Yesterday at 9am I found myself once again on the bumpy dirt road headed into the park. Unit 7 is located on the eastern side of Polychrome Pass. The East Fork of the Tolkat stretches off across the valley to its headwaters, a glacier, in the Alaska Range near Mt. Pendleton.

The bus driver stops, I grab my pack, say goodbye to the fellow hikers I've been talking to and deboard. The bus struggles up the next hill and is soon out of sight.

After sliding down the road embankment, I head off, following the river. In some spots I encounter cut bank and am forced into the willow and all the covered slopes. After the first water crossing, my boots are wet. I don't intend to make this a killer hike, so after four miles I find a nice tundra spot and set up camp. The rest of the day is spent reading, dayhiking farther up the valley and on some of the surrounding hills, and general relaxation. After dinner, I read myself to sleep to the sounds of the river.

Today's return is more of the same until I get about a half mile from the road. During the night the river either went up or changed course, and the gravel wash that I used in this trailless wildnerness to get out is now a tumbling river. I probe a crossing nearby to find that the channel is nearly four feet deep with glacier cold fast moving water. After backtracking a quarter mile, I find a suitable spot, well braided and above the confluence of a tributary.  After sloshing through a few main channels of frigid knee-deep waters, I am headed up the other side of the river, and soon waiting for a bus to come.

A hot shower and laundry at the Riley Creek Mercantile and the rest of the day is spent reading at my campsite. Tomorrow I head north toward Fairbanks (did you know that a significant number of Fairbanks residents use outhouses during the winter- the cold freezes all pipes).

 

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