Gates of the Arctic

Thu August 16- Preparation day for our Gates of the Arctic (GotA) trip; a 10 day trip with 5 days of hiking and 5 days of canoeing. In addition to our groceries we bought bear-spray and a fishing rod (we even got a little lesson at the store). Back at the campsite we packed our bags and prepared our food (always a lot of work). It was a very pleasant day and after dinner we ate a pint of icecream from a great local icecream place :)

Hanging out on the runway in Bettles (the hangar in red)

Fri August 17- Day 1 GotA - Early 530am rise, packed up the tent, had breakfast and went to the Fairbanks airport. Wright's Air flew us in a Cessna Grand Caravan to Bettles where we arrived a little after 9am. Bettles is a small town (basically an air-strip) in the Brooks Range, a mountain range north of the Arctic Circle. The people from Brooks Range Aviation (they flew us into the Gates of the Arctic National Park and provided the canoe) welcomed us on the runway. After an orientation at the National Parks visitor center the waiting began. The weather was not great so Brooks Range could not fly us out. We spent the day talking to other people (hikers, canoers, hunters also waiting to get out into the park) and saw a movie about the Brooks Range at the visitor center. By late afternoon it became clear we were not flying out that day and we setup our tent in the Brooks Range hangar. We had a beer at the Bettles Lodge and dinner in the hangar.

LB co-pilot in the float plane

Sat August 18- Day 2 GotA - The weather in Bettles was better today, but there was quite a back-up at Brooks Range Aviation and so did not fly out till about 5 pm. During the day we went for a walk (found the river where we would paddle back on into Bettles), had lunch at the Bettles Lodge and saw another movie at the visitor center. At the end of the day we flew in a float plane from Bettles to Summit Lake (in a de Havilland Beaver). The flight was awesome! It was a little cloudy and we flew low in between the mountains. Great scenery, beautiful fall colors, wild rivers - we basically followed the reverse route we were going to take back to Bettles. We landed on Summit Lake and had to take off our boots to get onto land (in order to keep our boots dry - for now...) The plane left and we were alone at 68 degrees North / 150 degrees West (give or take). We used an old and abandoned falling-apart cabin as a cooking shelter and setup our tent close by the cabin. It was raining on and off, but it was dry long enough to go for a short walk up a hill to take in the scenery. What a place!

Drop off at Summit Lake

Sun August 19- Day 3 GotA - It rained on and off the whole night and we got out of the tent at 10am. After breakfast we set out on our first wilderness hiking day. There are no marked trails in the park and all hikers have to find their own route. This makes travel much slower than on an established trail. Our hiking trip was to 'simply' follow the North Fork of the Koyukuk River, but we regularly checked our compass and the surrounding mountains to make extra sure we were heading in the right direction. On this first hiking day we were on the high tundra and the terrain was very open, sometimes boggy. All in all pretty good going, if not for the weather. It was wet, windy and cold. So despite the beautiful fall colors and the dall sheep, we had enough of it by 4 pm. We setup the tent next to Inclined Mtn where the river flows into a steep gorge. We had a hot chocolate and warmed up in our sleeping bags. The weather did not improve much and later that evening we had a quick dinner in the rain. We retreated back to our tent after Laura Beth had filled up her water bottle with boiling water (to ensure warm feet).

Spectacular cliffs

Mon August 20- Day 4 GotA - It rained the whole night.. but around 9am it stopped! And it turned out to be quite a nice day. We had a steep hill to descend and it was not easy to find the proper way down. Finally we did find a good route and got safely down. The sun came out just in time for us to enjoy lunch. In the afternoon we had our first creek-crossing (Alinement Creek). YIKES!! It was more a raging river than a creek... There had been more rain than usual in the park and therefore the rivers were much higher and faster than other years. We walked up-stream for about half a mile before we found a place to cross the river. It was pretty scary; raging water more than knee-deep. But we made it across safely! And the wet boots were to stay for the coming days.. After some initial bush-whacking (more to come!) we found a beautiful campspot on a ridge between Alinement and Amawk Creek.

