Unlike most of our Yellowstone backpacking trips, our northern Alaska adventures are all off trail, simply because in most of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the only trails are those created by the hoofs of caribou and other 4-legged animals. Also, we access our hiking areas by airplane (we work with a really great bush pilot, Kirk Sweetsir of Yukon Air Service), whereas on our guided Yellowstone hiking tours, we simply drive folks right to the trail head. This years’ Arctic treks were wonderful. Our two early June groups experienced wonderful mild sunny weather for the entire week, with almost no mosquitoes (they typically hatch in mid-June). The three women and I experienced one dinner-time rain shower for about an hour and that was all the precipitation we endured! Spring wildflower blooms on the mountain tundra were spectacular, with hillsides covered by Lapland rosebay (a dwarf Arctic rhododendron with spectacular magenta blooms), Arctic dryad, lupine and many more colorful wildflowers. And over the course of the week the tundra greened up before our very eyes. My group watched for nearly an hour as a grizzly foraged on a hillside directly across a small stream from one of our camps, and we saw a wolverine as we were breaking camp on the last morning. David’s group saw a lot of Dall sheep and caribou and experienced the same wonderful weather, as our hiking routes were not too far from one another, including a few miles of overlap on the last day. The timing was staggered by a day, though, with David’s crew (all from Colorado) beginning and ending a day earlier than mine.
For lucky me, it was back to Alaska late in August for the Custom Trip with the two men from Missouri. One of them had been backpacking in Yellowstone with us a few years ago, and for these adventuresome fellows I planned a route in a part of the Arctic Refuge that I had never visited. We saw caribou nearly every day. Spectacular autumn tundra colors exploded as the week progressed. We ascended and crossed at least 5 different mountain passes, and though the weather was pretty good for most of the week, we began and ended the trek in cold rain. And on the 8th day we were glad when we spotted Kirk’s Cessna approaching the landing area under the thickening lowering rain-clouds. With fresh salmon awaiting at my favorite restaurant in Fairbanks, we were happy to be in the air, though at the same time sad that this wonderful trek had come to an end.
