A backcountry campsite (Big Agnes Seedhouse SL1) high on the tundra in the Wrangell Mountains. The high alpine ridges near Mt Jarvis, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve provide a great place for hiking and backpacking. Sunset, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

Just to stave off the impending deluge of grizzly bear photos, I thought I’d drop this one in here. This is from the last backpacking trip of the season for me, the recent Mt Jarvis excursion. Here’s a campsite I picked out all by myself, high on the tundra.

With a  night so wonderfully clear, the temperatures dropped down a bit during the evening, and it was plenty cold in the am when I awoke before dawn, and sauntered across the tundra to ‘reflection pond’, where I shot some of the recent images posted of Mt. Jarvis.

For this trip, I carried the Big Agnes Seedhouse SL1 tent that you see here. It’s a nice little 1 person tent, pretty roomy actually, and relatively light. Weighing under 3lbs, it’s not heavy at all. I add a footprint, which probably makes the packaged weight over 3 lbs, but I do that for all my tents, so the relative weight remains the same. The tent’s not perfect, but I do like it pretty well. I’ll do a fuller review of the tent on my Expeditions Alaska blog in the coming weeks.

I also carried my Mystery Ranch G5000 backpack, which is lying under the REI Duck’s Back Rain Cover (100L). REi have improved this cover a lot, and it now works pretty well.  The Mystery Ranch backpack is awesome.

And my trusty old Leki Makalu trekking pole. I’ve always preferred to hike with just one pole, rather than the 2 that most folks use. I’ve no idea why, it just feels better and easier for me. All I need now is a little bandana printed with an Australian flag, and the Makalu would double as a perfect flag pole to mark out Australian Territory, once I pick my campsite. This serves notice to other folks in the area to not camp too close! 🙂

I think that’s all the gear that I can make out in this photo. I’m going to do a full list of my typical backpacking gear soon, too.

Oh .. and I should post another shot of this tent, taken the night before, at out previous campsite. The scene was very different to what you see here. But you’ll have to wait for that one.

Cheers

Carl