We all arrived in Fairbanks on the evening of the 24th, got a couple hotel rooms and packed and repacked our gear. The next morning we caught our charter flight out. It was about a 45 minute flight. We had to take 3 planes to shuttle us all there because of the weight restrictions and small landing strip. The country below from the plane was incredible! I could easily have just flown around for hours!
Once we all arrived, we set off. Zac (our master planner again!) had planned for about 7-10 miles each day which seemed very doable. The first day though we struggled and only made it about 6 miles. It was crazy. At first we were literally walking through a forest of Alder scrub. After a bit we got to a creek (Virgina), that we intended to follow most of the way to a couple lake where we hoped to make it to. The creek was difficult to hike also, as the sides were full of large rocks and boulders thrown about from each years snow melt. Also we often had to climb through the Alder scrub again to get around a bend where the side was blocked by the flowing water. After a few hours, we actually got totally blocked and had to climbed through the Alder scrub again and up onto the steep hill side. We then followed the hill side through Alder scrub, berry bushes, rock fields, and a huge downfall of rain that made everything incredibly slick. We were really lucky nobody got hurt.
After a couple more hours of this we came to a spot where we reached a perpendicular creek that made a canyon blocking our way. This was a great spot though as just on the other side of the canyon we spotted Dall sheep. Apparently Dall sheep are pretty rare, and only exist in a couple valleys anymore. This was one of those valleys...
By the time we hiked back down to the creek bed again (we had been slowly going higher as our planned destination was up over the ridge line) everyone was really tired. So we decided that we would move to plan B and just camp here for the night. Night is a relative term. It never got dark. Technically there was 4 hours when the sun was down, but it looked more like a really cloudy about to storm day.
We made camp right along the creek. It was a great spot. The Dall sheep we just above us on both side of the creek, and they were fun to watch; incredible climbers. There was enough wood in the dried part of the creek bed that we were able to make a decent fire as well.
The next morning we decided to leave camp set up and do a day hike up to the lakes we intended to go to the first day, about 2.5 miles away, and come back. I forgot to mention that on the first day we hit a little ice still not fully melted from the winter. Well on this day we hit a lot more. The temperature was fairly nice, perfect really for hiking. But there was some ice that made our day a little interesting.
First though, about a mile up the creek we saw our first (only really) large animal of the trip. It was a mother caribou and her fawn. They we a ways up, but crossed the creek and came down the other side past us. They were pretty big even from a distance. Cool to see.
After this the creek turned and headed towards the lakes we were going to. Most of us continued to follow the creek, but Zac headed up back onto the hillside, which was the better route. The creek almost came to a dead end again where we couldn't pass. We were able to find a way to cross it, and then scale the edge on a large piece of ice that looked stable. Zac at this point was above us looking down and laughing at our chosen route. Once through this little section, we had to again cross the creek, and basically climb straight up the hillside to the lakes. It was worth the climb though, they were incredible!!!
After taking a long break and enjoying the lakes we headed back down towards our camp site. On the way down Doug and I walked back towards the valley that we climbed through on the ice on the way up to see how it looked from above. Wow, glad I didn't see that before I did it.
We also came across a Marmot that actually froze when it saw us, which allowed us to get some great pictures. I was actually able to put a camera with in inches of it to take some pictures. As soon as we backed away a little he ran for it. Funny little guy...
When we got back to camp we relaxed a little again and made another fire. I am pretty sure we were all really glad we didn't try to keep going all the way on the first day to the lakes, it would have been an impossibly long day.
On our 3rd day, we packed up and headed back down the creek towards the landing strip again. The idea was to go back and then up the Wood river and camp at another lake just off the river. About half way down, we looked at the GPS, and saw that if we crossed the creek and climbed over a smallish hill we could drop down to the lake without going all the way back to where the creek and river intersect. The smallish hill though was anything but easy. On top of the scrub we were getting used to hiking in/through, the ground was really spongy. The ground really sank 6 inches or more each step you took. It felt like hiking in the snow. It was tough. Anyway, we finally made it up, and took a nice long rest at the top. The view was great, worth the labor of hiking up. We were able to see our lake from above and it looked like there would be a nice spot to camp along the side of it.
When we finally made it down though we found ourselves hiking in a wet bog. When we made it to the lake, the surrounding area was all bog also, and camping there would have been wet and miserable. Around the lake were a lot of bones from moose that had been killed and eaten there. There were moose tracks everywhere.
So we headed out to the river and searched for about a quarter mile and finally found a nice wide spot where we could again camp on the side where the water had receded. This time it was sandy though, and it made for a really nice camp site. The rain came in again, and we made a fire, and went back to the lake to check it out a little more. Rob and Jared tried fishing, but there didn't seam to be anything in the lake at all. They gave up pretty quickly and we headed back to our camp. It was wasn't that late, but everyone was tired and we all went to bed a little earlier that night. Although our mileage was not high, the hiking had been really tough.
On our final full day (my birthday!!!), we decided to again leave camp set up and just day hike near by. We went down to the air strip where we were dropped off, crossed over Kansas creek and followed it for a ways. We found lots more animal prints and a large kill site (looked like a wolf pack took out a moose or caribou).
When we got back to camp, Randy had the fire going good, and Zac, Jeff, Chris and I tried to make a raft out of some fallen trees to float the river on. The trees were to water logged though and it couldn't support any weight. While we were doing that the rest of the guys attempted to make a 20 foot tall bonfire. They ran into the same problem, wet wood. In the end we were all sitting around our original fire that had been burning since the day before...
Another great adventure!!! Can't wait until next year!!!
