Video Jounral: Denali National Park March 2023

Denali National Park- 7 days 6 nights

We started on dog-sled in hot 37 degree weather. After an hour or two of "dogsledding" the sled sinking deep into the snow and constantly running off the trail - the footpaddles and even the claw break sometimes dragging in the thick wet slush, we threw the towel in and pitched the tent. All three of us cowering from the wet dark clouds. The winds picked up and blowing strong that night. In the morning, the trail was gone. The wind filled in the trail, the fresh wet snow wet adhered on top, glittering bright and beautiful. Today, we could see still a sliver of trail most the time. Yet, our progress was terrorizing slow. I had taken the dog-sled and two dogs to test the dogsledding concept, and it failed miserably with these typical Denali trail conditions. After a quarter mile, I dumped all of the dog and human food by a tree except for one meal. Ahead of us was a hill, neither steep nor immensely long, but the windblown snow grabbed the runners of the sled that a loaded sled was just not going up that hill. We went over the hill and down the other side, just a couple miles and dropped our gear - tent, sleeping bag, stove, etc., then returned back to gather our food stores and bring them over. After we had all our stuff back in one place, our muscles were sore from the effort and I deceided this was good for the day. Lets pitch our tent and drink some tea - we found a site partially out of the wind and set camp. Overnight, it snowed again - another warm fluffy inch. Beautiful! Yet, as I looked left and right - I didn't see a trail. Not a line or a sliver to be seen. All was gone. No more with the dogsled. We were turning our trip into a day-tripping excursion with a well-supplied basecamp. There was much to eWexplore, and our camp was in a beautiful location. I particually enjoyed watching Gale improve on her trail-finding capabilities and also our first day-trip in the hills following along the Sanctuary River, along with the fresh highway of wolf prints who also came the same way, and later dropped into the Sanctuary River Valley. Our day of dogsledding back to the trailhead was glorious, with the almost-empty sled and shining sun - it was a good day to be alive and on the trail.

Start: First week of March, right after the Iditarod 2023 start.