Sunday, May 27, 2007

Kesugi Ridge - Memorial Weekend 2007

It was 80 degrees Farenheit when we left Fairbanks... the perfect introduction to this trip. Neither Brian or I packed many warm clothes. We went for the lightweight packs. Didn't even really have a change of clothes. Just a couple MRE's (military Meals Ready to Eat) that don't require cooking and sleeping bags. Oh, Brian brough Josie as well (his chocolate lab).

Friday night we left Fairbanks for a 3 day weekend. We just hiked in a short distance on Friday night when we arrived and camped. This was our campsite. Pretty nice. Then on Saturday we headed up higher.



We were having a good time and decided to go off on a side hike even higher up into the mountains. We went up and up and up. Up into the snow where we got our boots really really wet.


We went way up into the snow. We had a bit of trouble punching through the snow and in some places it was quite deep - waist deep.


On the way back down, we got tired of punching through the deep snow and decided to roll down the mountain. We got really dizzy doing this, but it was sooooo fun!

The mountains were nice and on Saturday during the morning it was a beautiful day. Then the weather started to change.



We camped Saturday night and woke up with the tent covered in a thin layer of really wet snow. Our boots were frozen. We could barely get our boots on and when we did, our feet felt like ice blocks!

We decided on Sunday morning that we would just finish the last 18 miles that day so we could get out of the cold, bad weather. So, we hiked and hiked. It was such a beautiful trail. I want to go back and do it again sometime when the weather is nicer. It took us a long time, and the weather never improved much. We got rained on most of the day on Sunday. We just tried to follow the Kairns to keep on the trail.

My feet didn't like the 18 miles of hiking in wet boots on really steep trails. Especially the trail down from Kesugi Ridge to Byer's Lake. It is really steep and your toes get jammed in your boots! This is how my toes look almost 4 months later - still nasty!!!