Fall colors

Tue August 21- Day 5 GotA - As usual, it rained during the night and into the morning. We had breakfast in the rain, but it stopped raining soon after. We packed up and set out. We crossed two more significant rivers this day. We wrung out our socks, but that did not really help against the very cold feet. To quote LB "I dont think I would have come on this trip if I had known about all these river crossings." After a Snickers to lift our spirits we continued on. It was slow and hard going. Sometimes we walked close to the river bank, then we were forced up in the hills where there was less brush. And when we were up in the hills, we would come up to a ravine and were forced back to the river again. Little frustrating :) Finally we camped on a gravel bar close to Bombardment Creek.

LB hiking in the tundra

Wed August 22- Day 6 GotA - The whole night and day no rain! After breakfast in the bleak cloudy sun we set out on our wet and cold boots. We followed the river bank for a little while and crossed another creek. Like the day before we sometimes walked close to the river, then we were forced up in the hills, after which we were forced down to the river again. At some point we got stuck at the river and had to climb a very steep hill. We could hold on to the bush while climbing up, but it was challenging to say the least. In the late afternoon we turned into the next valley and we could see the Gates of the Arctic (two mountains that form a gate). Great view! We crosses Pyramid Creek and setup camp on a gravel bar. Since the weather was nice we gave ourselves a wash with Uncle John's camp suds! Nice and clean again (sort of..)

The Gates of the Arctic

Thu August 23- Day 7 GotA - After a cold night (frost on the tent) we woke to a perfectly clear day! Not a cloud in the sky. We had a long breakfast, dried the tent and aired our sleeping bags. Very enjoyable! We set out on the last leg of our hiking trip to the gravel-bar-air-strip where we would get our canoe and resupply. This last day was hard going with many sections of thick scrub and uneven tundra that we had to work our way through. We both ripped our backpack-rain-covers, Maurits bent a hiking pole, LB scratched her sunglasses... also yelling "Hey Bear!" the whole day in the scrub got tiring. On a lighter note the weather was nice, the clear sky made it easy to navigate, the scenery spectacular and the last river crossings were much easier than the first ones. Around 7pm we got to the "air-strip" and we saw a blue pile of gear next to the "runway." It turned out to be our resupply! Due to the nice weather that day (and the poor weather forecast that we were unaware of at the time) Brooks Range had decided to drop it off a day early! GREAT!! We had wine, chocolate and more food in the resupply and since (at least Maurits) was pretty hungry, we had a feast right in between the Gates with a beautiful sunset.

A beautiful day in the Gates

 

Find Maurits

Fri August 24- Day 8 GotA - It had rained during the night and since we had a rest day planned- we had a lazy morning in the tent. All of a sudden we hear a pig-like noise and Maurits takes a peek out the air-vent of the tent. Momma grizzly passing by with her two cubs 5 yards from our tent! Very scary! After making noise and waiting 5 minutes we opened the tent and looked around. All was clear. Most likely they were just passing through. We had breakfast and inflated the canoe. The canoe (Soar) turned out to be great for this trip, even though there was a small leak in the bottom and we had to fix the pump-hose with some duct-tape. Right after lunch it started raining again. We hung out in the tent (our warm haven during this trip), read on our Kindles (great for backpacking!) and relaxed. We were very happy we got the resupply a day early- with the rain and low clouds not sure if they would have been flying.

Captain LB

Sat August 25- Day 9 GotA - Our first paddle day! It was cloudy and rained on and off. We packed up, loaded the canoe and set out on the river. OMG!! The first three hours of paddling were nerve-wracking to say the least. We had lots of rapids and trees sticking out of the water. We had to continuously be on edge to make sure we stayed on a good course. One rapid at Cladonia was (in our eyes) massive! Definitely not a Class I rapid, but a couple of 4 to 5 feet walls of water! But thanks to LB's steering-skills we did not tip over and made it through safely. Later on the river got wider and calmer and we could relax a little bit. The weather was cold and wet the whole day. It was a huge beginners mistake that we did not bring rubber boots for use during the canoe trip. The plastic bags around our socks in our hiking boots did keep our feet dry, but not warm. In the late afternoon we camped on a gravel bar just passed the Tinayguk River; very happy to have survived this day!

