The outfitter that I choose was Wilderness Alaska

The bug shirt i used

My Alaska journey begin like all the others, as a dream. I was waiting out the rain at Butlers lodge on Mount Mansfield. It was empty. There was a hammock. There was also a backpacking magazine. So I proceeded to chill out on the hammock reading. It was still pouring. So I started to read all the advertisements (you have to be cooped up in the rain to understand what I am saying). Well after reading several ads for Alaska travel I wrote all the address down and I sent away for information after I got home. Well two years later I found myself on a plane heading for Alaska!

For starters, get in-shape. Since I am a broke sort of person my workout gym consisted of a $0.98 jump rope, my backpack and two legs. I then called the guides in Alaska that I was interested and spoke to length with them about a trip. I also asked about other possibilities for travel in Alaska. They gave me the number of a travel agency in Alaska with whom I worked on a pre wilderness trip. My trip started in Fairbanks. Now the reason I started in Fairbanks was because: 1 that is where my wilderness trip started and 2. My neighbors had moved there a couple of months earlier. So I had a place to hang out.

I made it to Fairbanks around midnight. It was still light out. In fact I never saw darkness till a month later when I flew home. My friends met me at the airport and took me home where I slept. I spent the next several days hanging out with the Foote family. One of the cool things was hanging out at the Fairbanks museum at the university, tons of stuff to look at. Be sure to open all the drawers that are filled with tons more stuff.

Well I couldn't mooch on them forever so I gave them a break and had them take me to the train station where I boarded a train to anchorage with a several days stop in Denali. Denali is a pretty place but it also has its drawbacks. In order to do any kind of hiking you need to stand in line and purchase a bus pass. No cars are allowed in the park. I hate lines so I hiked around the entrance area, which was pretty cool because no one else did! I ran across a mother and calf moose that was to close for comfort. In case you did not know moose are bigger than me and mama moose aren't crazy about anything near there little ones. I hid. They passed me at about twenty feet away.

Well I had reserved a seat on one of the private bus tours that go through the park. You know the 40 people bus loads. The gods were smiling on me that day. There were 8 people on this bus including the bus driver (I was the only none couple). So a big bus for a few people was awesome. We stopped several times to watch grizzlies through a spotting scope the bus driver brought with him. The bus driver was happy too, since normally he does not get to stop so much, with 40 people it is just to many. Well that trip took us the entire length of the park road and we were able to see fox, moose, eagles, bears and mountain sheep! It was great. At the end of the road they provided us with lunch at the lodge and we panned for gold. I still have my one little flake. Just for the record the water is to cold to pan for gold if you ask me. Afterwards we drove back through the park seeing just as many animals on the return trip. The highlight being a red fox right next to the road. Unfortunately but very common Denali was covered with clouds. I did get to see the mountain when I got back to Fairbanks. Its a big mountain and can be seen pretty far away. I was here on June 21 the first day of summer or as they say in Alaska the midnight sun. and yes the sun is up at midnight. Like I said it doesn't ever get dark in the summer.

The other trip that I did in the Denali region was I went horseback riding. It was a blast as we got to go on the less used trails due to flooding. I like the less used trails vs. the bigger wider ones. I really enjoyed the riding trip and would recommend it to anyone who likes to ride horses. Try not to think of the costs. They make their living on tourist money so naturally it is expensive. Okay $150 for about 2 hours. It is cheaper when you are not near the park.

Well Denali is a great place but so is the rest of the state so I boarded the train and continued on towards anchorage. On the train I met a group of women traveling together that were just having a blast on the train. On the train you do get to see a lot of wildlife (deer, moose, eagles) as well as beautiful scenery.

Once in Anchorage me and this other guy shared the taxi expense to get to the airport where I had a rent a car. Of course what I did not realize was that there was a shuttle from the airport to the rental car place. I think we could have just saved a little taxi money if I had gone directly to the car rental place. But it worked out anyway as the rental shuttle guy gave us both a tour of anchorage and dropped my friend off at a local establishment where he was going to hang till 3 am when his plane left. I on the other hand took my rental car to the bed and breakfast home that I was staying in. I wanted a hot shower. You like hot showers when you spend time camping. Especially in Alaska! Afterwards I cruised around Anchorage, did a little shopping etc. Food prices where about the same as the lower 48 with the new conglomerate shopping places that have moved in. Did you know that you can buy your fishing licensee at the supper market, along with milk and bread! I also purchase several rolls of film. Film is always cheaper in town then it is near the pretty places to take picture of.

