Denali Bike Ride

A week before summer solstice, we traveled to Denali (National Park & Preserve) to bike the access road with three friends from UAF, Martin, Sveta, and Tanja. Two of Martin's friends on holiday from Austria met us down there. The access road is 85 miles (135 km) long, from park HQ to Wonder Lake, which is often used as a photographic mirror for Mt. McKinley.

Most all Alaskans refer to Mt. McKinley by its Athabascan name, Denali, which means 'the great one'. At 20,320 ft, or over 6000m it's the tallest peak in North America, and one of the '7 summits'. It was shrouded in clouds on this trip, but Martin had previously flown us around it last April on a perfectly clear night giving us incredible views of the mountain and the entire Alaska Range.

The bus ride out to Wonder Lake took 6 hours due to the bumpy road with two way bus traffic, and the frequent stops to view wildlife and to cater for the bathroom needs of a largely aging tourist demographic. We spotted 2 grizzly mothers with cubs, but far from the bus; Martin, Tanja and Sveta were treated to one ambling up to within a meter of their bus before taking two steps into the bushes and disappearing from sight - two steps!

The ride out was,an adventure. It was long (13 hours on the go, 12 in the saddle) and on bumpy, hilly dirt roads the whole way. A thunderstorm cooled things down to about 10 C (50 F) and provided a good couple of hours of rain (and the surfacing of Mr. Happy).

Letting a bus through early on; Lise with Dall sheep horns at a info center; Mr. Happy; stunning countryside.

The views were incredible though, as was the wildlife. We saw a young moose amble up and diagonal across the road with a watchful eye on us, a coyote raiding gulls' nests, very many ptarmigans (AK state bird), ground squirrels, young hares and lake water birds. We were very lucky to see a large herd of caribou, and there were Dall sheep at the higher passes.

Dan and Tanja; Dall ram; two caribou on ridgeline; bear country!

Easing through the night. Tanja and Lise are enjoying our mid-point break at midnight. We woke u the Dall sheep asleep on the road side here at Polychrome pass.

Helped no end by Martin's seeingly inexhaustible supply of Lindt chocolate, we battled through the night to arrive at our pick up point (70 mile mark) at 5:30am. I was savaged by the sleep monster but somehow Lise and Tanja kept each other awake for a safe trip home.