The 49th State: May 2014

I recently was lucky enough to be part of a hunting expedition to intercept the caribou herd migrating north. The weather was perfect, and the snow held up (for the most part) during our trip. Here we are on top of our scouting hill, looking for animals through the binoculars.

It got so warm during the middle of the day that the snow got too soft to ski on, so we tried to ski early in the morning or in the evening, and often stuck to the river (where the snow crust was stronger)

So many mountains. And the snow was so bright I felt like I might go blind, even with sunglasses on!

Unfortunately, we didn't see a single animal. Until we were driving home.

We crossed to the north side of the Brooks range in the hopes of having better luck in a new location.

You can ski for ages and never feel like you are getting anywhere, because the scale is so huge.

You can see forever… and there are no animals. We saw fresh wolf tracks heading the opposite direction from us… maybe we should have taken that as a clue that there were no animals in the direction we were heading.

We left the land of winter, and leaf-out had happened in Fairbanks. Time for summer field work to begin!

A warm and dry winter helped contribute to the Denali Park road being melted out early this spring. I thought that this would be the perfect chance for me to test my dream of becoming a cross-country biker. I also was eager to winter camp again after my positive experience camping on the Castner glacier.

Within 1/2 mile of starting out we saw a bear down in the river valley. The bears are out regardless of whether the snow has all melted. The animals we saw were concentrated around the stream beds and were turning over rocks (looking for insects?)

The first day of biking was much more brutal than I expected. The gravel road is smooth enough for riding, but the grade was a relentless uphill for most of the day.

The one animal I really hoped to see was ptarmigan. I was not disappointed.

The top of Sable Pass meant that we were finally reaching into the heart of the mountains!

Approaching polychrome pass was mountain stage #2

We came across a group of about 11 rams, and there was no room to move out of their way! We had a cliff on one side and a rock wall on the other, and the rams were not going to leave the road just for us.

We stepped to the side close to the rock wall and stood behind our bikes to watch the Dall sheep pass. When they moved you could appreciate how strong they were!

We made camp just past polychrome pass, where we had a view of Denali and found the ptarmigan breeding headquarters. Their calls are so funny, and their posturing is so goofy, that it was very entertaining to watch the ptarmigan during dinner.

Having a late dinner at about 10 pm

Evening alpenglow with Denali in the background

Ground squirrels were abundant, and one even made a hole in the middle of the road!

We came across a bear suddenly around the corner. Luckily, he was frightened of us and our bikes and hightailed it off the road.

The next morning we headed out towards the Eielson Visitor Center to get a closer view of the big mountains.

The uphill sections were more brutal. The road is very undulating, but I think that makes traveling harder because you still need to climb big hills on the way back!

A great view of Denali once we crossed Stony Hill

The view from Eielson was spectacular! You feel so close to the mountain

Action shot!

The female ptarmigan are a little bit less showy than the males, and they also skulk around in the bushes while the males display on open snow patches.