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it happened to me!Whatever you do, don’t run!Photos and story by Brandon BargoIt would be the trip of a lifetime andI don’t just mean figuratively, butliterally. I had dreamed of doing atrip that would be so over the topand difficult that it would be hard topull off. It would be a trip that wouldbe talked about for years to come.Books could be written about it, andpossibly even a movie deal. I thinkI will have Tom Cruise play me.After much thought and carefulplanning we came up with theSummit to Sea Expedition. Theteam consisted of exactly two people,me and my younger brother ofseven years, Greg. Our trip wouldbe to climb Denali in Alaska andthen bike 4000 miles to Baja Mexico,but not before we stopped off toscuba dive with great white sharksin California. As I said it would bethe trip of a lifetime. We had somany things happen to us and somany great experiences that thisstory is not even about our climb tothe 20,320 foot summit of Denali,or the great beaches we passed aswe accumulated mile after mile onour bike journey. It isn’t even aboutthe massive predator of the seaknown to many as Jaws, or to allyou Latin lovers, Carcaradon carcharias.Instead, this story is abouta side trip we took as a way to passthe time after climbing Denali,and waiting for some bike gear tobe shipped to me before we couldbegin our continental bike tour ofNorth America. But this side tripshould not be considered an asteriskor a footnote, as it could havebeen the end of the Bargo brothers’happy adventures.Having been tested on one of thetoughest mountains in the world,my brother and I felt that wecould pretty much do anything atthis point. We had weathered minusforty degree temperatures forthree weeks and had the beards toprove it.It had always been one of my favoritebooks even before all of thehype with the movie. Since we hadtime while waiting for my essentialbike gear, namely my shoes Ithought, why not go see “the bus”from Into the Wild. If you haven’tseen the movie or read the book,Chris McCandless was a collegegraduate who wanted to live off theland of Alaska and went into thewilderness to test himself and figureout the deep questions of life.Instead, he died in an abandonedbus in a very remote part of Alaskajust outside of Denali NationalPark, and I wanted to go see it.Since the bus was nearly two hundredmiles from us and we werelimited on time we used severalforms of transportation: walking,biking, and hitchhiking. Eventhough hitchhiking was the preferredmethod, it was not quiteso easy with our bikes next to us.Most people just thought we werelazy. When we did get picked up itwas never the big RV tourists butthe good ol’ local Alaskans. Onesuch local was possibly an escapedconvict who talked about several ofhis friends committing suicide as hewas putting back one beer after anotherand trying to stay on the road.Later, we had an equally tough butfriendlier local who had pity onus waiting in the rain who sharedstories of climbing Mt. Everest,and competing in the Iditarod, theworld’s toughest dog sled race.Alaskans are some of the toughestpeople on the planet, which is whythey didn’t like Chris McCandless.They thought he didn’t know whathe was doing and he was just somekooky kid with utopian ideals. Iagree with them, but I also think heAdventure World Magazine June 2008 46
was young and looking for adventure.I could relate to him when Iwas his age full of questions andthe desire to seek them out throughoutdoor adventure. I have beenfortunate to have close calls andlearn from my mistakes. He did nothave that luxury.We were dropped off at the startingpoint of a one way road knownnow to many as the stampede trail.We began pedaling, first on a pavedroad, then a gravel road, and then avery muddy road. We soon had toditch the bikes behind some treesand continue on foot. We found outquickly what hiking in the Alaskabackcountry was all about.There is a big move in the UnitedStates to protect our wetlands. Ifwe could somehow transport someof the wetlands of Alaska to thelower forty-eight states, we wouldnot have to worry about any protection.While trying to maneuverthrough the backcountry we had tocontinually hike through the uneven,sponge like bogs with theirankle twisting hidden pockets, andthe knee-high quick sand, mud andwater marshes. Throw in an occasionalswamp and all three typesof wetlands are covered. It makesa beautiful backdrop for backpacking.The problem is where there iswater in Alaska, the ridiculouslysized mosquitoes are sure to follow.In Alaska, they are known asthe state bird. The more we coveredourselves in repellent the more themosquitoes were attracted to us. Ifany skin were exposed they wouldfind it and that included any finger,toe, nose, ear or scalp.The trail never stopped throwingits difficult challenges at us. Weworked our way past the mud, andwetlands and then it was time forthe frigid creek crossings. The trailbecame a never-ending crisis ofcrossing of ice cold, snow meltedwater. After a very long and wetday we set up camp and spent thenight knowing that we were not theking of our domain, and not at thetop of the food chain. We were carefulnot to eat near our campsite.The following day was our first bigchallenge. We had to cross a fastflowing river known as the Savage.We discussed several techniques ofcrossing, and decided to use largesticks as a balance point. As soonas we entered the river it was difficultto breathe. We became numbimmediately. The boulders on theriver bottom and our heavy packsmade it a very difficult crossing.The water was soon at our waist,and it took every bit of our concentration.We made it across butwere not looking forward to doingit again. We continued on the trail,and hours later came upon the evenmore imposing Teklanika River.This was the same river whichtrapped Chris McCandless fromreturning back to civilization. I hadheard about a suspended cable withan aluminum basket to cross the river,and we went looking for it. Butafter a few hours of searching wegave up. We then looked for a goodcrossing of the river. We quicklyrealized from all of the recent rainthat this river was not passable. Itwas much faster than the last, andmuch wider. We were very disappointedafter such a long trip, that ariver would thwart our efforts. Butwe knew it was the right decision.After all, this was only a side trip.We still had three months of bikingahead of us.We had a long return trip so we didnot hesitate in making a quick paceback. We crossed the Savage in notime, and were passing the timewith good conversation on whatcould have been. I wonder whatthe bus would have looked like, orif some of the items that Chris hadleft behind were still there, wouldI have gained any insight into myown travels if I could have onlyseen the bus? Greg and I were havinga great conversation and enjoyingeach others company when wesaw something coming from theother direction at a very fast pace.At first, it didn’t register with mymind as to what it was. We wereclimbing up the hill as this largebrown object was coming downthe hill, and since the trail goingup the hill was curved and hiddenby trees it was hard to figure outwhat this thing was in such a hurry.It didn’t make sense to me. Whywould a large brown dog be outAdventure World Magazine is a GreenZine 47
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Page 7 and 8: ace newsThis year, The Bull of Afri
Page 9 and 10: Terra TraverseTerra Traverse recent
Page 11 and 12: where are they now?JH: 1983 Alpine
Page 13 and 14: Adventure World Magazine is a Green
Page 15 and 16: At left (Men’s):Buzz Off Converti
Page 17 and 18: Quest for the ‘Seven’Photos by
Page 19 and 20: I was only 11, so I had to have man
Page 21 and 22: By Ron Eaglin5 Rules of Adventure R
Page 23 and 24: Racing on Ice, With a TwistRock and
Page 25 and 26: off to town as well, to be checkedf
Page 27 and 28: The Basic Roamer© ARAs the Officia
Page 29 and 30: on the team need to be an expertnav
Page 31 and 32: trainingAdventure Racing Navigation
Page 33 and 34: AWM Navigation Challenge Round 2Try
Page 35 and 36: ON THE HORIZONComing up in future i
Page 37 and 38: Do not laugh as Adrian shows up toh
Page 39 and 40: Adventure World Magazine is a June
Page 41 and 42: gear closetSidi Dominator 5MSRP $24
Page 43 and 44: Mtn. BikingTrail RunningPaddlingPad
Page 45: our bikes. Morning rose alongthe wa

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