Brooks Range Day 9: Back to Anaktuvuk Pass

Perfect time to start a hike

Very cold, though

Hit by the sun at 2:46AM

Done with the loop around 5AM

Off goes Nano

Woke up at 11:30 PM and starting hiking under the midnight sun. Unfortunately the sun was behind a mountain until 2:30 AM even if it was technically above the horizon and plenty light out. Also, it was very cold. The first few creek crossings were painful, and we avoided crossing the main river nearly at all cost. Eventually after an hour or two it became not-the-worst, but still pretty annoying, and after maybe three hours, immediately after an obnoxiously deep and unsurpassable duck pond that we had to go around, we found the ATV trail we were pretty sure would exist closer to the village. We walked 5 miles of that, sometimes awful and boggy, sometimes halfway decent, and the village was in view.

We saw a few researchers outside the village (found out later they were doing a bird count for NPS) and strolled across the airstrip in town a few minutes after 5 AM. Anaktuvuk Divide Loop done!

Nothing was open, so we made hot chocolate and sat down by the post office. Some other adventurers happened by (Eric, who apparently traversed the whole range last year, and Hunter, who guides in the Brooks) and we chatted with them for a bit. I think they're doing Roman Dial's "Triple A" packrafting route. 

We set up our tents east of the airport and napped till 10 when the store opens.(Hours 10-6 Monday - Saturday, closed Sunday. The store was taken over by the Alaska Commercial Corporation this April, and everyone says it's a vast improvement. They don't have butane canisters, but they do have Coleman camp fuel and $13 boxes of cereal. Expect prices about 2x or 2.5x the lower 48.)

The rest of the day we sat around eating ice cream and napping. We ran into other adventurers, including the ones we saw near Oola Pass on day three, and another small group with a guide Haley from Tundra Travels (she seemed quite knowledgeable, if you ever want to do a small guided trip here, look her up.)

I couldn't really figure out the village. It's not oriented around the service industry, that's for sure. There's cell service, but I think only with AT&T (so said a Child Services official who was on our flight in last week). There's Internet, but maybe only after 4 PM when the village community hall turned on their open Starlink network. There used to be a restaurant, but it's not open anymore, the building is rented out by a construction company for its workers, of which there are many, constantly driving around in heavy equipment (which was itself flown in on giant cargo planes). This makes camping east of the runway pretty loud, and it's also buggy, so not that spectacular. What are they building? (People said a 10-plex and a new public works facility.) Why do they need so much gravel? How does all this get paid for? Is it pipeline revenue, like so much else in Alaska?

The ranger station is manned in the summer, and Ranger Al knows the range well, but obviously doesn't work on weekends (but you may be able to find him around if you're lucky.) There's talk of public bathrooms, but I definitely couldn't find one--the community hall seemed more like a modern take on an Indian group lodge, with apartments for the elders, and it didn't feel appropriate to use.

Apparently they fly in diesel fuel to power everything. Apparently the locals eat about a dozen caribou per person per year and can hunt them year round, and there really isn't much in the way of fish nearby. There are lots of ATVs, Argos (amphibious vehicles with wheels and a solid bottom so it floats, and the wheels don't turn, instead when you turn the steering handlebar the gear ratio changes so one side goes faster than the other), snow machines, trampolines, chained up dogs, and happy looking kids as you walk around the dusty gravel streets.  Everybody has a big dumpster with a positive slogan painted on it (humor, spiritually, respect your elders, traditional hunting ways, etc.) but most don't have lids so the crows are having a field day.

Somebody told me the population has increased a bunch in the past while, I'll have to check that when I get back (nerdy aside: the Census Bureau's lame use of differential privacy might make this difficult and unreliable).

Nano and all the other adventurers flew out on the afternoon flight. I used Wi-Fi a little, ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's, read my book, and slept for 11 hours.