We awoke to high overcast skies - even some blue patches above the pass - and 5-6 inches of light, powdery snow on the ground. The clouds continued to slowly clear out but they were reluctant to give up their stronghold. Mat moved the tarp to expose a snow-free patch of tundra for people to sit and, while cooking up breakfast, Mat spotted a wolf across the tributary stream not 200 yards away. The wolf sat on its haunches and considered us for a minute before dropping down to the willows along the river. We caught glimpses of it until it popped out on our side about 100 yards away. It must have caught scent of us at that point because it made a 180 and trotted off exactly the way it came until we couldn't see it anymore. It was a beautiful grey wolf. Mat and I headed to the scene to find its tracks in the snow. Finally the sun won out over the clouds and we pulled everything out to dry.
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| Snowy camp |
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| Gray wolf checking out our camp |
After three nights in our current location, we were excited at the prospect of camping somewhere new. We decided, however, to wait until all gear was dry and let the snow melt so we could watch where we're stepping. But, in the meantime, we were able to do laundry, bathe, and take naps. Luckily for us the sky became quite bluebird and most of the snow melted away by 4:00PM. At this point, we decided to pack up and head back down the Sheenjek, exploring the side opposite of which we came up. The recent snow storm obliterated any hopes of getting over a pass to the Jago or even a mellower neighboring drainage such as the Hulahula so we might be spending the entire trip on the Sheenjek.
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| Most of the snow has melted off so we can hike a few miles down river |
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| Moose shed on our hike back down river |
We reached our goal of the second confluence by 8:30PM, spotting many moose sheds, sheep horns, and skulls along the way. Our plan is to day hike up that side valley tomorrow and see if there is a way over that pass. As we're setting up our campsite, I grabbed the binoculars to glass the surrounding area when I spied a large, stocky, dark brown animal with a wide head swaying amongst the tussock a mile away. Being so far away I initially thought it was a Muskox and immediately started shouting. Others in the group grabbed up their binoculars and quickly focused in on the beast. It was determined to be a very dark and wide grizzly bear. Pretty neat but disappointed it wasn't a Muskox. It made its way down hill towards the river and disappeared under the cliff banks below us.
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| "Muskox" bear |
We set up a ways from the tents to cook dinner when we spotted the grizzly on our side of the river, up on the tundra bench we're located on. It hadn't caught wind of us yet and luckily it cut diagonally across the bench below the knoll we were perched upon. It ended up passing below us a little over 200 yards away. It was almost down to the main branch Sheenjek when it finally caught our scent. The poor thing took off running, crossed the main Sheenjek, and was halfway up the huge mountain on the opposite side before we lost sight of him. Nice to have the bear run so far away instead of towards us but we also didn’t want it to expend all that energy. We finished our meal in the cold shadow of the mountain we were camped against, then crawled into bed to stay warm. Thermometer read 38° in the mountain shadow with bluebird skies. Fell asleep at 12:30AM, the sun still shinning on the mountain tops across the valley.
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| Camp |
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