Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

In short, I’d like to see this place before it is ravaged for oil exploration.

The best time to go is around the third week of August. The mosquitos die off around then, and the autumn colors are beautiful. The whole tundra looks red, gold, and green. If you go any earlier, you’ll be eaten by bugs. If you go any later, you’ll wake up with snow on your tent.

You’ll definitely see wildlife. I saw a wolf, a brown bear, and lots of caribou.

We spent a whole day exploring a canyon full of dinosaur fossils. We spent another day hiking up a mountain that we liked the looks of.

The charter planes have fat tires, and they land on dirt clearings. When my group finally arrived at our pick up spot, there was a small hunting camp there. The hunters had cooked up a giant pot of caribou stew and shared it with us. That really hit the spot after ten days of backpacker food.

First you need to get yourself to Fairbanks AK. You can drive there from anywhere in North America. From there you’ll need to charter a couple of planes to visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one from Fairbanks to Arctic Village and another one from Arctic Village into the ANWR. Make sure you have some experienced backpackers in your group to help you organize your provisions. You’ll need about 10 days worth of food per person. You can get it all at the Fred Meyer in Fairbanks. They have a nice selection of bulk foods. Don’t worry about choosing a hiking route, just ask your pilot. Tell him what the purpose of your trip is and how many days you plan to be out there. There is only one charter company that goes there. They know where the hunting is good and they know where the hiking is good. They will probably drop you off somewhere along the Hulahula River on the other side of the Brookes Range and pick you up at Red Sheep Creek on this side. Yes, you’ll be hiking over the Brookes Range, and you’ll need a new word for awesome, because the word awesome doesn’t even begin to describe the awesomeness of it.

If you’d rather go with a guide service, I highly recommend Karen Jettmar’s outfit, Equinox Expeditions. http://www.equinoxexpeditions.com

I would like to live in a Gwich’in community for a time.

It had the most beautiful sunset I have every seen…took about 20 pictures and of course they don’t do it justice.