Canoe, river, mountain, Maurits, ...

Sun August 26- Day 10 GotA - No break in the weather yet, it drizzled the whole day. At around 11am we set out on our second paddle day. The river ran pretty wide, nice and fast current, some fun Class I rapids (weeeeew!) especially the Squaw Rapids. This day was more what we were anticipating! In the afternoon we saw two people on the river bank- the first people we encountered on our trip. We camped on a gravel bar just passed Squaw Rapids. Before dinner we tried to fish a little, but that proved futile.. The water was too fast, murky and too high to fish (it wasn't us- but when we get home we probably could use a fishing lesson from our cousins David and Drew!). We had to resort to our usual freeze dried meal, but since we were making excellent progress we were allowed to eat a little bit more and dig into our emergency rations.

LB fishing for grayling

Mon August 27- Day 11 GotA - It stopped raining around 9 and it turned out to be a sunny, chilly day! We had a very enjoyable day on the river. We still had to paddle the whole day to keep warm and to keep the canoe on the right course (lots of trees, sticks and rocks in the water), but there was plenty of time to enjoy the scenery. In the days before quite a bit of snow had fallen on the peaks around us; nice views! As we progressed on the river we left the mountains and paddled into the foothills. The current slowed a bit and when the wind picked up we had to paddle pretty hard. At the end of the day the canoe-plank-seat was killing our bottoms and we were happy to setup camp. We were unsure where we exactly were (landmarks hard to make out, maybe we should get a GPS..), but we were pretty sure we would make it back to Bettles the next day. We had dinner and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. Because of the clear evening we opened the tent in the middle of the night to try and see the Northern Lights- unfortunately we woke up a little late and by 3:30am there was already some twilight- we did get to see a blue hue to the night sky. Better to go back in the winter to see the aurora.

Nice sunset at our campsite

Tue August 28 - Day 12 GotA - After a clear night we woke to a very foggy morning! We could hardly see 50 yards. We had breakfast and left our camp around 1030am. There was no wind and the fog lifted slowly. No wind really helped our progress, but we were both cold, especially our feet. As the sun came out little by little, to our surprise we arrived back in Bettles at 130pm. Woot wooooot! :) We made it! We docked the boat and walked to Brooks Range. There was some idle hope that we could actually fly back to Fairbanks that afternoon, but both flights only had 1 seat available. Obviously if we had known before, we could have split up and seen each other in Fairbanks, but the mountains prevented communicating to the second airplane. Instead we had to spend another night in the hangar... tough luck! After a great shower we dried most of our stuff (except our very smelly wet boots) in what turned out to be a really nice day (of course...) We had a celebratory beer at the Bettles Lodge and retreated back to the hangar.

On of the rivers we had to cross on day 6

Wed August 29- Day 13 GotA - The morning flight out of Bettles was full, so we had to wait for the 3pm flight back to Fairbanks. It rained the whole day and it was wet and cold. Most of the day we hung out at Brooks Range talking to passers-by and reading. The plane that was supposed to come to Bettles was diverted due to bad weather, but another plane with fewer available seats was still coming in at a later time. It turned out that 4 people were confirmed to fly out of Bettles, but there were only 2 available seats. After a short debate, we had waited the longest so we got on the plane! Pfffew! No additional night in the hangar! We got back to Fairbanks around 630pm, drove to the visitor center and got a hotel. Shower, beer, pizza... Great to be back in Fairbanks! An unforgettable trip.

