Arctic Wild

I will be giving a series of slideshows in both California and Washington during the second half of February 2012. I plan on featuring an exploratory trip in the headwaters of the Colville River from 2010. In telling the story of that great trip, I’ll cover natural history of the area, conservation, and also talk about some of the other trips that we offer. I’ll post my schedule for the tour once it is finalized, but I still have time and energy to give presentations to groups large or small. If you know of a hiking or paddling club, conservation organization, or even a group of friends who would be interested in learning about Alaska wilderness travel. Please contact me and we will arrange a slideshow for your group.

See you in February.- Michael

Our friend and guide Laurent Dick will be leading a trip to Nome this spring. There are just a couple spots left, so contact him soon if you want to be part of the action. Laurent is a wealth of knowledge and Nome is a beautiful place.

For the past 9 years I have had the good fortune to have a wonderful dog with me on many adventures. Hank died on Christmas Day, and though I’ve never seen an obituary for a dog, He deserves one.

We got Hank as a puppy, from the shelter in Fairbanks and within a couple of weeks he was on his first winter camping trip to the remote Hootlanana Hot Springs north of Fairbanks. His career as an adventuring dog was off to a good start. During his first summer we got to backpack in the Philip Smith Mountains and then raft the Canning River to the Arctic Ocean. From there it was off to Barter Island where he emptied a can of pepper-spray into a hotel carpet; a story which eventually made it into the New York Times. Since then, he has traveled widely in Alaska mostly on personal trips but also on the occasional guided trip, becoming so comfortable with small planes that we would just load-up and wait for the ride to begin. When not roaming the Brooks Range (usually in heel) he has been my constant companion on countless more mundane adventures. Though bred to be a herding dog, he found his true calling as a greeter, wagging his whole body and talking up a storm to anyone arriving at our home or the Arctic Wild warehouse. In addition to brightening our days he also thwarted a moose who was determined to stomp me, alerted us to bears approaching camp, bravely chased an entire pack of wolves from our camp and dutifully watched over our young boys even when they mauled him. I could write about Hank for hours, but suffice it to say that we couldn’t ask for a better dog. We will miss him for many, many years.

What could be more iconic than caribou swimming an arctic river? Here are a couple of images from Dave Shaw and Cameron Baird respectively. Dave’s image at top is from the Noatak River in Gates of the Arctic National Park taken this August. Cameron’s photo is from the Kongakut River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in June. Though the motion and the numbers from the June photo are impressive, I also love the rich coat and heavy antlers of the maturing bull in the fall.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is another great photograph by Moe Witschard.  I love the sense of motion, and how the milling herd makes the arctic coast seem beautiful and mysterious rather than cold and damp. (It is all of those things.) Moe took this photo while guiding a family on a Mission: Caribou trip, specifically designed to see the great herds on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The inspiration for these daily photo posts comes from my good friend Laurent Dick in Juneau and his blog “Alaska 365“. He hopes to guide some of our photography- base camp trips next summer, adding another excellent photographer to our ranks.

Today’s photograph was taken by Moe Witschard while guiding a custom trip to the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes in Kobuk Valley National Park. Moe and his adventurous client, spend 10 days canoeing the Noatak River, then ended the trip with 4 days hiking and photographing the dunes.

You can see more of Moe’s photography at www.moephotography.com

Arctic Wild guides...are an exceptional group of people. Not only do they have outstanding wilderness and people skills, but many of them are accomplished photographers too. Over the years, they have given us some beautiful images. We have outstanding photographs of everything from caribou swimming the Kongakut to Bears Katmai National Park.

With 5 feet of snow on the ground and a generous helping of darkness, I have had had time to sort this collection, and for the next week or so, I plan on sharing an image a day from my files. I hope you enjoy this sampling of wildlife and landscape photography from our guides.

