Alaska - The Last Frontier, August 2007

"There's a sow with twins and a sow with triplets out there," Ann, the Park bus driver pointed southward nonchalantly, as she deftly guided the rickety green camper bus around the high cliffs and hairpin bends of Denali road. The couple visiting from Chugach were thrilled and pointed their lenses outward, gasping at Polychrome overlook, the most beautiful bus stop in the world. (Just one hour earlier we had been drying all of our gear there following the 24 hour downpour near Tattler Creek.)

Asa and I gulped and grabbed our packs and descended into the valley from Elieson visitors center, at close to 7pm, our latest hike start time to date. Our feet sunk into the squishy greenery of the park and we even saw a family of caribou that first night. Luckily the summer days were long and we knew we had glaciers ahead.

Hiking in trail-less Denali is like your early twenties -- isolating, full of stuttered starts, half-baked ideas, some fear and trepidation, exhilaration and finally, at some unknown point, you settle into it, and actually marvel and delight in the sheer simplicity and joy of the journey. Wet socks and all.