Sunshine! Drying our stuff (day 7)

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Wrangell - St. Elias

Wed August 8- We packed up the car, left Fairbanks, and made our way to Wrangell St Elias National Park. Wrangell St Elias is America's largest national park at 13.2 million acres (that is about 20,000 square miles-in comparison The Netherlands is about 16,000 square miles). The park is very inaccessible: there are only two unpaved roads that lead into the park, 25% of the land is covered in ice, and it contains 9 of the 16 highest peaks in North America. We first went to the Northern section; the 45-mile Nabesna Road. The stop at the visitor center was a bit disappointing. We did get a touristy CD that explained the sights along the drive, but we had to explicitly ask about trail descriptions and they did not tell us that there was no drinking water at the campsite (as in: "you should fill up your water bottles here"). Strange... Such a different experience with the National Parks in the lower 48... After driving about 30 miles on the Nabesna road we got to a brand new campsite where we setup camp for three nights. The nicest outhouse we had ever seen :) It was a little cloudy and rainy, so we did not get to see the scale of the park (yet). We had dinner under the bug-net and thanked the Americorps volunteers for giving us some of their drinking water.



LB near Skookum Volcano

Thu August 9- We woke up to low level clouds and decided to have a relaxing morning. Around midday the sun came out a little bit - since it was not raining and the weather could turn a lot worse, we went for a hike. We drove further out on the Nabesna road and hiked up a river-bed to a pass at the Skookum Volcano. The mountains in Wrangell St Elias are a mixture of volcanic and tectonic mountains. We had lunch on top of the pass (whoops, forgot the knife to cut the cheese!) and enjoyed the cloudy scenery. On the way back to the car, while walking in the rain next to a rushing river, we saw a black bear! So much for our theory that you only see wildlife from the car... Due to the noise of the river we had to yell "HEY BEAR!!!" from the top of our lungs. He/she did finally notice us and ran off.




Eating cheese without a knife

Fri August 10- Same weather as the day before. Cloudy, rainy, but in the late-morning more sun. In the afternoon we backtracked a little on the Nabesna Road and hiked up the Caribou Creek Trail. This trail is also suited for ATV's (all terrain vehicle, sometimes known as a quad) and pretty easy going. At the end of the trail there is a public use cabin where we enjoyed an excellent view and had lunch. The weather was improving a little bit and we could see a glimpse of one of the high peaks. Very enjoyable hike. After dinner the weather cleared even more and by the time we went to bed the temperature was close to freezing.

LB with the high peaks in the background

Sat August 11- After a cold night we woke up to a clear morning! Beautiful views! We packed up the dewy tent and drove to Chitina where we would meet LB's parents. The drive out on the Nabesna road and on the main highway to Chitina was spectacular! Great views of mountains Sanford, Drum and Wrangell. Around noon we got to Chitina Airstrip where Peter and Shelley were already waiting for us. It was great to see them again! The plan was to drive with the four of us in our car to the town of Kennicott located at the the end of the McCarthey Road (the other unpaved access road into Wrangell St Elias that rental cars are not allowed on). We moved most of our stuff (food, cooler, chairs, etc.) from our Subaru to Peter & Shelley's rental car and set off on the 60 mile drive. The road used to be a railroad that was built in the early 1900's to ship copper from the Kennicott mines to the Gulf of Alaska. The mines were closed in 1938 and somebody at some point turned the railroad into an unpaved road. It took us about 2.5 hours to reach McCarthy where we got picked up by a hotel-shuttle that drove us to the Kennicott Lodge. The 5 mile road from McCarthy to Kennicott is not open to the public and shuttle buses drive people back and forth. The Kennicott Lodge is a beautifully restored old building that has an amazing view of the surrounding glaciers and mountains. A great place for some quality family time! After checking in, we dried our tent (since we would not be using it for three whole days!) and checked out the old mining town. The town was abandoned in 1938 and left to rot. But since the winters are so cold, the rotting process is slow. In the 1980's when Wrangell St Elias became a national park, Kennicott became a historical landmark. Since then quite a few buildings have been restored. All in all a really neat and interesting place. Back at the lodge we had a sublime dinner. Thanks Peter & Shelley!

Family time!

Sun August 12- Another beautiful day! After breakfast we started our family day hike to the 'bonanza' mine. This old copper mine produced very high-grade copper and was the reason a railroad to Kennicott was economically feasible. Quite a strenuous hike with an elevation gain of almost 4,000 feet (and we lost some time looking for the trailhead). The views were excellent and the mine itself very interesting. Most of it has collapsed, but all the wood is in remarkable shape due to the cold climate. Many of the rocks are blue green- still plenty of copper ore lying around. In the early 1900's a 'cable car' was constructed to get the ore from the mine to the mill down in the town. Miners also used the cable to get from the town to the mine, but they had to sign a non-liability-agreement.. Quite a piece of engineering! You can still see the towers that once held the cable. Back at the lodge we enjoyed a nice cold beer, a hot shower, had another excellent dinner and enjoyed the comfortable bed.