Anchorage seems inland but it is on the ocean due to the inland sea. The tides are incredibly fast. When the tide is out there is a huge mud flat that looks tempting but stay off of it! It seems that the mud is very deep and easy to get stuck in. sounds normal enough but the tide comes in so fast that sometimes people get stuck and drown before they can get rescued. I stayed off the mud flats myself. Besides there was plenty of things to do!

The next day I took the only highway out of town for my drive south to Seward, AK. I was no sooner out of Anchorage when I saw several rams hanging out on the side of the road! It was cool, they were a lot closer than in Denali! Naturally I took several photos and watched them for a while. They do not really do a whole lot other than eat for a while, lye down and chew cud for a while. I am sure they do other things but that is really not our business.

The scenery on my to the coast was absolutely breath taking, despite the TRAFFIC. Since there really is only one road south everyone was on it, so you have to be careful about checking out scenery and driving at the same time. I stayed in the town of Seward for a little while, mostly at the museum visitor's center reading all sorts of neat stuff. What I really wanted to do was to take a hike up to the Hardy Ice Field. Actually I had planned on one of those cruises along the coast with the parks department but I did not get there early enough so it was plan B, the hike. So I drove out to the hardy ice field, the glacier coming down out of it was impressive! You could walk right up to it being sure not to get to close after al it is a glacier and ice was breaking loose. Not a great place to be if you are under it. You would become a frozen mummy till some future archeologist dug you up. Well these days rescue would have dug you only to confirm the obvious, dead on impact from a ton ice. It happens to careless people.

Any way I took the several mile trail up to the ice fields. It was a blast. Down in the lower elevations I kept sneaking up on marmots (what westerners call a woodchuck same family only slightly different). It was pretty neat watching the marmots walking around, they looked like miniature bears, okay I have an imagination what can I say. The trail wound steeply up above tree line in no time at all. Of course there was now snow and getting deeper the further I went up. Oh and the sun was really bright. Of course looking east towards town it was raining pretty hard. I figured I would keep walking. The ice field and sun kept the storm away and I actually got a little sunburn (little because of the sun screen I remembered to put on!). On one of my many frequent rests I saw something running towards me! Well I could tell it was a bear but I was not sure of what kind or what I should do after all a bear is a bear! The bear was only running in my direction and not really at me, he/she stayed of to the side and only came about 70 yards to my right. Of course chasing the bear were some lunatics with cameras. Hope they stopped before the bear found a hiding place. Just as I watched the bear go over the hill I saw a flash of movement about a hundred yards to my left. I kept looking for the movement again and anything out of place and then I saw the wolf! A very large wolf. I tried to get a closer a look but the wolf disappeared rather quickly. The snow was tough to walk through, the sun was warm I was sweating but continued on. I was very grateful the expenses sunglasses that I purchased they were worth there weight in gold on the sunny slope.

Reaching the top and overlooking the ice field was, well was just, I wish there were words to describe the white vastness, mountains, blue sky cool and warm air, clouds rolling slowly in the distance, looking back at the greenery fare below, the glacier leaving the ice field. Well there are not enough words you will just have to experience it!

Well I was running a little late but the time I got back, I the drive over to Soldonta was pretty drive (they all are). There was one spot where I actually turned onto another road that had a swamp with a wide variety of birds flying around that I enjoyed for a while. Several of the birds were terns. I passed by many people fishing on the banks. Its what they call "battle ground fishing"? where people are standing side-by-side trying to catch red salmon. When the salmon make the run up river people flock to the rivers edge to catch a few for dinner (that's an understatement). I made it in time to go out for an excellent meal of fresh grilled salmon! Actually I usually ate fresh grilled salmon every day because it was the cheapest thing on the menu (less than steak and better than a hamburger).

I was lucky that there were no guest so instead of a room I had this cute little cabin all to my self. Early the next morning they made me a great breakfast and I went fishing for king salmon with the guide and two other people. We fished all day and did not catch a single one. It was actually in-between the king salmon runs so it was really not the right time. I did see about 5 other people who caught some really big fish! We had been out for a while and the guide was talking about another place to try when he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He called a friend up river and asked him how the fishing was up there. Well it wasn't any better so we headed downstream. I was not expecting him to pull out a cell phone it was hysterical, modern technology in a tiny little river boat in a place where a lot of people have a two way radio instead of a phone. But then again a cell-phone is just a fancy two-way radio. Since I did not catch anything I had to settle for another fresh salmon dinner!

Well the next day I was up early and on my way to Homer, AK. The location of Homer gives it some great weather the year round, not to cold not to hot, not to much rain and not to much snow. The drive to Homer follows the ocean for a long ways with many opportunities to stop and look out over Cook Inlet. There were a lot of gulls and eagles cruising along the ocean beach. I settled into a bed and breakfast and went out for some dinner. Being on a budget I always had to order the cheapest thing on the menu. The cool thing is the cheapest thing on the menu is grilled salmon steaks!

