Doin' the Hulahula...A Packrafting Trip Through ANWR

Ed's planning, great weather and some of Alaska's finest country made our 140 mile arctic traverse one that I won't forget soon. The traverse began in the upper Sheenjek River drainage on the south side of the Brooks Range and took us up and over the continental divide and down into the headwaters of the Hulahula drainage. We walked along the Hulahula until we thought that we could put our boats in the water...which proved to be a bit premature. Once we reached the confluence of the Itkilik and the Hulahula we had an eventful float into the arctic coastal plain. From there we hiked across some open tundra to position ourselves for a paddle across a small stretch of the Arctic Ocean and over to Barter Island for one last hike into the Native Village of Kaktovik. Enjoy the pictures...I know I enjoyed the adventure and the company!

many of these photos are taken by Ed Plumb

I am feeling really good about the week ahead of me...nothing but hiking, paddling and enjoying the north for 8 days. Big medicine.

The hiking was really nice for the most part but we had a few challenging river crossings once we started to gain elevation.

This one of the nameless glaciers in the upper Sheenjek Valley.

This is my attempt at Arctic Art...I call it "Sheep Turds on Purple Rocks"

Descending off the back of the continental divide.

Ann gets a good stretch in in the morning before we break camp and head down to see the Hulahula for the first time.

Robin looks mighty happy while she enjoys the blue skies and nice hiking.

We saw this big old bruin while we were enjoying a break. Once he came across our scent he spun around a headed in the other direction.

A couple of caribou antlers in a great valley.

Once we reached confluence of the Hulahula and the Itkilik it was time to inflate the boats again start the paddle towards the coast. We had attempted to float ealier but the water was really fast and we ended up pulling out.

Ed's having a good time.

I'm enjoying some quite water on the river.

Ann powers through a big hole.

Chris and Robin dry off some cloths after a day on the river.

A Dall Sheep lamb and ewe.

Chris rides a wave.

We took a few hours and went on a day hike to see if we could get some better views of Mt. Mikelson. We did not get quite high enough to see the big mountain but the hiking was great and it was nice to break up the paddling.

Ed enters the supposed canyon.

Ann and I scout out a rapid toward the end of the canyon.

A good looking red sun.

Some cotton grass on the tundra.

I think this was the first time that any of us had ever paddled in the Arctic Ocean.

The Brooks Range loomed behind us as we walked along the Barter Island coast.

We walked into the Village of Kaktovic ready to find the diner and enjoy a greasy breakfast made to order.

The two white blobs in the middle of this picture are Polar Bears. They had been napping and cleaning up the bones from a recent Buluga whale harvest.

Here is a beautiful shot looking south at the North American continent. The last night of the trip was spent on Barter Island. Although it always feels good to accomplish the goal that was set back in the planning process, it is always hard to leave the carefree nature of a pack trip behind.

Road Trippin' with Magan

Magan and I had a couple of great three day weekends in July. It started with some hiking on Donelly Dome, rafting on the Gulkana River, fishing on the Klutina River and camping all along the way. A few weekends later we were able to sneak out of the country for some good times in Dawson City, Yukon at the annual music festival.



On the way down to the Gulkana we stopped at Donelly Dome and hiked up to the top of the booblike feature. It was a really nice evening and paved the way for an excellent trip.


We blew up the packrafts and enjoyed a nice paddle down the Gulkana River.




We ultimately paddled across the Klutina River to a super secret spot in search of King Salmon. It was another beautiful evening but the Kings did not cooperate. We did avoid being skunked by landing a grayling on the last cast of the night.


Two weekends later we landed in Dawson City. Dawson is one of my favorite places in the circumpolar region...and it did not disappoint on this visit.

This is one of the many sweet venues offered at the festival.

Magan and I went for a hike along Moosehide Slide and up to the top of the dome. We ultimately had to hitch a ride back to town after we took a wrong turn somewhere.

The fireweed along the Top of the World Highway was in full bloom and the berry picking was not too shabby either. All in all those were two of the best weekends of this quick summer for me.