I love this picture of a little Harlequin Duck that Dave Shaw took on our Katmai Canoe trip this August. See more of his work at wildimagephoto.com

Today is the last day that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be accepting comments on their comprehensive plan. Even if you have never been to the arctic, we would encourage you to email the refuge staff in support of additional wilderness. Our comments urged the refuge to designate the famed coastal plain as wilderness. We are also voicing our support for Wild and Scenic designation for rivers like the Canning, and Hulahula. If you haven’t already submitted comments, today is the day! November 15th is the last day they will be accepted. Feel free to contact us if you want more information.

We have some great deals for those of you who are still trying to choose the perfect Arctic Wild trip.

We are offering two last minutes specials at a 50% discount(!):

We have one extra seat in the plane for our Yukon River canoe trip in July. You can join the fun for only $1,150.

We also have space on our Arctic Coast Canoe trip June 28th to July 5th. Sign-up soon for only $2,050.

For the early birds, if you book a 2012 trip before July 1st, we will give you the current price:

So many of our trips for this summer are full that many are interested in reserving spots on our most popular trips like the Kokolik, Mission: Caribou, and the Kongakut River. We don’t have the exact dates for 2012 but the dates won’t change by more than a couple days. So if you want to make sure we have room for you and save some money too…Now is the time to sign-up for 2012.

This June, Arctic Wild will be teaming up with Z-bird Tours for a rafting trip in the Western Brooks Range. The Kugururok River is a great raft trip for many reasons. Our main reason for the trip is to find North America’s hardest to see bird. Recent reports of Gray-headed Chickadees on the Kugururok river, combined with Arctic Wild’s expertise in wilderness travel, and Z-bird’s phenomenal birding abilities, will make this, a trip wilderness birders will be talking about for years.

Here is what Z-Bird’s owner and guide John Puschock has to say about why he is excited to return to the area to get another look a Gray-headed Chickadee.

” Of all the resident bird species in North America north of Mexico, the Gray-headed Chickadee (a.k.a. Siberian Tit) is arguably the most difficult bird to see.  It has a large range in the Old World, inhabiting boreal regions from Scandinavia to eastern Siberia.  In the New World it inhabits only Alaska, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories.  What makes it so difficult to see in North America is that there are almost no roads within its limited range, so just getting to where the birds are is an undertaking.

The Gray-headed Chickadee’s preferred habitat is a bit of an enigma.  Various authors say it prefers spruce forest, others a mix of spruce and willow, or just willows.  Even in the Old World, it’s preferences vary from region to region.  In Alaska, it is usually found near isolated cottonwood (poplar) groves along a few north-slope rivers and in mixed scrub near tree-line in the Brooks Range  It’s a cavity nester, often nesting in poplars.
The Gray-headed Chickadee looks similar to Boreal Chickadee, but it’s bigger and has a larger white cheek patch and paler flanks.  The Boreal Chickadee probably evolved from the Gray-headed during the Pleistocene glaciations, and it’s thought that the current New World population is actually the result of the Gray-headed re-entering North America following glaciations.  Competition with the Boreal Chickadee may restrict its range.

Despite their close relationship, there’s no record of the two species hybridizing, which makes an encounter I had in 1998 all the more intriguing: The Kelly Bar on the Noatak River had for years, been the place to go to see the Gray-headed Chickadee, at least up until the mid-1990s.  I was banding birds in Northwest Alaska all summer and  I visited Kelly Bar intermittently.  With each visit I expected to see Gray-heads, but two frustrating months went by with no sightings.

Finally in August I spotted a chickadee with large white cheek patches.  “Finally”, I thought, but then I noticed that it was a colorful bird, as far as chickadees go.  It’s flanks were more like a Boreal Chickadee, with warm tones.  I froze and didn’t look for other field marks, such as white edging on the wing feathers (which would indicate Gray-headed).  I was just trying to comprehend what I was seeing.  And then all too quickly, the bird was gone.  I saw it for only 30 seconds. If I actually saw, what I think I saw, it could have been a hybrid.  But maybe it was a colorful Gray-headed, or a Boreal with more white in the cheek than normal, or maybe my eyes didn’t interpret things correctly.

After 12 years of pondering the brief encounter with the bird, it is time to return and take another look.”

Please join us in June for a fun filled birding adventure.