Jago River, Alaska

Caribou at the Kongakut River, Alaska

Index:

June 6	June 7	June 8	June 9	June 10
June 11	June 12	June 13	June 14	June 15
June 16	June 17	June 18	June 19	Links

 

Quote of the trip: " It's a Desert "

 

I put this page together to share my experience on a trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the Brooks Range of Alaska. Hope you enjoy it. If you are researching information on the web for a future hike I hope it provides you with some useful information. Feel free to contact me at tom@tomcentral.com

This odyssey started back in October 2001. After summiting Mt. Whitney I was looking for my next challenge. I had been thinking about Alaska for a number of years but was not sure what I wanted to do. The talk about the refuge and the oil drilling sparked my interest. I thought, what's that all about? After looking into it (hours surfing the 'net) I knew I had to see the place. A place, as I would find out, where the Discovery Channel came to life. A place where I tasted what the old west must have been like. A place, where I know now more than ever, we must not destroy in an insatiable quest for energy.

As for the events that transpired, I've tried to piece them together from light notes and memory. Hopefully though it will convey the general idea of what happened. I also wrote a song that covers some of the events.

Thursday June 6th

I woke up feverish. I'd been sick since Memorial Day and had been on antibiotics for two days. That was not good. It was raining hard outside and socked in, adding to my "cloudy" feeling. After breakfast I did my last minute packing and got in the car. On my way to the airport I wondered if I should attempt the trip. I wasn't sure if I was on the verge of getting better or worse. I told myself, though, I'd feel better the next day in Fairbanks.

I caught the flight to Minneapolis and transferred to the larger flight to Fairbanks. It wasn't going well. I was seated last on the plane and there was no overhead space. Thus, I spent the five hour flight eating my knees since I couldn't extend my legs around my carryon stuffed under the seat in front of me. Ok, so I was trying to get comfortable to snooze a bit however that would prove to be futile. Why? Because I was surrounded by loud (semi-obnoxious) retirees going to Alaska for a cruise. All the way I drifted in and out with that clammy sick feeling.

Mercifully the plane landed and I went to collect my luggage. Fairbanks is a small airport. I'd been given a description of Macgill Adams, the owner and guide of Wilderness Alaska, so I was keeping an eye out. After a short wait, sure enough, a guy walked in who matched the description. Going over I introduced myself.

With finding each other accomplished, the next big thing was to see my bag. If that got lost the trip was finished. After what always seems like a long time, out of the blackness of the chute, my green EMS duffle bag appeared. Yes! :-)

Since my motel was close, we went straight over there and I checked in. I wanted to go through my gear, with Macgill, since I wasn't totally sure on a few pieces. I couldn't decide on whether to take my Marmot Flash Sweater® and a fleece sweater or bag the fleece and take my North Face Nuptse® down jacket. Also, I couldn't decide on whether to take my EMS nylon hiking pants or EMS Windshear® pants. After we decided what would work best we debated the merits of smaller items, since I was trying to shave ounces at that point (titanium tent stakes?). Anyway, here was my final gear list .

At that point I was exhausted. Macgill left to eat dinner. He was set to return at 8:00am the next day to go over to Wrights Air Service. It was all the energy I could muster to pack my bag and hit the sheets. With normal daylight outside, the sun was not setting at 11:00pm! Thankfully though, I brought along ear plugs and an eye mask so I was able to deal with it. It didn't take long before I was zzzzzzzz.

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Friday June 7th

I woke up at 3:00am (7am EST) and tossed around. I was still not feeling well but was determined to do the trek though. Sick or not!

Macgill arrived at 8:00am and we headed to Wrights Air Service. There I met my hiking partners. John and JC from Colorado and Andy from Seattle. John and JC had done a sea kayaking trip with Macgill before. Andy, who is a doctor, was temporally living in Fairbanks doing a stint on his residency. I was the lone East coast time zone person and had a little sleep catch up to do.

Wrights is a small plane service. The aircraft have certain weight limitations. So, they have to be sure about it. We each had to step on a scale and be weighed along with our gear. I had 36 pounds without water and group gear in my pack. After weighing it was put on a cart for loading. That process took a little time. In the interim we walked around and took pictures and talked. Andy mentioned that there was a guy in the waiting area who had come in and asked to be flown above the Arctic Circle. He plopped down like $400 in cash. Well, we were going there and not just to cross some imaginary line! I hope he got his money's worth!

After loading up, we boarded the commuter prop plane. It was by far the smallest plane I had ever flown in. John got into the copilots seat. He started talking to the pilot and seemed to be enjoying himself. I was in the back. Soon the engines roared to life and the smell of airplane fuel wafted in the air. We started taxiing out onto the runway. Pushing the throttles forward we started down and lifted off. I could really feel it in the plane. It was a rush. After leveling off it was not long before we crossed over the Alaskan Pipeline.

Even though our flight was to Arctic Village, we first had to stop in Venetie to pick up two native travelers. Both places are home to the Neets’aii Gwich’in Indians. Landing at Venetie we first circled to let the natives know we were coming in. The airport was very basic. Just a gravel runway. We are all so used to paved places with the painted lines that it was hard to believe a plane could land on such a thing. As I would find out, that was only the beginning of my new experiences and adventures involving airplanes! After that stop, we continued on with our route which took us above the Arctic Circle. We were now in the land of the midnight sun, 24 hours of daylight. Soon we were arriving at Arctic Village where we circled again. As we landed the natives showed up at the airstrip to claim packages and greet people. It was like an event. We made sure to keep an eye on our stuff since we were informed that items had been stolen in the past.

Since our "connection" flight would be some time we decided to eat lunch. A few barrels made for a table. The place more resembled a fuel depot and junk yard than an airport. Not where I would like to spend a lot of time. :-( Anyway, food helped pass the time waiting for Kirk to show up with his Cessna. His job was to shuttle us to our starting point in the Romanzof Mountains. It was sunny out and we kept an eye on the sky. Eventually we heard the plane and he soon landed. As he pulled up, I thought well ... this is as small as they get! Having only room for three people, with gear, meant that two would have to stay behind. They would then have to wait for him to come back which was about a 2.5 hour round trip. To decide who that would be we flipped a coin and I won. So Andy, Macgill and myself went first. After loading up, Kirk handed each of us a headset so we could hear and talk over the mic's. That was my first time in such a small plane and I wasn't sure how I'd feel. Well I got my first test real quick. We took off and banked the plane around in a sharp turn. I could feel the G's. It was fun. :-) As we flew up through the mountains it was quite a site. I have to say I discounted the flights as just a way to get to the hike, however they turned out to be a big part of the experience. Sometimes we were so close to the tops of passes that it looked like we could land on them. The walls of peaks were next to us, not below us, which was a different perspective than I was used too. It was really cool.

Eventually we came into a valley and started following the Kongakut River. It was frozen in parts and we could see some wildlife. At one point someone saw two bears. Kirk wanted to get us a better view so he swung the plane into a high banked turn to go back over them. Wow! Talk about a roller coaster ride. The G's made me sink into my seat. Coming out of the high bank, accelerating, we buzzed over the bears. As we went by I was looking out my window which was almost parallel to the ground at that point. They looked up at me like what's that? The view reminded me of something one might see on Discovery or PBS as they are filming animals from the air. This event made the flight.

