I’ll admit that I’m biased towards this photo. I took it on an exploratory custom trip in the headwaters of the Colville River a couple years ago. Perhaps it is a good picture in its own right, but for me it is also infused with the thrill of an unknown river, the excitement of early June in the Brooks Range and the pleasure of traveling with others who enjoy the country.
If caribou are a fitting icon for the arctic, then Brown Bears are certainly the symbol for Katmai National Park. Katmai has some of the highest densities and largest bears in the world. We offer a couple of trips in Katmai each summer, including a base camp trip on Katmai’s pacific coast and a canoe trip in the park’s interior. Here are a couple pictures from Dave Shaw’s canoe trip in Katmai last fall. What a beautiful bear!
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.
Many of our clients sign-up for combination trips each summer. Usually they join one of our backpacking trips and segue into a canoe or rafting adventure so they can spend some more time in the arctic and cover some more ground. This June one intrepid traveler went whole hog and combined three trips for a 25 day odyssey and full immersion in the arctic wilderness. 24 nights without a sunset, 24 mornings with birdsong for an alarm clock, 25 days to experience the mystery and magic of the far north. Here is what he had to say about his summer at high latitude:
“In June of 2011 I took three Arctic Wild trips back-to-back-to-back to ensure that I could absorb the intensity and uniqueness of the Arctic. Arctic Wild did a brilliant job of managing my transitions — from a Western Arctic caribou base camp, to the lower Kongakut raft trip, and ending with the Arctic coast canoeing. The three trips were incredibly different, each with its special charms and challenges. On each I could take time to pace myself for the 25 day immersion. The experience was extraordinary and it gave me insights into the full range of the wildlife and Arctic environment, and the awesome power and beauty of the Arctic. I’m 66 and I had no trouble managing this trifecta. If you really want to EXPERIENCE the Arctic, this is the way to do it and Arctic Wild will make it work seamlessly and professionally.” Chuck Ludlam, Washington, D.C.
Our 2012 schedule is now online. We have lots of opportunities for you to immerse yourself in the arctic for a week, a month, or more.
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.
The floats skimmed the surface of Walker Lake as our float plane dropped us off to begin our 9 day Kobuk River expedition. I was here with 3 clients to float the upper 80 miles of the Kobuk in inflatable canoes and to fish ! The upper Kobuk River is well known for its fishery and we came well equipped with 2 rods per person.
Our first day was spent exploring and fishing around Walker Lake. We wandered downstream of the outlet to scout the portage around a 200 yd. stretch of class 4 whitewater in the upper Kobuk canyon, which we would negotiate the following day. The upper Kobuk is a fairly moderate river that is Class 1 and 2 for the most part, but in two canyon sections, it breaks from this pattern and thunders into Class 3 and 4 whitewater for short stretches, all of which can be portaged.
After spending a little over an hour carrying all our gear around the upper Kobuk canyon, the fishing began in earnest. The upper river contains an amazing grayling fishery. We stopped half a dozen times each day to fish and caught dozens of large grayling in the 15-20 in. range. Most of these were released unharmed. We always kept a few for dinner….and we ate fish every night.
As we made our way down the Kobuk, we got into a Chum Salmon run on a major tributary. They were fun to catch, but they were far enough into the spawning process, that we released each one of them. One day we were fishing in a lagoon off of the river and were surprised to come upon a mass of spawning Mountain Whitefish. These fish live after spawning to spawn again the next year. Though the grayling we had been eating every night were delicious, the Mountain Whitefish upped the culinary ante on the trip.
The fishing highpoint came on our final full day on the river. We finally got down into Sheefish country. Sheefish, also known as Inconnu or “Eskimo Tarpon” are incredible fish. They can grow to larger than 40 lbs in the Kobuk River. We fished for them unsuccessfully in 4 different spots that day before we found the “honey hole”. I was the first one casting and on my 3rd cast, it was game on! When my first Sheefish jumped, I felt like someone had photoshopped a giant fish onto the end of my line. When I landed it, it measured 42 in., we estimated between 30 and 35 lbs. We continued to fish the hole for an hour and quit after 10 Sheefish had been caught and released. We kept the smallest one, at 11 lbs. for dinner. We filetted it and I sautéed it butter with just a little salt and pepper so as to preserve the native flavor of the fish. We all agreed, from a culinary standpoint, it was 5 star.
If you are dreaming of a Brooks Range river trip, and moderate whitewater and fishing are your priorities, the Kobuk River fits the bill quite nicely.