We took the white van upriver on Lake Teklanika to do some tracking. The braided river (for those who do not know, a braided river is a wide glacially formed riverbed. There are multiple channels of water the braid in and out) had gorgeous animal tracks on lots of scat -- caribou, moose, bear, and wolf. We also saw some Dall sheep that ventured down to the river. In the woods next to the river, we found a number of bear trees -- trees where bears had rubbed their backs. We spotted some arctic kitty litter - a tree stump where a lynx had pooed. Our guide Tim made plaster castings of the wolf, bear, and moose tracks. Barbara took one and promises to make a copy for us.
To end the day, we took the van to polychrome pass - a very scary mountain road, narrow and landslide prone. We stopped briefly at the igloo river looking for tracks. I met a woman who was backpacking in the park alone for five weeks. What a woman. She was awfully chatty though, desperate even. I had to run off to catch up with my group and felt kind of bad to leave her alone.
When we got back to MSLC, we realized we had no way to get to our accommodations at the trashy Denali cabins. Terry and Chuck, the only couple on our tracking trip, thankfully dropped us and all our gear off at the cabins.
Denali cabins were trashy trashy -- $219 a night? Alaska. We went uproad to a pizza joint the locals frequent and returned to enjoy the chemically hot tub and fox news.
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