The Arctic, Alaska

Polar bear near Kaktovik, Barter Island

Yep, that'd be rafting in the snow - Hulahula River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Weather is everything in Alaska. This was confirmed by our trip to the North Slope of Alaska, rafting the Hulahula River and visiting Kaktovik, a native village on Barter Island. Bad weather flight delays meant that it took two days to get to where we started rafting. Cool weather in August meant low water flows, so our start point was much further down the river than hoped. And then we had several days of floating the river and camping in driving rain, snow and fog!

We did however score some great memories and enjoy some fine weather days along the way. We travelled with Dan, our guide, master-rafter and source of all sorts of useful knowledge and perspectives gained from a decade or so in the environment movement and a lot of rafting trips.

Our only successful daywalk was a great one - we trekked up to an unnamed sub-peak of Mount Kikitat, which we dubbed "Little Mt Kikitat". The views were fabulous, looking back into the Brooks Range (the northernmost mountain range in the USA) with its snowy peaks and glaciers, and out over the Sadlerochit Range and the vast North Slope towards the Beaufort Sea. On the way up, we found ourselves beatified, getting the dandiest rainbow-haloes as we passed through light cloud. The top of Little Mt Kikitat is definitely a contender for coolest lunch spot ever.

View from "Little Mt Kikitat"

Later in the trip we also had superb views of the Brooks Range from the extensive coastal plain – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It's amazing to be able to see so much of a range like that.

Brooks Range from the Hulahula River

Moonrise over the Brooks Range from the coastal plain

Grizzly bear-watching (from a distance) was great (although the buggers are not very photogenic), and we were pleased that there were still small groups of caribou about, trailing the main herd that headed south some time ago. Early one morning, Alex S spotted a beautiful black wolf trotting by our tent. It stopped, looked at us for some time, then continued trotting by.

Wolf!

And then there were the polar bears! Enormous! Kaktovik was supposed to have lots of polar bears, gathered to feast on the carcass of a whale that the native villagers (Anupiat) were supposed to have caught (traditional/subsistence hunting exception to international anti-whaling rules) by the time we got there. But whaling is another one of those weather things. The hunt was delayed because of poor weather, then again because of the death of an elder. This meant that there were just a few polar bears around, waiting for the whale to arrive. It was actually almost more amazing to see that the polar bears were there, waiting, on the basis of what's happened in previous years at the same time. We were just happy to have seen some polar bears (in case they become extinct!).

A visit to Kaktovik is quite a cultural experience. It's a real end-of-the-world place, accessible only by air or boat. The people are friendly, and we stayed in the "Waldo Arms", which has bucketloads of character and characters.

The Waldo Arms

Unexpected bonuses were a mini-lecture and photo show from a glaciologist from the University of Alaska, and Alex S managing to join a short mission to rescue a crashed plane, which involved a free scenic flight! We also did some industrial tourism, visiting the nearby KIC-1 site, where an iron pipe marks the only oil well ever drilled into the bedrock beneath the Refuge. It was drilled by Chevron in 1986, at a cost of $40 million, and the results have never been released!

Plane (not one we travelled on) in need of rescue

Alex taking photos of Dan at the KIC-1 drilling well for his office back at the Sierra Club

Camp on a nice day

Alex and Dan in camp, taking refuge on a not-so-good day

An ermine as surprised to see Alex G as Alex G was to see it

Super-healthy looking fox

Caribou

Snow on the coastal plain as the weather finally came good

Luckily we'd not registered that this story, which we knew, related to the Hulahula River (and even luckier that our parents had never read it at all?)!: www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/203985.html

The folks we did our rafting / Barter Island trip with:
http://www.arcticwild.com/schedule/itineraries/2009/hulahula.html