Day 1: Point of No-Hope

Weather was not on our side today.

Our chartered Super Cub was unable to land at the airstrip in Point Hope. The cloud deck was too low - Point Hope was entrenched in bad weather that was to last for several more days.

So, we reviewed the pilot's aviation map and made a mid-air decision to fly into the first clear airstrip south of Point Hope: the Chukchi Sea native village of Kivalina.

We landed in a sea of mist on a spit at Kivalina and were picked up by the airstrip attendant, Eugene Wesley. We loaded our gear into his truck and hopped in. I have to admit, I wasn't sure where we were going or why we were in a truck. There were no roads out of town and I figured that we'd just start walking.

There are a few vehicles in Kivalina, but I'm not sure why. The village is only a few hundred yards from end to end. I suspect that some of the natives here work at the mine (Red Dog), and perhaps they use their trucks for transportation to work during the summer months. Most natives here, like in other remote villages, use snowmachines, four-wheelers, and motorboats (skiffs) for transportation and subsistence hunting and fishing. These vehicles work well on the open tundra, winter or summer, and get them to their hunting and fishing camps along the Kivalina and Wulik Rivers. Many old machines lie dead here, in a state of disrepair. We see one truck, its windows shattered, piled to the cab with snow.

We see dry salmon and sheefish hanging off racks, fruit of a productive start to the fishing season here. Caribou skins are also stretched on plywood, drying. Some are nailed to the sides of resident's homes, which are little more than plywood-sided shacks. A few have tin roofs.

The problem with a plan to "just start walking out of Kivalina" in early June is fraught with difficulties. There was really no place to walk to.

Kivalina sits on a spit that is being eroded into the Chukchi Sea at an alarming rate. They lost 50 feet of coastline last year alone. They are looking for a new village site, farther inland.

On the inland side of Kivalina sits a lagoon. It would be a long swim across the lagoon to start any sort of route leading into the Brooks Range.

To the north: swamps.

To the south: ice-choked sea and inland bays that effectively block off any route to the area's only meaningful road, that leads to the gigantic Red Dog Mine, some 50 or more miles inland.

After perusing the maps and evaluating our options, we decide we'll cross the lagoon by boat to the mouth of the Wulik River and begin our trek up the Wulik valley.

Eugene puts us in touch with Carlos, who knows enough English to negotiate a fair price for us to charter his boat across the lagoon and a few miles up the Wulik delta swamp. Fair price in Kivalina resembles something akin to highway robbery in normal places. Gas is expensive up here. Jobs are scarce. Prices are high. In addition to pooling all of our cash and providing Carlos with a stipend that won't buy him much gas for the future, we promise to ship him a crate of food from Anchorage upon our return.

We dress warm for the boat ride. Kivalina is dressed in a fine mist, product of a sea village. It's cold and the moisture invades our clothing, displaces warmth. The boat ride will be windy. Carlos has a 70 hp motor on a rather small skiff.

We pile our packs, and us, into the boat. Carlos adds a shotgun. I almost sit on a seal harpoon.

Soon, we are across the lagoon and motoring up the Wulik River, keeping watch for chunks of ice, submerged willow snags, dead caribou. We see it all.

The bird life is vibrant in the marshes. Shorebirds, birds of prey, waterfowl - they all form the cornerstone of this wet arctic ecosystem.

The Wulik runs muddy, high, and strong. It's a mighty river. Snow is melting fast in the moutains. Its banks are flooded. The higher we go, the more difficult it is for the motor to churn against the current.

By late afternoon, Carlos'  boat motor breaks down, about 10 miles upriver. We drift a short ways downstream and beach the boat on a snowbank spilling through a willow thicket into the river.

Carlos can't restart his motor. He will drift back down to Kivalina. It will not be a short journey on this windy, braided, tangled river. We are worried about him. He calls it "sailing". He says, "One day, I sailed all the way from the mountains when my motor died." After looking at the map later that evening, I figured that he must have "sailed" nearly 60 river miles.

I looked back at Carlos, winked, and told him "At least you'll get home before dark..." He was pleased with my humor and flashed a grin featuring the aged teeth of an Alaskan native who knows more stories of the wild than we'll ever read about.

By 5:00 PM, we're hiking up the Wulik River.

We are heading up the Wulik River all the way to its source, where we will then cross over and meet our original route, somewhere north of here. All we have for the next several days is an aviation map...

We saw a herd of 13 muskoxen today and an arctic fox.

Our terrain was primarily good, firm snow, bad tussocks, good benches overlooking the river, and some bushwacking through barren willows, that have not yet sprouted their spring leafage.

We would stop close to 1 AM. We camp on a gravel bar. We are pleased with progress, in spite of these awfully heavy packs.

We are on our way. Excitement, trepidation, fatigue. Each feeling invades our full emotive state right now.

Anaktuvuk Pass seems so very far away.

- Ryan Jordan

Comments

[Richard295]

What did you decide relative to power for your satellite phone, PDA, GPS, and camera... extra batteries or a solar panel? If you decided to use a solar panel, how many watts is it? If you decided on extra batteries, how many did you bring?

[Gil Aegerter]

Glad to hear the adventure is under way!

[Ti]

How long is your toothbrush? Is it homemade? Oh well nevermind ... and good luck!

[John]

"Heavy Packs" ha ha, I think Ryan is being a funny guy. Enjoy the journey guys it will go by quickly. Cheers.

[Pat Smith]

Be safe and enjoy the freedom.

[Harvey Taggart]

would it be possible to include your
position coordinates and/or your milage made good in your updates?

we all follow with great interest.

God bless and enjoy the journey

[Karen]

Jason- Is Roman Keeping you warm? Is it really a Roman Holiday???
kisses,
Karen