Single Mushroom
Anchorage, 2010
Single Mushroom
Anchorage, 2010
Anchorage meets the Chugach. I slept in the passenger seat of a 1996 Saturn that night, but we had that view.
2010
Summertime in Alaska
Anchorage, 2010
Tidal Mud Flats
Anchorage, AK
Girdwood, AK
Ron Landry, somewhere over Canada.
Obviously I met Ron on the airplane up to Anchorage. From Louisiana, he was going fishing with family who all had had extensive surgery. Two open heart surgeries, a replaced hip, and replaced knees…..he remarked about how they should have brought an emergency room with them. Ron was a talker and showed me old prints from past fishing trips to AK. Ron was impressed with my camera and big ziplock back full of film. He told me about how he had always dreamed of owning a Hasselblad.
Ron also had a way of talking to the flight attendants……he kept getting us free beer throughout the whole flight!
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Distagon CFi 50mm f/4
film: Kodak Portra 800
First ride to Denali….
This was my first day in Anchorage, we rode bikes about 10 miles into downtown so I could pick up a few rolls of Velvia 50 from the local camera store…..B&H was out when I made my film order. We got a call that we needed to be back, 10 miles in an hour to catch a ride halfway to Denali, Talkeetna.
After getting back and hastily making our last minute packing we loaded our bags into this Subaru and headed off to Talkeetna, where a bluegrass festival was being held all weekend. The whole way up, the music was pretty bad…………but it was a free ride so we couldn’t complain much.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100F
We thought we might stay a night at the music fesitval, then we found out they only sold whole weekend passes. Not wanting to delay our trip a whole weekend, we got our packs out of the car and our ride went on in. Doing some last minute repacking, Michael adjusts his well worn camp shoes. After this, we walked down this dirt road back to the highway. We stuck our thumbs out as we began walking north.
Michael held his hand up for a high five and said “You have no idea what you got yourself into.” This is the moment when I left predictability and the comfort in knowing what the short term future held for me.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100F
Billie
So we hitchhiked north towards Denali and was picked up by a 16 year old guy who drove us about 15 miles up to a gas station, he was getting gas and going back to the festival. We grabbed some food at the gas station and started back out on the road with our thumbs out. It was almost 8PM we thought our chances were slim of being picked up and planned to just hike off the road a little bit and camp for the night as it got darker.
Not a mile up the road, this lovely lady stops her Vanagon and asks if were going to Denali because of our packs, she says she’s headed up there and offers us a ride.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100F
loooong way down.
Billie stopped several times just to show us cool views of the mountain (covered in clouds that day) and views like this of a bridge spanning a deep gap.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100F
looking left from previous shot of the bridge
you can see the cloud cover as we made our way to the park. It was getting late, so a few miles up the road Billie pulled into a camp site along the road. We made some dinner and had a few beers as a group and then Michael and I set up our tent. Billie slept in her van (with our food). It felt odd to be going to sleep while it was still light out.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100F
The next morning it’s overcast and sprinkling here and there. At this point it was light rain I’d say. Driving closer to the park, Billie said she needed a new headlight beccause she only had one working at the moment. A guy at the “nice” gas station along the highway told us to come over to this place because they had “everything.” Wouldn’t you know it…..he had the headlight she was looking for.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100F
two repairs
At this point I should talk about how I helped get the headlight installed……..um no. I went back to the car the put the 50mm on my camera to get this wide perspective. Somehow the lens wasn’t properly cocked. I’m not sure how it was off the camera not wound. I had to dig to wind a butter knife for a quick on the field wind of the lens so I could attatch it. In this shot, Michael holds the new lens/bulb.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Distagon CFi 50mm f/4
film: Fuji Provia 100F
Ken Gore
Ken didn’t say much, although he seemed to have everything for fixing vehicles. Ken is what he described as “an old Alaskan.” He remarked that in the 51 years he has owned his shop the only thing he has seen is change…..and that it was all for the worse.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Distagon CFi 50mm f/4
film: Fuji Provia 100F
this was just after filling the Vandura up in Healy for $4.02 a gallon. -___-
Anyways, Billie’s Vandura was not without it’s charms. When putting gas in the tank you had to “squirt” small amounts in at a time or it would overflow………….so it took a LONG time to fill up.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100F
Inside Denali…..still on the road
So we got in the park. Billie wanted to get a campsite for herself, so while she did that Michael and myself went to the backcountry office. We had to give them our information and watch a presentation on safety (water crossing, the bear container and golden triangle camp method blah blah blah). It was already about 3 PM so we decided we would leave the next day and spend another night with Billie, our ride up. Side note: In the backcountry office the ranger that helped us went to Trinity Valley in Fort Worth and it turned out we knew her younger sister…….weird.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100F
Billie
not only picked us up, two smelly guys. She gave us food, beer, and well…..just was ALOT more than we could have ever asked for. We thought hitchhiking would have been sitting in the back of a pickup in the rain…..this was in a sanctioned campsite near the front of the park. It was our second and last night together. Michael and I thought we’d be roughing it the whole time, however this was our dinner that night.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
The ever resourceful Billie
Coming back from asking neighbooring campers if they had mustard. We were running low on beer, she scored us some of that too. Coors, but not the light stuff……haha We also “collected” firewood. Don’t worry it was all dead, but she drove around and stole it from camps with no signs showing people were there. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND she kind of gave me a steak knife to cut up small dead wood we found of the side of the road.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
at the campsite just after we ate. I figured we’d either forget in the morning, or the light would be bad……so I set the camera up on a tripod and had a passerby click the shutter.
