Guest Blog at Hiking in Finland

Hendrick posted my trip report about five days with Andrew Skurka in the Gates of the Arctic National Park. Here are some more pictures of the traveling.


Put-in on the upper John.

Avoiding the meat to stay happy, if not warm and dry.

Packraft camp.

Anticipation.

High water on the John.

20 minutes from wake-up to lace-up to go.


Following everybody else up Wolverine Creek.

Good gravel: smooth, dry, and firm. Low on Wolverine Creek.

Typical woodland walking.


Crossing lower Wolverine.

Boulder hopping along mid-Wolverine Creek.

Cris-Cross-Recross-Cross.

Big load but light.

Bar hopping on Wolverine Creek.

Notes on the map.

Grizzlies mark there territories by biting bark as high as they can reach. It shows everybody how big they are. The bear that marked this tree is over seven feet tall.

Andrew working on his gear book, upper Wolverine.

Upper Wolverine.


These are hummocks, not tussocks, although they likely have tussocks at their core.

Two nervous animals, circling, bluffing, hoping.

The bluffing game winner.

I'd rather be packrafting, but the walking was great, too.

At least most of the time.


Trophy sized tussock head in the Pingaluk drainage.

Willows (yellow), resin birch (red), sponga, on this side and f*%#-sticks on the other.

Staying high dry and smart above the S Fork Pingaluk canyon.

Animal communication.

Finally! Lower Pingaluk, Alatna Valley in the background.

Cowboy coffee on a cat food can.

Waiting for the resupply and Michael.

A pair of readers of this blog flying in to give "Arctic Circle" a go.

A bunch of these (and other) photos are geo-referenced here.

Iceland

Most of us have seen the fantastic video by Alastair Humphreys about crossing Iceland.

Several friends of mine have been to Iceland, Alaskan friends who have packrafts and know their potential, but they always came back without anything fantastic to say about it.

Alastair's 215 mile traverse of the island over ice field and down rivers puts Iceland firmly on my hit-list. The video by Alastair's trip partner, photographer Chris Herwig, is informative and beautiful.

Iceland Crossing (10 mins) from Christopher Herwig on Vimeo.

My hunch is the trip could be done a bit quicker (read lighter) if you weren't packing for what look like award winning videos. Maybe a Black Diamond Firstlight for the breezly ash-storms, and fewer 'lectrons for recording your epic.

If I read right, there're two days or so worth of boating, leaving about about 165 miles of walking. Late season, you could skip the crampons and walk on the ashy ice.

It looks like it could be done as a 10 day trip, probably it (or a variation) being the best packrafting journey in Europe, so far, (there's still some development needed in Scandinavia and elsewhere, of course). Another river or two on an trans-Iceland traverse to push the pack:raft ratio closer to 1:1 rather than 3:1 would make things easier on the ole' feet and back, but certainly don't want to miss out on that water-fall landscape on their first river, the "Pjorsa".

Anyway, it'd be neat if those two submitted one of their packrafting videos to Banff Mtn Film Festival. The Hig and Erin story will be there, no doubt, as well as other packrafting videos like a CarpeyBiggs Grand Canyon one. Luc Mehl as soon as he unclips his ski bindings and climbs back in his packraft will make something quirky and fun with his new Canon.

Maybe this could be the year of the packraft at Banff.

HD

Besides the new boat there're the new cameras: Go Pro and Panasonic GH1. Wanted the GH2, but couldn't wait, so spent about half as much for the GH1.

Tim Johnson had to get started on his thesis work about the "iso-scape" of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in SC AK waters. He's collecting samples from Talkeetna to Homer and his northernmost creek is Montana. As his advisor I rode along.

The gauge was reading 450 cfs, and everything else has been locked up ('cept 6 Mile), so Montana seemed like a good choice. Just the bottom canyon, one you could easily flip multiple times if it weren't for the Devils Club on the approach. Next time I'll be taking a ridge down rather than canyon flanks. Should be drier with less Club. Still picking it out of my flesh today.

Montana's lower canyon sits squarely with lower Ship and lower Bird Canyons as great packraft creeking. How nice it would be to have those three jewels linked like beads on a watery string. Doing all three in a day would be sweet, but Ship is still outlaw, so far as I know.



Montana Creek is a long drive but a great run. It was Paul Schauer's first packraft run two seasons ago, and he styled it. Wish I had the better cameras for that trip with Paul and Thai:

Yesterday, Tim ran in in his old blue stubby and I ran it in the 2011 Alpacka Llama. My new boat has no thigh straps, but does have a sturdy deck for bracing my knees. The video shows how pointy bow does a great job punching little waves. The boat holds a line well, but can still turn and pivot quickly, seen while threading some ice shelves.

The word "bandersnatch" no longer applies.

Inspiring Videos

These two videos have inspired me to buy a Panasonic GH1 with a 14-140 mm lens.

Luc in Glacier Bay



and

This one of Grand Canyon by CarpeyBiggs

Last of the Great Unknown - Preview from carpeybiggs on Vimeo.

Yep, I am dumping my Optios, and Go Pro-ing and SLR HD with a tripod.

Reminiscing

"Where are we?" At the Wolverine and Iniakuk divide.

Hendrik has honored me with a guest post on his wildly popular and wonderful blog. Because I am recovering from some minor surgery and National Geographic Magazine didn't run enough photos of Andrew Skurka's Alaska-Yukon Loop, I thought we'd all appreciate looking at some more.

Cat food can cowboy coffee.

Here're a few photos from the Anaktuvuk to Circle Lake leg, a mere 2% of Andrew's overall mileage, but a classic packrafting route I'd first done when Peggy was pregnant with Roman 25 years ago.

Brooks Range packrafting on the Pingaluk.

A moment I have been waiting for

Mike Curiak has a packraft.

Curiak is someone whose biking is inextricably linked to water.

I know of him best as a snowbike expeditioneer, having likely made more trips (maybe a dozen?) from Anchorage to Nome on the Iditarod trail than anyone else without a snowmachine or dog team. He's also into riding chunk in the desert SW (water and deserts are linked by definition).

So now he has a packraft, the 2011 model, which is the dream boat come true. The big boat that can do it all: flatwater and whitewater, big loads and no loads.

I smell an epic adventure in the works.

That is, maybe Mike will come up for the other soft substrate fatbiking: big beaches and icy bays.

First Run of the Season Video

Paul Schauer's video of early season 6 Mile run. There are a couple clips of my New Boat in action amongst all the hardshells.