Brooks Range

July 25th

The weather is stunningly clear and we fill the daylight hours with activities. We visit the settlement of Wiseman and are toured around by Jack,  one of the year round residents who lives off the land, with garden in summer and hunting in winter.  He is an encyclopedia of history, natural cycles, hunting and survival. He is direct, articulate, and personable - but a bit intimidating; he does not stop talking for two hours.  We eat lunch back in camp and head to Coldfoot truckstop for laundry,  showers,  and dinner.  After dinner we fly to the native village of Anaktuvak, touring the Brooks Range from above -  no road access in northern Alaska except the Dalton Highway.  Returning from a walk at Coldfoot before our 8:00 pm flight, Lisa and I are surprised to meet the man and woman with a tandem bike that we saw twice along the road from Fairbanks.  They have an interesting story,  to say the least.  They started at the tip of South America on a trip to promote awareness of blindness and to encourage persons with disabilities - they are both legally blind, with limited vision.  The rough part: their bike has mechanical difficulties that cannot be repaired here and they have decided to push on by hitching the rest of the way to Prudhoe Bay.  I would be thunderstruck, but they are both upbeat and happy to share their story.

Our pilot lands at the airstrip on time and  we fly 40 minutes to Anaktuvak, the home of the Nunavut people who were the last group of indigenous people in North America to give up their lifestyle and settle in a permanent community.  Oil exploration is a large reason.  We are shown around by Darryl, an articulate young man with a nice manner and large smile. The village is largely modern housing scattered on a side slope of a stunningly beautiful valley that remains a main caribou migration route. We make it back to our camp by 11:00 pm and there is still daylight to burn for a Frisbee game with plastic gold panning plates.