Mother Nature Flexes Her Muscles

The small town Eagle was hit hard by an ice jam and subsequent flooding from the Yukon River. Ice bergs backed up against fast ice in front of town and the water levels continued to jump until the jam finally broke loose. But not before the old native village of Eagle was totally destroyed and many other homes and businesses in the newer town of Eagle met the same disastrous fate.

The second story picture window of Charlie House's B&B was smashed out by this ice berg. All of Charlie's handcrafted buildings were displaced and ruined. He plans on cutting them up with a chainsaw and burning them in place.

A displaced cabin in amongst the jumble ice.

The folks that put up this memorial lost their home and all of their vehicles.

This was were first street used to be. It was totally covered in ice and had pushed all of the homes up and off of their foundations.

The Eagle school wore many hats...it acted as a homeless shelter, chow hall, supply exchange, Op's office and the meeting hall. I was very impressed by the quality of leadership in the school and the way the community hung in there.

The scope of work that I dealt with was spill response and tank recovery. Here we were extracting an over turned fuel truck tanker.

My co-worker looks on as Great Northwest contractors begin to work their way through the jumble ice on their way the the Holland-America Cruise ship.

The multimillion dollar ship was jammed into a precarious position. Holland-America is spending a ton of money to get the ship dislodged and ready for the tourist season.

Our contractors work at extracting a tank that was located out in the ice field.

I found this poem nailed to an old cabin and thought that it was fairly fitting for the current situation.

Back to the Slope for Bou

Early April usually has some time blocked out on my calander for a trip up north of the Brooks Range to hunt caribou. My freezer had just run out of wild red meat so the timing could not have been better. Luke and I postponed the trip to try to elude some really cold weather, but when we finally arrived the temperatures where still not exacly warm with the lows in the -20's we were more interested in harvesting caribou than going for a ski tour.



Long shadows on the wind slab

We harvested four caribou out of a small herd. Pictured, is Luke and I with a nice cow.

Part of the herd skidattled once we started shooting. This photo gives a decent perspective of the enormity of the country.

A blade of icy cotton grass.

We made it back to the truck with our load of caribou before the sun set on our third day of the trip. This gave us enough time to get to Cold Foot for a Trucker Special before midnight.

The Slope did not disappoint once again!

96 Miles in 69 Hours

Back in January Ed talked me into taking some time off from the building project and getting out on a ski. It seemed like a great idea, but a wild chinook blew in and brought with it some extra challanging conditions. The trails were icy, my conditioning was horrible, but the trip was great.

Skiing up windy gap


Enjoying some time inside after a long day on the trail.


We got to enjoy a few miles of fast overflow on our way down this drainage.


More overflow...there was no shortage of ice on this trip.










Once we got back into the limestone peaks of the White Mountains the surrounding landscape was phenominal.

There were some failry long stretches of very boney trails...it did not feel like interior Alaska in January.


The conditions on top of the pass were incredible...no wind and the temps hoovered around freezing.



Melting snow and drying gear in one of the cabins

John is melting in some binder wax in an attempt to get his wax to stick around for longer periods on the icy trails.




It has been a while since I have posted anything and the recallection of the some of the details associated with this trip have already left, but I do recall being refreshed by the challange and time spent with good friends in some great country.

Long Time, No Blog.

It has been a while since I have updated my blog. Life has been good and steady progress is being made on the house. The photo from above is how things looked when I left for my brothers wedding in mid-October. The next few pictures bring the place up to date. I still have a ton of work to do before I can call the place finished, but I can certainly see a light at the end of the tunnel. I just had the last of my electrical work finished and should be installing kitchen cabinets around Christmas. Once the cabinets are in I can get the water system started...no more outhouse by mid-January!

Utility closet.

Carpeted stairs, painted kitchen, partially finished floors, dry wall...things are moving along!


Ptarmigan on the Dome-

Josie retrieves a snow chicken for us as we finish up an afternoon of bird hunting.
We have had a few fun outings and we have had enough success to experiment with some fun ptarmigan recipes.

More Fun at Tolavana-

Dayna, the dogs and I walked into Tolovana Hot Springs to meet up with some friends. The weather was fairly brutal, serving up wind chills below -50 degrees. It was certainly a adventure and I think we all had fun.

Dayna is trying to protect her exposed skin on the dome.


We were treated with some great views and a nice sunset as we headed out of the back country.