BIG DAY: Return to Civilization, Part II

We arrive in Bettles about 5:30 p.m. - a good 4 hours after the others.  Glenda tells us how the plane was loaded with lumber and building materials for a remote lodge - where the plane went before it picked us up.

Glenda greeted us and escorted us to the "Bunkhouse" and associated real bathrooms and showers!  A shower feels good after 11 days without one.  Then we joined the rest of the group on the porch of the classic Bettles Lodge.

The sun shone on us, most of the mosquitoes were behind a screen, and we had beer and real food served to us on a plate!  Luxury!  The cards are out and we're all holding our ears from the noise.  The refueling station is where you see the red and white crosshatch.

Not only that, we had entertainment.  There was a forest fire (started from the town dump, a typical problem in Alaska) in Allakaket.  The planes in the picture on the left are fire fighting planes new to Alaska, Fire Boss AT802.  The plane can and scoop up 800 gallons of water in a minutes and then dump it on the fire.  The three planes flew in so the pilots could have dinner.





Unfortunately, I don't have a picture, but various helicopters landed to refuel.  Helicopters were delivering scientific parties to study road conditions between Bettles the Dalton Highway, through Bettles, and all the way to Ambler for Governor Parnell's "mining road."  (The short article here will fill you in if you're interested.  More on this later when I tell you about the Dalton Highway in later posts.)

By this time, Bettles was running out of aviation fuel.  Time to get some more!  Just fly it in!

It was 8 p.m. before the fuel plane showed up - flown in from Fairbanks by the Everts Air Fuel company.  But you have to remember it is the second longest day of the year - not only that, but above the Arctic Circle the sun never sets anyway.

I thought this was a DC-3, but it's a C46 as identified by a classmate of Mary Louise.  

Mary Louise took a picture of the logo on the side of the plane which we all appreciated.  After that, ML wandered around the planes and helicopters talking to all the pilots and fuelpeople. Luckily she didn't get run over.








By this time it was getting late and it had been a long day.  Ashley was the first to peel off to bed, followed by Bob and Glenda.  Mary Louise had Joey on the ropes in an exciting game of gin rummy, but he escaped with a win.  I was a woeful last.

The mosquito ridden "bunkhouse" without opening windows was a bust.  Half of us pitched a tent in the yard sometime well after midnight to get some sleep.  At least you don't have to have a headlamp to set it up.  So much for civilization.

What a great day.  I'll leave you with another great airplane, the DeHavilland Beaver.  Production of this plane ended in 1967 - and there are still lots of them flying.  Alaska wouldn't be the same without the Beaver workhorse.  Here it takes off from Malemute Fork with 2 rafts, 4 adults, and lots of gear.   Get out your earplugs.  See you later!

BIG DAY - WE RETURN TO CIVILIZATION Part I!!!

 This was a big day.  In fact, there have been a few days in my life that make a deep impression on my psyche as "classically Alaskan" - events or time reflect characteristics of the unique State that we live in and will stay with me for a long time.  This is one of those days.   

If you're an experienced adventurer, you're wondering whether we were really getting anywhere on the river and how we're going to get out of there and return to civilization.  Actually, we were wondering the same thing!  We were supposed to get picked up by Brooks Range Aviation (yep, go with them - they were really nice to us) at Malemute Fork at 10 a.m. in the morning.  But . . . we weren't going to make it despite our best efforts.

Up at 6 a.m. and a record time getting ready - probably because of the prevalence of mosquitoes.

It's routine.  Lather suncreen before the 99% deet bug spray with a final spriz from the pressurized "BUG DEFOGGING" spray can.  I'm starting to like it!

Another beautiful day!  The Alatna river is widening and the terrain is flattening out even more.  We can still see mountains in the background.

MODERN TECHNOLOGY can be a relief in more ways than one.  I'll choose this one today: Satphones.

Ashley is doing all the work calling Brooks Range Aviation while the rest of us are standing around "with our teeth in our mouth" (as our father used to say).


One of the best parts was that we were tagging along on Joey and Ashley's trip!! They had to do the organizing work!! And they did it well.

Thanks, Ashley and Joey.

WE DID IT - fighting through gale winds, hot sun, and mosquitoes.  We arrive at Malemute Fork where the a tributary of the Alatna River joins the Alatna.  But, exactly where do the planes pick us up?  That is the million dollar question.  We check the pick up description that Ashley very carefully wrote down 10 days ago.  Then MODERN TECHNOLOGY shows up again and Joey relents and checks his handheld GPS for the longitude and latitude that Ashley also carefully recorded 10 days ago.  The directions don't coincide with the GPS.  Time to use the Satphone.  We're there!  Right where we should be!   (As an aside, the 6 of us experienced a previous trip where it wasn't quite so easy, but that's a whole different story.)

We had time to take a picture.  Everyone always makes fun of me for my "camera teetering on some log time delay pictures," but this one turned out pretty nice.  Mary Louise is ready for the mosquitoes.