After a nice meal I decided to go for a midnight beach walk. I had to pay attention to the tide schedule so I did not get caught on a section of beach at high tide. The beach itself was fairly sandy and very much deserted. The Homer Spit was the real place to hang out with a very nice sand beach but also full of people. It is not that everyone is hanging out in bathing suits (it was a little chilly). I preferred walking along in solitude watching the eagles and the gulls' fly back and forth. I looked for shells and driftwood and normal beach walking stuff. It was a lot of fun.

The next day I took a ferry across the water to Seldovia, which is a small town of about 50 people. Here the food prices were a little bit higher! The ferry was neat since they took time to show you the sea life on the way over, like a natural history tour. On many of the small rocks that jut above water there is an abundance of birds. Most notably are the puffins. So that was really cool to see bunches and bunches of them hanging out on the rocks. On one of the larger islands we saw a bald eagle that flew by for a closer look. We came very close to shore on one of the islands to see an oystercatcher on the beach. They are not common so it was cool sight to see. Oystercatchers have very bright legs. Oh yeah how can I forget the 40 or so sea otters that were hanging out, not on an island but in the kelp beds. It was neat watching them as some were resting on their backs eating clams that they had picked up. I would like to come back to this area and do some sea kayaking.

Once in Seldovia I stayed at the Dance with Eagles bed and breakfast. A cool place on the end of the boardwalk it juts out over the water. And true to its name there were about 5 bald eagles just hanging around. Actually the time to see the eagles hanging around was high tide, when the tide went out they were searching for food. In the meantime I walked around town checking out the cool boardwalks. I took a little hike out of town and along a stony beach. It was a pretty quit place so I more or less just relaxed. The next day it was back to Homer. On the ferry ride back we saw a couple of whales, which was neat. The ride back was a straight ride back unlike the ride out.

After getting back to Homer I walked around town a little and went for another beach walk. The next morning I had a 3-hour horseback ride to go one so I wanted to make sure I was ready (not to mention a long drive). Now this horse back ride was awesome more reasonable rate (I don't remember) and since I booked the ride first thing in the morning I was the only one! So the guide took me out for a really cool ride. These trails were not only small in some cases there was none! We took a trail along side of the mountain and you defiantly did not want to look down. The trail was just wide enough for the horse's feet (what little trail there was). If I looked to the left ground was at eye level if I looked to the right the treetops were eye level. Luckily there was a groovy view and the horse did not trip. We rode up into the backcountry through a very muddy swamp where the horses sang up to their bellies in the mud. We saw a couple of neat birds (I don't remember what kind) but not much else in the way of wildlife. Mostly it was awesome scenery. Plus some groovy riding as we could cruise along in several places.

Well after the horseback ride it was back to anchorage that day. Of course by know I was getting hungry for some lunch so on the way back I stopped at one the cliffs over looking Cook Inlet. I was in luck as the tide was going out and the birds were fishing. I watched as several gulls and several bald eagles cruised the shoreline below me in search of food. I hung out on the cliff for quite awhile and just as I got up to leave a bald eagle screamed at me from only 10 feet away and below me! It was very cool. If the eagle had not called me I would have not seen him as I had turned and looked the other way.

On the plane ride back to Fairbanks I got my first sight of Denali! Once in Fairbanks I could also see the mountain for pretty for a bout another day before it got locked in clouds again. While I stayed with friends for a couple more days they drove me around town, took me out dinner and for a dip in the Chena hot springs. This is also when we went to the Fairbanks Museum and I recommend spending a good chunk of the day there. There are a hundred draws under all the displays. You are supposed to open the draws and look at all the cool stuff inside. And there is a ton of cool stuff.

Finally the day has come to pack up and fly up to the Brooks Range. when we check in at the airport we all get weighed as well as are luggage! All nine of us boarded the plane and headed towards Arctic Village. AS we passed over the Yukon River we remarked about how that might be a neat river to go on. One of the guides remarked that it is a big river and swampy which means lots of mosquitoes! We all arrived safely in the tiny village and promptly unloaded our gear. From hear it was bush plane to the river. I was lucky to draw the right straw to be one of the first to go. So 3 of us and as much gear as we could fit piled into the little Cessna (or whatever it was) and away we went! Just for the record I had never been in a little plane but it was going okay (I had been told to fly early as there would be less turbulence :).

