Friends and coworkers will usually ask about your vacation, but if you venture into the Arctic Circle with a tent and some long johns, they may have more than a few standard questions upon your return.
The following contains part one of our adventure into the wilderness of Northern Alaska, beginning with the planning stages.
Once we decided we were actually going to head north, extremely north, for the annual caribou migration this year, the preparation began. First up? The List. I’m a little fond (read: obsessive) about packing lists, so I make one for every trip, but this time it was seriously needed. During most of our adventures we joke that as long as we have ID and a credit card, we can get by, but Visa can’t get you out of a jam when there are no stores…. or even other people to man the cash registers. So the list was critical.
We knew we’d need quality cold weather sleeping bags, and wool layers for those chilly arctic nights. Rifles would be needed for the hunt, along with binoculars, game bags, fishing poles, water bottles, and as many snickers as we could tuck away into our packs. We were limited by the outfitter and the bush pilot to 70 pounds each. It’s amazing how quickly hiking boots, waders and mittens can add up to 70 pounds, and it took some weighing, grumbling and rearranging before we zipped up our rolling bags and crossed our fingers that we’d pass.
The flight path went like this: Houston to Denver, Denver to Anchorage, Anchorage to Kotzebue, and Kotzebue into the arctic tundra and off the grid.
You’re not familiar with Kotzebue? It’s just here, next door to Russia:
The flight into Anchorage was a long one, and the anticipation made it hard to sleep. We ate our cookies and peered out the window to see the amazing mountains and rivers of glacier melt.
Once on the ground, we had some last-minute shopping to do in Anchorage, and caught a ride to Cabelas. Let me be clear, there were (sadly) no sponsors for this trip, but we joked that we looked like we were in a commercial for Cabelas, North Face, Gortex, Badlands or even Mountain House the for the majority of the time. (If reps for any of those companies want to fund our next adventure, our inbox is all ears.)
Edgar needed a coat, and I needed a coffee and good look at a grizzly bear’s face, so I could be sure to recognize one if he tried to sneak into our tent uninvited.
We picked up a couple of dry bags as well, which turned out to be a wise decision, and had a lovely dinner with a view of the inlet. The weather was quite comfortable for an after-dinner walk around a charming neighborhood, complete with a little friendly library open to all passersby.
After that, it was time to get some quick sleep before hitching a ride to the airport for the 6am flight to Kotzebue.
In Part Two, we find out just how “micro” the micro climates are in Alaska, meet up with some strangers for a breakfast of chicken fried steak and find out if my bathroom scale can be trusted.
looks beautiful but cold. I wondered why your hat said “Cabelas” and if you were asked to wear their label. Looking forward to Part 2
I only saw the John Deer hat. They would surely sponsor you corn country kids. Looking forward to part 2.
Who goes to Alaska without a coat? I would have thought that was top of the list.
And was there anything good in that little library?
He did have a coat, and ordered a second one, but the company messed up the shipment and it didn’t arrive. So we made a run for a back up to the back up. The library selection was not investigated.