On the glacier

Mon August 13- The beautiful days seem neverending, an even clearer day! Today we explored the Root Glacier, right next to town. This glacier has a huge 1 mile icefall, the largest icefall outside Antarctica! We hiked the first section of the trail with Peter & Shelley; they continued on the trail next to the glacier and we strapped on our crampons and went for a hike on the ice. As soon as we got to the middle of the glacier we had an outstanding view of the icefall and the mountains around us. After lunch and checking out some ice-climbers, we walked back to the dirt trail. We hiked the rest of the trail next to the glacier, but the views were not as good as when we were on the glacier. We did see a lot of beer poop though! But by continuously yelling and singing (e.g. classical Dutch bear-songs like "Berend Botje" and "Ik zag twee beren") we avoided any close encounter. Back at the lodge we enjoyed a nice cold beer on this very clear and warm Alaskan day!

Kennicott

Tue August 14- So sad to leave Kennicott.. Right after breakfast we got shuttled back to our car and drove the 60 dirt miles back to the air-strip. We reorganized the cars and followed Peter & Shelley to a beautiful viewpoint (the weather was glorious!) where we had lunch. Since we had no time to stop at the main visitor center in Copper Center on the way in, we made a stop after lunch. We learned a thing or two about the volcanoes in the park and saw an excellent movie. Wrangell St Elias (together with Kluane and Glacier Bay) are definitely places we want to go back to! Then we had to say goodbye to Peter & Shelley :( but not after we let Peter pay for our gas (he insisted many times)! They were going to Girdwood ( South of Anchorage) and we were going back to Fairbanks. Our drive north was spectacular, great views! We happened upon a beautiful campsite with clear views of the mountains close to Denali State Park, great find as for some reason the campsite was free!

Bonanza mine

Wed August 15- Beautiful drive back to Fairbanks. We saw some great mountains, some of them are in Denali State Park, others are not even part of any park. Surprisingly spectacular! In any other state these would be huge attractions- but we guess they cant compete with other Alaskan parks. We could not see any of these peaks on our previous drives to Fairbanks due to the clouds. We got back to Fairbanks and started the preparation for our next trip; the Gates of the Arctic.

Day hiking with the Chamberlain family

Scenic drive back to Fairbanks

 

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Yukon River

Mon July 30- Quite a few things on our to-do list today. First of all we gave the Subaru a much needed cleaning inside and out. We washed off over a million dead flies, mosquitos, etc. from the front of the car. We also called new parents Avital & Ben; WELCOME NOAH!! (we wont hold it against you that you prevented your parents from joining us on our Yukon canoe trip..hehe) Then it was time to prepare for our next week- paddling down the Yukon river. The plan is to fly into Eagle, Alaska from Fairbanks- then paddle/float 150 miles to Circle, Alaska- then get flown back to our car in Fairbanks. Lots to consider when packing up... like can we take camp fuel and bear spray on the flight? The airline (Everts Air) explained that yes all was possible... but very complicated... we would need to get fire resistant boxes, a hazmat form, an ammo-can and $30... So we decided to forget flying with the hazardous goods...we could buy (double priced) fuel in Eagle and we decided to forget about the bear spray. We packed our food, treated some of our clothes with permethrin (against the bugs), got some additional camping supplies, posted our pevious blog and had a sushi dinner (since the pizza place was closed on Mondays..)