Anyway we pulled out of the turn and started to lose altitude. Ah, we were landing! But where? I didn't see an airstrip. :-( Well, as I was about to find out, any good patch of gravel would do. Starting our descent we started to come down by the river, then I saw rocks, and bam! We hit the stones and proceeded to go down a strip of them. The water was on our left as we continued to decelerate. Finally we came to a stop with very little to spare before the water. Kirk looked as if it was all routine and I'm sure it was, it just seemed dramatic to this rookie. :-) Yes, the adventure had begun!

After unloading Kirk took off and headed back to Arctic Village to pick up John and JC. During the time we waited we checked out the wildlife and pumped water. Hiking up on a hill we scanned around with the binoculars. We were excited to see that we had Caribou around us. I brought a pair of Nikon Medallion® binoculars and they worked well. A little more magnification would have been preferred but the weight was right. Everything's a trade off.

Soon John and JC arrived and we unloaded their gear. We said good-bye to Kirk and he took off. The realization that we were on our own for the next 12 days hit me as the plane flew out of sight. Separating the gear we began to load up. I picked up a couple sacks and instantly knew that, yes, this was going to be tough. Once loaded, I picked up my pack. It was, for sure, the most weight I had ever carried. I would estimate in the 70 - 80 pound range. Concentrating, I had to heave it on my knee and swing it around onto my back. My knee did not like that. :-( I guess I was lucky though. I tried picking up Macgill's and it hardly budged. He must have been carrying close to 100. He just sat down, strapped it on and stood up. Guess he's used to it.

Anyway once ready we were hoping to hike 3 miles to a plateau that day. Starting down the tundra I realized it was going to be different than any terrain I had previously hiked. It was a learning experience to say the least. Walking on wet tundra and tussocks (tuss - sucks)  was as difficult as it gets and only compounded my initial misery with the weight. The best way to explain this stuff is to imagine walking through a bog with soggy grass mounds everywhere. The mounds bend if you step on them causing your boot to twist. The troughs are wet and mucky. Just no fun to walk on and very difficult. Three miles seemed like 10 miles on a trail, if you can possibly compare them. I knew then I was in for the most demanding hike I'd ever done.

We started to veer away from the river and came to a creek. Following that we gained some elevation. There was a large Caribou antler along the way that we checked out. Eventually we got to the plateau and set up camp. We were hungry and Macgill made a great dinner. That was a nice consolation for having to have lugged the stuff on our backs!

Taking in the view the wind picked up and it cooled down a bit but generally it was a hot day. We were in short sleeves most of it. The nighttime temp didn't dramatically differ from the day since we were now in 24 hours of daylight. One would think this would take some getting used to in order to sleep. However, I was so exhausted I fell asleep no problem.

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Saturday June 8th.

Waking up around 7am, I was getting cooked out of my tent. The sun was blasting it. I quickly got dressed and out. Wandering over to the Black Diamond Megamid (hereafter referred to as "the mid"), for breakfast, I found Macgill. I got my first lesson in gourmet coffee making. He provided us with coffee cups which had plungers to brew the coffee in. It was quite good. We had eggs and homefries to go with it and my body was happy for the fuel.

Packing up the wind picked up. We started our day refreshed and strong and , yes, maybe a little sore. :-) Soon, however, we were into the tussocks and they were ready to zap our strength. We followed a stream down into the next canyon. As we went along the day began to change. Putting on rain gear, it rained lightly. Then it got bright again and we stripped it off. This would become the routine. The "day weather" would become a constant through the trip. Mountains make their own weather and it is very changeable, almost hourly. Anyway, now that we were out of our rain gear, it became apparent that weather was headed our way. Putting our shells on again, we proceeded down. As the sky got darker, turning around, we saw the veil of rain coming. Just then thunder reverberated off the canyon walls and a crack of lightning lit up the sky. I hate lightning. :-( Seconds later the rain came hard mixed with hail. We got doused pretty good. It was like driving through a car wash. My Patagonia Super Pluma®  jacket and pants held up nicely though. I would later find out that I would practically live in the stuff over the course of the trip.

That shower passed quickly and we were soon back in the sun, continuing down the drainage. I had assumed we would get our feet wet on this trip but I didn't figure on what was next. We came to a stream and crossed where the water was over our boots! My feet were sloshing around. Ahhhhhg! I had just broken the hiking mantra of keeping ones feet dry. :-( How could I expect to hike for 12 days without getting blisters?

Well I got over that quickly and succumbed to the fact it was what it was and I had to deal with it. I later realized that we needed to do that to follow the path of least resistance. Tussocks or creek? Well crossing a creek to get to gravel was preferable. Also, since it was still warm out it wasn't much of a problem. However we couldn't have done it in the cold or we would have been risking hypothermia. Anyway, we trudged through water sometimes up to our knees and used our poles to guard against the swift current. Walking the gravel bars we often came to points where they ended and we were forced back to the banks. This usually involved another problem which was bushwacking through willow thickets. Lose items would get tangled in that stuff as JC found out. We stopped for lunch and she realized she had lost her coffee mug top (plunger). Bummer. The rest of the trip she had to brew in one cup and pour the contents into hers, then clean it and start the process again. In addition to the inconvenience, she like all of us, was concerned that she had left a trace. However as we will see later, she wasn't the only one who did that accidentally.

We had cheese and beef jerky for lunch. The sun was warm and the weather nice. I sat contemplating the hike to our next camp. The gravel had been the nicest walking path so far but as I looked ahead I was about to find the finest terrain. Ice! The ice, which covered the river, is called Alp Ice. It is formed in layers by precipitation coming off the sides of the mountains. You can actually see the strata if you get a side shot. Since it was flat and mostly soft, it was easy going. I followed Macgill's and Andy's tracks just to make sure it wasn't too soft. I didn't want to make a splash! :-(

After walking on the ice for a stretch we reached a gravel bar island with several channels of the river running around it. We decided to make camp there. As we set up our tents, Macgill went to set up the kitchen. That would be the routine throughout the trip. First we would set up the tent sites and then he would set up the mid making sure the food was well away from us. We didn't want to mix the two in case of a visit from Yogi during the night. :-)

With the kitchen set up Macgill returned. That's when he noticed the Plover nest and the bird nearby wondering how it was going to get back to it. It was upset since it wanted to get to the nest but he was too close. Hmmm, what to do. Well there really was no choice so he had to move his tent. Afterwards, so no one would accidentally step on the nest, he placed his two hiking poles with a strap across to identify the spot. We then were all on the watch as this bird tried to get closer to the nest. It seemed to want to distract us or something by doing this one wing dance. Macgill explained that the bird was faking a broken wing to draw our attention away from the nest. I guess it hoped we (if we were a predator) would go after it and it would fly away hoping we forgot where the nest was. Anyway this made for great theater for a while. Eventually it was joined by it's mate and one sat on the eggs.

With that bit of excitement behind us we had a chance to take in the wide open beautiful valley. Across from us was a pod of Caribou (we came to call them just 'bou) with sheep on the hillside. Further down there were two Grizzly Bears. They all competed for our attention. John and JC were really into the sheep while I was expounding about the 'bou and the bears. Macgill was making fun of us and our excitement. While this was going on, Andy was off taking photo's. He was the real photographer of the group. John had a digital camera. It was nice but he dropped it, breaking the LCD monitor on the back. He was not a happy camper and this caused him to have to guess at the settings for a while. Initially he thought he only had macro capabilities. That prompted a joke that there would be a lot of flower shots! I set up some "Caribou Lichen" to simulate a 'bou in case he wanted a shot. :-) He also was the man with the technical gadgets and brought along an MP3 player. Playing an instrumental score from some event I can't recall, he let me listen while I was using my binoculars. It was like watching a wildlife movie. Really a cool experience with all the sensory input. I couldn't help but feel the pure and unspoiled beauty of the land.

