Arctic Adventure

On June 8, I headed north to the land of the midnight sun, the arctic circle. Flew into Kotzebue, which is a small native community set in the middle of nowhere. The only access to Kotzebue is by plane or boat, though everyone in the town seems to have a car. Not quite sure why, as the town is about a mile long and maybe 1/4 mile wide, but I guess in the winter, you might freeze if you walk 2 blocks.

We were supposed to head out to our landing strip and the start of our backpacking trip on Sunday, June 10. Unfortunately, we had a few glitches in the initial plans, so the trip did not actually start until Tuesday evening. Our group of 16 quickly ran out of things to do in Kotzebue after we visited the library, the crafts shop, the supermarket, and the 2 chinese restaurants in town. I would not recommend Kotzebue as a destination, unless you are truly desperate. Did I mention that Kotzebue is a damp town, meaning they don't sell alcohol? We did use the time to get to know each other, however, and we started the trip with a solid foundation for our blossoming friedships.

We finally headed off into the tundra on Tuesday evening. Hiking until late at night is no problem when you can't tell the difference between 12 noon and 12 midnight. We traveled up snow filled drainages, across knee deep creeks, over broad swales, and through fields of flowers. No trails, just caribou tracks to follow. Our total mileage was somewhere around 60 miles for the entire trip. The scenery was amazing, as was the camraderie between the group members. Along the way, we endured hordes of mosquitoes, a helicopter evacuation of one of our teammates, and several days of rain. For the most part, however, the weather was quite nice. Lots of sun and warm weather.

We did not see much wildlife. Several moose from far away, some caribou from Kotzebue, and a musk ox on the bush flight back to Kotzebue. We saw lots of signs from bear, but did not have any grizzly encounters. The best part of the trip was the people. Despite the initial delay in getting out of Kotzebue, despite the evacuation, we really bonded together and made the trip great. I'm sure that the DeLong mountains have never seen the likes of our last night's variety show, nor the tour of tents at Camp Eternity. This trip will forever be cached in my soul. Thank you all for the memories.