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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Heading downstream… and back upstream
Shannon Huffman Polson | August 12, 2009
(Post #3 from the Western Arctic trip. More posts coming over the next few days.) It was time to get on the river. Wolves woke us again that morning with their howls, and we were reluctant to leave our wide embrace of gentle mountains and treeless tundra, where our eyes so easily roamed the slopes [...]
Another surprise in the Western Arctic
Shannon Huffman Polson | August 10, 2009
(Post #2 from the Western Arctic trip. More posts coming over the next few days.) Wolf howls woke us our second morning, which continued to astonish us as though they were the first we had heard. Before heading downriver in the Klepper, Peter and I wanted to explore more of the beautiful valley in which [...]
Day one in the Western Arctic, Nigu River
Shannon Huffman Polson | August 9, 2009
(Post #1 from the Western Arctic trip. More posts coming over the next few days.) It was, perhaps, a good thing that our first Arctic trip of the summer taught us that plans are only something from which one deviates. We would return to that lesson on this trip. Smoke from distant forest fires swallowed [...]
The Final Stretch: Our Last Days in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Shannon Huffman Polson | July 24, 2009
To make it to the airstrip, we had to reford the Aichilik- though this time below the confluence with the Leffingwell Fork with higher water. We planned to make it to the landing strip a day early. My digestive track was upset- to say the least- so we determined if we arrived a day early [...]
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 [...]
Voice Blog #3 from the Aichilik in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Shannon Huffman Polson | July 14, 2009
Click here to listen to the final voice blog from the Aichilik River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (posting delayed due to technical difficulties)