The landscape as viewed from the plane was downright awesome! We crossed over the continental divide and shortly after that the plane banked sharp left and headed for the ground! As we got closer to the ground I could see some faint marks that looked like a runway on this rocky gravel bed. Before I knew it we were on the ground (whew) and in the center of the Brooks Range! We had landed as far up river as we could and about a mile upstream from where we were the Kongakut was buried under a snow pack (the whole trip cold water was never a problem).

the pilot left shortly after unloading our gear and made several more trips until by the end of the day all of us were safely nestled into our tents. During the day, well relatively speaking as it never got dark the whole time I was there, I talked Less into a hike up the mountain next to camp. We saw several Mt. sheep running around on the side of the other mountain and it was just amazing watching them leap from rock to rock and just hang on the side of the mountain. As we hiked up the mountain we eventually came to the end of the tundra and it was nothing but skree (loose rock) the rest of the way. The rocks were all sharp edge and loose but it was easy to see the sheep trail but I could not talk into going any further. It was probably for the better as it was the first day and the sheep trail undoubtedly got steeper! While we were sitting up on the hillside we watched the plane come in and land. My how small that plane looked with the mountains in the background. One could see forever in all directions. not a tree in sight just tundra, rocks, mountains and the river.

We started rafting the very next day. It was a narrow river at this point a mere 15 feet wide and only a couple feet deep. One of the guides found some mammoth fossilized teeth that she showed all of us. For the most part the Kongakut River is flows through the tundra with mountains surrounding it. Because of the mountains being so steep it left narrow valleys that were wind protected and a lot of willow tree grew along the banks and up some of the valleys. In some places the trees were up to 9 or 10 feet tall which is huge because the tundra is only knee high!

Normally we camped out on the rocky bars next to the river. This was not bad since a lot of the rock was very small and it drained real well plus the most important aspect was there was usually a small breeze that kept the bugs at bay. Going with a guide was awesome. We would paddle for a while and then stop for lunch and go for a walk. Paddle some more, stop and setup camp. I would go for a walk until dinner was ready! I always managed to find my way back to camp just in time for dinner. Since you get what you pay for after dinner I went for another walk since the guides really take care of you and they not only cook they also do the dishes!

I should mention that for me a walk would be one to three hours. The first day after I went for a walk with Less I wanted to go for another one. The guide said I should see if anyone else wanted to go so I asked but no one was interested. He said be careful and told me it was never wise to go alone. I shrugged and said I would keep camp in sight for the most part (remember there are no trees in the tundra). This became an accepted practice that I would just always go for walk since sitting still just isn't my thing. Since I always made it back just in time for dinner, it was okay with everyone.

Now my favorite camping spot was what I called Lupine Meadows. It was one of the few spots that we camped out on the tundra since it was a dry meadow filled to the brim with Lupine and several other flowers all in bloom. No the funny thing about this spot was that it also happened to be my birthday. For some reason after dinner I must have felt lazy since I did not go for my normal walk right away. But sure enough I did. I heard what sounded like a siren, one long big wail coming from the direction of camp. I looked back but I did not see anyone at camp trying to get my attention so I continued on. Then the long wail again only this time just the other side of the small valley I was walking up. Sure enough there was a very large wolf trotting up the valley and howling a long wail as he ran. It was the coolest. He threw me off because the first time he wailed it sounded like it came from camp.

Well I watched the wolf trot into the aspens and get lost in the underbrush. It wasn't long after that when on my side of the little valley I saw this figure ahead of me. Well coming towards me actually. You know how in the old western movies the cowboy rides away and his silhouette is tall and narrow. Well that is what this looked like only it was coming towards me and not riding off into the sunset. I knew it must be some kind of animal but I was not sure just what. It was moving pretty fast and I was to far from camp to run for it. There were no trees to climb and the tallest bush was about 1' so I didn't even have anything to hide behind. So I just stood there. Actually it happened pretty fast in about a minute I suppose. Well as it got closer I still could not figure out what it was and it was definitely coming right towards me. Well it must have recognized me as a human and so it veered a little to my left and at that point it was now relatively close and coming straight at me so I could see what that it was a caribou! Panting very heavily and keeping a very steady pace went past me and headed off to wherever it wanted to go. The guide later told me that it was probably not running from the wolves but from some fly that crawls into there skin and drives them crazy.

Well after walking for a couple hours I came back to camp around midnight and to my surprise while I was gone they had backed me a cake! So we had a groovy little birthday party. I of course told them about my adventures of the evening and to our good fortune we heard all the wolves howling in the distance. What a way to spend your birthday. I owe it to my friends I was staying with in Fairbanks because they were the ones who told the guide. The best surprise birthday party I ever had. I wonder who told the wolves?

