Wow. Where have we been for the last few months? There is allot to tell but I'm going to keep it fairly short. It's been a busy start to summer. Becky ventured into the Prudhoe Bay oil fields for work looking for Spectacled Eiders for most of the month of June. She has stories galore but I would butcher the retelling so I'll stick with what I know, my own stories.
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.
The group was fairly small, just myself and two other guys. Group sizes this small can be really easy or really difficult, depending on the group dynamics. Fortunately both people were laid back, easy to get along with and great conversationalist.
Our first day found us following the classic hurry up and wait program to get to our destination. Pick up, drop off, wait for plane, ride in plane, land in Kotzebue, wait for smaller plane, load, leave, fly over stunning land scape, land on gravel bar of Utukok river, unload, plane leaves, silence..... Our trip begins. The feeling you get as you see the plane slip off into the distance, out of ear shot, is liberating. There is no more planing or preparation. All you have left to do is explore the landscape.
It can also put you a bit on edge at first if you are not sure you have everything. Did I pack the stove? fuel? what about food? is there enough?... It doesn't matter though. You have what you have and make due with it. I've always had everything but the thought still crops up. With the plane gone we threw our packs on our backs and headed for the ridge. To get to the ridge we had to traverse a few tussock fields, cross a few streams and gain roughly 800 vertical feet but it was well worth it. Once on the ridge we had the grandest view of the surrounding area for the next 6 days. Along the way we saw a few thousand caribou, long tailed jaegers, rough legged hawks and seven brown bears. Six of the bears were far off, down in the valley below, hunting for caribou calves but one bear.... one bear was close up on the ridge above us. I about pooed myself when I saw it at two hundred yards ahead of us in the direction we were walking. It was a large guy with an incredibly beautiful thick bronze coat. Once it was obvious that he was not to concerned with us we were able to relax and watch him for a bit. After a while we walked down and around the bear and continued on our way with the bear lazily laying down and watching us as we carried on. A few days went by as our packs got lighter but some how seemed heavier, our feet got sorer and our sense of wilderness and solitude got stronger. On our next to last day we descend the ridge down to the Kokolik River, our final destination.
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.
The group was fairly small, just myself and two other guys. Group sizes this small can be really easy or really difficult, depending on the group dynamics. Fortunately both people were laid back, easy to get along with and great conversationalist.
Our first day found us following the classic hurry up and wait program to get to our destination. Pick up, drop off, wait for plane, ride in plane, land in Kotzebue, wait for smaller plane, load, leave, fly over stunning land scape, land on gravel bar of Utukok river, unload, plane leaves, silence..... Our trip begins. The feeling you get as you see the plane slip off into the distance, out of ear shot, is liberating. There is no more planing or preparation. All you have left to do is explore the landscape.
It can also put you a bit on edge at first if you are not sure you have everything. Did I pack the stove? fuel? what about food? is there enough?... It doesn't matter though. You have what you have and make due with it. I've always had everything but the thought still crops up. With the plane gone we threw our packs on our backs and headed for the ridge. To get to the ridge we had to traverse a few tussock fields, cross a few streams and gain roughly 800 vertical feet but it was well worth it. Once on the ridge we had the grandest view of the surrounding area for the next 6 days. Along the way we saw a few thousand caribou, long tailed jaegers, rough legged hawks and seven brown bears. Six of the bears were far off, down in the valley below, hunting for caribou calves but one bear.... one bear was close up on the ridge above us. I about pooed myself when I saw it at two hundred yards ahead of us in the direction we were walking. It was a large guy with an incredibly beautiful thick bronze coat. Once it was obvious that he was not to concerned with us we were able to relax and watch him for a bit. After a while we walked down and around the bear and continued on our way with the bear lazily laying down and watching us as we carried on. A few days went by as our packs got lighter but some how seemed heavier, our feet got sorer and our sense of wilderness and solitude got stronger. On our next to last day we descend the ridge down to the Kokolik River, our final destination.