We sat down to a dinner of soup, white pizza and Artichokes. It was really good. Retiring to my tent I still couldn't get over how light it was out. I wrote in my journal and waited for the midnight sun to take this picture (which is really underexposed). I looked around and heard the river. My shoulders and knee were sore and I was thinking of how I was going to hold up for 10 more days! The temp had cooled a bit so I put on my Patagonia mid-weight Capilene®, REI PowerStretch® tights, Marmot Flash Sweater and Marmot DriClime® Windshirt. I got into the bag. It had been a long day and soon I was snoozing.

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Sunday June 9th.

I awoke to the sound of a Tattler singing. It was very light out as usual. I wandered over to the breakfast tent and made a cup of coffee. Macgill and Andy were there. John and JC were still sleeping. They usually were the last up. Most likely since they had the best accommodation's. :-) A big tent and cozy (-20 degree) bags. I on the other hand was ready to get out of my small Mountain Hardware Tri-light 1® tent and my North Face Cat's Meow® bag. Anyway, that story later.

We had multimeal with granola for breakfast. It was sort of like turbo charged cream of wheat and was very good. We spent some time at breakfast which would come to be the case with all meals, as we socialized and planned what was next. I returned to pack up my tent and gear and put off, as long as I could, getting into my cold wet boots. I decided to try my Rocky Gore-Tex® Socks that day.

At noon we were ready to go and walked up the bank to the river. Immediately we had to cross. Oh well, the water was over my socks again! Thus, the Gore-Tex® did nothing except act like a large water balloon and filled up. :-(  I then realized those would only be good if I knew the water would stay below the cuff on the sock. Walking the stream and rocks was still preferable to the Tussocks, however. Anyway it wasn't that bad since it was still warm and I was wearing shorts.

We had a big day ahead as we walked the rocks up drain creek. That was tough. The rocks were all different sizes and it was a constant up/down and shifting of the load on my back. My EMS Summit Hikers performed well since they have great ankle support. Stopping for lunch we got a few spits of rain (so what else was knew). I was carrying a lunch food bag so I lost some weight. :-) We ate beef jerky, cheese and dried pineapple. All of the dried fruits were really good on this trip. Macgill dried his own food so no packaged stuff. As always it was followed with the candy bag. John seemed to be partial to Fireballs. I usually ate the licorice and chocolate.

It was starting to cloud up and get cooler so I put on my shell. After lunch we decided to power a bit more and then take a snack break. We were shooting to make the pass and we needed the energy for the final push. As we gained elevation the valley got narrower. We stopped in a protected area among the willows and ate the snack. As we were trying to decide on whether to proceed or not a group of 'bou walked through. They were really close. I think we surprised this one.

Hanging out, we couldn't seem to come to a consensus on whether to stop for the day or go for the summit. Procrastinating, we decided to wait on the weather a bit since we saw it raining hard on another ridge. After awhile it was apparent that the weather was unpredictable. Eventually, seeing our indecisiveness, Macgill made the call and we proceeded to the summit. It was another 500 feet which made the days total around a 1500 foot gain. As we trudged up the side, Macgill and Andy were in front of me. The weight of the pack and the elevation was a real test of my knees so I kept it slow and steady. I caught up to Macgill and he looked at his watch to check the elevation. He had, I believe, a Suunto Vector®. Having a barometer also, it turned out to be a great source of weather info throughout the trip. Andy stopped to take a picture and I passed him. He soon caught up and passed me which would be the case most of the trip. He was a strong hiker. As we got near the top we saw Macgill standing up there. Soon we joined him and started looking for a tent spot. I set mine up and had a great view.

John and JC arrived and found their spot. The mid went up, same routine. We gathered in it for dinner. Pasta was on the menu for that night. It was good but I ate way too much. I was forcing it down for the energy but just made myself sick. On top of that the antibiotics I was taking were working against me. Their side effects caused me to have a rough evening on the windy side of a mountain in the rain. :-( I just hoped it would get better from there. After midnight and several undesired trips outside I, mercifully, fell asleep.

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Monday June 10th.

I was the first one up. As everyone slept the wind was blowing and it was all I could hear. This was one of the reasons I do this stuff. Absolute solitude. The sun was peaking through. I attempted to get things into the air as it rained most of the night. I learned to take advantage of these windows to dry things out throughout the trip. It's was usually chilly but the dry arid air did the job. It is a desert you know. :-)

I looked out over the mountain range from this excellent view. It was impressive from where we came and to where we were going.

I rubbed my knee a little bit. Even though I was wearing my neoprene brace it was sore. I wore the brace all the time hiking and don't know what I'd do without it. The shifting of the weight on the tundra and getting up and down banks, however, was working it over.

I heard Andy stirring and soon his head popped out of his tent. It was close to everyone waking since it was 9:00am. That would continue to be our general wake time. Gathering at breakfast we ate and decided that we would leave the pass that day after climbing the peak next to us. We always had options in our itinerary and it was very flexible. This was one of the things I really liked about this trek. No set in stone schedule and no rushing. Waiting around to climb the peak, Kirk flew overhead in the Cessna. He waved his wings in response to our waves. He was off shuttling someone else I guess.

We packed up and covered our packs in case of rain. We wanted to be ready to get off the pass once we came back down if the weather was bad. Ascending the scree, it was a bit farther then it looked and the footing loose and difficult. Somehow flowers were able to live in this stuff though. Soon we reached the top. At a crest we laid down and took in the view. The bino's came out and we scanned the terrain. Andy decided to scale a bit more up to the next crest and set up his tripod. As we looked around a Golden Eagle soared below us. Then JC and I mugged for the camera. After spending about a half hour on top we descended back down to the pass picking up our packs and hiking into the valley. Once in the shielded protection of the valley walls we removed some layers since it was warmer down there. Following the creek we wound our way towards our next destination. Macgill had informed us that we had the hardest part of the trek behind us. That was good news but it didn't mean that the rest was easy walking. None of this trek was easy as a trail. Rests were always welcome. At a bend in the creek we decided to stop for lunch. Peanut butter and jelly, crackers and granola bars were on the menu. We used flat slate stones for knives. Try spreading crunchy peanut butter on crackers some time with rocks. It's different. As we were sitting there a few 'bou walked past. They were real close again since they didn't see or smell us at first. It was a treat. The wind picked up and we donned our jackets since it was chilly. Especially when the sun went behind the clouds. On this side of the pass it's seemed we were taking more of the wind right off the ice pack when it came from the North. Finished with lunch, we started on down the creek again. About 15 minutes into that Macgill stopped in his tracks. We were coming to a pinch point on the creek and right where we needed to go there were two Grizzly Bears. They were feeding on a Caribou kill about a half mile away. That distance was the subject of much debate but suffice it to say they were close enough. :-(  We got out the binoculars and viewed them. It was something to see and, in my book, one of the highlights of the trip. After about 20 minutes it became apparent they were going nowhere. We had to come up with a plan B to get by. Macgill decided that we should walk over the hill to the right and do it in a non threatening wide arc. We didn't want them to think we were coming in to steal their food. We started walking and they didn't notice us at first, since we were down wind. As we drew closer however one stood up. Hmmm. It sniffed the air and bingo, it caught our scent. Immediately it looked our way and it's partner joined in. It's a weird thing to suddenly realize your not at the top of the food chain anymore! We were above and next to them at that point. It appeared far but a bear could make that distance in no time if it wanted to. Forget about outrunning one. We stayed close together to appear large and because Macgill had the weapons (Bear Spray and a 44Mag)! Their interest though, nothing more than curiosity, soon waned. They walked towards us a bit but then returned to their meal. A bit relieved, we came down the scree and rocks on the other side of the hill. That was no easy portage. It was steep and loose and required a lot of concentration wearing such a heavy pack. My Leki Super Maklu® poles helped greatly and were a savior this trip. They kept me from falling many times and took the load off my knees on the downhill. Reaching the creek we were glad to have had the experience.

