17-May-2003 -- Had to work a bit harder for this one than my last (65N 148W). We set out from Chena Hotsprings around 8:00 p.m. on Friday. We took the Angel Rocks trail until the cabin (about 3 miles in), then hung a left and set out across the domes. We were pretty proud of ourselves, making our own path and forging a trail, going where no one had gone before. No one, that is, except the 4-wheelers that had at one time or another gone up the domes exactly the way we were headed, leaving a more or less clear path that led straight to a giant yurt (a circular walled tent with a conical roof) complete with a propane stove and hot chocolate. The yurt was presumably a destination point for hotsprings guests to ride up to on rented 4-wheelers via the other, shorter trail (that we did not discover until we had already come the long way). We camped a few knobs over. Don't need no stinkin' yurt.
The next morning, we dropped from camp knob at 2,600 feet to the confluence in the valley 2.5 miles away and 1,400 feet below. No 4-wheeler trails this time, but a game trail took us straight down the ridge, and then it was just a matter of following the GPS to our destination.
Oddly enough, 65N 146W is located in a clearing among otherwise dense forest, just like its neighbor to the west, 65N 148W. We blame aliens.
The trip home was more or less uneventful. Suffice it to say that it is a whole lot easier to drop into a valley than to climb out. We took the new-found short route back from yurt knob and made it out in an hour, with plenty of time to soak in the hotsprings and track mud all over their lobby.