met up at the Pinnell Mountain Trailhead on Eagle Summit. Nikki and Mike got there just a bit before me. They pointed out a herd of caribou on the south side of the Steese Highway. At first, I saw 20 or 30 silhouetted against the horizon and was impressed. Then I realized the animals were spread out over the flanks of the dome. There was probably a thousand or so! I’ve seen caribou in that area before, but not in numbers like that! We could hear them grunting. Then they started moving. They ran across the tundra, and many crossed the Steese Highway just to the west of us. Surprise wildlife sightings like that are awesome! 

Bou!

After the Hike

 

We did the hike in a little over 7.5 hours. According to Strava it was 17.7 miles with 3900 feet of elevation gain. Mike said he was sore. Nikki didn’t say, but she stays in good shape. I was sore but not too bad. 

 

Then we got in their truck and headed to Central for dinner at the roadhouse. Apparently, during the drive my age caught up with me. I found out when I got out of the truck. My sore knee, which had done mostly fine on the hike, was hurting. And my back was so sore I couldn’t stand up straight. (Probably because I had used hiking poles. I’ve used poles plenty of times, but I hadn’t used them for months.) 

 

As we walked into the roadhouse, I was hunched over and limping, trying hard not to moan and groan too much. (Nikki and Mike were doing fine, but I insist on pointing out that both are quite a few years younger than I am.) When I shuffled into the restaurant, I half expected some kid to point me out.

 

Mama, look at the limping, hunched over old man! Why doesn’t someone put him to sleep? That’s what they do with old dogs!

 

Friggin’ age! 

 

Of course, if I had been wise like Corrine, I wouldn’t have done the hike, but I also wouldn’t have been hurting. Friggin’ stupidity! 

 

Aftermath

 

Pic by Corrine

The next day, Sunday, I didn’t feel too bad. I even went on the FCC Sunday Brunch Ride, which ended up being over 18 miles. I was sore and tired and having a hard time straightening up, but otherwise I was OK. I was on the mend! 

 

But by Monday I wasn’t much better. I had planned to hike 4.7 kilometers with Corrine at Jane Lanford’s 47 years of running marathons party, but I quickly realized I wasn’t up for that. Instead, I putzed around Alaskaland.  And Tuesday I was worse. Corrine and I went out for a couple mile hike to loosen up my back, but we turned around after a half mile. Now, it’s Thursday and I’m still nursing my aching back.

Pic by Corrine

Am I really that old? It was only back in 2021 that I did my Big Fat Stupid Hike. That one was 79 miles with 19,000 feet of elevation gain. I used poles then too. I didn’t really train for that one either, though I was in better shape for that one than I was for this one. Maybe five years can really make a difference. Friggin’ age!

On my Big Fat Stupid Hike when I realized I had accidentally backtracked

Corrine has asked me if she should remind me of this the next time I come up with some similar stupid plan. I told her of course. 

 

But I also told her I might not listen. After all -- friggin’ stupidity! 

One more pic from the hike

July's Bikepack Every Month Challenge

I cranked up the hill feeling strong. Not as strong as I would like, but finally feeling recovered from my Canadian biking adventure two weeks before. 

I passed Eric, who stopped to clear some brush out of the trail. He was doing it partly to be a good citizen and partly to take a break from the 2-mile climb in the 80-degree heat. Biking up behind us were Nikki and Mike and two of their dogs. The dogs were moving well, but Nikki and Mike didn’t want to run them too hard so that they wouldn’t overheat. 

We were headed to the Upper Angel Creek Cabin in the Chena River State Recreation Area for a quick overnighter. We were all out for a nice weekend getaway. I was also ticking off another night for my quest to fulfill the Bikepack Every Month Challenge. 

Bikepack Every Month Challenge

In April, I had signed up for the challenge, created by Kurt Refsnider, an ultra-endurance cyclist. Since I had been traveling most of June, including a hard 8-day bikepack adventure in the Canadian Rockies (which fulfilled my June bikepack challenge), I wanted to do something easier and closer to home for July. 

Nikki knows about the challenge and asked to join me on my July trip. I saw that the Upper Angel Creek Cabin was available and that the weather forecast was good, so we started making plans for Saturday night. The summer trail to Upper Angel Creek Cabin is only 10 miles, so it’s fairly easy to do it as a sub-24-hour adventure. Mike, Nikki’s husband, and Eric were also interested in coming along. 

Not all adventures need to be long or hard. Sometimes it’s just nice to get away for a little fun with friends. Because it was only 10 miles to the cabin, we could leave Saturday late afternoon and be back home by lunch on Sunday. A great way to get away but still have time to get things done on the weekend, too.

Pizza First! 

Another advantage of a late start is that you can carry less food. We met around 3PM at the Wagner’s Pizza Bus for a late lunch/early dinner. It’s at around mile 24 of Chena Hot Springs Road and is definitely worth a stop if you are out that way. While ordering pizzas we saw that Wagner’s also offers milkshakes. Yum! Each couple ordered a small pizza and a milkshake to split. Good calories to fuel us on our way to the cabin. We each kept one piece of pizza to eat at the cabin. 

