Adventures in Onionism

Don't eat who-knows-how-old TVP from last year's outfitter trip. Anywho, it rained a lot, but not as much as the night before, so I think stream levels actually dropped. I walked around the stream a bit, then started walking/hitching south. There was not much traffic (easily 15 minutes between vehicles) and it's mostly semi trailers, which are *not* stopping. I was hiking off the road on a maintenance trail for the pipeline, waived to a work pickup truck, and he stopped! Turns out, he stopped coincidentally, but my going up and asking him induced him so say yes. And he (or his crew) also gave a ride to Gerald Klamer, a German hiker I know who happens to be around. "Where'd you come from?" "I hiked east into ANWR from Chandalar Airstrip." "We just picked up a guy yesterday who did that same thing!" "Was he German? Named Gerald?" ...

I guess I'm done? It rained all last night, from before I set my tent up until a brief respite in the morning. By the time I was dressed in full waterproofs, it was raining again. During the night it was not the normal "it always does this" sprinkle, but heavier. In the morning when I climbed up to the bowl where my pass was, I really needed it to be the one very low spot that I could actually see, and not further into the completely socked-in drainage. To my delight, it was. A very gentle grade, with snow completely avoidable. The slope angle shading didn't even register a color on the climb side, and that proved true. It was, however, quite cold at the summit so I couldn't hang around and enjoy my last climb.  The descent was gentle, but long, and by the time we met our first inlet creek, I realized that all the water was raging and turbid. I'm up high enough, I can choose whichever side I want, and i...

Man, I should really decide if I'm counting by full days or partial days or nights camped or what.  Regardless, today was an easy day. I slept in and read some Dickens before heading out. I climbed to an easy grassy low point on a ridge and contemplated which route to go. There are infinite (too many) options. That's the one thing I like about trails--it's just one dimension and all you have to optimize for is speed. Out here, with no trails, I can do whatever the hell I want. We've already determined that's usually based on seeing as much ground as possible, but it can't seem artificial, it needs to be a nice natural line, and preferably neither too flat and boggy nor, unless the weather's good, which it's not, over 6,000 feet. So, OK do I do a few fewer miles, stay in ANWR, and see new terrain, or cross the Divide again at a pretty spot but then repeat miles I just saw, and tech...

Whoof. Just as I was going to bed last night, the fog rolled in. It parted for two minutes at 8am to tell me I was sleeping in, and then came right back and stayed all day. Like a marine layer only a few hundred feet above me, unmoving, cold. I bundled up more than I ever have, stopping to put on five layers up top and two layers of gloves. That sounds like more than it is since only one of my top layers insulates (t-shirt, long sleeve base layer, button up shirt, Houdini windbreaker, Montbell Versalite rain jacket). There was a tiny bit of thunder from who knows which direction, but thankfully only a few minutes of rain.  Early on I had to cross the creek a couple times, and climbed on the bench bluffs a few more times to avoid crossings, trying to stay on the north (Divide) side. Eventually once I lost enough elevation the creek widened out, but there wasn't game in the creek--maybe not enough brush to house and feed them?  ...

Long day. Got moving reasonably early. Just as I was crossing the grassy open area to reach the bigger Your Creek, I saw a cabin nearby, so I went to investigate. To my surprise, hunting guides are allowed to have permanent structures in the Refuge. The door was unlocked but I didn't go in. It definitely was stocked, and a bear had gotten in to the other cabin storage area, so that was a mess. Anyway, good to know if I were to get injured, as there was an airstrip as well.  I quickly reached the bed of Your Creek and then it was good walking most of the day. Nice and wide, with plenty of backchannels that had tons of game tracks. Part of the creek still had snow, but the flat hard kind that happens on flat slow water (there has to be a word for it). It's great walking. (There was also a third, smaller, cabin building there.) I saw at least three rabbits, a half dozen ptarmigan, a Canada Jay...

Wow the wind died down and the mosquitos came out. Had to pace while eating my dinner beans. I'm low in elevation after doing three passes today. Hard as hell. The first was kinda nice and took me right up to the divide with a lake at the top. I dropped only a bit, then followed another creek up to 5600 or so, a giant heap of loose slate. It was reasonably easy to avoid the snow on both sides. Then I descended and momentarily forgot that I had another pass to do shortly. Oh good, I've got flat mile along a big river--nope! Right back up, and higher than last time. Avoiding the snow was manageable on the West side, but there was a cornice (not really of the sketchy variety, just saying the drift made it all the way to the top) and looking down the East side was alarmingly white. No solid way down, and it looked like the largest basin had an avalanche at some point this winter. I tracked back and forth connecting solid ground, but was sinking in snow and getting wet and cold...