INTRODUCTION:  A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

Background and idea for the hike.

The idea for this hike actually began during a July, 2010 Kantishna Wilderness Tour bus ride. On the way back from Kantishna I heard the bus driver tell an interesting story. The driver, John Miller (easy name to remember), told the story of the first successful climbing party of Mt. McKinley in 1913. At the start of their trip, the group of climbers (led by Hudson Stuck) had to find a convenient way up the mountain from the north/Wonder Lake area. They found the best route was by going through McGonagall Pass. John Miller mentioned that you can still hike the same route today: from Wonder Lake to McGonagall Pass. Basically, that’s all he said... but he also said that he hoped to make the hike himself one day. The next week, after we had returned home, I tried to find information about the hike on-line. It turned out to be fairly well described on the National Park Service website, as well as in the book “Classic Hikes of the World”, by Peter Potterfield. This book ranked the hike 4 out of 5 for physical difficulty, and 5 out of 5 for psychological difficulty. 5 out of 5 for psychological difficulty? What does that even mean? I was intrigued and felt like I had to know more.