at the train center downtown waiting with the family. It was a time of excitement but also of sadness as I was going to leave the family and I felt unsure of what lay ahead for the next couple days...

luckily I had the cutiest girls to give me a farewell, that made me think twice about getting on the train, but TBA had plans and they must be kept

a good send off from Dylan

you can't outdo the champion of funny faces

getting on the train. We would take the train to seattle and then fly to anchorage from there. The train was nice cause they didn't charge any extra for all the gear we had, and it only cost about $20 each

thanks for the cart steve

there was some time to kill till our flight, so we both took turns napping, I eventually took the spot of the guy in the background when he woke up. And no it was not comfortable, but I was glad our gear didn't get stolen

please put the shoes back on, I can still smell those feet

we used the service of GO PURPLE shuttle to get to Talkeetna, it was pleasant enough, and about 3hrs to the town

we had our gear dropped off at Talkeetna Air Taxi (TAT for short), I can't say enough good things about this company and how nice they are (nice enough that I used them the following year)

fine facilities in the far north, good luck in there

the rangers where very nice, although I was disappointed that I did not get to watch the "horrible" video I had heard so much about...

had to enjoy a beer and burger before there would be no more. I didn't know what to expect and its hard to prepare for such a journey, but I knew things where only going to get tougher and colder and with lots of freeze dried food, so enjoy the times when you can

Steve (second from left) taking a pic with a Korean team that we shared the plane with. They where nice, but spoke limited english. They also seemed amazed with our gear, which was a lot-but considerably less than theirs

he was nice enough to allow me to ride shotgun, something I will never forget. Thanks Steve

this is basecamp at 7000' with Mt Hunter in the background. As large as Mt Hunter appears, its only approx 14,000' high, which mean Denali is over 6000' higher

this team had set up this 24hr camera at basecamp and we just happened to be there at the right time to get recorded. If you go to the website you can view us in the video. Its like we are famous before we even started

heading out of Basecamp at approx 2am, we are cold and scared of what lie ahead, but we came this far so its time to start looking for the top of the mountain. We planned on approx 5hrs to make it to camp 7600', which doesn't seem like much elevation gain but you drop 400' as soon as you leave Basecamp, then its a whole lotta miles till next camp

break time while another team passes us

here we are rolling into camp 7600' with Ski Hill in the background. This hill is very deceiving as it doesn't look like much, but carrying 125lbs each makes it seem to never end