Stampede Trail: McCandless' Last Adventure

When I first found out I had landed my job in Alaska at Denali ATV what excited me most, aside from spending a summer in Alaska of course, was that I'd be visiting and touring the trail that lead Chris McCandless into his final adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. The Stampede Trail is a mecca for Chris McCandless enthusiasts and critics alike. Last week I began my training on the Stampede trail and lead my first tour on Friday, May 28th.

The tour is a bit challenging, so ATV experience is required, making the trip a bit faster paced and as a result more fun to lead. Its a 4 hour tour with about 2 hours of set up and breakdown. We arrived at the trail at 5:30 p.m. and pulled all the machines from the trailer, lined them up, cleaned the windshields and waited for the customers to arrive on their bus.

There's a few things that make this tour so fantastic. First of all, as I mentioned most riders have a little experience so we can keep a good pace. Second of all, there's TONS of water. Everyone loves driving through water!


Third, about half way down the trail on a good clear day you catch a good glimpse of Mt. McKinley which is a commodity around here being that it can be difficult to spot since its so large it generates its own weather patterns. Lastly, the tour includes FREE FOOD! When we reach the end of our trail where we turn around, we set up a camp, start a fire, and cook up some Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, & Veggie Burgers.



On my second training tour, which was Tuesday, I was riding in the lead rhino with Travis.


Now on my first tour we were told that one spot was particularly dangerous because we had to navigate customers around a deep bit of water that was our normal passage on our tour, but this time Travis said the tours in the two previous days had braved the water and made it across without a hitch. I was still skeptical because I'd seen the water and it looked unpassable. As we approached the water I said to Travis "God it'd be a real bitch if we had to pull someone out." I had no idea it would be us that needed to be pulled out. We entered the water and made it about 20 feet when the rhino stopped in its tracks and the floor started to fill with water. My first thought was "Please tell me no one followed us into this PLEASE!" I looked back and thankfully the customer immediately behind us had also been skeptical and had stopped short of the water. So we had our rear guide come up to the front and guide the customers around the water while we tried to pull out our very stranded and stuck rhino from the murky stream. We probably looked pretty funny with one guy standing in the back jumping up and down trying to get some traction and me pulling on the roll cage from the bank while Travis was gunning the machine. Eventually we were able to get it to move about two feet and get it close enough to tow it out with our 450 cc guide ATV that the rear guide was using. However our triumph was short lived. The machine wouldn't budge. The engine would rev up really loud but the tires just wouldn't spin. We'd flooded the clutch which was causing the belt to slip. We figured this was the problem so we pushed the ATV into the brush adjacent to the trail and left it to dry while we continued on our tour riding on the back of our two back guides' ATVs. It was an uncomfortable ride, but we made it to the campsite and had our dinner and exchanged our opinions of Chris McCandless' adventures and returned to the Rhino to find it still wasn't moving. So Travis and one of the rear guides took the customers to finish the tour and get them on the bus to go home while me and Sterling, our young local Alaskan guide, towed back the disabled machine.

I road in the machine being pulled by Sterling on the 450 ATV guiding it in neutral just 5 feet behind him. It was an interesting ride to say the least and at one point I didn't think we were going to make it up a muddy incline, but we did. It was actually a lot of fun.

This is one of my favorite tours of all our tours, falling just short of the Denali Ridge Line Adventure of which I trained on for the first time today and will write about in my next blog.

Miss everybody but loving my time in the great state of Alaska.

Planes, Trains, ATVs, Mountain Climbs: Life in Healy, AK thus far

I departed from Ontario Airport in Ontario, CA at 5:40 p.m. on May 15th. I arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska after 6 hours of flying, cut in half by a 2 hour layover in Seattle, WA, at roughly 1:30 a.m. Upon stepping off the plane into the empty, silent Fairbanks airport, my initial plans of crashing in the airport to wait for my 8:15 a.m. train to Denali National Park were immediately exchanged for a desperate want for a shower and a bed. I hailed a cab and told the cabbie, "get me to the nearest hotel to the train station." I arrived there around 2:00 and without a thought surrendered my debit card and told the front desk concierge, "I don't care what it costs just give me a room key." $110, a hot shower and 5 hours of much needed bed rest later, I was in a cab headed for the train station. You can imagine my excitement when I spotted my train and the realization came over me that I was almost "home."