We stayed in the alpine garden for two days because the river was rising rapidly due to a big storm someplace upriver. The next leg of the river was the most treacherous as the mountains close into the river and squeeze through a narrow pass. When we did run that stretch it wasn't that bad as the river swept us up and over most all of it. It was however just after we got through all the hard stuff that the last boat was swept into the rocks. I never thought I would see a raft get pushed twenty feet up a rock face! The guy in the front literally stepped out onto land as the rest of them fell backwards into the very swift and cold river. We scooped up one person and any gear that was not tied down. We all beached as soon as we could to get all the folks into dry gear and warmed up quick. Everyone held onto their paddles (we were warned from the first day that if we go in don't let go of the paddle, you know the old saying up a creek without a paddle!). Oh wait the guide in her haste to grab the oldest member of the party did loose her paddle, the nice long one used to steer the raft.

Our next awesome camp was called the sheep camp because not long after we had all put up our tents did a herd of sheep come walking by! It was one of the few places they came down off of the rocky slopes. It was really cool. It was also at this camp that I told the guide I was heading out on my usual walk and that I was going to walk upstream by the all the ice. I was standing on the ice looking upstream and taking a picture. I no sooner stood up when BOOM, the ice in front of me calved and splashed into the river. Then another BOOM, as another piece did the same. I looked down at the piece I was standing on! The guide, back in his tent relaxing, remarked that that was cool the ice is calving. Then he remembered where I went for a walk. I waved back that I was still alive and not floating past camp on a big chunk of ice :)

The ice was actually neat because even though the air temperatures went up into the 70's we were able to bring coolers of food, which we kept restocking with ice from the ice patches that lined the river all the way down stream.

The next was a little rainy so we decided to stay in camp for a while to let the storm pass. Naturally I got bored and said I was going for a walk. Well surprise surprise surprise one by one everyone decided to join me (except the three guides)! I was given a backpack full of food (bait if you ask me). Well off we went following this little stream up into a valley. After awhile we all got hungry and stopped and I dished out the food to everyone. As I was packing up the food someone yelled is that a bear? I stuffed faster. Sure enough it was a grizzly coming our way. Now for starters we are in the tundra so nothing is taller than knee high, except in the stream valley we jut happened to be in. We were in a bunch of aspen bushes, the grizzly easily seen on the tundra was now in the bushes as well. I became the authority on what to do, namely because everyone decided to ask me, I had food so I guess I was in charge! So using my profound wisdom I said lets get out of the bushes and head for the open tundra so we can see better. I also thought climbing up to the top of that rock cliff would not be a bad idea. So off we went everyone but Less of course. Where was he? LESS, LESS, fine time for his hearing aid not to work. Finally he saw us and came trotting up the hill. The grizzly on the other hand came walking toward us. Also important I did not sense any danger, besides you cannot out run a grizzly and I was confident that I was the could outrun everyone present or at least most of them. So there we all stood yelling and waving our arms as the female grizzly came closer and closer. It was really cool as you could see her claws they really are big! I needed a picture but it was a little rainy so the shutter speed was to slow to hold steady. So off came the backpack, plopped it on the ground and I laid down to take the only photo of the grizzly that was not blurry. Basically the grizzly strolled up, walked behind a bush and stood up to look at us, plenty of time for her cubs to head over the next ridge and she soon followed suit. We also had had enough excitement for one day and headed back to camp with a tale to tell :)

At our next camp we had an awesome bird walk with the highlight being a nesting greater yellow legs. It was at this camp that for some unknown reason I was compelled to walk on the other side of the river. This means I had to cross the now much larger river. So I stripped down carrying my shoes and clothes and proceeded to ford the VERY COLD VERY SWIFT AND DEEPER THAN I THOUGHT RIVER. It was only belly button deep and that is why I almost slipped because I was trying to stand on my tiptoes and that is where the current scooped me up and almost got me. Luckily I decided to let my belly button get wet and went flat-footed and gained my footing. For a moment thought I pictured myself floating naked past the camp yelling for someone to scoop my clothes and shoes out of the river if they could. Luckily that never happened and I went for an otherwise uneventful walk. Of course I had to cross again to get back to camp ...