We continued on our way noting the bear, wolverine, wolf and 'bou tracks in the mud. In an hour or so we came to an open meadow with a couple of streams feeding the Leffingwell fork of the Aichilik River. We were then in an area known as "Bathtub Basin". Setting up camp we went through the now familiar routine. Unpacking the packs and taking the food bags and group gear over to the mid.

Once that was done we decided to hike the peak next to us to get a better view of the mountains behind. Macgill, Andy, John and myself went. JC stayed in camp. It was a long hike up, at the end of the day, but it was worth it. John stopped along the way and wrote a poem. He was quite the deep thinker and poet on this trip. He wrote good stuff. At the top I took some pictures of the surrounding peaks.   We didn't spend a long time up there and headed back down to eat. At dinner John read his poems. I was impressed. He had one from the camera's point of view. Interesting perspective.

For dinner we had a great vegetable soup and pistachio pudding. We ate good on this trip, can't you tell? :-) The wind picked up from the North and it started to get chilly again. After telling a few stories and drinking a hot drink we retired to our tents. Walking over a lot of Caribou came past. The most we had seen at once thus far. About 50 - 100 animals. After that show it was around midnight. I wrote in my journal and fell asleep.

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Tuesday June 11th.

I woke up to a cool morning. I was quite toasty the night before, however, since I wore my jacket to sleep! It made a big difference. My North Face Cats Meow® just wasn't cutting it anymore. I think it has lost it's loft. I felt pretty good since stopping the antibiotics. Anyway I popped my head out of my tent and noticed Andy talking to Macgill still in his tent. That was not unusual since Andy seemed to be the early riser on the trip. Often shooting pictures in the morning.

I ducked back inside and packed up a bit, then I made my way over to the mid for breakfast. The sun was shining and the warmth was welcome. We ate eggs and home fries with our usual gourmet coffee. We discussed where we wanted to hike to and decided to try and get to a place called "the bench". Proceeding to our tents we started packing up when a 'bou came by with her few days old calf. Ok, it was cute. They moved on and we eventually left the place we were calling "Three Rivers Camp" because of the 3 streams. One had dried up though over night so I guess it was now "Two Rivers Camp". Starting down the main river we were hit with a cold wind coming from the North forcing us to layer up. Of course the hiking and the sun soon had us shedding layers (see a pattern?). It was a constant routine trying to find the right combinations. My most often used combo was my Patagonia Silk Weight Capilene® crew neck under my Marmot DriClime Windshirt with my Patagonia Super Pluma jacket as a windbreaker. That worked fine for most settings.

As we walked Macgill pointed out flowers and tracks in the mud. He was very good about giving us the "total experience" on the trip. Little did we know how true that was going to be by the end of the day. Clouds soon appeared and it started to change. Yes, time to put on the shell and pack covers. As the wind kicked up it was chilly and the rain started. It got progressively harder and colder. I was angry at myself for not bringing my Outdoor Research Taped Modular Mit® shells. I knew I would need them but I was trying to save weight. Holding my poles in my bare wet hands, they were freezing. I didn't want to get my only gloves wet since they were wool and would take a while to dry. I had to suffer. At least my Gore-Tex® socks were working after making several river crossings. :-) Stopping in the middle of one crossing, on a gravel bar, we had a Milkyway bar. While there, a plane flew over and Macgill recognized it as Dirk's. He works with Kirk. Strange huh, the rhyming thing. :-) After the sugar fix I gave in on the poles and started carrying them under my arm while pulling my hands into my sleeves. That worked but made it precarious to walk. As I was trying to stay upright, without poles, the wind really picked up and was in my face. I felt a sting and realized it was ice. No sooner did that register when I felt the sleet. We were in an open area of tundra and there was some visibility. So I saw it coming. Snow! :-( The flakes started lightly at first but soon they turned heavy, blowing and wet. It became apparent that we were not going to make the camp we wanted to get to. Macgill immediately started to scout for a place we could hunker down. Coming upon a bank, with arguably soggy tundra but some willows to act as a wind block, we decided to stop there.

My ultrlight tent was not made for that weather. I was concerned so I sought out a place near the willows. I have to admit I have been very lucky in most of my treks. Rarely have I had to set up or break down camp in bad weather. At least not where I wasn't hiking out and going home. With keeping dry a priority on this trip I knew I had to get the tent up and fly over it before it got too wet inside. I positioned the tent with the back to the wind and quickly tried to pound the stakes in. In my rush I sliced open my index finger. :-( I couldn't stop since the snow was coming down and everything would get wet. I continued on pounding as blood gushed from the wound. I was staining the fabric and tried to wipe it on the wet tundra. Well, that was not working. My fingers were bloody and numb as I finally got the fly over the tent. The flakes kept coming down. With that accomplished my next task was to get everything out of my pack and into the tent with minimal exposure. First, however, I had to wipe up the inside where the melted snow had fallen. All this happened so fast! I used a sponge that I brought along for this task. That worked good. With a semi dry interior I then chucked everything inside as fast as I could. Mission was accomplished, for the moment. :-)

After that fire drill we were all so cold that Macgill set up the mid and boiled water for soup. When I got over there he had Lipton Noodle soup ready. Man was that welcome. I was still only wearing my three basic layers and starting to chill. It had to be in the high 20's with a wind chill in the teens at that point. I finally had to excuse myself and go get in the bag to warm up. Once in the tent out came the down jacket too! Boy was I glad then that I had brought it. I put it on and crawled in the bag. I laid there listening to the snow hit the tent. I was a bit disappointed in the fly on The Marmot Tri-light. It didn't go all the way to the ground. This became a real problem as the snow and wind picked up. I was getting chilled with the breeze and the snow started blowing under the fly! :-(  For lack of anything else to do, I decided to write a poem which just about summed up my mood:

Oh sky above me
My window to the stars
You let the light shine through
As we walk the gravel bars

Oh sky above me
You let the clouds fly by
You keep me guessing
What to do
And what to wear and try

Oh sky above me
I write to let you know
I would like some sunshine
And not this  #@!%$&  snow

You can fill in the curse. :-) Soon, however, I fell off to sleep. I awoke in a couple hours to a moderate snow. There was a lot of heavy wet snow on the fly. I kept hitting it to knock it off. It must have looked weird from the outside though. Out of nowhere I heard Macgill jokingly asking me what was going on! (knowing what I was trying to do). :-) I didn't want the tent collapsing! Anyway I looked through my window for the person associated with the voice and saw him standing there. He informed me that since it was bad we were skipping dinner. In lieu of a meal he slipped some snacks under the fly to get me through the night. Well, when I looked at the small wheat crisp things that barely filled my hand, I asked him to bring me a power bar too! I knew I would be hungry in the middle of the night. I wasn't too worried about food in my tent. What crazy bear would be out in this anyway? After munching down on these I returned to tapping the side of my tent. It became apparent, however, that I was going to have to do something else. With reluctance I put my shell and boots on and went outside with garbage bags. I stuffed these under the fly and used rocks to hold them in place. This created a wind/snow block. Satisfied I'd done all I could I got back in. My bag was not up to the task so I put on my down jacket and wore it in the bag. I fell asleep to the sound of the river and snow.

