Day 2 on the Alatna, Grit on the Face

Mary Louise got the sunny side of the tent.  It was so hot, she got up and waded around the glacial river to cool off.  Then, back in the tent, she just fell asleep when the wind blew a raging barrage of grit and sand into her face.  Nice wake up - everything in the tent and on our bodies was covered with silt.

This picture shows a sand/grit storm earlier in the day.  The wind was howling!   Try to paddle against that stuff!

In fact, we were exhausted from paddling.  We paddled hard for an hour or more, and then landed on a sandbar and did what you see here on the left.


Whew!

The river curled from one side of the valley to the other and seemed to go nowhere.  Or at least we didn't seem to be going anywhere, but I guess the river did. 

We found a nice place to camp on a sandbar that wasn't too windy but out of most of the mosquitoes.  Joey cut himself a willow branch and tied some light fishing line and a fly on to it and caught himself some fish!  What an angler!

Nice setting to fish in, huh? 

Joey catches an arctic grayling.  The coloring was very pretty.  The picture certainly doesn't do it justice.