Brooks Range Day 11: Confusion Kersplatt

Oof. Got an enjoyable late start and descended Confusion Creek. I decided I wanted to try and make the loop a tiny bit longer and get a bit more of the "there's nothing left to the north but the Arctic" views, so I climbed up on a ridge. It was a nice moment, except marred by the fact that I was at least a mile away from where I thought I was (my guess before I turned on GPS). I was well further north, off the good base layer maps that I downloaded, and outside of Gates of the Arctic National Park. Not problem, really, even a bit neat. Except these unforced errors became a bit of a pattern.

I descended back to Confusion Creek and climbed up a ridge to get to Skimo Creek. It was a dry creek bed full of dry rocks, which felt rare and interesting, since every single drainage on the trip, and plenty of non-drainages too, have been full of water. Eventually some running water surfaced in the creek, then went back under, and I stepped on a large flat boulder and thought "oh interesting this one's slippery" and then I ate it pretty hard. I suppose I fell as well as one can at full speed with a heavy pack onto a large boulder, as all parts of me hit and spread the damage evenly. I'd thrown one trekking pole clear, and both forearms went down flat under my head, and my legs flat too. Except my chin hit the rock. Nothing broken nor sprained, and I didn't bite my tongue off, my chin has a bump and my jaw was sore with a tiny bit of a headache for the rest of the day. 

Obviously, I need to be careful. A broken bone probably wouldn't be fatal since I have an emergency beacon and I'm under 20 miles from the village, but still.

I descended Skimo Creek, climbed a tributary, and actually made a good navigation choice, reducing the climbing required and stumbling across an ATV trail. Okay, only 15 miles to the village and it'll all be ATV track. Except somehow I managed to lose the ATV trail at a creek crossing and went up the wrong fork of Akmagolic Creek. So I climbed up and over a ridge to get back to the route. Three unforced errors today.

I think I'm getting hungry and tired. Maybe I'm old but 11 days out at full blast in the Brooks without a real town meal is pretty exhausting. 

I have less than a day's food left, I'm making less than perfect navigation decisions, I smell awful, and most of the routes out of the village start on ATV trails, so day hikes with the village as a basecamp aren't that appealing, so I'm ready for the trip to be over. Amy moved my flight up to Wednesday, but we're going to see if I can get out of here tomorrow (Tuesday). I'm camped about 4 miles from town at the bottom of Kongumavic Creek, which spills out into the huge valley the village is in. It should be all ATV or gravel road to get there. I set my watch alarm for 6 AM. 
 
Wildflowers

Songbirds making nests in the tussocks

Sadly we saw no live Dall Sheep

My last pass

My last campsite and last pot of beans

 


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