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Wednesday June 12th.

I awoke at 4:00am hungry so I grabbed the stashed power bar and ate it. Falling back asleep, I awoke again at 8:00am. I looked out to a snow covered tent and landscape. The mountains around us were snow dusted making a beautiful setting. Getting dressed I got out and looked at my tent. The sky was blue, and the sun shining. A good sign. After not eating the night before our breakfast of multimeal and granola was much welcomed and great. As we ate the sun started melting the snow and the day began to warm up. Caribou milled around in the white stuff and I wondered if they were as surprised by it as we were.

After breakfast I removed the fly and dried things out on the surrounding willow bushes. Wanting to pack up dry, we took our time.

Since we didn't make our objective the day before we had to gain some ground this day. Starting off we walked first on ice. It was very cracked and we had to be careful of the crevasses. Along the way there were some interesting tracks in the ice which John, JC and Macgill checked out. I can't recall what they thought they might be. Eventually, the ice ran out and then, reluctantly, we switched to the tundra and tussocks. A cold wind started up so we added some layers. After being punished by the tussocks for a while, we stopped for a snack. Finding a nice spot on a gravel bar we ate some M&M trail mix. As the sun was shining, I found a nice rock to rest on. After this brief respite we continued on trudging across the tundra, mile after mile..... down to the parish of Saint Alphonso where I stole the margarine .... sorry a brief Zappa diversion. Macgill seemed to be able to appreciate my ranting since he was a fan of Apostrophe. A classic album. Yes, I'm dating myself.

Along the way we found a more complete Sheep's head and checked out the horns. Seeing a knoll on the river we climbed it to have lunch. There, Macgill tried to instigate a competition between myself and John by saying we'd eat lunch from the first one who got their food out of their pack. You have to understand that eating meant less weight to carry. John told me it was his turn so I stopped. Macgill told me not to let him intimidate me. So I got my bag out. When John pulled his out it was obviously half the size of mine! Hey :-)  John and I didn't "take the bait" on his attempt and we gave him both bags.

The wind was intense so we laid down on the shielded side and ate. Peanut butter, Fig Newton's, dried pineapple and candy were on the menu. We viewed some wildlife and generally lounged afterward. Eventually, though, it was time to get moving. Getting up, I walked by Macgill as he handed me a lunch bag. I paid no attention except to recognize that it was much lighter. :-) I figured we ate out of mine since it was much heavier when I gave it to him. Actually, I found out later, he gave me Johns! Guess I made out on that lunch!

Putting on our wind jackets we continued the trek. We walked a bit then came into "the zone" as Macgill called it. Anywhere we could find a camping spot would be fine to call it a day. He said to keep an eye out so I wandered up the tundra a bit. Not all tundra is boggy. There are plateau's called dryas which are more like a rocky lawn. That's what I was looking for and I found it. I yelled down and everyone came up. Giving it their approval, we set up camp. After the snow storm problem I decided to reinforce my tent with a rock wall and garbage bags. I positioned it's back to the wind and in-between two sets of low bushes for added wind protection. I drew the fly in close to the tent body also. This position afforded a nice view out of my tent. Being next to the river ,as always, water wasn't a problem. I usually only filled one Nalgene bottle. I headed down and pumped. On this trek Andy and I filtered our water with our Sweetwater Guardian Filters®. The others drank straight from the rivers and streams.

The river in this area was covered with a lot of Alp ice. It kept breaking off and making a thundering sound in the process. That was cool. I recall one instance where Andy and I watched one piece break off and lodge under the main ice section. I noted that the water flow pushing the wedge was going to eventually cause a much larger piece to cleave. Well it did with a loud bang. We watched it float away.

Since this was the half way point of the trip, and the sun was out, I decided to do some laundry. I set up a clothes line over my tent using parachute cord and rocks. The quick dry stuff was drying nicely in this climate. After a few hours, however, it started to rain lightly but steadily. I brought the clothes in and waited to see how my new fly setup was going to work. Well, the garbage bags and fly position did nothing except make it worse and channel the water between the tent and the ground cloth. That would seep through eventually. I got out of the tent and quickly, sponged between the two layers, and drew the fly out removing the bags. So much for that experiment!

It's worth mentioning that one of the things we were told initially, about the climate, was that it was technically a desert. Since it only receives annual rainfall in the low teens. Well we seemed to be getting rained on a lot. I think most of the annual rainfall occurred while we were there. So the big joke of the trip every time it started raining, was "but remember, it's a desert" :-)

Alas, even with the rain we had dinner to look forward to. Sitting down at the mid we had another great one. Potato pie followed by a cheese cake desert. I was thinking, I don't eat this good at home!

Returning to my tent I wrote in my journal from which most of this report comes. Doing so I looked out onto snow covered peaks at midnight. It was beautiful. The cold wind, though, started whipping through my tent making me chilly. That was my queue to get into the bag. Soon I fell asleep.

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Thursday June 13th.

I awoke to heat and was getting cooked out of my tent. :-( When it's so hot that it wakes you, it feels like you are suffocating. I had to get out of the bag and unzip the fly immediately. Looking out I saw blue sky. Yes! Crawling out I noticed Andy and Macgill talking by his tent. John and JC were still in their tent.  My first choice of a T-shirt was unrealistic as I felt the wind. I opted for my usual DriClime Windshirt and Shell.

I hung out awhile since I saw no one over at the mid. After what seemed like a long time, I decided to see where everyone was. I found Macgill over in a dried stream bed setting up a "picnic" breakfast. It was in a gully where it would be protected from the wind. We had fresh baked corn bread, jam, applesauce and granola. He was amazing with the MSR Whisper Light stove. I have the same one and just use mine to boil water. He bakes and cooks all sorts of foods on it. Anyway, it hit the spot.

Afterwards some people washed clothes. Mine were dry since I washed them the day before. I was in no hurry to do anything since we were spending a rest day at this location. It was nice to have some time off. I wandered down to the river to take a decent sponge bath and wash my hair. After 6 days that felt good.

We didn't sit around all day. There was a peak behind us that we decided to day hike. We got going quickly since clouds were moving in. Also, Macgill's watch was indicating that the barometer was falling. It's amazing what a little information can tell you when you don't have the weather channel at your fingertips!

As we ascended the peak I was last. Everyone was powering up the hill but I decided to cut it switchback. After arriving at the top we viewed the valley and saw the plateau off in the distance where we would spend our final night. Beyond that lay the coastal plain and the Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea. As we were taking that in I began to sense the darkness to our right. Yes, soon it began to rain, again! We decided to head for the valley. As we were coming down we ran into a pod of 'bou. Driving them off the mountain onto the tundra we were getting very close, sometimes. Finally however, they had enough and took off in a gallop up river. The rain let up and I stopped and took a picture of the one flower I remember since it had such a strange name. The Wolley Lousewort. Arriving in camp it was time for lunch. We had tortilla's with humus, trail mix bars and dried apples. While under the mid the rain returned hard. At one point the mid felt like it may lift off as the wind kicked up. We waited it out until it passed, then returned to our tents.

