Denali park, Toklat-Stampeede trail bike loop

[CST]

Dylan Kentch, Kellie Okonek and myself did a sweet loop last week in Denali park. Biked in the Park road, 56 miles to the Toklat River, biked gravel bars a bit and camped for the night. We put in on the Toklat the next day. The River was pretty boney but still a decent float, 12 hours later we took out at the east fork confluence and quickly made a bonfire since we didnt bring dry suits. From there it was a full 15+ hr day to get to the Sashana River involvving many river crossings, bushwacking and crossing expansive tussock fields with our bikes... we reached the Sashana at midnight and came across some backpackers at the bus who gave us some food since we were out...
Biking the stampede trail the next day was fantastic, the trail was in good shape with the expected mudbogs, river crossings and all. We hit the highway and hammered out the last 20 miles to close the loop, took us 2 days longer than expected!

[Kellie]

A great trip indeed! It seemed a bit absurd as we were loading our bikes up, then trying to put them on the rafts, and especially as we were travelling XC to the Stampede Trail . . . The travelability of the trail really made this trip worthy though, and something I'd actually recommend. Another option would potentially be riding to the Teklanika, floating to the Stampede, and riding out. This version would eliminate the schwack/tussock sufferfest

A few additional pics . . .
A nicely packed bike


CST on the road


Scenic road heading toward Polychrome Pass


Packing . . . wtf?


CST ready to see how the packrafting would go


I guess the scenery was okay