I boarded my train, still rubbing the sleep from my eyes with my guitar and backpack stuffed with a thermal, a notebook, Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild", and some beef jerky, in hand. I recognized a young man from my flight from Seattle the night before and began a conversation discussing our travels to come in Alaska. About 10 minutes into the train ride I succumbed to my exhaustion and fell asleep for a little over an hour. I awoke to find my traveling comrade snapping pictures of the Alaskan landscape, of which I had yet to appreciate being that I was so tired. He told me I should really get up and head to the second story of the car a few cars back. I walked back a few cars, stopping to hold my head outside of the train and gaze upon Mt. McKinley which by this time loomed like a giant above all the mountains on the horizon. The sight was awe-inspiring, the air on my face refreshing. I snapped a few pictures and headed for the second story car.




I arrived at the station and called my buddy Travis to make sure he remembered to pick me up. Our boss Kyle had sent him out on a tour, and he told me he'd be a little late, and to sit tight. I took the time to grab my overstuffed duffel bag and ended up talking to an older couple who had been living out of their modest, road-worn RV for the past couple of years. They offered to buy me an espresso and give me a ride but I had no clue where I was going so respectfully declined his offer. I passed the next hour and a half pacing the train station, counting my steps and chewing on some beef jerky. Eventually Travis arrived and I piled into the van with all of my possessions in that camo-duffel bag and my backpack. We drove through the canyon, Travis pointing out the local bars where all the local employees meet just about every night, and arrived at the house around 2 p.m. I was excited to see my room and meet my co-workers.


I got settled that Sunday, and prepared for my first day of training the next day. For the next week I road along on just about every tour we booked, learning to recognize the turns on our "Wilderness Tour," how to keep a good pace, and just how foreign riding an ATV can be to some people. Training was fun being that there was little responsibility, leaving me to sit back and enjoy the tour and snag a few pictures, but I was eager to start leading my own tours and most of all, start receiving my tips!





I lead my first Tour on Monday, May 24th, just a week after arriving in Healy. I worked the morning shift of tours of 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. with one of my co-workers and new friends Ryan. We were booked solid for the morning/afternoon and worked just shy of 9 hours without a break. It was worth it when we divided up our tips and each got $65. Not bad for a days work, and not a moment too soon, as my money supply was bleak (my parents can attest to that). Tuesday I began training on the Stampede trail. I was excited to ride that trail as it has a special place in my heart. The Stampede trail was Chris McCandless' enterance into the Alaskan wilderness and was the last place he was seen alive by anyone. I had been anticipating the day I got to ride it since I applied for the job way back in February. The preparation for this long and difficult tour was a bit overwhelming though I'm sure I'll get used to it in good time like everything else. The tour was beautiful and provided another lucky opportunity to see the great Mt. McKinley, looming vigilantly in the distance. Riding that trail, knowing it had been walked by McCandless was indescribable. It pains me to hear how misunderstood he and his motivation for entering the wild so unprepared by normal standards is by the locals. It comes as no surprise though as most great minds are often misunderstood.

Wednesday was my first day off. Luckily it was also Travis' day off so we decided Tuesday night that we would try to hike Sugarloaf mountain. Travis attempted to reach the mountain last year, but turned around two hours in upon reaching the peak of the first initial climb. We slept in, stocked up on water and bear mace and headed for our access to the mountain as we'd been told behind the Grand Hotel. The initial climb to the peak of the first mountain we had to climb to supposedly reach Sugarloaf took roughly 2 hours. My smoker's lungs huffed and puffed as they typically do whenever I climb any type of incline but we made it to the peak of that first mountain. According to everyone that we've talked to, once you reach that peak you hike north along the ridgeline of the adjacent mountains to reach Sugarloaf. This proved to be more difficult then was described to us. Thats what we get for taking the advice of people who had never actually done the climb. We hiked across some rough terrain on that ridgeline for some 2 hours before I ended up on a rock face that I knew I couldn't traverse and cut my hands trying to do so when I told Travis I'd reached my limit. It was decided that Travis would keep pushing forward while I began the hike back to the peak that would lead us down the mountain. I hiked for about an hour or so by myself on the ridgeline not straying from the path in hopes for some easier terrain than we'd seen coming in to the hike. I called Travis to check on his progress and he told me he'd turned around 15 minutes prior out of frustration upon not getting any closer to our destination. We eventually met at the peak and made our descent. We'd done some great climbing through some treacherous terrain and were not disappointed in our inability to reach our goal. Its hard to be disappointed when McKinley was out in all its glory for pretty much the entirety of the hike. There will be pics to come once I get them on my computer.

All in all my stay here has been incredible and already I can see a change in my perception of life in general. People are different here. They're friendly, down to earth, and genuinely care for the people around them. A welcome change from the self-centered, egotistical, self-aware assholes of Southern California (not that anyone reading this fits that description). I can't wait to continue to experience Alaska for the rest of this summer and meet all the interesting people that come through it. I miss and love you all. Be sure to check back for regular updates and pictures.