I missed the Party..Bummer

I had big plans to meet Eric and others out at the Angel Cr cabin for his B-day bash this weekend. Unfortunately my plans failed. I had Jim drop me off at the Stiles Cr trail head and my goal was to take an overland route to the cabin. I followed the Stiles Creek trail for about 8 miles and then veered off and followed a trappers trail to the tundra ridgeline above. From there I had hoped to ski across the wind drifted snow and walk where the snow had been blown away. I would eventually descend 2500' to the cabin in the valley below.

The view of the upper Chena River valley as I made it above treeline

The weather was great BUT way too warm. After a record cold March--April arrived with temps soaring to 50F. Its a bummer because this rapidly deteriorated the snowpack. The drifts I had planned skimming across ended up swallowing me up to my crotch. It was excruciatingly slow going and I had to bail out about 4 miles shy of the cabin when I realized I wouldn't make it before dark. I didn't want to be out there route finding in the middle of the night.

Looking up at the ridge line I had intended to follow. I went another mile or so before I bagged it because the snow was rotten and I kept punching through up to my crotch.

So I retraced my steps and skied 11 miles back down to the road. I attempted to hitch hike to the Angel Cr cabin trailhead (which would have been a flat 6 mile ski to the cabin). I tried for an hour and couldn't get a ride. Some drunk military guys did throw a beer bottle at me -what assholes- and lucky for me they missed. After that I decided to bag it and ended up getting a ride to the nearest phone in Two Rivers. Sharon came and rescued my and dragged my butt back to town.