View of the Yukon river shortly before landing in Eagle

The mail plane after landing in Eagle

Tue July 31- It was an anxious night because Everts air had specifically told us that they had a lot of mail to fly to Eagle and they could only guarantee us each bringing 30 pounds of baggage on the flight. We did not have a scale at the campsite... but our bags certainly felt heavier than 30 pounds each (8 days of food and all our gear gets pretty heavy!). So we got to the airline early expecting to plead with them to bring the extra weight- but luckily our excess baggage was no problem because we were the only ones on the flight...pheww. Soon after getting our handwritten ticket, our flight got put on hold due to bad weather in Eagle. No need to wait around at Everts Air...they would call us if the flight was going. So we went to downtown Fairbanks- did some internet, made phone calls to the home front, had coffee.... By mid afternoon the flight was for sure not going. The operations manager showed us the web cam in Eagle - all clouded in - we were happy to wait until better weather because the small airstrip in Eagle does not have radar- the pilot needs to see to land! We setup our tent again at our favorite Fairbanks campground, made some late lunch (lesson learned- don't throw out your perishable food before you are sure the plane is leaving) and decided to go to Chena Hot Springs for the afternoon. On the hour drive to the hot springs we saw 8 moose! After bathing in the springs, we had a beer and burger at the bar. Sitting next to us at the bar was Bernie Karl, the owner of the whole hot springs complex (the springs, hotel, restaurant, green houses, thermal power, ice museum, future ski slopes, etc.) Fun guy to talk to- what a character! He even offered LB a job.

Maurits floating down the Yukon



Captain LB navigating, brrrrrrr!

Wed August 1- Soon after getting up we got a phone call that the flight was definitely going, the weather was nice and sunny. By 10am we were in a Piper (a real Alaskan mail plane - that Sarah Palin named her daughter after - useless fact) on our way to Eagle. Smooth flight for such a small plane, very noisy, great views! Mike from Eagle Canoe Rentals picked us up at the air strip and he drove us around the town. We made a stop at the National Parks Service to pick up a bear barrel, picked up camp fuel at the store and got dropped off at the boat ramp where our canoe was waiting for us. Mike had an excellent river map for us, much better than what the National Park people had to offer. (The ranger had actually never been on the Yukon river... crazy.) Just before we were ready to get floating, three people docked their boat at the ramp (Andy, Kate and their female guest who's name we have forgotten). Andy invited us to come over to his homestead 12 miles down the river. We could camp across the river from his place and he would come pick us up. And so we did. It took about 2 hours to float to the river bank across from the homestead. The Yukon river is big and wide and flows at about 6 to 8 miles per hour. No need for much paddling. After setting up camp and just before we wanted to make some dinner, Andy came across the river and picked us up for a showing of his homestead. Andy and Kate are pretty much self-sufficient; grow food in the short summer months (outdoor garden and greenhouses), fish, trap, cut their own firewood, harvest sustainable energy (wind and solar power)... and the list goes on, pretty amazing place. Andy has built all the log houses on their property by himself (including a sauna- great for the cold dark winter months- the temp can get down to -70 degrees!) They had just caught two large salmon that afternoon and Andy showed us how to filet them. Best of all he gave us a piece of salmon, seasoned and in tin-foil for our dinner the next night! On top of that we enjoyed with them a home-brewed-beer and salmon with pasta dinner! It was great talking to them- about subsistence living in Alaska, about the various adventure-classes they teach in summer and winter and about the terrible ice-flood that destroyed most of Eagle in 2009. Andy let us listen to an excellent CBC podcast/interview that is posted on the web about the flood. All in all an unforgettable evening. We should go back to their place in the winter and go dog-sledding with their 24 awesome sled dogs... Check out their website www.alaskayukonadventure.com.

Dried salmon at Andy's homestead

 

Andy with a couple of his dogs

Smile!!

Thu August 2- Late start today. Took us a while to get organized so we got on the river shortly before noon. Cloudy day, rain on and off, but beautiful. We paddled in the rain (or else it got too cold) and floated when there was sun. Nice to relax, look around, read a book or read about the history of the Yukon river included in our map. One hundred years ago this area was bustling with activity, gold miners, trappers, trading posts and other fortune seekers. Now it is almost completely deserted. Since the weather was not great our plan was to stay in one of the six public use cabins (a cabin/hut you can use free of charge on a first come, first serve basis). The first cabin at Nation River was already taken by two kayakers (the first people we saw that day), so we paddled on to the second cabin at Glenn Creek. This cabin, unlike the first one, sat right on the river. A beautiful spot! We had paddled 48 miles and it was around 830pm before we got to Glenn Creek. First thing we did was make a campfire with the firewood provided by the National Parks Service! We cooked the salmon, enjoyed the warmth of the fire and had a great dinner.

