Another Day Of Discovery
It rained overnight and it was spitting as we, once again, boarded Driver Dale's Disco Bus. We were heading off to our last Discovery Hike of our visit to Denali NP. The intrepid Discovery Hike rangers hike in the rain, so we intrepid hikers will as well, if there is rain.
The bus ride had an auspicious start, wildlife-wise. We saw our first bears before we even reached the Teklanika Rest Stop two miles away. There were two male bears walking down the far side of the river coming towards each other. As soon as the larger bear saw the smaller, the chase was on. No bear was invading his space. This lasted only a few minutes until the smaller bear decided to go back the way he came.
As we continued on we came across a female with two small cubs on the side of a hill. We are pretty sure we'd seen these bears yesterday in nearly the same spot. Soon after that we saw a mother and two more cubs on the road ahead of us. With several of the tour buses just ahead of us, it was the tour bus version of a bear jam. Ten bears between the Teklanika and Toklat Rivers is pretty good.
Just after we passed the Polychrome Pass overlook, we found the Gyrfalcon sitting on the top of a cliff again, much to the delight of two other birders on the bus. It was a life bird for them.
We were a little late getting to the Toklat Rest Stop and Ranger Bob was waiting for us. Bob is the husband of Ranger Tina and is an older bearded gentleman from Tennessee with the accent to match. Ellen says that he reminds her of Shelby Foote, the historian featured in the Ken Burns PBS series on the Civil War.
In addition to a storehouse of knowledge of the park's plants and animals, he is a storehouse of stories, puns and bad jokes. Like Tina, he was previously a teacher (and mathematician, computer programmer, actuary and a bunch of other stuff). His teaching skills were obvious during our walk, especially his interactions with a sixth grade girl who was out with her father.
After our introductions, it was back on the bus for a ten minute ride to start of our hike. We got out onto a tundra plain near Highway Pass. There were reportedly bears to the east of us and wolves to the west. We went west in search of the wolves. We actually walked southwest through the tundra being introduced to the wildflowers and the various types of animal scat that had been deposited among the flowers. We made our way to a stream bed hoping to find wolves or at least their tracks. We found neither, just caribou tracks.
We turned westward across the tundra in the direction of a hill that we'd be climbing, all the while hearing about the wildflowers, mosses, lichens, mushrooms and the ever present ground squirrels...not to mention the bad jokes and bear stories.
As we reached the crest of the hill and sat down for lunch, it started to rain. We were prepared with rain jackets and pants and pack covers, so we had today's PB&J wraps in the rain. After lunch we retreated down the hill and out to the road as the rain stopped.
We caught the first bus to come by and it was a quiet trip aside from the bears, a mother and single cub in a river bed and the mother bear and small cubs, who were still on the same hill as our trip in. It must be good eats where they are.
Back at Speedy, it was time to get out of all the damp clothes and backpacks We did turn the heater on to try to dry them as it was still drizzling a bit outside.
Tomorrow we will be returning to Riley Campground where we will find hot showers and phone and Internet access.
No comments:
Post a Comment