We left Fairbanks about 5:30 Friday eveing, which, of ocurse, is no hardship, since it NEVER GETS DARK anymore. We camped about 3 hours up the haul road at a pull-off by a little pond.
The only problem was that it was FREEZING, WINDY AND RAINING. Yuck! it was really cold, but we were smart this time, our second camping trip with Fred, and we put him in the car for his camping sleep. It was so rainy and windy in the morning that we did not even stay for breakfast. I wanted to pack up and go home, but luckily David said we should continue and we did, on to Wiseman. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening on the Yukon in Wiseman after a stop for breakfast at one of the two places on the whole of the haul road and the obligatory stop at the Arctic Circle.
Please note that this is May 23!Along the way we saw this moose. Notice the antler nubbins. probably the closest we wille ver get to a male moose!
Here we are in Wiseman. As you can see, they do have a sense of humor.
We decided not to stay overnight a second night in Wiseman, but to press on up the haul road and into the Brooks Range, the farthest north mountain range in the world. What a good idea! this was probably the most beautiful trip we have taken since coming to AK!
We had to go past the shadalar Shelf, which is a flat plain ringed by mountains
and then past the last spruce tree in the Brooks.
. And then over Adigan Pass into the Arctic tundra. Then we started seeing the wildlife! Ground squirres, caribou, a grizzly bear in the road, Dahl sheep and moose.
Unbelievably, there is a fairly unmarked BLM rustic campground right by Galbreith Lake, that lots of "in-the-know" folks seem to know about. Luckily, a Wiseman resident told us about it and we found it, unmarked though it was, and had the place to ourselves until about 10:30 pm which made it quite lovely. Rushing water, bright sun, blue skies, lots of snow and enough ground squirrels to keep poor Fred from sleeping!
We cannot wait to go back!
We madde the mistake of going for a walk near the Chena River the last week of April during "mud season" First of all, most of the path was totally covered with snow, and the bridge that we had to cross over the river was covered in rushing water. Well, Fred hates water, and i knew that he would probably get swept away, so I went over the bridge first to check out the depth (over the top of my boots) and then David scooped old Fred into his arms and started across the bridge. He stumbled and went down...but ture to form, hung onto Fred and they both made it safely across. Now we were all wet and had about a 30 minute walk backt o the car in snow with soaking wet boots. What an April outing.
Here he is in an unadultered photo at 11:15 pm. Last night we finally put towels on one of the bedroom windows because we are having trouble sleeping. And with the warmth and light come the mosquitoes...first the big dopey ones, and then the small buzyy ones. Those are the ones I dread.