Around 4:30pm I sat in my tent listening to it raining lightly. Ice continued to break off with a roar into the river. It was almost time for dinner so I headed over to the mid. Potato soup and my favorite, cashews! I have an addiction to those and tried not to inhale the entire bowl. :-) Afterwards we had desert and hot drinks. It rained hard the entire time. We talked a bit and Andy was first to retire to his tent. I sat and talked to John and JC as they played cards. Then we all headed to our tents in the dismal weather.

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Friday June 14h.

I awoke to a steady rain. It was cold and we were socked in with low clouds. I started to pack things up since I figured we'd make a break for it when the rain let up. I wandered over to the mid and found Andy and Macgill. Andy and I went over to a small stream feeding the river and pumped water. Returning to the mid we had hot drinks. Pancakes were on tap for breakfast. When they were ready Andy went and informed John and JC.

As we sat and ate we continued to hear the ice break off and thunder. The river was up and raging. It was really working on the ice. After some discussion we decided it was too bad to move right then. Considering we had 24 hours of daylight, we decided we might as well wait it out. We returned to our tents planning on a late afternoon departure. At 3pm the sun started to shine a bit and the day was looking up. Checking the barometer, being up also, we decided to move. Packing our gear, we continued down river. Unfortunately with the high river flow we had limited gravel bars. Thus, we were often forced onto the tundra and tussocks. These were especially soggy due to all the rain in this "desert". :-)

Back down on the river at one point, we started to come into some cliffs. Walking the gravel bar to it's termination we eventually had to ascend about 40 feet of fairly vertical embankment. That was tough with a heavy pack. My knees reminded me so. At one point I smacked my right knee, which is my good knee, on a rock face. Great! Then I had two sore knees. :-( Once crested we hiked to an overlook and had a snack. Some checked out the ducks? fishing. It was cool to see them dive for food. I was checking out a great view of the river below.

Continuing on, after an hour or so we arrived at our next camp. I named it "Marsh" since it was surrounded by boggy water. We had a big open area to set tents up despite the wet conditions. It was scenic, surrounded by beautiful peaks. After taking it in I started to unpack. It was then I started to curse. Everyone looked at me like what's wrong? I had just discovered that my ensolite sitting/foot pad was missing. Damn, I left it back at "Rain Camp". It was gray and blended in perfectly. I guessed I must have left it in a bush. I was upset. Not because I no longer had a foot pad to sleep on but because I left a trace in the place. I gave a quick thought of hiking back but John told me to forget about that. He was right, it would be too dangerous for one person to hike back alone. Maybe on his next pass through, Macgill will find it and clean up my mess. :-(

Since we left so late it was dinner time already. We had curried chicken, basil tomato soup, cheese, crackers and cookies for desert. I tried wild raspberry tea for the first time. It was good.

The midnight sun went behind a mountain and the night was clear. A chilly breeze started to make it quite cold as we retired to our tents.

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Saturday June 15th.

I awoke to a warm tent again. Same drill baking me out. It was a sunny morning. I wandered over to the river to get cleaned up taking advantage of the heat of the morning sun. I washed my hair and sponged off. A quick "camp shower". Pumping some water, I noticed the river was down a bit. I headed over to the mid for breakfast. John and Macgill were enjoying the sun.

After eating fresh baked coffee cake we decided to hike a peak behind camp. Packing up, we placed everything under the mid where we would return for lunch. Our next obstacle was trying to find a way through the marsh. The water was everywhere between us and the peak. Eventually we found a route but it was still quite wet. We scrambled up and, again, I was last. The view was great. We could see through a pass where, beyond, was the ice pack and the Arctic Ocean. There was also a great view of the valley and the Leffingwell fork to it's confluence with the main Achilick River. After awhile it began to cloud up and get dark. What else was knew, I thought. Each time we climbed a peak that seemed to happen. :-( I put on my rain gear and the others soon followed. The wind and rain started with force. We retreated to the sheltered side of the peak behind a rock wall discussing what to do next. Macgill mentioned a pass on the map that would take us to a view of the Jago River. Looking at the map, then the terrain, he pointed and said "right over there". At that point John thought about going down and writing some verses he had in his head, however, he decided to continue on with us. As we descended it kept raining steadily. Walking down the wet slope my shoe lace became untied and I had to stop. The others continued which caused me to fall behind even further than normal. I kept my eye on where Macgill had pointed. When I got to the place it was apparent that it was not the pass. I trekked on as it was, obviously, much further than I anticipated. Everyone was out of my sight at that point. Trudging through the muck, as if it couldn't get more miserable, the thunder and lightning started. I thought, great! I'm cresting a peak and carrying two aluminum poles. Tom, the human lightning rod. :-( I continued along as it hailed, mumbling to myself how crazy this was in a steady downpour. Thank god for good rain gear. I was dry but sweating. The stuff breathes but not fast enough when you're working as hard as I was. The rain at first came from the direction of the pass, it then changed and came from behind me. Crazy mountain weather! After what seemed like a long time Macgill, John and JC came into view at the pass. I made my way up and was greeted with a nice view. The weather started to clear and the sun came out. It was a great setting that was worth the trek. We relaxed and ate trial mix, taking a few pictures. I took one with this great backdrop. All the while we had some 'bou on the mountain to our left. Spending a half hour or so, up there, we then headed back down the way we came. Andy and I discussed hiking in the Sierra's to pass the time. I think that came up since we were discussing the weather. Generally the Sierra's are much drier. Rain is rare and brief in the summer months. We wanted some of that :-) Reaching a point where we ran into a pod of 'bou, we followed them down the mountain trying to be quiet. It was about then that Andy realized he had lost his Nalgene® water bottle in it's Outdoor Research Bottle Tote™. Bummer. That meant that three of us now had left something in the place and he was short a bottle. Looking back it couldn't be seen anywhere close. A search in this rugged country would have been futile.

We continued to herd the 'bou down the hill as the weather changed again and it started to rain. We got to the mid for lunch in time for it to start raining heavily. We ate and waited it out. Finally catching a break, we packed up the mid. As our gear was already packed we just hiked out. Having done that earlier was a good call for keeping everything dry.

After 3 - 4 miles we came to our next camp. There, we were on a plateau on the river bank. The most noticeable feature was antlers from a 'bou sitting in the middle of it. We had some fun with those. John decided to wear them.

For dinner we had black bean tortilla's with chocolate deserts. I had my now usual tea. While we were at dinner we always had our bino's trained on something. This day was no different and we were treated to something special. The Caribou started crossing the river in large numbers down from us. Another Discovery Channel moment. :-)

I sat that night in my tent, as always, writing in my journal . At midnight we had blue sky sunshine. It was bright and warm.

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Sunday June 16th.

Baked awake again. Sitting at breakfast eating our multimeal we were treated to quite a display. Many 'bou and their calves were around us. The largest concentration we had seen yet. They were coming off the plain. Why we would unfortunately learn later. The blue sky soon changed to clouds. As we packed up camp it began to spit a bit. In my hurry I almost left my sunglasses. Good thing I scanned the area just as I was walking away. I thought they were in my rolled up tent but they were in a hole in the ground next to where I was. I didn't want to loose another thing!

