Trek 2011

Telequana drainage (Photo courtesy of NPS.gov)

I am back from Cappadocia and in full on expedition planning now. The votes were unanimous in favour of going to Lake Clark National Park in Alaska so I'm starting to work out the details. I expect to have a price for the puddle jumper round trip Anchorage - the park - Anchorage figured out here in the next week or so. I'm coordinating with a couple different outfits to see the best price and options for our flight.

There are a couple of things I would like to hear everybody's opinions on, some of which will help me in coordinating the flights into the park. I'm basically thinking of a couple of different options for our trip:

Option 1: We hike the Telequana trail from Telequana Lake to Twin Lakes. The park is trailless, so the name of the route is sort of a misnomer. It is reference to a general route the Telequana indians used to migrate I believe. The region of the park is mostly tundra covered making the hiking part of it easier with less bushwacking, but it is no less wild or beautiful. Direct route would be about 30-35 miles and would cross several rivers we have to ford with bears, moose, and other wildlife to see.

Option 2: We get dropped by float plane on Turquoise lake and set a base camp there on the end near Mt. Telequana. Then we make day trips each day exploring in each direction with daily roundtrips of 10-15 miles. My inclination would be to climb Mt. Telequana one day, it's not tall by world standards but still a 6500 ft climb from the lake bed. Then one day hike down the runoff and find some grizzlies, etc. This option would make timing easier since we would be picked up at the same place, so if we are slower than we think one day it's not going to make our final day a race to meet our plane.

Either option will allow us to see a lot of amazing territory and either way the price of the single engine plane ride into/out of the park will be the same. So let me know what your thoughts are, and vote on the poll on the side for which option interests you most.

Current plan:

Hike dates: 25-28 or 29 June 2011 (plan to start hiking on morning of 25 June)

Current party members (confirmed via email):

Mike

Jeff

Doug

Rob

Marcus

Zachariah

Rumored members (not yet confirmed):

Randy

Hunter

Curtis

Please let me know if you are coming for sure or if any of your plans change.