Day 1

We woke up at 530am. Early day. Walked from the B&B down to the breakfast place across the road to get a quick breakfast and coffee before catching the $5 shuttle from the hostel at 6:40am to the Wilderness Access Center (WAC) at the Denali park entrance. Caught the 830am camper bus into the park...good people watching at the WAC. Big difference between the camper bus riders and tour bus riders, mostly about a 60 year age difference :)

Dick Merrill was our extremely entertaining bus driver. He has been driving the Denali buses for 23 years! Thanks for the ride Dick.

Just after the Eilson Visitor Center we spotted a grizzly about 100 yards off the road. We were dropped off on a turn out about one mile down the road from this sighting
...nice reality check, okay, we are going into bear country.

Put on our gaters and threw our belongings on our backs...that is when Mark discovers his pack has somehow completely been destroyed...the hip belt portion of his pack frame has been horrifically bent and broken.

Note: If it would have been my pack the trip would have been over before it started due to this but Mark, being the trooper he is, said no way.

With a very uncomfortable pack, we started on our way down the steep bushy slope to the wide river bed (Thorofare River and Glacier Creek) below the road.
Due to recent rain the river was flowing in a much larger and deeper braided system than usual and after many attempts at finding a way to cross all the braids without getting feet wet, we realize the attempt is futile.
We are going to just get wet.
We ford a gushing thigh deep portion of river. The water is thick and opaque with glacial silt and running hard. The sun is out so we squeeze our boots, socks and pants dry and lay them in the sun while enjoying a cliff bar. When we get going again we make a sad realization.


We just dried off on an ISLAND.

Back into the water and finally up and out of the river bed with very squishy boots. We hiked another mile and a half and made camp. Dinner was cooked immediately, delicious Spanish fiesta rice.

Spanish Fiesta Rice:
2 cups salsa (dehyrdated into leather)
2 cans black beans (dehydrated)
2 cups instant rice
Stir into 4 cups boiling water.
Cover on low heat 5 minutes.
Stir. Enjoy