Alaska

The Wood River at Kansas Creek

Alaska was a great success. We all landed in Fairbanks on 24 June ready to fly out on the morning of 25 June. Fairbanks was hot, high 80's low 90's, and everybody was immediately tempted to drop cold weather gear since the forecast even looked promising for the upcoming week.

Our group this year from left to right: Mike, Doug, Jared, Rob, Jeff, Chris, Zachariah, Randy, and Seth

Last minute preparations at the Seven Gables Inn (Jeff, Randy, Chris)

We mostly stayed together at the Seven Gables Inn, the all night light affected us right away. It was hard to reconcile how late it actually was because how light it stays all night. The sun was setting at about 0050 and coming back up at around 0250. Even after it set night never got very dark.

The Smith brothers take up most of the space

The next morning we headed to Wright Air and checked in for our flight. We had to fly in three separate planes, 3 of us to a plane. Rob, Jared, and I had rented the cars so we dropped everybody and they flew out on the first wave and then after we dropped the cars off we flew out on a Helio Courier. The flight took about 45 minutes.

Entering the Alaska Range

Lining up to land the Kansas Creek Strip

The Wood River

Left to Right: Jared, Zachariah, Mike, Doug, Rob

First signs of life not 3 minutes from the airstrip, huge Grizzly tracks

Virginia Creek bed (our trail in the land of no trails)

There are no trails in the wilderness area around Kansas Creek airstrip and so we had to find the easiest way possible. Mostly that meant we hiked in creek beds a lot or right on the edge of the creek. Under 3200 feet the Alder scrub was so thick it was almost unpassable. Eventually we decided to break through and hike along the slopes above the creek and Alder scrub but that proved even more difficult. We originally planned on hiking up to a set of Alpine lakes about 9 miles from the airstrip. But about 7pm we called it quites about 2.5 miles before the lakes.

Hiking along Virginia creek

Alder Scrub

Climbing up above the creek and hopefully to easier terrain

In the tundra looking back towards the Wood river (Doug)

In the tundra (Zachariah)

After a big rain, everybody spread out trying to navigate the slippery rocks in the tundra

A herd of Dall sheep grazing near the peak

Looking down on camp from the peak

After dinner Jeff and I climbed up the peak above our camp to try and get closer to the Dall sheep. By the time we got up there the sheep had moved up higher and around the rocky top. It was really slippery on the rocks since they were still wet so we decided not to go any further. Around the north side we could see into the valley behind the peak and there were Dall sheep all over the rock cliffs. It's amazing the places those things can go.

Camp in the morning, it rained all night

Caribou mother and calf

Hiking up to the lakes

We finished our hike up to the alpine lakes on the second day. We still followed the creak for a while and at one point had to climb over an ice run. The tundra became much easier to navigate and we were able to make it up to the lakes in under 3 hours.

Ice run on the way to the alpine lakes

Looking back towards the creek from the final push up to the lakes

The bigger lake, water was 42 degrees with ice floating on one side

Virginia Creek valley

Zachariah, Jared, and Rob climbing down past the little lake

The Smith brothers came to Alaska with great dreams of all the fish they would catch and eat along the way. Unfortunately we weren't able to find any fish in the waters we saw. They made a last effort on the return trip as they drove from Fairbanks to Anchorage to catch their flights home. Not sure if they were successful then either.

Dall sheep mother and calf

Fording the creek

Chris jumping across

We had to ford the creek multiple times. As everybody got tired of taking their boots on and off we started looking for spots we could throw rocks into the water and build up enough to walk across.

Hiking back down towards a lake on the Wood river on day 3

Climbing back up into the tundra above the creek bed

The Smith brothers trying to avoid the tundra

At one point we decided it would be easier to climb up over a low hill to get to the lake, it saved some time and we got an amazing view of the valley

More signs of life, Moose bones chewed on by something big

Unnamed lake near the Wood river (Jeff)

Finally arrived at camp on the Wood river (Zachariah)

Wolf prints

We found a lot of wolf, bear, moose, and even lynx prints but didn't get to see any of them. While hiking up Kansas creek on 4 we found a huge pile of fur spread around a few bones and wolf and bear tracks all around. The locals had a good meal.

Trying to start a huge bonfire, it didn't go as planned

Makeshift raft, Jeff, Chris, Mike, and Zachariah tried to float down the Wood river but the raft quickly sank. Probably for the better, the water was really cold.

After the raft sunk

Trying to start the bonfire

Arriving at the landing strip, day 5

The first plane circling to see if we made it back

Left to right: Seth, Rob, Chris, Randy, Jared, Doug, Jeff, Mike, and Zachariah

Bear spray had to ride outside in case it burst in flight

Alaska was amazing! It was really cool to imagine that we were in places that few people had been and for 4 days we saw no signs of other people at all. No trails, no footprints, no garbage, no help. Can't wait to go back!