The day after getting back from the Beaver Creek canoe trip I turned around and led 11 Japanese clients on a 4 day trip on the Yukon River for
Arctic Wild. This particular trip was a bit different from others I have done. First, all the clients spoke Japanese with only half speaking English (although they all spoke the international language of smiles and laughter). Second, with 11 clients and 2 guides (myself and Brad Snow) we took 5
foldable Alley canoes and a motor boat assist driven by Fred Anderson. The idea was to pack all the heavy gear like food, tents, chairs and such into the motor boat so the canoes were lighter and easier to
maneuver. Fred would then disappear for a few hours, meet us for lunch then go down stream and scout for a suitable camp spot for the night. I had some doubts at first about having Fred's motor boat along but it ended up being a really clever way to operate with a canoe group that size. Plus Fred's knowledge of the stretch of river we were on was
astounding. He had 30 years of experience working for Fish & Game and the National Park Service on this
stretch of river.
(Photo taken by moon light)
From Circle we flew about 60 miles upstream to a gravel bar in the middle of the river close to the mouth of the Charlie River. The east side of the river had tall black cliffs topped with aspen trees towering over us at our first nights camp. In contrast, the west side of the river was a never ending black spruce forest with very little topography. The contrast was stunning. The photo above was a timed exposure taken at our first camp with the full moon behind the clouds.
We had all sorts of weather. When we departed Cirlce the sky's were cloudless. By the time we reached the river and set up camp clouds had moved in. The next morning we woke up to a light rain. That's all good though. It's far better to have rain early in the trip and end it sunny than to have it sunny early and end in the rain. You always want to end on a positive note, right? Right! We put on our rain gear, broke down camp and hit the river. We had about 15 miles to float until we reached the historical Slaven's Roadhouse. The roadhouse was built as a stopover for people traveling the river in the 1930's and is now maintained by the National Park Service as a public use cabin. Contrary to having 'roadhouse' in it's name, there is no road access. The roadhouse ended up being a real benefit. The rain was still coming down and all our stuff was wet. This gave us the opportunity to dry out before heading down river the next day.... and what a day the next day was.
When we woke the rain was still coming down, but lightly. We carried out our regular chores of breakfast and breaking down camp and got on the river. Due to where we were when we got in our canoes we were oblivious to the challenge that laid ahead. Less than five minutes into the float, enough time to get to the middle of the wide river, the wind hit us hard. So hard that most of us could not turn our canoe bows downstream. As soon as I realized we were not in a temporary blast of wind I looked back at the rest of the canoes to find them scattered all about. No one could safely control their boats. We managed to all get to one side of the river and recollect. To make the situation safer and easier to handle Brad and I decided to raft all the canoes together and float as one mass unit. It turned out that it also made the morning more social. We managed to take a lemon and make some pretty sweet lemonade.
The lemonade got even sweeter when by lunch the wind had died down and by camp that night there were just enough clouds in the sky to make for a stunning sunset. One of the prettiest and longest sunsets I've seen in years. I must say, it was a great way to end another season of guiding. Keeping pace with ending on a good note so you always want to go back.
Fortunately we are roughly 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle which means we don't experience total darkness on solstice. We do, however, only get about 3.5 hours of sunlight. It rises around 11:00am and sets around 2:30pm. While not seeing the sun for much more than a lunch break for a few months might drive more folks than normal to heavy drinking it has some plus sides too. When the sun comes up it stays at a low angle in the sky, going from sunrise straight into sunset... beautiful! The pictures in this post were taken on my way home last weekend at 2:30pm. Also, on either side of the solstice the length of time the sun is in the sky changes by about 6.5 minutes per day which means every ten days we gain an hour of daylight (or lose that much as we approach the solstice).
The other upside of such short sun exposure, besides a zero chance of sunburns, is that with the longer darkness we have a better chance of seeing the aurora borealis and get to enjoy extended starry nights. 