we did forget the next morning, and I was pretty inebriated in this photo.
We bid Billie a hasty goodbye the next morning. Her bus into the park left quickly before ours and she gave us both a hug as she got on to go all the way to Wonder Lake. I’ll be sending her this photo and a postcard soon. I doubt I’ll ever hitchhike and be picked up by such a cool ride ever again.
I broke the rules, using Velvia on people………oh well!
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Distagon CFi 50mm f/4
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Me, Mike ::: Outside the Wilderness Access Center
I WAS PRETTY MUCH SCARED SHITLESS HERE
Side note: People get really excited when you ask them to photograph you using a Hasselblad. I set the focus and handed it to him.
Yeah, so were about to get on a bus to go ~50 miles out into the middle of the park. Get out, and try not to die for a few days as we meander ~30 miles. There are bears there…….our defence? A whistle and an airhorn. We came all this way, there was no going back. So i just ate granola.
*These feelings reflect those of Mike #1…..Mike #2 is captain outdoors and this is really is a walk in the park.*
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali National Park ::: Polychrome Glacier Overlook
Still on the 2.5 hour bus ride to where we asked the bus driver to drop us off at a small creek called, Stoney Creek…..fitting, lol. This was a scenic stop so people could get out and take photos. It was an exceptionally clear day, which I took as a good omen of our little foray into the wilderness. I spent time taking out my spotmeter, taking several readings and carefully choosing my exsposure and firing this single shot. The guy next to me, D700 + Sigma Monster zoom took at least 30 frames standing right next to me. I really enjoy the slow process of shooting film and in this moment I know it. I used to be that photo blaster.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Distagon CFi 50mm f/4
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Mt. Denali
Theres our teeny tiny bus driving away after dropping us off. The driver told us that it was an exceptionally good day to see the mountain so he dropped us off further up the road to get this view and we walked back about a half mile to Stoney Creek.
That thing is 20,3XX ft. high. That mountain is no joke. I think I finally felt I could personally define the term sublime.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country ::: Day 1
Looking up a small creek as we take a minute to readjust our packs and boots about a mile in so far. We are planning on going north about 12 miles and taking a mountain pass about 8 miles to the south east and catching up with the Toklat River and walking 5 miles south to meet up with the road and catch up with the park road.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country ::: Day 1
Looking south, this was where we lost sight of the road. The path is not one created by hikers here, these are game trails that are often traveled by wildlife. Defiantly lots of poop and animal tracks, its also quick moving in the thick vegetation.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country Day 1 ::: Mike, on the riverbank.
Just after a water crossing, we didn’t expect to have to cross again soon. We took a few minutes to take our boots off and drain the water and ring our socks out.
We crossed three more times that day.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country ::: Day 1
Another water crossing. We took a minute to readjust our gear. So I pulled the carbon fiber tripod I was loaned off the side of my pack and took this shot. If I remember correctly it was 1/8th of a second @ f/32.
Curious how I protected the Hasselblad? Kata W-94 accross the chest with strap going over the top of the backpack so the wieght was supported on the back. Camera and lens in their own ziplock bags inside with silica gel. For river crossings I would put the whole thing in a trash compactor bag and tie it up.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Distagon CFi 50mm f/4
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country ::: Evening 1
Mike making dinner on the tundra at about 9:30 PM. Everything we had pretty much had to be made in boiling water. Our first night we were lucky to have a small stream nearby that we could get water and do dishes instead of waiting until morning or using the last of our drinking water from the day.
