Plans And What Happened Instead
We decided to rush into the park and try to hop on a green bus that would take us past Savage River at mile 15. We arrived at the bus terminal at about 7:45 hoping to get on the 8:00 bus but the next bus that was available was at noon. So we drove into Savage River thinking that we would walk in past mile 15 as we did a couple of days ago, then go off-trail if/when we found something cool. But on the drive in we saw Denali in the clearest air since we’ve been here with only a whisp of cloud cover. So we decided to hike of the Savage Alpine Trail again. The climb is fun, about 1500 feet in the first 1.8 miles (according to data from Strava), but by the time we got up there more clouds had drifted in and there was only a thin horizontal slice of the mountain visible. Although the air was still so very, very clear.
With the picture from the phone, you really have to know what you’re looking for. I could crop it to make it easier, but I won’t. 😀
So we hiked the 6.5 miles and it was good, even with the hoards of other people on the trail.
After Lunch
We decided to go ziplining. Arlene made a reservation for 2pm but that meant that we needed to catch a shuttle at the Riley Creek Mercantile at 1:40. Since it was on about 12:30, I took a nap.
Our shuttle driver, Katelin, was chatty. She dropped us off at the store, then picked up another group from the Princess Hotel accross the street. Then we climbed back into the shuttle with the 4 people from accross the street and 4 others who had simply appeared. The shuttle dropped us off about 15 miles north where the 10 of us loaded into 2 ATVs and proceeded about 3 miles down a bumpy road. Not my favorite part of the activity.
Once we arrived at the ziplining facility we all put on gear designed to keep us safe and walked up to the first part of the course. The walkways and platforms were constructed of wood but the walkways were supported by steel cables and were the tree-sized posts that supported the platforms. The guides had a little saying, “one, two, one, never none.” Each of us was strapped onto a steel cable twice. Each movement required changing a connection to a steel cable. First one strap would be transferred, then the other. There was never a chance of falling. They told us that everything was engineered to be able to support 5000 pounds.
The zip lines were fun. The guides were loaded with content and jokes to fill in the time that was required for all of the other to take their turns on the zip lines and also be safe.
