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Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska is the largest park in the national park service. Also known for having the continent’s largest assemblage of glaciers and the greatest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet, the park offers extreme adventure for the stout of heart. Mount St. Elias is the second highest peak in the United States at 18,008 feet and presents ample mountaineering opportunities. The park’s remoteness has resulted in little human occupation in the past, preserving its primitiveness.

 

The park is located a days drive east from Anchorage and lies adjacent to Canada’s Kluane National Park. There are three ways to view and get into the interior of the park. The 61-mile McCarthy Road is a dirt and gravel road that can take up to 3 hours to traverse. The Nabesna Road is a 42-mile gravel road from Slana to Nabesna that traverses the headwaters country of the Copper and Tanana drainages. The third way to view the park is by airplane where you can fly past massive peaks, over jagged glaciers, and endless expanses of wild Alaska.

 

The park and preserve encompasses four mountain ranges, the Chugach, the Wrangell, the Saint Elias, and the end of the Alaska Range on the northern borders. This in turn holds some of North America’s most remote wilderness. The terrain runs the gamut of mountains, glaciers, coastal and intertidal communities, rivers and lakes. Mountain climbing and ice climbing are big options to consider.

 

This truly wild Alaska is waiting to be explored by kayak, rafting, hiking, backpacking, mountaineering and mountain biking. Mountain biking can be done on the McCarthy and Nabesna Roads, some dry creek beds and a number of trails in the Glennallen, Copper Center-Chitina area. Sea kayaking can be done in Icy Bay on the coast and along the 150 miles of rugged coastline. Keep in mind that the coastline is for experienced sea kayakers as the coastline is wild and exposed to the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska or Yakutat Bay. Most kayakers are flown into the area to start at Kageet Point on the eastern edge of Icy Bay or Pt. Riou, located on Chugach Alaska Native Corporation land southeast of Icy Bay. Rafting opportunities are available in the rivers.

 

Hiking and backpacking can be done almost anywhere in the park, but conditions can often be muddy. Better hiking is available on the trails and routes that lead into the Mentasta Mountains north of Nabesna Road or past mile 36. You can also charter a plane to drop you off in the more remote interior. The landscape offers tremendous scenery and wildlife viewing. During the summer there are a wide variety of beautiful butterflies to be seen.

 

There are ample opportunities for fishing in the park and preserve. With the numerous lakes and rivers it can be a fly fisherman’s dream. Grayling, whitefish, Dolly Varden, lake trout, rainbow/steelhead trout, cutthroat trout, sculpin, burbot, lamprey, smelts, and suckers are all found in the park. The Gulkana River is a good place to catch salmon.

 

Sport hunting is allowed only in the preserve and in accordance with Alaskan regulations. It probably offers one of the biggest varieties of animals to hunt in the state. There are opportunities to hunt bear, Dall sheep, mountain goat, muskoxen, moose, waterfowl, and caribou. Off-road vehicles (ORV) can be used on established routes.

 

Winter also offers its share of outdoor adventure. Ice climbing, cross country skiing, snow skiing, snowmobiling, and snow shoeing are all options to enjoy if you love the cold weather. Remember that it can get minus 50 degrees F. in the dead of winter.

 

So no matter what your outdoor pleasure is, if you enjoy solitude and ruggedness, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is the place for you. With the numerous shorebirds and two passerine migratory routes, the numerous wildlife, dragonflies and unique butterflies along with the rugged beauty of the terrain, you will experience something you won’t get any where else. This is definitely a park that should be on your must-see list.

 

Cliffhanger, one of the top outdoor events in Europe, and the U.K.'s biggest adventure festival, returns to Sheffield on the weekend of July 11th and 12th. With more than 100 exhibitors and dozens of events, Cliffhanger has become a major event, attracting more than 15,000 visitors last year, and 2009 looks to be even bigger and better.

Attendees this year can expect a wide range of activities, including demonstrations and instruction in rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, orienteering and more. There will also be an assault course to challenge anyone feeling up to it, 11 climbing walls, plenty of food stands and bargain shops for gear, rides for the kids, and even live music throughout the weekend. Cliffhanger will once again serve as the venue for the British Boulder Championships, in which more than 200 boulderers will competing for top honors. This year they've added an adventure race and a unique orienteering competition on mountain bikes.

You can checkout a full schedule of events on the Cliffhanger website, which also has the latest news about additions to the adventure festival. There are also directions on how to get to Millhouses Park by road or rail, and a complete list of exhibitors that will be on hand for the event.

Looks like another great outdoor festival with some fun activities for everyone.

Update: In an effort to more inclusive, I wanted to point out, as Shane has noted in the comments section, that there will be some Parkour/Free Running demonstrations going on at Cliffhanger all weekend as well. The local Sheffield group will be bouncing off trees, walls, fences, buildings, and just about anything else they can use to shop off their abilities. If you're not familiar with Parkour, you're in for a treat, and my failure to mention them earlier wasn't an intentional slight. I'm way jealous of your abilities Shane, and wish I could keep up! ;)

A couple of days back I posted that this year's Tour Divide mountain bike race had been won by Matthew Lee, who managed to complete the 2745 mile course from Banff to the Mexican border in a little less than 18 days. Today, Outside Online has an interview with Lee, in which he talks about what it was like out on the course.

In the interview, Matthew discusses such topics as what a typical day is for him out on the trail when racing, his thoughts on going ultralight in the Tour Divide (remember, racers are self sufficient in this Tour), and after completing six consecutive TD's, where doubt enters his mind while riding. He also mentions that while riding he didn't notice any aches and pains in his body, but once he stopped, all of the effort caught up with him and he was now feeling the effects of nearly three weeks out on the trail.

Matt does touch upon the cold, wet weather that plagued the early portions of the race, and shares what food he missed the most while riding. (Asian!) He also offers a new way to lube your chain (canola oil?) and thoughts on his most memorable day of the race.

Excellent interview with fun and interesting insights on what it's like on the Tour Divide. Good read for anyone following the event.

I wrote about this over at Gadling this morning as well, but definitely worth repeating here too. The crazy adventure-minded folks who organize and run the Tour d"Afrique every year have come up with a new concept in adventure travel that is amazingly cool. The new venture is dubbed DreamTours and it's designed to take whatever epic bike adventure you can come up with, and make it a reality.

In a nutshell, the DreamTours team challenges you to come up with an idea for a great expedition that you want to do on a bike. It could be anything, like cycling across Costa Rica or riding from Paris to Beijing. The point is to dream big and come up with something that is very cool.

From there, you'll logon to the DreamTours website and post your idea. Other cycling and mountain biking enthusiasts can then evaluate your idea, weighing in with thoughts on how feasible it is, sharing their own experiences, and rating your tour. The site, in a sense, becomes cycling community, for everyone to discuss bike adventures for anywhere on the planet.

Now, here's the really cool part. If you get enough people interested in your adventure, and they commit to joining you, the DramTours team will take over and handle all the logistics of making that adventure a reality. They'll organize the ride, and do all the planning, so all you, and those who have signed up to join you, have to is travel to the starting point, and hop on the bike. Best of all, if the trip fills up, you get to go for free! And if you happen to be feeling magnanimous, you can choose to pay for your trip, but spread the discount across everyone on the tour.

Sounds like a pretty cool concept to me, and I hope it catches on. It's a model that can easily be applied to other types of adventure travel as well. So the question is, what should the first ever Adventure Blog bike adventure be?