The black cylinders are the bear containers provided by the park. All food and “smelly” things had to be locked up inside the plastic cylinders. Bears and other animals can smell them, but they are next to impossible to open with out a coin or a zipper on a jacket.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Kodak Portra 800
Denali Back Country ::: Evening 1
I hate sunset photos. They can never really show how nice a sunset was. The cool this about this was this was in one end of the horizon and looking to the left after my eyes gazed out on an open valley, you could see a few thousand feet of Mt. Denali’s peak, lit up pink from the setting sun.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Mike looking towards the snowcapped peak of Mt. Denali. We are eating oatmeal…..and putting strawberry jelly in it. Camping noms.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country ::: Day 2
I took this as we finished eating breakfast. The morning light was irresistable, knowing I had afew more shots of Velvia 50 I had to burn off. While I shot this we boiled water to have to drink that day…..if you don’t treat the water here you run the risk of getting massive diarrhea. Thanks, but no thanks. We didn’t bring any toilet paper.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country ::: Day 2
Looking back the way we have come, you can see how tall the plants were here. This was considered pretty easy going. Small enough to just plow through. I didn’t shoot the tough terrain often. We were often fighting to get through some parts instead of stopping to shoot photos of a bunch of plants. :]
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country ::: Day 2
Mike as usual now, a few paces ahead. Probably shot on a quick water break, this is the only photo I took of him actually with pack on and walking. Hiking without trails is amazing, but it’s no joke. This little area of thigh high plants was definitely pretty easy traveling.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country ::: Evening 2
Well this was the view we had while we ate, what we went to sleep to and woke up to. This was my favorite campsite. Very scenic, the weather was GREAT and it was a great reward for all the work it took to get this far out in the wilderness.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Distagon CFi 50mm f/4
film: Fuji Velvia 50
Denali Back Country ::: Evening 2
180 degrees around from the last shot of the tent. This looks back over the area we covered that day. We traveled low along the river for much of the day. As the day progressed we began to work our way up the east side of the ridges. Found a nice little spot up on a ridge in some tundra. I felt safer sleeping higher and being able to look out on the land, rather than low and in the brush.
It looks like just grass but believe me there are all kinds of terrain in just this image. The dark green was a very thick area of alders all around a small creek. The following morning we saw a moose sprinting out and towards the valley….not sure what spooked it.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country :: Evening 2
Snapped this shot of our 2 man MSR tent on the hillside tundra. We thought about taking a rest day and hiking up to the top of the rock protrusion without our packs. We wound up not doing that, but on our hike out we stayed high to avoid the dense vegetation of the valley. We got up near where the rock meets the vegetation. During breakfast we watched a male caribou munch his way over that same ridge
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Evening 2
Looking up towards a rock outcropping as the sun gets low on the horizon.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Evening 2
Looking down into the valley just before heading up to the tent to pass out for the day. It was weird going to sleep while it was still light outside. I was usually so beat by the end of the day it didn’t matter though. It didn’t get dark enough to see stars until 12-1am and we were never up that late in the back country…..so no northern lights for us.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Kodak Portra 800
Denali Back Country ::: Day 3
We worked our way high up on the ridge we slept on. This was a particularly tricky part to get accross becasue of all the loose rocks instead of rooted vegetation. So instead of being safe I stopped, faced up the ridge and snapped a photo before carefully turning around and continuing on along the steep slope.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Day 3
Had to move a few miles to find a water source today. A small spring along side the ridge we were walking accorss. We took an hour break or so while we were able to fill all of our bottles with drinkable water that we boiled. Fuel bottle and stove, next to the spring.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Day 3
Looking relatively north, the direction we were moving. Because of a steep incline into the creek with very thick vegetation we had to drop down far to get to a more accessible route. We ended up coming back up after descending to the rock outcropping photographed here.
Denali Back Country ::: Day 3
Looking back up what we just decended. We were few hundred feet from where the rock meets the vegetation. It sucks to lose elevation, but it meant for a safer route to the other side of a small cut in the ridge.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Day 3
This was the last photo from day three. We spend the rest of the afternoon PLOWING through dense vegetation and trees in the pouring rain. This was by far the lowest point on the trip. The going was tough, and it was just pouring. We found a large animal trail that took us through a pass. We slouched through the swampy wet ground as we past very fresh bear+moose tracks and scat. The going was easier than fighting through plants so we took it. Kept our voices up the whole time to not surprise any wildlife.
