Reflections of My Travel

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This morning, we set the alarm for 05:30 so that we would be packed and ready to get on the camper bus at 06:30. We boarded the bus with six serious backpackers who were headed to the back country. Their gear was impressive. We made one other stop at the visitor’s center to pick up no more than ten others. Then we were on our way. The original six with whom we boarded at Riley Creek turned out to be a very pleasant and conversive group. One of them has lived in AK for about 9 months, working as a physical therapist. The other five were a group of friends who have a history of wonderful, male-bonding travel adventures together. This was to be their last hurrah since one of them is going to be having a baby in October. About three hours in, we saw our first big animal. It was a pretty blonde grizzly just grazing around the tundra. The bus pulled over and we watched her for a while from above and then the bus drove down the road a bit and pulled over closer to her for us to watch some more. She was probably about 300 pounds. We continued on our way, making occasional stops to either take a short travel break or to let backpackers off in the middle of nowhere. Along the way, the bus driver told us that we could ride with him all the way to the end of the road, past Kantishna, which happens to be the most western-point of the continent that can be driven to. We’re all for gathering superlatives on our trips, so we had to go. He said that he would drop us off at the Reflection Pond on the way back and we could hike from there back to Wonder Lake. So when we got to Wonder Lake, we hopped off the bus, gathered our gear, walked around and found a campsite that was directly across from McKinley (beautiful view really), set up the tent and such, and headed back to the bus. We were pretty pleased with our decision to ride instead of staying at the campground since all the sites were in the sun and it was pushing 90 and getting kind of miserable. Riding the bus a bit more gave us shade and the breeze of wind coming through all the open windows. On the way back, we came across the end of a wedding and the officiant and witness flagged us down for a ride. The bus driver tried to get the bride and groom on the bus for a picture since he had never had a bride and groom on his bus. No luck. He then dropped us at Reflection Pond, as agreed upon. Reflection Pond is where all the pictures of McKinley with water reflecting it are taken. Unfortunately, it turns out that it’s pretty rare to get that picture since the very least amount of wind can ripple the water and destroy all hopes of reflection. So it goes. Not that it would have made any real difference since the smoke from all the wild fires had moved in to obstruct the mountain completely. We started the mile and a half hike back to Wonder Lake in the 90-degree heat with no shade and only the slightest breeze. I think that’s when it really started getting miserable. By the time we got back to our tent, we thought that perhaps a nap would help our moods. We turned on the fan and stripped down to our coolest layers and attempted to nap in the very hot tent. One of us succeeded, but unfortunately it wasn’t me. I decided to get out and go sit under the food pavilion for shade and whatever breeze I could get. I’m not sure how long I sat there, fighting away vicious mosquitoes, until Randal came out. We both sat for a little while and snacked on some peanuts and breakfast bars and water. We then decided to walk down to the lake. Luckily, it was only about a quarter-mile, and surprisingly mosquito-free. We spent most of the day there, socializing with other heat- and mosquito-escapees, and even took a brief dip in the water to cool off. About 23:00, when the sun was slightly less bright, we decided it was cool enough to go back to the tent and try to get some rest. it was much cooler in the tent, unfortunately we had gotten some very rowdy neighbors while we were at the lake and i stayed awake for several hours listening to them screaming and running around and making all kinds of noise. finally got some rest though.