One Week Down, One to Go!

 Provisioned with beer and wine at least, we drove to the Little Coal Creek Trailhead, the northern access to the Kesugi Ridge Trail and hung out, took a nap, waited for it to cool off. Busy parking lot, people were dropping a car down the line and coming back here to begin their hike (backpacking overnight or longer down to Byer's Lake.) 

We hiked about 70 minutes after our naps, saw some bear skat on the trail, a little muddy, not too bad. Stayed right at the trailhead (which you're not supposed to do) and drove next morning 7+ miles down the road to the Ermine Hill Trailhead which also heads up to the Kesugi Ridge Trail. It had rained overnight, and we hemmed and hawed about whether we were going - a young couple had hiked out and were trying to hitchhike back to Coal Creek. We finally hiked up beginning 10:30 am, 4 miles to the ridge trailhead and then another 1/4 mile or so up to some incredible rock formations. 

The trail was brushy, steep, and after hiking the 9 miles up and down, I say, why not do the 10 miles open across the ridge next time! Incredible views. Sat in shade for a long time after to cool down. A family from Fairbanks stopped and were getting ready to hike, obviously not knowing what they were in for, so we discouraged them and gave them the milepost markers for two hikes that would work better - they were on their way back to Fairbanks. Then we drove down to Byers Lake, showered, and took ourselves down the road to McKinley's for dinner - kind of a disappointment as they only serve sandwiches and salads, and Denali is hazed in - not visible - maybe from wildfires? Pleasantly tired after that hot and long hike, almost 5 hours and not easy. 

We like Byer's Lake and took a walk partway around the lake in the morning - one bridge is out, so walked to this one and back, about 3.5 miles, not bad for what we declared as our "rest day!" Took ourselves to Talkeetna for a treat, had lunch at Mile High Pizza Pie (only thing open on Monday) and hung out in park (me) for a Board meeting at 4 pm and a nap (Brian) before continuing on to Susitna Landing. 

Nice campfire at Susitna Landing, but boy were the mosquitos pesky overnight - I don't know how so many got into the camper. Brian threw a pole in the water before we retired for the night but didn't catch anything. Just a boy and his fishing pole on the Susitna River! 

Restless night - and then drove to our next big hike, Pioneer Peak.