Night 18/25
The Kongakut is a busy river. It is an Arctic classic. And it is busiest at the busiest part of the season when everyone who is going there is trying to show up late enough to miss any really cold weather but early enough so the bugs haven't hatched yet. Or late enough so the bugs have died, but not so late that you are in danger of getting any really cold weather.
I stayed at Caribou Pass before. It is a low pass and the caribou migrate through it when they head to the mountains from the Arctic Plain when they are finished calving. On my previous visit, it was snowing, horizontally. This time it was so warm after a sweaty hike i took a naked dip in the Kongakut to clean off. There were just few enough bugs.
But this time, human excrement and toilet paper were littered around. Right by the river, where people camp. Who? How? Huh?
It is a huge effort to get to that place on Earth, for anybody. It just seemed like somebody was in a hurry, or not that happy to be there.
But ugh, I saw that at Sykes Hot Springs, who gets out there and leaves a place like that?
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Night 17: Whale Mountain
Night 17/25
I started reading the book Wild on the flight to Fairbanks and I really really like it. I feel like she knows parts of me. Some of them are the hiking parts. Some of them are other parts. Her and I had some experiences in our childhood that are similar. Things that kids are not supposed to experience. Things people are not supposed to experience. And then her observations about backpacking are fun. Not always, but sometimes. Because all the things you go through when you are backpacking are not fun. It is sometimes about that, but not always. And that's why we go out there.
"He wasn't tougher than me. No one was, I told myself without believing it. I made it the mantra of those days; when I paused before yet another series of switchbacks or skidded down knee-jarring slopes, when patches of flesh peeled off my feet along with my socks, when I lay alone and lonely in my tent at night I asked, often out loud:
Who is tougher than me?"
I started reading the book Wild on the flight to Fairbanks and I really really like it. I feel like she knows parts of me. Some of them are the hiking parts. Some of them are other parts. Her and I had some experiences in our childhood that are similar. Things that kids are not supposed to experience. Things people are not supposed to experience. And then her observations about backpacking are fun. Not always, but sometimes. Because all the things you go through when you are backpacking are not fun. It is sometimes about that, but not always. And that's why we go out there.
"He wasn't tougher than me. No one was, I told myself without believing it. I made it the mantra of those days; when I paused before yet another series of switchbacks or skidded down knee-jarring slopes, when patches of flesh peeled off my feet along with my socks, when I lay alone and lonely in my tent at night I asked, often out loud:
Who is tougher than me?"
Night 16: Busy on the Kong right now
Night 16/25
It is a busy time on the Kongakut. We are all trying to beat the bugs, and we all missed.
I have never been amongst so many mosquitoes. So many. Covered sometimes.
I saw so many planes and other parties the first day I started a tally. We were dropped off at Whale Mountain and there was a party there packing up to leave. A movie star, an oscar winning director, a famous author, etc. Funny day at the place where earth turns into ice.
It is a busy time on the Kongakut. We are all trying to beat the bugs, and we all missed.
I have never been amongst so many mosquitoes. So many. Covered sometimes.
I saw so many planes and other parties the first day I started a tally. We were dropped off at Whale Mountain and there was a party there packing up to leave. A movie star, an oscar winning director, a famous author, etc. Funny day at the place where earth turns into ice.
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