Tuesday, May 17, 2011

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.

5 comments:

  1. Last August you posted a sort of how-to guide for traveling in the Gates but you pulled it from your blog before it published (I saw it because it was in my RSS reader). Was wondering why you opted not to publish it as it was really nicely done?

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  2. Sharp eye and sharp memory Sam !

    It had too many pictures taken on the NG trip and my contract said not to run that stuff until so many days after the article ran.

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  3. I had a feeling perhaps an NG contract issue may have been at fault. Hopefully some months down the road you'll be able to share it. I took the liberty of saving it from my RSS reader for my own files so I've got it but it is worthy of sharing once you're legally allowed.

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  4. Thanks for the reminder. I just posted it.

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  5. wow perfect images of Hiking in Finland i like it thanks for sharing

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