A Denali Park Pilgrimage, By Brian Miller
During the deep winter months of 2001, I read the book Into
the Wild by John Krakaur. It tells the tale of Chris McCandles,
who, among other things, criss-crossed the United States in a sort quest
to find untouched wilderness to exist in a natural way within it.
He wound up heading into the interior of Alaska, where my wife and I have
lived for 26 years or so, and headed down the Stampede trail in the spring
months of 1992, the year I graduated from high school. Chris crossed
the Savage and Teklanika rivers during the spring, when water levels were
low and ice allowed an unimpeded crossing, and walked the next 9 miles
or so to a derelect bus that had been dragged out into the bush in the
1950's by a legendary miner with a D-9 caterpillar. For the next
4 months he called the bus home, hunting and living off the land until
approximately August, at which point he ran into some bad luck. He
apparently ate the wrong food, the seed pods of the wild Siberian pea,
at the instruction of a book he had brought. Also, he was unable
to cure the meat he had harvested. Becoming increasingly ill and
starving, he attempted to exit the bush, but when he got to the Teklanika,
he was unable to cross because it had risen quite a bit by then.
He had no map, else he could have possibly located one of the two ranger
stations located nearby. He was trapped there, on the west side of
the Teklanika. He journeyed back to the bus, a mere 16 miles from
the nearest homestead, and passed away there some time in late August.
He was discovered by hunters only a few weeks later.
Today the bus is a shrine of sorts. There is a
copy of Into the Wild there, as well as a bible, a notebook, the
original Krakaur article that appeared in Outside magazine on Chris, plenty
of first aid and survival gear such as rations and sleeping bags, and a
plaque with Chris's last words.
In August of 2002, my friends John Pile and Patrick Denny
set out to find the bus, and get a look at what was there, as well as take
the journey in Chris's footsteps. It didn't look like such a tough
place to get to on the map, however, unfortunate circumstances would make
the trip especially gruelling and painfull. The Stampede trail begins
just north of the town of Healy, near the official entrance to Denali National
Park. At the head of the trail, there are basically homesteads and
cabins, almost a suburb of sorts. Healy is a coal town, there are
great coal deposits to the East, and the Stampede trail was originally
built for an antimony mine at the end, about 15 miles past the bus.
The first 5 miles are very easy, paved in fact. Just past the end
of state maintenance it is a different story. Lots of small stream
crossing until the thing is impassable for regular modern 4-wheel drive
vehicles. We stopped about 4 miles from the Savage river, and about
6 miles from the Teklanika and began hiking. I packed regular shoes
and wore ankle waders, a decision that was not wise. This part
of the trip was quite beautifull, if not alltogether breathtaking, but
small hills and shrubs line the trail that winds into the forest.
At times the trail decomposes into a long pond. Within a few hours
we reached the Savage, easily crossable but not entirely benign, for if
one were to cross in the wrong place it could easily be a rough, swift,
cold ride. The Savage is crystal clear and fast moving.
Soon we reached the Teklanika and were in for a surprise.
This is an aerial photo of our route from a NASA collection
shot in 1980 by a U-2 spyplane from 60,000 ft.
To the west of the above photo, the trail continues:
The Savage River:
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