Sushana Ridge Hike - 14 May 2012

Beginning of week 2 and I was already fortunate enough to go into the field to help set up one of the back-country sound stations for long term monitoring.  It was a grueling all-day hike, but I a very rewarding one.  My cold was temporarily suppressed due to one dose of medicine, so I hoped for the best.  Overall, we saw lots of wildlife, though I was unable to take pictures of any of them due to time constraints.  Another day.

We hiked up the ridge on the left to the little peak, then down the back side, then up again to the back ridge in the middle of the picture.  We followed the ridge on the right down, which proved no easier.

View part way up.

Our hike started by hiking across the flats of the Teklanika River.  Some alders, a river cross, and some caribou later, we were making out way straight up a hill side.  Who needs switchbacks anyway!  Our hike up was extremely tedious.  High alder and a soft forest floor made for the most difficult hiking I've ever encountered.  The more we hiked up, the steeper it got as well.  We made our way to point where we briefly rested before continuing up.  At maybe a third of the way to our ridge,  I was exhausted.  But at this point we had at least climbed above tree line and were walking on less soggy turf.

View from almost the top.

We hiked downhill for a short distance before hiking up more to another point.  We reached a steep snow field but were greeted by some ewes that seemed to think nothing of our presence.  We continued up until we saw we had a steep downhill climb before reaching out final ascent to our ridge line.  As we hiked down and up we heard a series of small mammals.  The alarm call of some ground squirrels, and then as we reach more rocky terrain, what we think was a collared pike (though we never saw it).

The crew eating lunch on our rock.

We stopped for lunch at a nice large rock that served as our dining table.  We soaked in the view and the sun for about 30 minutes before making the final push to the ridge line.  Once we reached the ridge, we had to hike across the back side some.  The view north was VERY different from the snow capped, rugged high peaks we saw looking West.  North looked towards the outer-outer range, which lacked the height, depth, and snow cover we saw before.  It was a peaceful view.  It briefly reminded me of the foothills of the Sawtooths in Idaho.

Sound station DENASUSH.

Rain seemed to be all around us, so we quickly set up the station, and just in time.  As we started our retreat, a mixture of snow and hail began to fall (I guess what locals call scrapple).  We followed another ridge down in hopes of the terrain being easy.  It was, at first.  But we quickly find the going still just as rough.  I'm not sure any way is the "right" way when you are off trail and battling over head high alder and birch.

By this time, my cold medicine had very much worn off and found myself coughing more than hiking.  I put on my best face and continued though.  Down and down we went until we finally reached the flats.  As we left the woods and walked onto the river bar, we spotted a grizzly not terribly far from us.  He was digging for roots.

We immediately put our hiking poles in the air and began yelling "Hey Bear".  He looked up and started walking towards us.  We continued to talk to the bear, but he didn't seem to notice, he just kept on walking towards us.  Not too far from us, he finally stopped and sized us up before making a charge.  He ran directly at us and stopped short, continuing to stare at us.  We held our ground, starting back, until he finally turned around and went back to digging.

We went back into the woods and walked upstream more until we felt safe enough to cross the flats and head back to the car.  We crossed the river again and made the final feet to the vehicle.  We looked back up the mountain and saw it engulfed in clouds.  The day had been a success.

"I've gotta tell you what a state I'm in
I've gotta tell you in my loudest tones
That I started looking for a warning sign"