it took us a couple of hours to drive to the trailheads and leave the car at the end trail. we were all geared up, and on the trail around 3pm. we really lucked out, it was a breezy day, so the mosquitoes were minimal as we made our way up through the trees. we had some maps and trail descriptions with us, but they were all a bit misleading on the distance and elevation gain to the ridge line. first day with a 40+ lb pack on is always slow, but we slogged on. the first half of the ascent was pretty moderate, and as we got above the tree line, it went up at a steeper grade. not a lot if switchbacks in AK... just up.
we stopped at a river crossing at what we thought was the ridge line to fill water. through the next saddle, turned out we had more up to go. ha.
all the efforts paid off, however, because we scored and amazing place to camp on a little plateau overlooking the entire Denali range.
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