It was at this site that, as a group, we all headed up this one side valley that the guide was hoping to do a backpack trip in the coming year. At first we were all meandering back and forth and just grooving on the land. We stopped once and most of the group headed back but the guide wanted to go further and 3 of us followed him. We continued a nice meandering pace for a couple miles I guess until we crested a small rise of land so that the guide could scan the countryside. Naturally we snacked a little. On our way back I was still meandering but everyone else was more or less in a beeline to get back to camp. For me this was all new country since I was seeing it from a different angle. Well the guide looked back to see where I was and I waved (remember I went walking alone everyday and here all I had to do was walk down stream to camp so they went ahead). Not long after I lost sight of the group (small bushes again) I was walking across a gravel bar when all of a sudden I fell asleep walking! My head fell down and then snapped back awake. I wonder what was in the water. I took a step and the same thing happened to me again. Ok. something must be up. My spirit self was telling me to stop for a minute. Now this happened to me years before while in arches national park and it was because a mule deer and her two fawns were coming my way and I needed to wait for them. So I figured something similar was going to happen so I sat down and began to look around. there were bushes down stream and upstream but for the most part I could see miles all around me of nothing but rolling open tundra to the ridge tops. I waited about 15 minutes a little sad that I must have missed it because I saw nothing. Oh well you can't see everything so I might as well enjoy what I can. I was a little hesitant about walking but I felt fine so I continued across the open gravel bar into the bushy area ahead. After the bushy area it opened up into a sand bar and I was following Less's foot prints and he had found a set of very large grizzly tracks and was following them. You see Less print and grizzly print were side by side across the sand bar. It was then that I started to wonder why Less did not point out to the other people this very large and fresh track. Hhmm. I got down close to examine each track. Both had sharp edges, both still had moisture in them. I had taken a few tracking classes (I am not an expert) and these tracks looked both about the same age. Okay I need one track to be on top of the other. Well the tracks did cross but never did they touch. The grizzly walked into and across the stream. The rocks were still wet. I was looking and for tundra I thought you could not miss such a large bear. Of course then you start to notice the thousand and one gullies and hiding places. I confess I decided to make a beeline for camp. When I got back, I asked them if they saw the grizzly tracks (they had not) and how long they had been back (about 25 minutes). I estimated I was about 5 minutes behind them when I fell asleep while walking. The way I see it is that if I had not fallen asleep, my guardian angels way of getting my attention, saved my life as I would have stumbled into a very large grizzly stalking behind my friends. We most likely would have bumped into each other in the bushy section I was about to walk into. Lesson to be learned if your 'instincts tell you to do something LISTEN!

Our last camp with the rafts was where the river made a sharp turn to the northwest. Here we were going to change from rafts to kayaks and lose most of the people. Only 5 of us were going to continue on to the arctic ocean. We all went for a walk up the top of the mountain where we had a great view of the North Slope, the arctic ocean and demarcation bay (our destination). It was so cool to stand and look south towards the high mountains where we started and then turn and look north to where we where headed. What awesome country. We were just hanging out at the summit with a nice stiff breeze blowing when all of sudden it felt like we were getting hit with sleet. It was an army of mountain mosquitoes! We could not believe that they could fly in these windy conditions.

Back at camp waiting around for the plane to come I decided it was time for another walk. As we were getting ready to go (I talked Less into going with me) a large grizzly crossed the river upstream a quarter mile or so. Hmm go for a walk now? Well who knows where he was headed so sure might as well go for a walk. Well the guide thought I should carry some pepper spray with me. Of course he had to tell me how to use it. "You wait till the bear is closer than 10 feet, most likely he will false charge and get closer every time. If he gets closer than 10 feet spray like crazy, aiming for his eyes. Now you have to act fast and run to the side as fast as you can. The spray won't stop the bear just blind him. So you will have a very pissed off but blind bear so run like hell. I took the spray figuring I would be dead if a bear charged.

We did walk away from where we saw the bear and found the tracks of a thousand caribou who had crossed this way a week or so earlier. As we followed the caribou tracks (that was easy as there so many) we found a gully in the tundra. Well you could see in the gully where a large grizzly had laid down to wait for the caribou. I figured the grizzly waited for a caribou because there were a few remains of one not to far away. Very interesting how they hunt. I felt a little safer actually as I hoped the bear was still full. Less was not as optimist like as I was and we decided it best to head back towards camp. this was a really cool spot, the walking was hard as heck with al these little tussocks with water in-between. I looked closely at these little bushes that were scratching my legs when I suddenly realized that we were standing in a birch forest that was only knee high!

