Today I had booked a 3 hour guided hike with Walk Denali, a local And then I decided that wasnt enough and did another hike in the afternoon. I think Im all hiked out now.
I grabbed breakfast from the lodge because thats basically the only option for food. Pickup for the hike was to be between 7:45 and 8 so I headed up to the parking lot to wait for the guide to arrive. There were two couples on the hike plus myself. Our guide, Jeremy, has lived in Alaska for 15 years and really likes hunting. But he was also very knowledgeable about the plants, landscape and wildlife. He took us to the Three Lakes Trail, which is part of Denali NP but we used a trail head at the south end of the hike off the Parks Highway. The hike was to be 3 hours at a moderate level. I would say it was 2.5 hours of moderate and .5 hours of strenuous. At least for me it was! We hiked the 1.2 miles to the first lake and then hiked back. The beginning of the trail was the most strenuous, heading up hill until
reaching the train tracks. It was good we stopped up there as I had to catch my breath, but I wasnt the only one. The rest of the hike to the lake was some uphill, although not as steep, with flat sections that were narrow in some areas. At one point there was a great viewpoint to the east. Lots of vibrant trees and smaller (5,000) mountains. We came out at the lake where we saw no wildlife but there was a beaver lodge. That was pretty neat to look at. And then we hiked back.
Along the way Jeremy provided lots of information on the plants we were seeing. Lots of raspberries along the trail (they are all gone now), a few lingonberries, a pumpkin berry which looks just like a tiny pumpkin but apparently tastes like a fresh pea, some rosehips and some kind of tea that I cant remember. And there is Spanish Moss! I thought that was only in the south but its also here in Alaska!
He also took us off the trail so we could walk on the taiga. Its very springy, kind of like walking on those rubbery playground surfaces. The
taiga is a layer of vegetation, then bedrock and then permafrost. A tundra is similar but a different amount of each. At least I think that is correct. This part of Alaska is an arctic desert. There is very little precipitation here and its very cold in the winter. The snow is very dry and fine and easily blows around. One interesting note, a fire swept through here 100 or 150 years ago. The charred remnants of trees are visible along this trail. The reason they are still here is there are no bugs to eat at the wood and the logs soak up the moisture, freeze in winter and remain pretty frozen most of the year. Very interesting.
For wildlife, we saw a red squirrel and a squirrel pantry. The one we saw was probably 20 years old, but some can be years. The squirrels store all their nuts and mushrooms and berries there for the winter. A good way to find one is to look for a ton of pinecone shavings and then look up to see if there is a nest. The pantry and the nest are all in the same area. And we came
upon a spruce grouse sitting on a tree branch. It just sat there and let us take pictures and talk about it. Usually they are in a group so Jeremy wasnt sure why this one was alone but it was very of us. And one woodpecker who should have been long gone by now. He apparently did not get the memo!
One of the couples on the hike started talking with him about hunting so then that took up a lot of the hike. He hunts pretty much everything in this area and had some interesting stories. A lot of the hunting is for meat and also conservation to keep populations in check. So a hike with a variety of topics covered. I think it was a good way to get more information on the area and also hike somewhere I wouldnt have picked to hike.
Once back to the hotel, I ate lunch and then took the shuttle to the park as I didnt want to waste the afternoon. I decided to do the Horseshoe Lake trail as the timing was not right to get the shuttle out to Savage River.
