I have been trying for days to get these pictures and pictures from our trip on the Denali Highway posted and have had all kinds of computer problems, so I hope to get the other pictures up tomorrow.
George and Leslie came down with their two four-wheelers to hang out for a few days and on the first day we rode out to the Teklanika River (about 20 miles from our cabin) on the Stampede Trail. I took a lot more pictures on this trip to document the trail. George and Leslie said that this was some of the roughest riding they have ever done.
Most of the trail is just a lot of long, deep puddles which still has gravel on the bottom so you can just slowly cruise through them and not get stuck.
Some of the dry trail.
You also ride through some sections of creek. When you're the first person to ride through it the water is crystal clear.
Mile 14...the bog area. As you are reaching this area there is a sign posted that says, "No full-sized vehicles past this point. You WILL get stuck!" In the mud at one of the holes we found wolf tracks.
As we were discussing our upcoming route a young guy from MI rolled into the area and got stuck. It's long story that I'm not going to go into now because of computer reasons, but we helped him out and sent him on his way back towards the highway. Funny small world coincidence, we ran into this same guy in a back country area off the Denali Highway!
End of the mud bog area.
Back in the trees and on decent trail.
A very well put together beaver dam. A beautiful area, but it does flood the trail in a few areas.
Another patch of good trail.
Random lost boot. You see a few of these along this trail. How does someone lose a boot and not notice it?!?!
Final destination...Teklanika River. Andrew decides to gain another Alaskan merit badge and cross the river. Since he only had one pair of pants and his muck boots that he didn't want to get wet he decided to go bare foot and in his undies. All went well until he got to the deep channel and then he got swept off his feet and swam the rest of the way. He was all smiles the whole time it was great! Once on the other side, he found a good sized stick and used that to cross back with. He almost made it across the deep channel before it snapped into two pieces. But, no 'swimming this time, he walked right on across and we got two thumbs up and a big "Wha-hoo!"
Found some bear tracks near the Tek River.
G&L crossing the Savage River on the way back home.
Soaking up the view at the bog area.
This is the other only bad part of the trail, which isn't difficult for ATVs. This is the result of the Jeep tours.
Awesome day!