Ending August in rain and snow on Sable Mountain

As the colors have begun changing I have been trying to get into the park anytime I have a chance. Unfortunately the weather has not cooperated too much. The other day at Savage River wasn't too bad and though Saturday the 29th was pretty nice, as the pictures will show, Sunday the 30th was pretty nasty.

I started out taking the first possible shuttle bus into the park at 6:15am. The weather was gray and overcast, and looked like it could begin raining at any moment. Nature didn't disappoint. Minutes after entering the park rain began to fall and wouldn't stop until sometime the next day.

I stepped off the bus about 45 miles into that park at Tattler Creek. I hiked up Tattler Creek for about 1.5 miles before finding the ridgeline that I scrambled up and would follow to the summit of Sable Mountain. During the approach to Tattler Creek the cloud ceiling was above the Polychrome Glaciers and Cathedral Mountain so I was optimistic that Sable Mountain might be in view, unfortunately I was wrong about this. The summit to Sable Mountain sat in clouds and I couldn't remember what it looked like from previous travels in the park.

So I set out, unsure of where the top was or what it looked like. I figured I'd hike and have fun, and turn around when things stopped being fun or safe.

The going was great. Tattler Creek was mellow and had multiple social trails accompanying its path down from Sable Mountain. As I moved up I kept an eye out for bears and Dall sheep. Though I saw no bears on the way, shortly after finding my ridge line and climbing up it I found a group of 16 Dall sheep on a neighboring ridge line. Another quarter mile or so, I found another herd and shared my path with three young Dall rams (the picture only shows two, because the pictures I took of all three were pretty unsteady and blurry).

Sable Mountain rises well above some of the neighboring hills and mountains and offered some killer views. Shortly after these views though I entered the clouds and bits of snow on the ground. I hiked through clouds and varying degrees of snow for the next thousand feet or so. I'm not sure I hit the summit, but later this week the weather looks like it should improve so perhaps Sunday will be a good day for it, though I would like to make a fast and light run up Double Mountain too.

I turned around after finding that the ridge line was descending extensively, visibility was getting pretty bad, and the wind was getting stronger. The hike back was uneventful and descending to Tattler Creek saw the rain come down harder. At the road, I caught the camper bus with the surly bus driver Alan and traveled to Eielson Visitor Center to see how the fall colors looked. Unfortunately Eielson was totally fogged in, so I caught the next eastbound bus back to the WAC.

Special thanks to the Italian and Israeli tourists who helped me open my granola bar in the bus. My numb hands weren't working too well :)

Thanks also to Mike and Leslie from work for the ride back to the chalet from the WAC!