We made our way down to the confluence of the Leffingwell fork and the main Aichilik River. The Aichilik was running high and fast. Bummer, we had to cross it. :-( Macgill rolled up his pants and found his way across the main channel as we got ready. I removed my socks and footbeds from my boots so they wouldn't get soaked. I figured later, I would use my Gore-Tex® socks and dry footbeds to isolate my dry socks from my wet boots. Andy went next reminding us all to unbuckle our pack belts just in case we fell. Good reminder since you want to be able to jettison the pack if you fall in, otherwise it might drown you. He made it across ok. It was my turn then. Stepping into the icy water I felt the swiftness of the current. My poles immediately came into use as I struggled to steady myself. Fighting the current, it was almost sweeping me off my feet. Macgill, seeing this, yelled for me stop fighting it and to go more with it. That made more sense to let it push me to the other side. Hearing him, I changed direction to more of an angle. At that point the water was above my knees. The shore, a few yards away, seemed far away. With the green milky water I could not see where I was stepping. I just hoped I wouldn't step in a hole! Finally I reached the opposite side and stumbled onto the bank. Sitting down, I went to dump my boots and realized instantly that it was the wrong thing to do. The water caught in my pants, rushed up to my underwear. So now I was wet all over. :-(

John crossed next. He made it ok. Macgill then crossed back with Johns pole to give JC two. He also took her pack and they both crossed. They had no problem. So we all made it successfully across without falling in. We were happy about that.

Our next camp site was very close. I decided to continue walking with my boots full of small stones with no socks or footbeds. That was not pleasant. The small stones were mauling my foot. Arriving at the next plateau (none too soon) I removed my boots. Ah, old running shoes never felt so good. We set up camp on a small plateau in the river bed. It was warm mild and sunny. We decided to have lunch. As we ate the clouds moved in and a cold Arctic chill descended on us. We sat monitoring the barometer, hoping it would clear so we could day hike up the peak behind us. After awhile we decided to retire to our tents to wait a bit.

After a couple hours in the tents, we decided to summit trying to get a view of the Arctic Ocean. Climbing up was steep at first. Mostly on tundra. That changed to scree at the top. I, as usual, cut it switchback and was the last up. Upon arrival it began to rain and the area got socked in. There was a ledge to sit on that was somewhat protected so we sat there for a bit. Seeing a bear we watched it for a while. Eventually it became apparent that the storm wasn't lifting. It wasn't "day weather" but a frontal system moving through. We descended back down to camp.

At 11:00pm it was still raining. We ate pizza and soup for dinner. Yes, the desert seemed more like a rain forest at that point. :-(

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Monday June 17th.

I awoke and heard the sound of snow falling on the tent. Ice lined the fly. I looked out to find snow on the mountains and socked in clouds that were on the deck. Getting up, I put my feet in cold wet boots. Thank god for Gore-Tex® socks. :-) As I stepped out I saw Macgill and we headed over to the mid. He started boiling water for much needed hot drinks. It was cold! I had my down jacket on and several layers. Andy soon joined us. John and JC came thereafter and we had homefries and bacon for breakfast. The weather was so bad we decided to wait a bit before we proceeded. We discussed leaving late afternoon if we had to again. We needed however, to definitely get to the airstrip this day. We wanted to be camped and positioned for the flight out the next day. It wasn't too far and would be a short hike anyway.

I returned to my tent and read more of Macgill's Outside Magazine I had borrowed from Andy. I left my book in my luggage to save weight. On a trip this long, with as much bad weather as we had, I wished I had brought it. One of the articles was about the Interior Secretary, Gale Norton. It mentioned the ANWR drilling issue. It was kind of strange to read it since I was sitting very near the controversial territory!

Receiving a slight let up in the cloud cover, with a lightly spitting rain, we decided to pack up and move on. It was after 3:00pm. The hike to the airstrip was mostly over river ice which was fast going and easy for us. Along the way we saw a Bald and Golden Eagle. That was a treat since I rarely see those back home.

It wasn't long before we arrived at the airstrip. It was soggy but we found a place to set up or tents. There was a lot of bear "roto-til" activity. That's where they dig up the dirt looking for food. I set up my tent right next to two holes. Hmmm, would that place be visited again?

Continuing to rain lightly, the sun tried to break through but it didn't look promising. It pretty much was our last chance to climb a peak and get a good view of the ice pack. Oh well, can't have it all. For dinner we had beans and rice with a great desert of pie and crumb cake. During that we discussed our favorite weather event, animal encounter and camping spot. It was interesting to hear the differences among everyone. Mine were the first snow event, the bears in our path and the camp on the mountain pass.

Finally the sky began to clear and we got the full midnight sun. I shot into the sun and got this silhouette of the mountains. I shot with the sun and got these. You could see the sun and the moon together also. We went up on the tussocks and snapped some pictures. Andy took some nice shots with his tripod. Macgill took this amazing panoramic. (748KB)

We retired to our tents but it was hard for me to sleep. I had slept so much I wasn't tired, plus I was running through a lot of things in my head. I had mixed emotions about leaving the place. I enjoyed being in the middle of nowhere, seemingly having left the world behind. On the other hand, I also wanted to get back to some creature comforts. I was ready for a shower and bed. :-)

I laid there knowing that I had once again done what I set out to do. Having had the opportunity to view wildlife and nature like never before felt good. Soon I fell asleep in the bag for the last time. Twenty-five miles from the Arctic Ocean.

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Tuesday June 18th.

Got cooked out of the tent again. It was warm. I heard Andy up and about. Dragging myself out of the tent it was around 9:00am. When Andy saw me, he started telling me I was snoring up a storm! Our tents were relatively close and I guess I could be heard through the night. :-) I must have been tired.

We discussed our options for the return trip. It made the most sense for him to go with John and JC since they were going to use his house back in Fairbanks to get cleaned up. They had a 9:00pm flight out. Since I was leaving at 9:00am the following day I had more time to work with in case of a delay. As it turned out this would be the case. With that said I didn't have to hurry to be ready since I then had three more hours to wait.

We had our last breakfast together. Grape nuts and granola in the morning sun. Packing up we lined things up near the runway and waited. Macgill and I hung out under the mid until we heard a plane. Actually he heard it first which was almost all of the time. He was kind of like "Radar" on M*A*S*H with the helicopters. :-) Raising the plane on the radio, the pilot had some concern about the state of the "runway". It was very wet tundra. He decided to make a low pass to check it out. Coming down about 50 feet off the ground he flew right over us.

Satisfied that he could find a route through the puddles he came around and brought it down. We loaded up the plane with their gear and said our good-byes. Then we all walked the runway with the pilot to check things out. In addition to the state of the runway, he was also concerned about the cross wind. He considered it in his decision on which direction to take off. The tundra wouldn't let him go with the wind so he lifted the plane off and started dipping his right wing into it to get lift. At that point we were speculating that his stall warning light may be going off. :-( He managed to grab the wind and banked into it though. So, off they went leaving me and Macgill to hang out.

We kept the mid up since we were to be there a couple more hours. He went and washed the breakfast dishes. I laid out in the sun. Ah, the life of a client. :-) It was a good day to sit around and take it all in. We had lunch and talked about the trip and gear. Some of it worked some didn't. Especially my tent.

