The following is an account of day two of our trip to the arctic circle. If you missed day one, you can catch up in quick fashion with a recap found here.
On Friday we got packed up not-so-bright and early for the 6a flight into Kotzebue. The journey took about 90 minutes, and most of the passengers had one common denominator: camouflage. Nearly everyone on the flight looked like they were prepared to rough it in the elements for a few days, and hoped to fill their freezer in the process.
It makes sense. Kotzebue is a small town, and is considered the gateway to the artic. It’s also an island, so getting goods in or out is tricky. (That might explain why a bag Cheetos at the local market sold for a cool $7.) Once we landed at the small airport, it wasn’t too hard to find the two young men with the name of our outfitter embroidered on their jackets. Kaleb and TJ helped us load up into a van to take us over to the staging area. A few other hunters shared the ride, and a couple more were already at the base camp. There was a team of two from California, one bearded quiet guy, and one clean-shaved and chatty fellow. Another pair of guys were traveling from Wisconsin and said they had hunted together for 30 years. A third duo were also longtime hunting buddies from somewhere in the lower 48.
We all got busy breaking our big bags down into smaller bags, per the instructions of the outfitter. The bush planes are small, so the pilots prefer many small bags that they can tuck into limited cargo spaces, versus just a couple larger and more cumbersome bags. We had quite a few items when we broke everything out, and were a little nervous about how the weight would add up once they put everything on the scale. As it turned out, my bathroom scale had set us up for success. We were both at about 71 pounds, one pound over the limit, but the outfitter let us slide.
The plan was for us to get into the field that morning, but the wind was up and we decided to grab breakfast while we waited it out. It was fun to chat with the other hunters and hear their stories about “that one time” when their buddy shot a big moose, or how one guy had the perfect spot for his trophy bull, until he put it on the wall and couldn’t open his back door without hitting the tines. We all had a delicious breakfast (Edgar raved about the chicken fried steak) and a few good belly laughs before heading back to the staging area to see if it was safe to fly.
The weather was beautiful in town, but reports were that the wind was still howling en route to our camp, so it was decided we’d wait a day and get into the field on Saturday. We resigned ourselves to the delay, and wandered around the town. Hunting, fishing, four-wheeling and sled dog mushing are clearly the big pastimes in Kotzebue. We also saw quite a few broken down vehicles and equipment in yards. Living in a place that remote, and for some of the year, that cold and snowy, must make it hard to get those items removed, and people probably make use of whatever parts they can.
We had a nice dinner with a view, and pondered about the journey ahead. Would we see caribou? Would we see bears? Was it really that tough to walk on the tundra? What kind of camping area would they select for us, and would our gear stand the test when the Alaskan wind and rain blew into the valley?
We couldn’t wait to get out into the wilderness and see what the arctic circle had in store.
It looks barren up there! It’s not the way I picture Alaska. I picture mountains and pine trees! Maybe I imagine southern Alaska.
It looks different than I thought it would too! However on our way to where we camped, we saw a lot more pine trees – tons! So it seems like everywhere you go the landscape changes.
Yeah, it sort of looks…third world.