Playing Kabuki with Mount Denali...

Denali is a "funny" National Park, is not like the others. This is because it is a National Park, and a Wilderness Preserve all in one. As a matter of fact, the National Park part is rather small and surprisingly unremarkable. The Wilderness Preserve part is huge and breathtaking...but is not accessible by car (without special permits) only by crappy expensive buses, about $60 Dlls round trip per person depending on how far you want to go.

It seems that the main attraction for most people is to catch a glimpse of the wildlife in the area. A bear, moose, caribou, squirrel...something that leaves them satisfied that the got to see wildlife.

I do not care much to pester the locals with my lens, I am more interested in photos of the unique Alaskan landscape and its icons, like for one, Mount Denali, the Pearl of the North. Ironically, it seems that you have better chances to see a Grisly bear than to see Mount Denali, as it is covered by clouds 70% of the time.

Yesterday is was a sunny day, a rather fortunate occurrence in the Alaskan summer, so I realized that this may be my only opportunity to catch a glimpse of the elusive Pearl of the North.

The only way to do it in such short notice however, was by riding my bike. This was the only way to bypass the reservation, permit and ticketing rigmarole imposed to access the wilderness area. Mount Denali is visible -only- from the restricted Wilderness Preserve portion of the road.

So I loaded my photo equipment in the same pack I specially designed for out trip to Peru, and added a water bladder to drink along the ride. I parked 2 miles from the check point on the road that restricts traffic into the wilderness area, loaded up, saddled up and started riding. I stopped at the check point, the ranger took my name and my planned route and distance. I said that my plan was to ride 7 miles in and return, for a total of 14 miles. The ranger smiled and said...OK, good luck!

I already was somewhat familiar with this portion of the road, as several days back we rode the bus 30 miles into the Preserve.
As soon as I crossed the check point, 2 mile steep hill smirked at me, and I smirked back. As I topped this first hill a steep downhill was to follow and from the top I could see the roller coaster profile of the road ahead.
And I could see that the way in was mostly down....that meant the coming back was mostly uphill. A moment to pause and ponder the task ahead.

Sure enough, around mile 7 the Mountain made its appearance and without further due, I started taking photos....and I started to wonder, does the view gets better if I keep going?

With my rational thinking impaired by the thin mountain air and exercise induced endorphins, I decided to keep going. Mile, 10, 12, 15....16. At mile 16 I stopped to take a sip of water and I noticed that I had to suck just a bit too hard to get water out the bladder. I inspected the bladder and sure enough it was past half empty, so my insane plans to go to mile 20 to make it a 40 mile round trip had to be scrapped and start the way back now, at mile 16 for a 32 mile round trip.

As I rode, several of the crappy buses passed me along the road, and I could tell that the passengers were gawking at me just as much as the would have gawked wildlife. Even a rarer occurrence, a nut biking the wilderness preserve road.

Even with a tail wind on the way back, the coming back portion was brutal. The 35mph descents now were a grueling 7mph speed on coarse gravel long uphills. By the time I reached the road checkpoint, still 2 miles away from my truck, I took the last sip of water left on the bladder pack. The ranger was glad to see me back in one piece. Very few people take on this road on a bike without relying on a bus to carry the bike.

I crawled my way back into the truck....just 2 miles away and on a paved road. Cake.

This was an unforgettable experience, my diary entry for the day reads:

Barreling at 35mph down Denali preserve dirt road, gravel spitting under the knobby tires, wind blowing, sun shinning, 20 pounds of photo equipment on my back, as Mount Denali plays Kabuki and finally opens its cloudy kimono for me to see and marvel. Hello gorgeous, I came all the way here just to see you.

There will be hell to pay climbing back to camp.

-Adolfo Isassi July 1 2010