Back at camp again we spotted a red fox hunting and we found the fox den where I sat and waited for an hour until the pups came out to play. It was late around one am or so when they finally did. Unfortunately the den was in a shadow and I could not get a picture. I instead simply sat down and watched the pups run around and play :)

Well the plane came left us with some kayaks and re-supplied with some food. Took away most of the group and the coolers, no more steaks :( and left us with some kayaks. We had one single kayak and two double kayaks. I had never been in one before, Less had never been in one and never wanted to be in one (he was originally going to join a group and backpack to demarcation bay but the trip was cancelled). The husband and wife were content to kayak together (I confess they did argue for a little while the first day). Less was not to crazy about going with me, so the guide asked me if I thought I could go by myself in the single. Sure I said, well I guess I can anyway I have never been in one before. So they put me in the kayak and had me paddle up and down the river till I was too tired to do it anymore.

We were all relaxing at the river side getting ready to head to bed soon as we watched a female caribou on the other side of the river. She was pretty curious as to what we where and was walking into the river when she squatted down to pee! Now you know why they say never drink from the streams. It was explained to us that caribou can hold up to 10 pounds of pee (ok I don't remember exactly but I know it was a lot) and when they are nervous they pee so they can run faster if they have to. In any case she looked pretty funny to all of us.

One of the interesting things that we found while traveling down river where places where there were a circle of stones (well oval shaped). These stone circles were remnants of old Inuit campsites. The stones were used to hold down the edges of their tents when the wind blew hard. A lot of the campsites were used over and over again. I wonder what some of our present day campsites will look like in the future!

When we stopped for lunch we took a stroll over the hill side which at this point in the river was a half mile from the rivers edge. The place we hiked to was more of a rocky bluff or cliff side. On the side of the cliff was a hawks nest complete with a little rough legged hawk. The parent did come over and do a fly by and we did not stay long. I took the first picture of the baby and by the time the second person took a picture the baby had turned around and had its tail facing us! Since the baby could see us and did not know what we were it decided to put its face against the cliff and 'hide' from us!

As we continued on after lunch the river turned north again and there were several tern nests close to the rivers edge as evident by the terns attacking us in the boats. they came very close (within 10') to make for some hair raising encounters. We stopped for our evening campsite at a small sand bar when we saw a wolf heading for what looked like a den but turned out to be a shadow. The wolf crested the hill and disappeared. this was an interesting spot to camp as it was on literally on the edge of the foothills as spread out in front of us was the North Slope. About the time we stopped the fog started rolling in over the hills making for some neat shapes in the sky.

On this day, our first day of paddling across the north slope I saw my first Musk Ox! What a creature and boy do they look big when you are down in the river and they are up on the bank. We had stopped to watch a cow moose on the far side of the river but I think she was the one watching us and in her curiosity she walked over to about 20 yards away! It was a very cool site with the moose walking in the shallows and the impressive Brooks range in the background, one I will never forget.

In some places on the north slope there was no bank and the river just spilled out over the tundra. At one point I could see the Arctic Ice pack but in reality it was just a mirage as we were to far away from the Ocean to see it with the curvature of the earth. But it did look really big! Mirages are common in the Arctic and the early explorers had trouble making maps as a mountain would be there one day but by morning it would be gone! If the fog rolled in they never knew it and figured they had been lost.

we found a bank that was dry and make camp. I went for a walk and found out quickly that most of the north slope is pretty much wet. I did see several musk ox way off in the distance and they looked like an old west movie as they were tall and skinny in the hazy distance.

Back at camp I had to stay up to watch the sun 'set' in its circle around the sky. At about 2 am the sun reached its lowest point in the sky still high above the horizon! A very beautiful sun dip(sunset).

However the beauty of the sky in vivid sunset colors meant clouds were rolling in and morning found us in fairly foggy weather that did not clear up for a couple of days. As we continued downstream the stream became harder and harder to follow as there was no longer any discernable channel to follow. It became so hard to paddle we all finally just got out of our boats and walked. This was the first time that I put on my down jacket and insulated hip boots! IT wasn't long before I finally warmed up. The Arctic gets warm with the sun shining 24 hours but take the sun away and add a breeze coming off the arctic ice pack and it gets chilly!

Finally we found ourselves walking in water and no more sand bars and we got back into our boats and before long we hit a patch of land again. This was the barrier reef protecting this lagoon with the Arctic Ocean on the other side! I was out of the boat in no time and ran over the small patch of rocky beach to stand in the Arctic Ocean on top of a big chunk of ice!

The ocean had a bunch of small cool looking ice flows then a big expanse of open water and then the arctic ice pack about a mile off shore. We all took a walk on the pebbly beach. There were a couple of flowers and some grasses trying to take hold but mostly there were tons of big trees! Now we just came down the whole river never seeing a tree much larger than I but now there were trunks 50 feet long and 2 feet in diameter. They come 500 miles from Canada's Mackenzie river and the ocean currents have spread them all along the beach!

