Backpacking and Packrafting in Denali

Sable Sanctuary Traverse is an incredible trip that includes a little logistics, Ed, pack rafts and backpacks. Denali Park has over 6 million acres in the park and only 5 people are allowed per quadrant in the backcountry per day, to ensure few people and no trails in the back country. It was my first big trip with just a map, and of course my first pack rafting trip. It is so great to just hike in and pull out your raft from you backpack and float down the rapids! By far the best trip I have been on in Alaska, but I say that every time. I can't even believe a short drive from Fairbanks and we did this trip in a weekend, it was definitely a burly hike for me. Ed carried my raft and Ben carried my stuff because I can't carry a big pack with the catheter. I am so glad they did so I can still do these crazy trips! I highly recommend getting off the road if you come to Denali, you can see so much more. Above is our route marked by Ed's GPS software.
The start of our hike. the bus driver let us drop a couple bags (with tents and dry clothes) at our camp site where we would stay at the end of the day, and then dropped us off near Sable Pass where we skirt around Cathedral Mountain and down to the Teklanika River basin.

We hit some heavy brush patches and lots of do whooping for all the grizzly bears.Crossing the Teklanika many, many times, you just prepare to have wet feet the entire trip. We hiked down the Teklanika until the Calico Creek drainage.
Here are some of the many grizzly bear tracks, hair and scat we saw along the hike. We only saw one grizzly bear from the pack raft portion of the trip.

Everyone jumping for joy as we really lucked out with the weather and wind so no bugs!

Ted and Ed hiking up Calico Creek. I like this pic because way in the upper left the bit of snow is the pass we are going over, that was the longest part of the hike.

Finally we start making our way to the top and it was much steeper than we anticipated.

Ed at the top. Ed rocks for planning this adventure on a Thursday and we started Saturday morning. He has two extra pack raft boats and he is carrying two in his backpack, these things are amazing.
Down the other side of the pass, huge steep scree field and snow, man was it fun sliding down.
Looking back at the pass we crossed right in the middle.
awe. dan and ed with a rainbow on our way down to Sanctuary River and the beginning of the pack raft portion or our trip.
Everyone pulled out their rafts and started blowing them up. Hold up a bag connected to the inlet to catch wind, tie it off and squeeze the air in as a lightweight pump demonstrated above.
All done and we let them rest in the cold glacial silt water to equalize while putting everything in a dry bag in your pack and then tie your pack to the bow of the boat.
All the boats getting ready to paddle 16 miles down the Sanctuary river after our 10 hour hike.
Ben starting off. It was total chaos as ted, ben and I learned to ferry and drive the boat into the braided river. Ed and Dan are seasoned veterans, and had a good laugh at the beginning, but we got the hang of it soon. we were able to get pretty comfortable before we hit the class II rapids, what a wild ride in a pack raft! it was a great trip, capped of nicely by pulling the boats up to the shore just 30 feet from our camp site on the river where we had dropped bags earlier. this was the biggest day i have had on dialysis. 28 miles on land and water in 13.5 hours.


on another note Torsten and Dirk were just leaving when we returned. bye guys and we will miss you greatly! Check out their link what a trip!