This was my second attempt to make it to "the bus" out on the stampede trail near Healy, AK yesterday 10/30. This trip was about 15 miles back into the woods, across several rivers with snow and ice as you can see.
When I tried to make it a month ago I got stopped about 7 miles in becuase of deep mud and no trees to winch to.
This time, I made it over the mud, but I did break through the ice in several places that required a pull to get me out. The river was slightly deeper than it looked but my tacoma made it across with no problems (time to check all the lubes and whatnot). I ended up turning around about 2 miles from the bus because the trail was getting quite narrow and I didn't know exactly where it was. Maybe I'll have a chance to go back and try it next weekend. Anybody interested?
Enjoy the pictures; they are all self taken as I was traveling solo (crazy I know, but I was ready for a long hike)

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/kc659/...c659/my_photos

 

DAMN, were you ready for a cold swim too? wow.
What did you do, set up a tripod with a remote and drive into the river for the picture?

 

Wow! So I take it the bus is still back there? I guess there's no good reason for them to pull it out.

pic 20 looks like a lot of fun, is that as steep of a side slope as it appears?

 

wow...cool pictures. looks intense...especially those water crossings with the ice...

not so sure i'd be out there by myself in those conditions especially water crossings but hey...looks like an adventure and then some

 

Those are good pics.

 

VERY COOL! i read that book about a year ago and i fell in love with it. hands down the best book ive ever read. ever since then ive wanted to hike... or drive to the bus in the summer. you pulled a chris McCandless move. that was a risky drive to attempt solo. but unlike him you made it back. hopefully you make it to the bus! and take pictures!

 

Friggin awesome.
great scenary. Be safe and dont' travel solo in those conditions in the winter.

 

Great book, one of my favorites.

Nice pics of the area but I'm not sure I'd want to visit the bus, kinda morbid IMO.

 

Lets see....

I took the photos with a tripod with my camera set to take one every 10 seconds.

Yes it was a fairly steep sideslope, fortunatally the ditch off to the side wasn't deep enough for a rollover, but there was a bit of puckering involved. The hardest part was unspooling my well frozen and very stiff winch to pull me out of there. On the way back up I just got a good run at it and made it no problems.

 

Bravo my friend! You sure have a lotta faith in your rig! I hope if you continue to go solo you at least file a trip plan with someone back at the ranch, so they know to come looking for you.
BTW, is the Totem still in Healy? Great breakfasts!

 

Nice.....

 

What exactly is "the bus", I have never heard of it and searching for "the bus" doesn't yeild much, haha.

 

found a review of the book here

 

From the book - Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

A idealistic young man travels across country to Alaska, where he spends the summer living off the land using an old school bus for shelter. His luck ran out when he made a simple, but fateful mistake.

 

liviv the dream, man i love it

solo is a piece of mind you don't have to share

thanks, i'll have to add this to my must do list...

 

One of my favorite books, and authors... nice pics, too! I gotta get to Alaska someday...

 

fantastic stuff!

 

i just bought the book off amazon. thanks again to YT my credit cards are creeping up

 

Awesome book! Ive read it a few times now and it keeps getting better.

Really cool that your trying to get back there. From what I have heard its a pretty rough trial. If im ever up in Alaska It would be sweet if you could show me the way!

 

You'll be glad you did. Can't go wrong with any of Krakauer's books.