The Stampede Trail

This was a very impotant part of Alaska to see for me. I have gotten a lot of inspiration from Chris McCandleles's story, and wanted to see the bus, and spot where he lived, and died. This was a tough hike. It was 30km there and 30km back. It wasen't a technical hike other then a couple places the beavers have flooded, and the famous Teklanika river crossing, which can be very tricky if you don't know where to cross. I'll save that story for another time. It took us just under 9 hours to make it back to the bus, which i thought was pretty good time. The way there I got wet boots, and hiked for the last 6 hours in them, and i don't think I'll ever do that again. The way back the next day I took great care to keep dry feet. Once at the bus soon to follow us were 4 boys from alaska who managed to bike back. Brandon, Nick, Aaron, and Carter. We came into the camp strangers, but quickly warmed up to each other and left friends. We all put our food together and had a feast. I can't say enough good things about these guys. They were some of the nicest, and fun people we've met on the road. This was the most I've hiked in 2 days, and it kicked the shit out of me, but it was also one of the most rewarding hikes, because of the history the site has. It's not quite the way hollywood depicted it, but thats to be expected. The locals have very mixed views of the site. Alot of them think that Chris was ill prepared and didn't know what he was doing, and are sick of all his followers going back to the bus. They've had to rescue a lot of people from it, and are now talking about towing it out of there. It will be a sad day if they do that. I think there are better soulotions such as running a cable across the river to help people cross, but who knows what the future will hold for the bus. I am just happy to have gotten to see it.