While hiking and driving through the refuge, it's evident that a great deal of effort has been put forth to restore the longleaf pine ecosystem, it's a beautiful place, definitely worth checking out. I look forward to exploring further.
Monday, October 1, 2018
Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge
Last December Sam and I spent a day exploring Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge in Jefferson South Carolina.
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Denali National Park
This was May 30, 2017, and winter was not through with Denali National Park yet. We spent the day exploring off-trail near the Savage River. We also visited the NPS sled dogs near the visitor center area.
Cantwell, Alaska
When I visited my brother in Alaska he was living in the tiny town of Cantwell, just outside of Denali National Park. From his place we could walk to the Windy Creek Trail, which is accessed from a lumber road on private property through an easement.
Jonathan and I explored a freshwater wetland, a wet meadow. Wetlands make up over 43% of Alaska's land surface area, or 130 million acres, which is 63% of the wetlands in the United States.
Alaska is a beautiful and incredibly inhospitable environment.
Sled dogs summer training!
 |
| Moose track with dewclaw |
Monday, August 28, 2017
Denali National Park: Savage River Canyon
Back in May-June of this year, I visited my twin brother in Alaska. He was working at Denali National Park.
 |
| the landscape along the Savage River Canyon |
 |
We watched a dall sheep misjudge the jump across the river. It bounced off one of the rocks and fell into the river. We were glad to see it appear fine when it managed to get out of the cold water, the only injury appeared to be to its ego.
 |
| Caribou |
 |
| we watched dall sheep jump the river for a couple of hours |
 |
| My brother in Savage River Canyon |
 |
| Jonathan during the bushwhack |
 |
| Jonathan during the bushwhack |
 |
| Jonathan surveying the landscape of Mordor |
One of the scariest things in my life (until two days later in Denali) occurred while we were off trail in the Savage River Canyon. I was leading us back to the real trail, I rounded some boulders and came upon a grizzly bear cub on the unofficial game/way trail. It was poking around the rocks, coming down the slope deeper into the valley, and it started walking unnervingly quickly towards us. We turned around and headed back the way we came, further into the Savage River Canyon, while we considered our options. Getting between a mother grizzly and her cub is extremely dangerous and is almost guarantees an attack from defensive mother. We realized the cub had somehow been separated from its mom, and we were likely between the mother (on the top of ridge somewhere) and the cub which eventually made its way to the bank of the Savage River.
We decided to not backtrack the entire way we came because our line of sight was very limited due to a large rock outcropping, and we didn't want to remain so close to the cub. We chose to go up and around the outcropping and then back down and then jog back to the trail. So we bushwhacked at a rapid pace up the slope of the ravine, looking for the mother bear while picking our path carefully along the rocky uneven tundra. We had our bear spray out, but wind gusts were extremely high in our direction, meaning if we needed it, it would likely be ineffective (and hopefully not blow back in our faces). On top of the slope we paused to catch our breath and pick our route back down. The air blew hard, nearly knocking us off my feet. We scrambled down the slope and made our way quickly back to the trail we started at. While jogging back the way we came we spotted the silhouette of what appeared to be the mother grizzly on ridge line searching for its cub.
The whole experience was extremely unnerving, and it felt great to be back to the trail head, well away from the cub
 |
| The landscape in Denali is beautiful and sparse |
 |
| We spotted a golden eagle on the drive back |
 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
