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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