Campfire, salmon, wine...

Big sky Yukon

Fri August 3- Cloudy, rainy and windy today. We do not like headwinds! Because the wind was blowing pretty hard- we had to paddle almost the whole day. In normal conditions it took us at least a mile to cross the river from one side the other (the current would be taking us down river while we were paddling across). But now because of the strong wind, it took forever. We had to work hard in a not very well balanced canoe (we did not load it properly). In the end we paddled 26 miles and camped on the river bank just upstream of where the Charley river entered the Yukon. It was nice to camp on a clean river. The Yukon is very silty- it looks like grey milk- and the water is not drinkable. During the whole trip we were always on the lookout for clean water to use for cooking and drinking. Another lesson learned- next time we should bring a large water cannister. We setup camp, found two thin logs and even managed to setup our tarp. Great shelter to cook under in the rain!

The cabin, fireplace and view of the Yukon

Sat August 4- After a rainy night we woke up in the mist. But as the sun got higher, the mist disappeared and it turned out to be quite a nice day. As we were making breakfast, we saw some fresh, big moose tracks around our camp. We must have had a nightly visitor... We did not see big wildlife at all on our trip. Plenty of bear, moose and deer tracks, but no sightings. We did see a lot of birds, including bald eagles. As we floated down the river, we made a stop at Slavens road house. Up until the 70's there was a productive goldmine here, now it is a public use cabin. We walked the 1 mile mosquito-infested trail to an old large mining dredge, took a picture and ran back to get away from the bugs. Further down river we made a stop at Smith's/fortymile cabin. Another public use cabin. It was not that nice, so we decided to camp on the river bank a little further downstream. We paddled about 27 miles today. LB tried to make some popcorn, but unfortunately the attempt failed. When it was not drizzling, we did enjoy a nice campfire using firewood we 'found' at Smith's cabin.

Where the Charley river meets the Yukon river

Sun August 5- A beautiful, but cold morning. No wind, some scattered cloud, plenty of sunshine, but it was chilly. We were all bundled up while floating the last 38 miles to Circle. We did not paddle much, just floated, and enjoyed the scenery while reading our books. Very relaxing last day, especially since it warmed up during the day. We got to Circle City around 6pm, dropped of our canoe and setup our tent right on top of the boat-ramp (the town's official camp-site). Circle is a bit of a depressing 'city.' 100 years ago the city's population was over 2000! Now not even 100.. The picnic tables/campsite at the waterfront are a very popular hangout for the locals, and tonight was no exception. They did share two of their beers with us though!

Our camp. Notice how we 'MacGyvered' the tarp!

Mon August 6- Not a cloud in the sky! Murphy's law.. Anyway, at least Everts Air would come and pick us up. There is no cell phone service in Circle, so we had to use 'ye old pay phone.' After a 20 minute fight with the phone (one of those ones that does not accept coins, just cards) and some local help we got in touch with Everts. We were all set. But we did need some additional local assistance to find the 'airport', somehow we could not find it... We could not bring our big bear barrel on the plane (no room), but in retrospect that was no problem with the National Parks Service anyway. Other than that the flight was fine, a little bumpy, a bigger plane and great views. Back in Fairbanks it was the usual drill of shower, laundy and groceries. Setup camp again at the same Fairbanks campground and a rotissery chicken salad for dinner. Excellent camp food!

Maurits and the canoe on a cool morning

Tue August 7- It drizzled and rained the whole day. High 50's (13 C) .. Pretty cold actually! We were still tired and decided to stay another day in Fairbanks. We spent some time at the local coffee shop, saw a movie, bought new socks and new tent stakes (all this car camping on gravel roads is destroying the stakes rapidly) and just relaxed.

The Circle campsite

Going back to Fairbanks

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