Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 2010

 

 

This is the first portion of a 6-week Alaska trip for two in summer 2010. The most rigorous part of the whole trip was a self-guided 11-day paddling expedition in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On June 21 (Summer Solstice) we flew in a small Helio bush plane for 3 hours from Fairbanks into the Arctic Refuge. It is the size of South Carolina and is one of the most remote places on earth, lying completely above the Arctic Circle. In summer there is daylight 24 hours a day, and one of the most beautiful sights was a complete, double rainbow at 1:00 a.m.  We traveled in our tandem Klepper kayak along the Kongakut River, which flows north through the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean. We saw Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles, groups of Harlequin Ducks and Red-breasted Mergansers, and countless White-crowned Sparrows, whose call sounds like: "I have to go potty, I really have to go potty!" The loud croaks of Common Ravens bounced off the mountain walls.

We encountered several "bands" of white Dall's Sheep, but as we watched a group of sheep flee up a high embankment they seemed more like a "flock" of birds. A solitary Wolf paid us a visit up close, and I found the tracks of an elusive Lynx. We also saw several Caribou, including a mother and calf trotting on top of some aufeis about 4 feet thick.

The river is quite braided, and we frequently had to walk the boat. While paddling with the current, our top speed was 9.2 mph, and one time we crashed into a large rock which gashed the rubber hull of the kayak in three places and broke rib #4 in half. As we made field repairs, beautiful Arctic Terns hovered close by before dive-bombing the small fish in their sights. This tern makes the longest annual migration of any animal on the planet, some 50,000 miles from pole to pole. After the crash, we proceeded downstream with greater caution, and in one place we had to break down the boat and pack our gear to a safer place 2 miles downstream. During the portage we discovered a wet sedge meadow which was home to at least 9 Upland Sandpipers.

We prepared for the trip by reading Debbie Miller's Midnight Wilderness. I contacted Debbie and her husband Dennis for advice, and they were very helpful! In the Refuge, we read Jonathan Waterman's book Where the Mountains Are Nameless. He has also travelled the Kongakut River in a Klepper kayak. After that we read Adolf Murie's A Naturalist in Alaska, based on his scientific observations of wildlife at Mt. McKinley National Park (now called Denali).

The Arctic Refuge is a vast wilderness to be cherished and protected as an intact ecosystem on a landscape scale. At first glance it may seem barren, but upon closer inspection, the ground is painted with a colorful array of wildflowers. Some of the same flora are also found in Illinois (lupine, wild geranium, blue flag, and columbine, for example), perhaps a common link emerging from the last Ice Age. Dozens of bird species that migrate through Illinois rely on the Arctic Refuge for their breeding grounds. There is no way for the extraction industries to operate in this refuge without irreparably damaging the balance of nature. It is an incredible privilege to have experienced this unspoiled wild place and to have been challenged and inspired there.