The Ultima Thule

Journeys in America’s Northernmost Lands: a web anthology of the Alaskan Arctic

To the Arctic

July 20th, 2009

To the Arctic

Shannon Huffman Polson | July 20, 2009

Someone once said that “a plan is something you deviate from.” And we all know things rarely work out as planned- especially in the wilderness. This Arctic trip was no exception. Our planned route was to land on the Aichilik at the coastal plains and hike south, upriver, to the continental divide, cross it and [...]

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Shannon Huffman Polson | June 27, 2009

Our first leg of the Ultima Thule is two weeks hiking in the north-east Arctic, beginning in the foothills of the Romanzov Mountains along the Aichilik River and hiking south to the Upper Sheenjek River, designated in 1980 as a Wild River. We hope we might see some of the caribou migration, though it’s always [...]