After a cloudy day in Anchorage getting my supplies, I took the morning Alaska-Yukon Shuttle north. We stopped in Talkeetna so that I could drop off some stuff for after the hike, and then continued north. The shuttle dropped me off at the Little Coal Creek trailhead at about 1pm. There were a couple of guys there getting ready to head up for a single night, and off I went. It was mostly cloudy but clearly burning off.
The Little Coal Creek trailhead at about 1300 feet
My first view up at Kesugi Ridge
A pond with a beaver dam and the beaver's lodge in the middle
I had planned to continue much further up onto the ridge, but the the snow looked heavy above and I found this great campsite, so I decided to stop. It was only one hour out and 1000 feet up. Also the trail followed a ridge above the Little Coal Creek that was mostly dry and there was a tributary creek near here. I decided I could take a dayhike to check out conditions after setting camp.
Within a few hours, the clouds had cleared and I had my first good view of Denali
And a few hours later as the sun was setting
And with a bright sunrise sky
A closeup of some rocky peaks near it
Another view of camp in the morning
