Denali Highway Ski

Saturday was a spectacular day. And Sunday was even more beautiful.

I got it in my head that we could ski a good portion of the Denali Highway, from Paxson to the Maclaren River Lodge and back, in two days. We did too!






We camped in the car in the thriving metropolis of Paxson on Friday evening. When Julia was packing she decided that grilling our favorite type of bratwurst would be good for dinner. She was very correct.

Friday night was a bit cold, but not too bad.

We had a nice climb out of Paxson to start the morning. The views to the north were spectacular.

We stopped to eat some food along the way. I did not realize how much energy was required to skate ski uphill with a backpack on. I undershot completely in terms of the amount of food we would need for the 83.2 mile ski. Also, Julia was not giving Snickers bars the thumbs up by the end of the trip. We packed about 10 or 12 of them as well as 10 or 12 Cliff bars.

We paused near mile 19 and the Tangle Lakes. These lakes are the headwaters of the Delta River.

About this time Julia mentioned something along the lines of "We should come back here in the summer!" My primary purpose of the weekend was accomplished (and it's only mile 20!).

From the Tangle Lakes, the Denali Highway climbs and drops until a final push to Maclaren Summit. Near mile 27 I realized that the amount of food we had packed was insufficient and I began to eat food that was designated for the return trip. Thankfully the Maclaren River Lodge has a restaurant.

We reached Maclaren Summit near 3:00 PM. Between the Tangle Lakes and Maclaren Summit we ate nearly all of the snacks we had planned on eating over the course of the two day trip. By Maclaren Summit we had also decided that we were going to eat as much dinner and breakfast that we could fit into ourselves at Maclaren Lodge.

We arrived at Maclaren Lodge. We were given a beautiful Saturday evening.

The views of the glacier nearly tempted us to put on our skis again and go exploring the river. Returning to the Maclaren Lodge and skiing up the valley was discussed. That trip would likely require snow machine support.

Dinner #1

Dinner #2

There was no room for us in the lodge. We anticipated this and brought along a lightweight shelter and sleeping bags. They let us set up the shelter under a lean-to they used to protect straw bales. There were several comments from snowmachiners about Mary and Joseph. No virgin births on this winter night. We also decided to name our lightweight shelter "the stable."

It was a tick cold but we were well prepared.

We slept very well and loaded ourselves up with pancakes and bacon for breakfast. We met a snowmachiner from North Pole who was kind enough to offer to carry our sleeping bags on the way back. Apparently we looked that tired.

The return trip weather was just as spectacular. We encountered a few caribou crossing the road ahead of us. They observed us quietly from about 100 yards off the road as we passed by.

Mount Sanford is the tall looking one on the left. It is a picturesque and imposing stratovolcano.

We were pretty tired at mile 70 something. We began to appreciate these types of signs more than the average human being usually does.

Julia's feet were very sore by the end of it all. But she is very kind, resilient, and goodnatured.

The thriving metropolis of Paxson.

The sign indicating that we are in Paxson.

We each ate a pizza on Sunday evening to restore glycogen levels.

The weather was wonderful and the skiing was both spectacular and challenging. A successful and enjoyable ski trip, without a doubt.

The following is a collection of pictures from the trip put to song. The first lines of the two songs are particularly indicative of how we felt driving home to Fairbanks.