While pausing to rest we saw our first seal 'pop' up in the broken ice chunks on shore and check us all out :) then plump back in the water not to be seen again. A very cool couple of seconds. Since this lagoon gets washed over in every storm plus the abundance of firewood we enjoyed our first and only fire this foggy night. It was also a cold night with the temperatures dipping into the low 30's!

the next day was still foggy as could be and as we paddled east in the protected lagoon it got real small with most of the lagoon still being frozen. there was a small path of open water through ice only about 4 ft wide. At one point the lead kayak had to break the ice so we could all get through. This was a cold day. We camped on barrier reef again. We were to cold and tired to even build a fire as the fog, cold and wind drove us to our tents early. We did see a nice set of arctic fox tracks and I looked but never found the maker of those tracks.

Morning brought no relief to the cold and fog but as the day wore on the fog started to thin. We saw an old shelter on a high point so we stopped and checked it out. The log structure had been used by a family in the mid 1900 +- and was about 4-5 feet about ground with the ground dug out about 2 feet so you could actually stand up straight. The one room was about 12 by 12 maybe (hard to remember now) and had been recently used by a grizzly (evidence in tracks and fur left behind). this cabin was at the edge of Demarcation Bay. AS we paddled along the bay the sun came out and the skies overhead cleared. We saw lots of ducks in the bay (couple hundred). The sun became so bright I had to get my sunglasses out. Of course they were located in the bag I was sitting on! the other two kayaks supported my kayak so that I could stand up, get my glasses and sit back down :)

There was a mirage of ice to the east of ice that looked really neat and to the west you could see a very big thunder storm! We paddled to our final camping spot located along a medium stream that flowed into the bay. There were millions of caribou tracks (keep in mind each caribou does have 4 feet) along the beach crossing the river and across the tundra. I had never seen so many tracks before.

There were also a lot of wolf tracks along the beach and after setting up camp I went for a walk along the beach. As the caribou crossed the river the river picked up their shedding hair and deposited it along the banks, tons of it. The beach walk was great as the skies had cleared and the temperature had warmed up. the bay was calm and reflecting the brilliantly blue skies. It was just beautiful.

Along the beach when you looked towards the tundra bluff you could see the perma frost (permanently frozen ground) it was ... well I guess you have to see it as it is hard to explain but it was cool (in more ways than one :) I heard and saw a lot of birds up on the tundra so I decided to walk 'up' on the tundra for awhile leaving the beach. I came back to the beach when I hit a spot of standing water. When I got back to the beach I notice this huge spot of damp sand. This was were a grizzly bear had recently been lying on the beach. the tracks leaving looked about as fresh as the tracks I was putting down! (both were still damp, sharp edges) The grizzly bear had been watching me walk up the beach and when I went up onto the tundra had got up to follow me! I thanked the spirits for keeping me safe and went the other way (away from camp) to check out a cabin on the other side of the small pond.

the cabin was really large 20 square or so with the logs squared on the inside! This is when I saw the plane fly overhead and then leave. Since the sun was just in the wrong position the pilot could not see us. He was going to camp with us for the night but since he could not see us in the light conditions he came back in the morning to pick us up.

As I came back to the beach (remember the grizzly spot) I saw some fresh wolf tracks going over top of my prints! Sure enough a minute later I saw the wolf trotting along the beach then up on to the tundra and out of my site :) It was very cool. I finally made it back to camp (it was to gorgeous to rush) and I made it back around 1 am. As I reached my tent I saw something walking across the tundra close to camp, it was a wolverine! Everyone was sleeping in there tents so I said if anyone is awake check out this wolverine, most everyone had just got in there tents and did come out to watch this interesting critter amble by.

Well this was going to be the last night or camp in the tundra so I did not want to go to bed so I walked out to the beach again and watched the sun dip to its lowest point and then start its arch back up into the sky. What an awesome place.

Well before I knew it I heard the plane, the plane (fantasy island dream?) and realized I had to get up and pack up my gear. the plane was Big otter plane that was much larger than the little Cessna that I had flown in on. the otter goes slow but was comfy and roomy. AS we flew over the tundra we could see for the first time the mouth of the kongakut where it had been nothing but fog when we had paddled it. We saw several groups of Musk ox as well. We landed in Barrows Alaska where we switched to the more commercial life (there was an airport instead of a gravel bar) and it was back to home to Fairbanks.

I stayed with the Footes in Fairbanks for a couple more days before leaving on the midnight flight to Anchorage. In Anchorage it was dark for the first time since arriving in Alaska. By 6 am I was in Seattle and still basking in the glory of the Arctic. If you have a chance to go I HIGHLY RECOMEND you go. Happy trails :)