We finally after feeling lost got to a small creek we could identify on the map and could guess our position. Mike saw that I was beat and suggested we camp on the creek in the low lands. I was not going to have that, in the pouring rain still we crossed the creek and walked another couple of miles up hill through thick, but only about thigh high brush to get up to the tundra level. As we sat down to eat, both feeling beat from our roughest day, the clouds parted, the rain stoped and we were treated to a nice long sunset as we rested.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Day 4
So after the roughness of the previous day this day started out nice. We had to get water so we came down and backtracked to get to the large creek we crossed the night before. Ate breakfast of oatmeal, had coffee and boiled water for the day. At this point sitting by the water eating, talking loudly and calling out every once in a while so an animal doesn’t get suprized by our presence….it had become normal. I kind of lost that “on edge” feeling that I was worried about a bear attack or encounter like I had worried about. That was good because later today would be our bear sighting.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Day 4
Looking back while taking a rest. After breakfast and water we climbed up a large ridge to once again avoid thick vegetation. This was a mid way up breather.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Day 4
This is at the height of the ridge we climbed. It was a very steep grade roughly 1500 ft. or so until the grade became gradual. I was huffing and puffing all the way up, I took this on a break we took on the top. The rocky ridge is what we came around. We followed the ridge all during day three. Rounded it and are making our way east towards the Toklat river through a mountain pass.
This was the last photo of Day 4. Most of our travels early on were through the pass and the light was flat as it was cloudy. Didn’t take many photos at that point it began to rain. So we protected the camera and put on our rain gear. I wish I had photographed the very steep grade we had to decend later on that day. It was one of the more dangerous things we had to do. Just were very careful decending. Mike rolled an ankle that had previously been broken twice on the way down. He had to put on a brace. A few hours later my achilles tendon started giving me alot of trouble. We set up camp early at about 5 PM and just took it easy. Rain was on and off so no photos from there. We did sleep in a cloud though.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Day 5
After a long rest, we made sure all of our pads and tape were on our feet and suited up. Mike with his sports brace, and me with a make shift brace. We cut a square of a sleeping mat off and mike used tape to form it down my ankle so it would prevent too much movement in my pulled tendon. We took it slow, here we got water. We didn’t waste time boiling today, we just used iodine tablets saying “we were gunna have breakfast on the Toklat”. The Toklat river was our highway out of the wilderness. We would be taking it south back to the road.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Velvia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Day 5
A quick break for water and I snapped this low cloud as it was drifting across the landscape only a few hundred feet higher than we were.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100
Denali Back Country ::: Day 5
Our view as we ate breakfast over looking a small valley leading to the Toklat river.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100
Self portrait back at a “real campground”
First things first, I saw and watched people’s faces wrinkle up as we walked by them to get the last two seats on the regular, not camper bus out of the wilderness. At this point I have been wearing the same clothes for 8 days. We walked in the office and bought a Dr Pepper, a bar of soap and two showers! After I took this shot I took my shirt off and was covered in mosquito bites…..they really are the state bird up there.
You can see the ‘blad, that if it wasn’t broken in, it was now. It performed great out there, even after we had to literally throw the camera bag out of a river.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100
Mike, Nora, Susie, me
So we got stuck in Denali for another night. We hitched up there, so we had to find a ride back. One of Mike’s buddys fell through on a ride so we got a campsite and set up. Dinner that night was macaroni and cheese with bacon and a few beers. Nora and Susie came over and hung out by our measly fire for a little bit. They had spent several days in the back country as well and were going to be leaving the park the next day.
They came over for breakfast too, they had fancy Canadian food….so we ate some of that and had a passerby take this photo.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100
Ron Phillips “The Alaska Bus Guy”
Well this is Ron Phillips…..Ron runs a biodiesel bus service all over Alaska. We went to see about a bus back to Anchorage and the lady literally laughed in our face when we told her we didn’t have a reservation…..
We gave Ron a call first as his prices were cheaper and it didn’t seem all fancy……well you see it. The Alaska Bus Guy is more the The Sketchy Truck Dude hahaha! Anyways, he drove kind of crazy but he had good stories. Ron’s drink of choice was chocolate milk….He kept a gallon on standby and would occasionally pull up his carton and down a few big swigs of his milk.
This is not his bus, the bus is in the shop. However this truck was running on used vegetable oil.
camera : Hasselblad 503 CW
lens : Carl Zeiss Planar CFE 80mm f/2.8
film: Fuji Provia 100