Updated:
April 17, 2010

SnowSTAR-2010

Matthew called in from Atqasuk wondering if I have received his dispatch that was to come in from Anatuvuk. If you think about it, it's pretty amazing that as remote as Alaska is, it's a wonder that he is able to conduct e-mail when he visits the villages. It's a long shot, but I'm guessing e-mail is the furthest from his mind, the scenery must be amazing, and the trail can be frustrating as well. Here is Matthew's dispatch for the leg from Allakaket to Anatuvuk.

April 9, 2010: Part II

April 8th, 2010: Anaktuvuk Pass.

We are staying at the National Park Service house in Anaktuvuk Pass. This is a little more than half way through our trip. I believe our last dispatch was posted in Allakaket. Since then much has happened……….

April 2nd, 2010: After working with the kids at the Allakaket School (Figure 1), we headed up the Alatna River about 5:00 PM. Just before leaving town we met Harding Sam, one of the few residents of Allakaket who trapped up the Alatna. He (and others) warned us about the dangers of the river. He suggested that we travel in a series of clearings and lakes that lay back of the river on the east side. This route sounded complicated but we agreed we would try it if possible. Of course, we had barely left town when we got confused, following a fresh wood-cutting trail and missing Harding’s trail. Nonetheless, we arrived at Harding’s fish camp about 9 miles up the river and camped about 9 PM (Figure 2).

Figure 1: A young student from Allakaket looks at a cast of Grizzly Bear footprint.

Figure 2: Looking out at the Alatna River past Harding Sam’s fish camp.

April 3rd, 2010: We woke the next morning to another beautiful day. We were packing up camp getting ready to leave when we heard a snowmobile coming. It was Harding Sam coming to check his beaver traps (and perhaps nicely making sure we had not got lost) (Fig. 3). Harding visited a few minutes then led us through a break in the brush and into a series of clearings and lakes that paralleled the river for almost 17 miles

Figure 3: Harding Sam of Allakaket (actually Alatna) checking to be sure we were OK with a great smile.

After returning to the river we looked for a series of portages that would keep us off the river, but if they existed, they were heavily over-grown, so we had no choice but to run the river itself. It was covered with deep snow, all metamorphosed into depth hoar, a coarse-grained weak type of snow that we sank deeply into. The heavy weight of snow did one other thing: it weighed down and insulated the ice of the river, creating overflow. A few hours later we found this out the hard way. We were crossing from one side of the river to the other and found slush under the water. This immediately bogged the sleds down and stopped them. The suction of the water under the snow is enough to do this. We managed to get well into the zone of flooded snow so we stuck all eight of our sleds. There ensued a hard 2 hours of hard work. First we uncoupled the snowmobiles and got them onto firm snow. Then we got all our ropes stretched out and waded out to the sleds and tied them off. Pulling from the firm snow, we were able to get all sleds out of the snow swamp and on to firm snow. No harm done, but the signs of where the snow was flooded and where it was not were subtle or just not there. Sorry, but in the heat of the moment of getting the sleds unstuck, photography was not a top priority (Figures 4 and 5).

Figure 4: A trench in the deep snow of the Alatna River, with 9” of slush showing in the bottom. The camera lens got wet while wading around in the slush to get ropes to the sleds (Fig. 5).

Figure 5: Matthew’s boots in 9” in slush.

We camped about 3 miles above the slush and spent the next morning chipping ice out of the sleds tarping them so that they would collect less slush if we found more overflow under the snow.

April 4th, 2010: We continued running up the Alatna River, staying vigilant for overflow under the deep snow, running from one bar to another when possible. The snow was deep (24”) and the going slow, the river winding in big oxbows. We were worried about fuel consumption, so we made the decision to take an alternate route up the Malamute Branch of the Alatna and up to Iniakuk Lake. This would provide a quick and fuel-efficient run across the lake, but an uncertain trail back to the upper Alatna River. We no sooner made this choice then we found old snowmobile tracks. These led right up to the lake and Paul Shanahan’s place on the west side of the lake. Paul has lived here for more than 20 years. We visited with Paul and his dog Bug (Figures 6 and 7) for a few hours before continuing up the head of the lake past the lodge and up the Tobuk River.

Figures 6 and 7: Bug and her owner, Paul Shanahan at his place on the west side of Iniakuk Lake.

April 5th, 2010: On another beautiful day we headed up to Tobuk Lake and the uncertain portage between the lake and the Alatna River. Here the snow was deep and we had to travel uphill. The Superwide Track Skidoo did amazing, however, blazing through impossibly deep snow with relative ease. Within an hour we were back down on the Alatna River. Another hour and we found ourselves gazing up at the Arrigetch Peaks (Figure 8). These had been the initial inspiration for the trip, and though we were not going to get any closer to them, it was nice to see them in clear and sunny weather.

Figure 8: The Arrigetch Peaks from the Alatna River.

April 6th, 2010: In 1924 the Mertie and Philip Smith USGS party had reached the Arctic Divide by heading up Unakserak Creek. It is an unlikely looking route, one that they must have learned of from previous expeditions and from the Native peoples of the area. The creek winds through a beautiful rock-walled canyon, often less than 100’ wide. In many places it looks like it is going to pinch off, but it never does. The pictures tell the story better than words (Figures 9, 10 and 11).

Figure 9: The canyon of Unakserak Creek.

Figure 10:

Figure 11:

We climbed out of Urakserak Creek and up to Survey Pass, named by the USGS party in 1924. Here, after more than 500 miles in the Yukon drainage basin we passed into the Arctic drainage of the Colville River. However, we were only in this drainage a brief time, crossing back into the Yukon drainage an hour later as we crossed Kutuk Pass. From Nenana to here we had been on the USGS trail, but here our paths diverged, as we headed east to Anaktuvuk Pass. We camped the night at the head of Kutuk Creek in a vast cirque carved out by now-vanished Pliestocene glaciers that filled the Brooks Range (Figure 12).

Figure 12:

April 7th, 2010: We traveled into Anaktuvuk Pass. We began to see snowmobile tracks 30 miles out from the village. As we neared Chandlar Lake we saw in the distance some figures fishing on the lake. Mike Hugo, driving a hot Yamaha snowmobile (Figure 13) came roaring over to us to say high (he was having little luck fishing) and we visited with him for awhile. As we said goodbye, we gave us a display of fine riding on his snowgo. Welcome to Anaktuvuk Pass (Figure 14). Tomorrow we visit with the school kids.

Figure 13: Mike Hugo’s hot sled near Chandlar Lake.

Figure 14: Anatuvuk Pass