Snow Camp #5: Wickersham Dome ~ May 4-5, #11

We could not of asked for better cycling conditions thus far. Almost every day an early morning sun was there to warm us up, followed by partial afternoon clouds, an occasional light breeze, and mildly cool temps with no ‘bugs’. On the road, traffic wasn’t enough to even be called traffic. Truckers and locals were only showing up one at time, on one side of the road or the other, leaving us both plenty of space.

Along the road small pullouts showed up often enough that they became our destinations in between every sweeping corner that revealed ‘up’ was the only direction ahead. After finally seeing the sign post for Wickersham that we thought would of been 2 miles earlier, it occurred to me in my exasperated mental state that the reason the hills out here are called domes must be because the roads encircle them continuously until finally reaching the top!

An empty trailhead parking lot never looked so amazing, as Wickersham did that day. Two newly renovated outhouses and a loading ramp to lean our bikes against was all we needed to relieve ourselves of all our burdens of the day. After walking a short distance up both trails, we quickly realized venturing too far right or left meant sinking in snow up to our knees, or thighs. To avoid the inevitable, we opted for boot-packing our gear a short distance up from the lot into the trees, and setup our tent next to the trail breaker sled. At 2300’ elevation, perched on the loading ramp to melt snow and cook dinner in a bag, we were treated to a sunset view of the surrounding hills/domes we had climbed and distant peaks outlining the Brooks range to the North. No surprise, we decided to take a rest day and enjoy being on top of the dome.

The next day, after pancakes at the loading ramp, we ventured further up the most-used trail following ski tracks left by the only guy that showed up that morning.

We had reached the edge of the “Whites” mountain range. Behind us the Denali range was patiently awaiting our arrival in a few weeks time. Before the trail branched off heading further into the trees, we stopped to admire the many mounds we had cycled, the snowy tips of the Whites and the ghostly outline of the Denali range through the mid-day haze then turned to head back. Along the way we saw evidence of rabbit and squirrel, but the only critter to dare cross our path was a furry caterpillar traversing the craters of footprints we had left behind.

The road not taken and the actual summit of Wickersham Dome

The next morning we were still a bit undecided about going further North given we were now on day 4-5 of our 7 day food supply. Feeling accomplished at gaining some mountain views after riding the highway tunnel of trees, we agreed it was time to enjoy our well-earned descent.

Finally! An out and back where the downhill distance far surpassed the uphill. What had been a suffer fest, was now a glorious descent sailing through the landscape. Instead of stopping every few feet to catch our breath, this time it was only to capture images.