  Rafts deflated and rolled up, gear packed for the plane, lunch eaten, and we were ready.  Most of us are now quite excited about taking a shower.   It wasn't too long before the red and white showed up.    Chuck the gear in the plane and away they went.

Mary Louise and I volunteered for the second flight.    Mary Louise and I were careful to keep bear spray, bug spray, a stove to heat water, and some Starbucks packets.  Fortunately, the peach schnapps was all gone. 

A couple of hours later, the DeHavilland beaver showed up for us.  We didn't even need the bear spray.   If you haven't flown in a beaver, you're missing something.  Make sure you have your ear plugs when you do.

Stay tuned for Part II coming up!

Day 3 on the Alatna: SOLSTICE!!!

Ashley and Joey had been planning on a fine solstice celebration since we started.  In fact, we had been sipping on the peach schnaps, courtesy of Ashley and Joey, in anticipation of June 21 since the beginning of our trip.  Yes, peach schnaps - but better yet, it was contained in some kind of peach water bottle or something - peach on peach.  I wouldn't touch it at home, but is tasted surprisingly good on the hike!

We decided since the solstice was a special day that we'd get up at 5:30 a.m. and see some animals.  We'd certainly seen the tracks, but we were short on real sightings.  Yep, saw one duck and called it good.

Beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky - but the wind started right away.  Although people tend to exaggerate wind speed, it had to have been between 15 and up to 30 miles per hour in the gusts.  We paddled hard for 2 hours, lay on a sand bar for half an hour, and paddled for 2 hours again - and again - and again.  At our ages, I thought we were quite studly.  We still needed a rest.  Whew!  I thought this was going to be a float, not a paddle.

Look at that sky.

 At least when the wind blew, the mosquitoes were fewer.








The river started to change character as we left the mountains.  We saw many more birch trees, rocky shores, and the river banks were higher.

After a long day of paddling, we had a solstice feast of couscous, chicken, decaf coffee with Baileys, and Joey and Ashley's river cooled cheesecake. 

Then it was time to wipe the sand off the feet and go to bed!  After all, there's not much difference in solstice light when it's light 24 hours a day anyway!!!

HAPPY SOLSTICE!!!   May your feet be washed and clean!

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.

HOT HOT HOT

It is always amazing what I fail to think about.  I just never considered that Mary Louise and I would be literally sweltering in our tent above the Arctic Circle deep in the mountains in the Brooks Range.  But we were last night - until midnight, in fact.  We had been under the spell of a mountain ridge to the north of us while up near the Arrigetch mountains - which blocked the sun and dropped the temperature about 9 p.m.  Not here on the river.  We sweated in our underwear on the top of our sleeping bags until midnight.  By morning, Mary Louise was cold inside her lighter sleeping bag.

I can't say how the day dawned because the sun never set.  But we woke up to a glorious sunny day nearly free of any clouds.

The Alatna River is a pretty river draining a section of the Brooks Range.  It has a "Wild and Scenic" designation and eventually drains into the Koyukuk.

We were "floating" a four day section where the mountains of the Brooks Range disappear.

The river carried some silt, but it was still pretty clear and it didn't fill up our water filter with gunk.

We stopped for lunch on this sandbar to keep company with a caribou backbone and antlers.

We saw lots of animal signs: moose tracks and poop, wolf tracks, bear tracks and poop, beaver chewings, rabbit tracks.  But this was one of our most exciting visual confirmations - a lynx that we caught walking along the riverbank.  When he/she saw us, it took a good eight foot leap up off the water.  Then it just sat there looking at us as we drifted past.  Fun.




In the afternoon, the wind came up and it was tough paddling.

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!

Day Hike #2: Left and Left and the SUN!

 I had been above the Arctic Circle before, but hadn't spent any time there.  And, I did know that we were in the "Land of the Midnight Sun."  But, I was unprepared for the whirling feeling of the sun going round and round and round in a circle - and its omnipresence.   It just doesn't let you up - it just keeps beating on you.

I lucked out on my outdoor gear.  I feel confident in what goes in my backpack in Southeast Alaska - good raingear and clothes that are warm when wet being the most important items.  But Alaska is so huge with different environments that I felt very confused when I packed my gear to go to the Brooks Range.  According to the National Park Service, precipitation averages between 8 and 18 inches, depending on whether you are on the east or west side of the Range.

I was prepared for the light, but I wasn't prepared for the heat.  With the sun shining so much of the time, sometimes it was downright hot!  I also didn't really think about the fact that the air was dry!  It was downright easy to wash and dry clothes!  It felt more like Utah or Arizona than Alaska.

On the other hand, it did cool off between 10 p.m. and midnight.  In fact, the first night we were at base camp, there was frost on the backpack covers. 

A laundry tree!  It doesn't take long to dry.











It still feels good carrying just a day pack.

They look a lot happier than with their big packs on, huh?

Today was a bit steeper, but still nice climbing.  It was rough and tiring, however, to continually hop and balance from rock to rock.

A rain squall interrupted a well deserved lunch.  We crawled under a big rock and it was definitely more pleasant.  Some people say I was born under a rock . . .

It was fun to watch the water cascade and drain off the big granite cliffs. 

