Day to Meet the Girls at Circle Lake

Or  . . . the title to this might have been:  Flummoxed and Defeated by Beavers.

But that story is still to come.

The advantage to the return trip to Circle Lake is our packs are lighter!   The food is nearly gone.  All eaten, and damn good it was.  It's time for "resupply" of food, and even better - Glenda and Mary Louise are arriving complete with food and rafts for stage two of our trip.  Of course, the best part is to see our wives!

First we have to get there.   We go a different way, but in the end, we find that there is no good way to get from Arrigetch Creek to Circle Lake.  You still have tussocks, mosquitoes, marsh and bog, brush, and other fun stuff.  But, there is always a bright spot.  Here is one - the sun shining through white birch bark setting off an orange glow in a sea of green.

We get to the right spot on Circle Lake and the day picks up speed.  Although we had seen lots of moose poop and tracks, we hadn't seen a real animal in person.  Literally 3 minutes after we dropped our packs at what we were sure was the right spot, Ashley says, "I hear a plane!  Maybe it's Mom and Mary Louise."  Just after that, Joey says, "Hey, there's a moose!" 

Ashley and I run down to where Bob and Joey are hanging out by the Lake.  Joey was right!  There's a real moose.

Then, we see the plane fly by behind us.  It has the distinctive yellow and blue colors of Brooks Mountain Aviation.  It banks its wings in a tight turn and comes back our way.  It's the girls!  But what about the moose?

It flies low and there goes the moose in the bottom of right side of the picture.  What you can't see is that it is followed by two more meese skeedaddling for all they are worth. 

But it works and after another circle (is that why it's called Circle Lake?), the plane lands and it's great to see Mary Louise and Glenda.

They bring more food and two rafts.

In amazingly short order, we've had some lunch, the rafts are blown up, gear is packed and loaded, and we're off.  Now how do we get out of here?

Dan, the pilot, said go by the beaver house.  So we did.

It was the biggest beaver pond/lake/ocean that I ever saw.  Those beavers had cut off every possible exit to the Alatna River. 

How do we get out of this pond?

Yep, you figured it out.  Carry all our stuff, including the rafts, the 200 yards from the beaver pond to the Alatna River - amid numerous mosquitoes to keep us company.

But, we did it and got on the river - and headed for the first sandbar to feast on fresh steaks that Mary Louise and Glenda had brought. 

What a great change from freeze dried food - and we were on the river for a nice leisurely float!