When that plane leaves you on a river in the Arctic by yourself you are really alone. I landed at about 10:00 pm and Gus and Jen came in at 11:45 pm. I had the tent set up on a gravel bar and we were able to get Gus to bed before too long.




The next day we moved our camp to where we have good visibility of the area and some willows and topography to block the wind.




The mountains were about a mile from camp and we did some exploring in the foothills. Gus, Jen and Skeet, with camp in the distance.




Spot where a Grizzly was digging for ground squirrels.




I did find a Caribou. Given the reports we had heard before we went out and that we were seeing only a few each day, I knew I needed to kill any acceptable bull that I could.




I shot the caribou in the process of pulling camp and loading the raft in order to move downstream a few miles to a new area. After getting the bull broken down and the raft loaded, we opted to head further downstream than we had planned since the fishing was better the further down you go in this river.




Lots of grayling very willing to hit a #4 spinner. Jen was designated fisher since I was on the oars. She caught a boat load of very nice Arctic Grayling (in the Arctic, so that was cool).




I was allowed to catch a few too.




What we were really looking for was Sea Run Dolly Varden that summer in the Arctic Ocean and spawn and overwinter in the river. Gus was able to hook this nice male that put up a great fight.





Typical gravel bar camp on the way out.




This is just a shot of the raft, since we really didn’t have any good pictures. Jen and Gus had swivel seats in the front with an action packer as a table between. The dogs had a plywood platform to the side and behind the oarsman that had storage underneath and then a whole pile of dry bags to the rear. The setup worked very well and everyone was comfortable. It was 60 river miles to get to the takeout, so having a good seat was appreciated.




Around that point we had been in for plenty of time and on checking the weather forecast on the sat phone a strong front with weather in the 20s, wind and snow on its way, we decided to head for the take out. We busted our ass against a serious headwind to get out, but were really glad we did. We pulled out at midnight and the weather the next day was awful with strong wind, cold and snow, weather that would have sucked for anything but sitting around, especially since Gus was on his last pair of mittens (out of 5 pairs).

The next day we headed South and slowly made our way down the Dalton Highway.




The pass over the mountains was plowed down to gravel and we followed a grader up and over. I really did not want to have to chain up the truck since it was cold, windy and the chains were buried under a half ton of wet gear in the truck bed.




In the 2 weeks we were on the North Slope the tundra really took on a nice blush of Fall. This is just South of the mountains.




We had some time before Jena and Gus had to leave and stopped a bunch along the way South. We had a lot of gear to get dried out and the weather turned absolutely beautiful once we got South of the mountains.




Getting the Caribou quarters a little air. Everything else fit in the freezer in the camper, which was nice.




Caribou ribs anyone?




Crossing the Arctic Circle on the way South. That night we had fried Arctic Grayling, some from the Arctic and some from the sub-Arctic – they tasted the same .




Gus with an Arctic Arctic Grayling. The fish in the River were really dark, much darker than the slightly stained water would suggest.




We found a few spots with great concentrations of Grayling. Where a kid could just nail one after another, it was great.




Dinner…




We had some great berry picking. Blueberries, cranberries and crowberries, just kissed by the first frosts.




After Jen and Gus left (Gus had school the next day). I was able to get out for some Ptarmigan hunting with the dogs. This is one of the areas I was hunting so scenery was not a limiting factor.




Hunting was slow, but we did find some birds.




And after all, isn’t it all about the rainbows, or is it sunsets????