Day Hike #1 - Up the Left Fork

The Arrigetch Mountains are unique in their granite faced cliffs.  This was our goal - to check them out.  The picture below is a attempt at a panorama.  You get the idea, anyway.

You can't see this picture on the right very well, but it gives you some idea.  Our base camp is labeled.  If you follow the Arrigetch Creek (proceed left and down on the map), you can see it forks soon after our base camp.

We had four days for four days hikes.  Today we decided to go up the left fork of the creek and then go up the valley on the right when the creek forked again.

It felt good to be walking with just a day pack!

The day was beautiful!

The falls on the right are mirror imaged by a big snowbank next to it. 

We walked up the stream to a series of frozen lakes. 

Looking back the way we came.

It was amazing to see various caribou horns and poop from years previous.  I assume that the caribou poop was from the fall before and was well preserved.  Maybe freeze dried?
I couldn't figure out why caribou would be up this high, but Ashley set me straight - getting away from mosquitoes.  She said they they go high on the mountain ridges to escape the devil bugs.

This gives you an idea of the "big country" nature of the area.  You just can't tell how big or how far distances are.  It's just big.

Here's our lunch spot.  Nice view.

"Up the Creek" to Basecamp

To be honest, although exciting, the first day of walking was miserable.  By the time we started out in Fairbanks, done all the organization and repacking and getting ready in Bettles, and arrived at Circle Lake, I was tired.  In my mind, our packs were HEAVY with bear barrels of food and all the other stuff you think you need.  Plus, we were met right away with mosquitoes - although we were lucky there was a breeze for awhile.  In fact, little be known, the outside screening of our tent was crowded with mosquitoes, and I was thinking that this was going to be a LONG 7 days.  Fortunately, in my old age I've worked hard at the realization that everything is temporal.  In other words, what I think I know will certainly change.  And it did. 

I got up in the middle of the night to pee, and voila!  This picture was taken at 2:48 a.m.

We are now above the Arctic Circle and it's truly the "Land of the Midnight Sun."






Joey and Ashley eat some oatmeal while looking back at where we had come from.  The mosquitoes had departed - for the most part anyway.  No headnets is a good sign.

But the walking was still difficult.  First of all was the occasional stretches of tussocks.  More about that later. 

Secondly, was the walking on rocks that you can see on the picture.  To the right is the Arrigetch Creek.  In the background is our goal - the Arrigetch Mountains.

Thirdly, we did find a "path," but the path is rough - to say the least. 

We found a really nice rock to eat lunch next to the clear and cold Arrigetch Creek.  Not a human, as far as we know, for miles and miles.  Nice.

A little brushy too. . . which is a little nerve racking - particularly for the person in front.  If you haven't followed bear tracks into thick brush where you can barely see in front of you, you have yet to live life to its fullest!

The stream crossings were fine, but slowed us down periodically.  The water is cold if you take the wrong step. 



Ashley and Joey were bright eyed and bushy tailed when we finally made it to the fork in the Arrigetch Creek.  Bob and I were a little less so . . . 

All in all, it was a great day.

Getting there, Day 2!!

After a day of Alaska Airlines 737 jets, it was nice to switch airplanes.  Alaska is a flying state, since it's so big.  I still love flying in a small airplane where you can see where you're going.

We live in a rain forest in Southeast Alaska.  May and the first week of June had been cold cold cold.  I'm not sure it had gotten above 50 degrees in the last 5 weeks.  It was a shock to be in Fairbanks and 80 degree weather.  I had to take this picture.  It's gonna be hot!

First, 170 miles northwest and an hour from Fairbanks to Bettles on a Cessna caravan - a great little plane.  Now we're above the arctic circle.

Small towns are small towns, but Alaska small towns are often in the middle of nowhere.  Bettles sure is, but they have a nice airstrip built in the late 1930's.  It was originally settled by Mr. Bettles who made his fortune selling things to gold miners.  You can just barely see the mountains of the Brooks Range in the back of this photo.

Don't worry, you can drive there on an "ice road" in the winter - about 8 hours to Fairbanks in minus zero temperatures.

We are met by friendly Brooks Range Aviation staff and a collection of other vehicles and people.  No security buffer here, thank God.

We're also met by hordes of mosquitoes.  Out come the headnets and DEET.  Spread it on thick!


The National Park Service has a very nice building in Bettles. You're required to do "training" and carry your food in "bear barrels."  We did the training thing and got our bear barrels.  Doggone things seemed awful heavy to me and aren't made to be packed on or in a backpack.

Then we board all our gear in a 1956 de Havilland Beaver aircraft and with a deafening roar, off we go.  An hour later, we land on Circle Lake along the upper Alatna River. 

 

Throw our gear onto land, make sure we get the gas for the stoves and the two bear spray canisters from the pontoon and Dan, our pilot, shoves off.

With a roar, Dan is off and we're left alone.  And I mean really alone.  Bettles is the nearest "civilization" at 120 miles - and there aren't any services there either.



We have nothing to do but shrug into our heavy packs and hope for the best.