Sketches from the Western Arctic
Dan Ritzman | December 10, 2010
Reprinted with permission from Cindy Hunt- Ritzman I’ve always wondered why my husband Dan loves guiding for Arctic Wild. Every year since I’ve known him, he usually disappears for a few weeks in Alaska, returning sunburned, disheveled, yet also happy and more ‘centered’. This year I had the opportunity to travel with him, on a trip [...]
Unexpected Gifts in the Utukok
Cedric Ley | September 18, 2010
Cedric spends eight weeks in the Utokok Uplands looking for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd. But it is them who found him and so he had an experience he will never forget.
Angels in the Mist
Jeff Fair | May 6, 2010
Angels in the Mist, by Jeff Fair. From Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge “The Wild Geese,” from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry Geese appear high over us, pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, as in love or sleep, holds them to their way, clear, in the ancient faith: what we [...]
The Killik
RKahn | May 1, 2010
July 26 It is hot and sunny. There is the relentless sound of the river flowing green and white as it moves north. The sunrise was pink and grey with the river shinning white and blue. The sky was filled with soft pink clouds and the mountains glowed pink in the east. Hidden within the [...]
Utukok River
RKahn | April 9, 2010
What are the elements off a perfect day? Here, in this place, this day played out in a perfect way…I woke up to hot sunlight streaming through he tent…The heat was a heavy weight pressing me down, the effort to move, to leave the tent required all the energy I could muster. I stepped out [...]
Colville III- Alaskan Arctic River
RKahn | March 5, 2010
The gravel bar is a jumble of jagged clay rock; there are fossils everywhere, worms and seashells, fragments of petrified wood, fern leaves, an ancient world frozen in stone. I imagine myself walking in an ancient arctic rain forest. We climb up the cliff above our tents following game trails and eating blueberries. There are [...]
The Pik Dunes
RKahn | February 15, 2010
Rain all night…the clouds are down on the lake…It is a cold grey morning…Patches of blue sky breaking through until the days changes in character…Bright sun, light wind, blue sky…the grasses glowing yellow…Pools of water gathered in the folds of the dunes…the hum of the land is loud in my ears…There are no caribou to [...]
Leaving the land of light
Shannon Huffman Polson | August 17, 2009
After the haze from faraway forest fires had cleared, we would often sit speechless watching the low light from the midnight Arctic sun paint the gentle hills and mountains around us. The light is perhaps one of the biggest gifts of the Arctic, one of the spectacles of this part of the world less noted [...]
Kills, ruins, pups and the circle of life
Shannon Huffman Polson | August 15, 2009
We rewarded ourselves after two long days of tundra and river travel with a rest day, getting out for a shorter hike and reading. Peter and I traded Pielou’s A Naturalist’s Guide to the Arctic and Barry Lopez’ Arctic Dreams back and forth. We also both finished Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food. Then we [...]
The Aichilik River
Shannon Huffman Polson | July 23, 2009
Rain and sleet pounding on our tent woke us close to noon. It fell for two hours. The lightweight Tarptent held up great; we stayed nestled in our sleeping bag and read and journaled. After a breakfast of oatmeal, walnuts and raisins, we filtered more water, and headed down the drainage. The steep slopes into [...]