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.