Occationally looking at my watch I was a little anxious about not making my flight to Arctic Village. I mentioned to him that I thought it was impossible to make the round trip in time. I was concerned about how I was going to get back to Fairbanks. He agreed and said he would ask the pilot if he'd take me back with him to Fairbanks. That was ok with me. I didn't care who took me back just as long as I got there!

About 2:30pm or so the plane arrived. Instead of heading to Arctic Village, we were headed back to the Kongakut, where we had started 12 days before. He worked that out with the pilot since it made more sense logistically for him as his next trip was taking a new group down the river on rafts. Loading up the plane, we took off proceeding to retrace the route we had just walked. Flying over the Leffingwell and Bathtub Basin we crossed "Three Rivers Camp" and over "The Pass". It was fun to see them from the air. In a half hour or so we were back to where we had started. Landing on the gravel bar. This time however there were two blue boats there waiting to be taken down river. We unloaded the aircraft and, believing that I had missed my Arctic Village connection, the pilot left me on the gravel bar. He then went to Arctic Village to pick up the rest of Macgill's float trip crew. He would be bringing them back and then taking me with him back to Fairbanks.

I had two hours to kill. Looking up the valley I could see some people hiking. They were part of the next group. They soon arrived back at the boats. As we introduced ourselves I found out they were from Philadelphia. I'm from Pittsburgh. Small world. :-) Anyway I talked to them for a while about hiking and other outdoor stuff. I also gave them some info now that I was the "seasoned" Arctic explorer. :-)

That helped pass the time. I also killed some time walking around looking for coral. It felt weird to be back where we had started. I just never expected to see the place again. Having experienced the Arctic, this place took on a different perspective. While I sat there thinking I noticed the bug hatch was just beginning to start. For the first time during the trip I had to put on bug stuff. The mosquitos were biting me. That made me appreciate even more the fact that we had "beat the hatch" on our trip. We paid the price with some crazy weather but it was worth it.

Soon the sound of a plane could be heard. It arrived and we greeted the rest of the group. They told me that John, JC and Andy were at Arctic Village when the plane arrived and were wondering where I was! I would have made the connection, after all, since it was late! :-(  Oh well. It ended up costing me a few hours but I didn't have a flight to catch so it was ok. Had John and JC been in my place they would have missed their flight out of Fairbanks. So, as it turned out, it was a good thing they got on the first flight with Andy.

We loaded up the plane with my gear and Macgill's pack. I was taking that back to Fairbanks for him to place in his van until he returned. We talked and said our good-byes as the pilot shifted some fuel around between tanks. I then climbed into the copilot seat and we taxied down to the other end of the gravel to take off. Turning around in the bushes the pilot briefed me on the things I needed to know. In a bit of a drawl he said something like "the fire extinguisher is under my seat, the transmitter is in the tail of the plane and there is a pistol in the flight bag". Yep, all the essentials! As this was a short runway, ending with a splash if we didn't get off the ground, he stood on the brake and cranked the engine. Satisfied we'd reached the Rpm's he wanted, he let off the brake and we started down. As we barreled towards the rafts and all the people, at what seemed like the last possible moment, we lifted off and passed over them. Within 5 minutes we were flying into dark clouds and a rain storm. As the pelting rain hit the fuselage I braced for a rough ride however it wasn't too bad. It was a lot of fun actually. On average we were 5 to 7 thousand feet on the altimeter. The mountains in that area are of similar height so we were sometimes flying close to the tops and in the valleys. I looked below at nothingness. No roads, houses or anything. It was amazing how sparsely populated the state was.

Being a 3 hour flight, I made sure I didn't drink much because there was no going to the bathroom! As we cruised along the pilot would occasionally transfer more fuel between the tanks. The gauge kept getting close to empty and he kept turning the switch back and forth as if it were broken. It was a little nerve racking but he didn't seem concerned so I wasn't. The constant rocking of the plane put me to sleep for a while. We crossed the Brooks Range and then the Yukon River which really stood out since it was quite large. Eventually we crossed the White Mountains, starting our entry to the Fairbanks area. Signs of civilization began to appear. The airport came into view and we started our approach. Fairbanks airport has three runways. One for commercial traffic, one for the small planes and a pond in the middle to park and land float planes! I'd never seen that before. It was really cool to be in a small plane landing. We got closer and lower and closer and lower then ... touched down. Taxiing over to the hanger, he parked the plane.

No one was at the hanger since it was after 9:00pm. The pilot unlocked the door and we went inside. The key for Macgill's van was supposed to be "taped to a wall" according to the the pilot. Unfortunately we looked everywhere and couldn't find it. Finding a set of keys, I went out and tried them but they didn't work. After about 30 minutes we gave up and just put his pack in a room with his name on it. With that done I tried calling my motel for a pick up. No one answered. I guess they were out on a pickup. It was a small operation and when they were out no one was at the front desk. Anyway, the pilot was nice enough to offer to take me to the motel since he was driving right by it. As we loaded up my stuff, I noticed he had a knife sheathed on his belt and an automatic stuffed into the small of his back. Only in Alaska. :-) Anyway, so he ended up flying me from a gravel bar, in the wilderness, dropping me off at my motel. What service!

I checked in and got my bag out of storage. Heading to my room, opening the door I shed my clothes and went right to the shower. Man did that feel good! Twelve days of grub washed off. :-) Next on the agenda was food. I walked over to Subway and got a sub. By that time it was almost 11:00pm and I still had to pack. I needed to get up at 6:00am to be at the airport in time for my flight. Quickly stuffing everything into my duffle, I hit the sack by midnight.

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Wednesday June 19th.

Morning seemed to come quickly. I went to the airport just in time to get behind two buses of cruise passengers, which had just unloaded at the Northwest ticket counter. I looked at my watch and figured I was in trouble. After a few minutes a Customer Service Representative came by. Asking if anyone in line was not with the cruise line, I raised my hand quickly. They then moved me to the front of a different line. I was checked in immediately. Proceeding to security screening, I came upon a bottle neck. They had only one screener and that caused a problem. After getting through that, I only had enough time to go right to the gate. Fairbanks is a small town and the airport is small. It wasn't far to the gate.

Once in the air I reflected on a great trip. No sooner did that thought leave my mind when the coffee cart came by. The stewardess then proceeded to spill coffee all over me! Well almost a great trip! :-( Actually I received two coupons for 1000 frequent flyer miles and all I had to do wash the jacket when I got home. :-)

It was a long day with a connection in Minneapolis. When we started to approach Pittsburgh at 9:30pm I saw my first darkness in two weeks. It seemed strange. Arriving home by 11:00pm, I unpacked a few things and then slept. I got up at 6:00am to go to work. It was a tough day.

I consider myself very lucky to have been able to visit such a remote and ruggedly beautiful place. Macgill said we may be 5 of only a dozen people who trek that part of the ANWR this year. That made it even more special. Part of the beauty is that the place is a pristine, untouched land. The animals still live there and man is a visitor. I couldn't help thinking that I was like an explorer a century or two before seeing this place for the first time. It really was a trip back in time. I went in with a desire to find out what the drilling debate was all about. I came away with the opinion that to spoil this place, for our insatiable appetite for energy, would be a great tragedy. If everyone could experience what we did they would most likely, as they should anyway, use less energy to save this place.

Thanks to Macgill for a great trek. His knowledge and skill really enhanced the experience, not to mention his cooking. :-) Thanks to John, JC and Andy for being such great hiking partners. We all seemed to have the same expectations and everyone's relaxed, easygoing, flexible attitudes really made for a great time.

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