With all that said, I'm sure glad we have made it over the solstice hump. Welcome back sun!
Four of us flew into the 
What an 
Our pilot picked us up around noon on the Kobuk River and had us on the shores of Agiak Lake in Gates of the Arctic in time for dinner in the middle of the Brooks Range.
Nolan in the foreground. Leo in the back ground. Sally Michael's kids at Steve and Lauren's wedding.
We only had to get out and drag the 
While Beck was out of town I left Fairbanks to guide a seven day backpack trip in northwest Alaska. Our destination was a thirty mile long ridge running between the Utukok and Kokolik Rivers. Our goal was to place ourselves in the middle of the Western Arctic caribou calving grounds. A few things to note here. The Western Arctic caribou herd is about 400,000 strong at last census. That's a shit load of caribou. Also, we are not the only ones that know about these calving grounds. The resident predators (aka, bears and wolves) also are very familiar with and fond of the calving grounds this time of year.
For the entire backpack we encountered maybe 10 mosquitoes. That's the definition of a good trip in the arctic, very few mosquitoes. Once we got down to the Kokolik we figured out where all the mosquitoes had gone. BAMB! We were in the thick of it. Hard to escape from. Our time camping on the river kept us either in our tents or spraying ourselves down with the toxic wonder chemical known as Deet (I've seen it melt car dashboards but it keeps the bugs away). Our final adventure was getting picked up by Dirk of Coyote Air and flying back to civilization. What a flight. We were able to fly our the path we just hiked and examine the terrain and caribou herds from the air. Along the way he had us open the plane door (while we were airborne) and drop food off to a camper below. Good times were had by all.
Over the past few years Beck and I have gotten to know a group of boaters, mostly canoers, that like to make an early season pilgrimage to the Delta-Clearwater River about two hours south east of Fairbanks. After all it's traditionally the first river to flow clear of ice in the area. The first half of the trip is on the Delta-Clearwater, the second half on the Tanana River.
The next morning we woke to a beautiful still day and another 4 hours of paddling to make it to the take out. We stopped for a short hike along the way to a bluff where we saw the first signs of flowers coming out of the ground. Oh right. I almost forgot. On the first half of the float, the day before, we saw three different moose sightings, a lynx (really really cool), and too many migrating birds to count including a group of over 30 trumpeter swans we startled into flying right in front of us. Once again good times were had by all.
Our trip started out of Flagstaff so we loaded up the rental car along with Garrett and Brenda and drove two hours north to meet the rest of the group. With Phoenix being so warm and sunny it seemed out of place to arrive in Flagstaff with several feet of snow on the ground. But that's what happened. With a few days in Flagstaff we gathered our wits and picked up much needed last minute provisions like beer and sun screen. We were told that once we started the trip the weather would change to warm and sunny again.
The morning of our departure 
Regardless of what we did we were normally laughing while doing it. Needless to say, we had a fun loving group of good folks.
With roughly 225 river miles covered we ran something like 190 rapids (more or less). Five or six of them were pretty big and hair raising but for most part the majority of the rapids were just good clean 
Viewing and admiring the landscape was an ongoing event too. What's around the next corner? "Wow! Did you see that waterfall back there?" "What about that arch?" "Yep. I was so tied up admiring the waterfall I must have missed the arch but did you see the sheep on the cliff side?" 
The Colorado River ran either brown or your typical dark blue river water color. It depends on what the damn is releasing and if rain or snow melt is washing muddy water down side creeks. Out of the many hidden gems along the way 
As we started our trip, Rico the shuttle driver left us with some sage advice he credited to Brady (owner of 
Not much snow has fallen this winter but due to a lack of wind allot of frost has been able to accumulate on the top side of branches. It's a pretty cool visual looking up from the base of a birch tree. Dark branches outlined with the white of frost backed by a rich blue sky....
For some reason this door knob on an old dilapidated shed fascinated me. It exuded character and projected a mysterious history which put all kinds of stories in my head.
