10/20/03

I spent this past weekend at my cousin’s camp up near Cantwell, which is just south of the entrance to Denali National Park, and just north of Mt. McKinley. When we left Eagle River around 7 AM, it was 34 ° out. By the time we got to the gravel pit where we left our trucks to head into the camp, it was 21°

Travel into the camp, a mile and a half away, was by an Argo, essentially a “swamp buggy”. It has 8 wheels and will go over trees with a 1 ½ inch diameter, and it floats to cross streams, a good thing since we had a stream to cross.

The first place we tried to cross, we ended up breaking through the ice and floating with almost no freeboard and in danger of swamping. After getting out and getting into our waders, we broke up the ice around us, got turned around, and headed back the way we came. We ended going up to the camp “the long way”, about a 6 mile trip.

Sunday was spent working around the camp for the most part. We also tried crossing the stream in another place and made it this time. That evening it snowed really hard for an hour or two and we got about 2 inches.

As I had Monday off, I didn’t leave until Monday morning. We rode down the hill around 8 in the morning, so it was still dark. By the time we got back to the gravel pit, sunlight was just starting to hit the mountain tops…what a gorgeous sight!