Wagner's Pizza Bus, just off of Chena Hot Springs Road.  Well worth a stop.

With no dinner and no tents to haul, our bikes were lighter than they could have been. Doing a quick overnight trip like this makes it a lot easier to get out the door!

Challenging Trail in Places

We finally started biking at around 4:30 PM. It was quite hot, around 80F, and we felt it on that first 2-mile climb. Eric found quite a bit of brush to cut. Nikki and Mike took it easy so their dogs wouldn’t overheat, stopping at all the puddles and creeks for them to drink and cool off. That made it easier for me to keep up. I’m definitely slowing down with age and more tentative with technical terrain. I’m not happy about it, but it is what it is. I still love getting out there and that’s what counts. But needing to go slower for the dogs helped me feel like I wasn’t slowing everybody else down.

The trail is really brushy in places. Eric limited his brush clearing to the “worst of the worst,” or else he would have stayed out there all night. But even though the trail was sometimes brushy we were able to bike those parts. You just had to do a bit of dodging branches. 

The trail is quite brushy in places

And I’d forgotten how rocky and technical parts of this trail are. And how many creek crossings we had to navigate. I remembered just one, but there are three or four. I had to walk some of the rocky sections, which are almost always in the drainages. Even Eric found them really challenging, but he likes challenging. A couple of times he whooped after successfully navigating a section. He and Mike charged through all the stream crossings. I was more cautious, but that didn’t save me from getting wet feet. Nikki was in between – more cautious than Mike and Eric, but more daring than me. The dogs of course, loved the streams! 

An Impromptu Walkabout

It wasn’t long before we were crossing the bridge over Angel Creek and biking up to the cabin. We checked out the cabin and discovered two things: It was hot inside and the windows had no screens. We debated what to do and finally decided to open the windows and door, letting the cabin cool and the bugs in. We figured we would just go on a bug-killing spree before bedtime. 

After sorting out the sleeping arrangements, we sat on the front deck relaxing and sharing stories. After a while, I felt a little antsy and decided to walk around the cabin site. I started up the 4-wheeler trail behind the cabin, planning to go just a short way. Before I knew it, I was climbing further. I decided to go just far enough to get a good view. I would turn around in 15 minutes. But there was no view at that point, so I decided to go a little further. And a little further. I knew I should have told the others what I was doing but I didn’t know I was going to go that far until I did! 

They grew a little worried when I had been gone for about 45 minutes. Eric was pretty sure I had done exactly what I did. He knows me well. (He even guessed correctly that I wouldn’t have started my Strava right away and would be bummed about not recording it all!) But they weren’t sure. The only thing they knew was that I had disappeared without a word. 

Nikki checked out the trail to the ridge, and she would have found me if she had gone farther or I would have turned around earlier. But neither of those things happened, so she turned around without finding me. Then all three started down another trail, but as the trail got rougher and didn’t climb anywhere, they guessed that I hadn’t gone that way. Just after they got back to the cabin, they saw me coming down the ridge trail. 

The trail behind the cabin that leads to the ridge

Sorry to worry you guys, I know I should have told you what I was doing and invited you along, but honestly, I had no idea that I was going to head up towards the ridge until I was doing it!

By the time I got back at 9:30 PM, we were all ready for bed. And good thing, as it started raining and continued for about an hour or so. We closed the cabin windows but didn’t need to go on a bug hunt as hardly any had gotten in. (Eric was the only one who heard a mosquito that night.) The cabin was still a bit warm for sleeping, but fortunately I slept better than I usually do the first night at a cabin. 

A Quicker if Damper Ride Out

We were up, had a quick breakfast, and were back on the trail before 8AM the next morning. Due to the rain the previous evening, all the brush was wet. Since I was leading, my arms and upper body were soaked within minutes. Oh well. It wasn’t cold and I had dry clothes at the car. Eric went last a few times and said he noticed that the brush was quite a bit less wet after everyone else had gone ahead.  

Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were much more annoying in the morning. I didn’t want to stop much because as soon as I did, I was swarmed. I stopped at the first creek crossing to take pictures of everyone else riding through it, but I almost gave up on them because they were taking too long to get there! 

Fortunately, we could mostly go fast enough to stay ahead of the mosquitoes. But they would catch us on some of the uphills. That’s a good motivator to keep moving! 

We were quite a bit faster on the way out and were back at our car and on our way home by 10AM. It was a great little overnighter with good friends. And my July bikepack challenge was completed, too. 

Now I just need to decide what I want to do for an August bikepack. An overnight in Denali National Park? A night at Seven Mile Lake off the Denali Highway? We will see. The weather and the mosquitoes may dictate my decision.

So, if you want to get out camping and find yourself hesitating at doing something big, consider a smaller outing. (There’s even a Lower Angel Creek Cabin at just 5 miles in.) You’ll be glad you got out to do something.