(Posted by: R) When I was young I chose to be an explorer. I would often check out books about men and women who devoted their lives to wandering the globe and telling others of what they had seen. By my 10 year old calculations I had about six more years to learn how to be an explorer and then I'd begin my earth roaming. Soon after I had a geography teacher who erroneously informed me; while spinning a globe with no blank spots; that the world had already been discovered by all my over zealous childhood heroes.
This is an in your face, spit in the eye, headbutt and kick you while your down to that well meaning educator. I'm sure they had high hopes of me giving up the dream and doing something really productive and boring with my life. Well I'm here to say that Explore I must and will for that matter, and this because of times like this last weekend. Because even if a maps page is not blank, just because someone else has already been there I'm going to go there myself just to confirm what they had experienced.
Like any good explorers we left unprepared and unaware. All we had was the Alaska Atlas indicating on page 85 that there may be a passable trail from the highway to Squaw Creek. On scene we confirmed the existance of some sort of trail littered with bogs.
Soon after setting off, the trail got steep plunging towards Squaw Creek at an alarming rate. It became apparent that this would only be a one way trail now that the rain was pouring down with a ferocity that we haven't seen this summer. We set camp in the rain, cooked a hot dinner with lots and lots of apple cider and crashed for the night.
The following day we battled bog after bog for nearly 8 full hours. At one point we strapped both trucks together and plowed through the mud. By the end of the day we managed to make it to the Tahetna town site. It was a chore but we had a lot of fun and some not very fun times and some fishing.
We slept at the trail head to the pass and the next day went over the pass to explore the drainages.
3 comments:
That is amazing! I love the pics and I'm really glad you guys had a fun weekend!! What an awesome jeep! ;) I really really miss Alaska and can't wait to get back and do some awesome exploring with my awesome neighbors! Some day...
Lisa
I love the post! Ryan I think you should write a blog about every barely there trail that you explore..that would be awesome.. although I think too many people would start moving to Alaska.
I do miss home and I can't wait to get back and go boggin with my neighbors. You better still be there when we get back! hahaha Some day....
Lisa
ok so the first time I posted it didn't show up so I posted again.. I'm not losing my mind..necessarily. oops.
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