Misadventure Continued

Almost a month ago, who knows maybe even more...Kellie asked me if I wanted to do Donelly to McKinley village with her an Nora. I instantly said yes, then asked what it involved. It was to be a week of long days walking through the mountains, and floating rivers with packrafts. We would cover 140 miles in a planned 6 days....after all it was a Wilderness Classic Race and the winners had done it in about 2 and a half days....surely six would be plenty. Then about a week before the trip I finally looked on the map and saw where Donnelly was...its a long drive away. I had 8 days off, and planned to use a day on either end for travel, and 6 days for the trip....Talking to Kellie on the phone I realized that I didn't plan one "what if" day, and if we didn't leave thursday morning I was going to be a day late.

All of a sudden I was overwhelmed with uncertainty. It just wasn't going to work. I didn't get enough days off then immediately booked myself for a solid week of work afterward. Being late just wasn't an option. Kellie came up with a plan that would give me back a day back, and it all seemed possible again....but it just wasn't...so I bailed. Then Nora bailed, but Dillon stayed true to the plan...and I haven't heard from Kellie for almost a week, so I know they are out there somewhere...

This was to be my big trip for the summer. Not even a very long trip, but an adventure....as a consolation prize Ry and I decided to try and do a hike then float out the Sanctuary river.

When we arrived in Cantwell at 7pm, the mountains were thick with thunder clouds. We debated back and forth to stay or go, then opted to stay the night and start in the morning. We were rewarded with intermittent pouring rain and brief rains of sun.

Ry and Our Raging Fire off the Denali Highway

 

The Best Thing about Rain, are Rainbows

 

Ry and I were lazy and didn't want to set up our tent in the rain, so we tried to sleep in the back of his forerunner....would of been great if Ry wasn't a giant!