Day 16

Up slightly later today, a poor night’s sleep – I think it’s the cup of tea I had at 3 o’clock – caffeine now seems to be having a much greater effect these last few days – too much clean living.

About 20 minutes paddling down river I came across two big rafts, three tents – one with a stove, there was a couple with 3 or 4 kids but no sign of action from either of the other two tents – just waved and went on.

Lovely and quiet this morning and yesterdays wind has died down to nothing – flat calm

About mid morning when I was 10 – 15 feet away from the left bank of the river, just paddling along, half in a day dream I saw a big grizzly charging towards me.

It stopped right at the water’s edge trying to decide on coming into the water after me, I turned the raft to face him and watched him closely, after a few seconds the tension left him, he stood there woofing softly, irritated – watching me drift away down river before turning and ambling back into the willow whilst I got a couple of photographs, heart beating furiously and glad to be on the water.

About mid-day I spotted another bear – a much darker bear, on the river right walking along the waters edge, I stayed near the left hand bank but managed to get a good video of him finding a spawned salmon and taking it into the bushes to eat, a different encounter altogether, it knew I was there but was content that I was no threat, although I did get a backwards look to check I wasn’t going to steal his fish.

Wind came up strong again about 14:00 but a decent days paddling done.

Just after 16:00 I spotted a raft on the side of the bank it was a Swiss couple looking for a good spot to camp for the night – they found it. A nice enough couple to talk to for 5 minutes, then on my way again.

Day 17

Very cold this morning, condensation frozen in little globes on the inside of the tent. Socks stiff as a board and boots frozen. Because I have more than enough fuel for the rest of the trip I took the luxury of heating the socks up until they went floppy before putting them on.

Slept on again a little this morning as in no great hurry now. Passed a couple of rafters around mid morning who were striking camp – just a wave then on.

I think a lot of them will be getting picked up at Lake Matcherak as it’s a long way to Noatak Village and I’ve yet to see any rafts on the water as they’ve all been pulled in.

Quite a bit colder all day today with a light wind that brings the “feels like” temperature down, must not be any warmer than 3 or 4 °C.

Got to the Nushralutuk Creek take out about lunch time, kind of glad to get out of the water – hands are fairly numb.

Packed away packraft, had a cup of tea and something to eat and set off for Namaktuak Pass – don’t need to travel far – so a leisurely pace – beautiful walking ground as well.

Stopped about 4 pm, by a rock abutment, lovely crystal clear stream – went looking for a campsite and found one on the other side of the rock – cleared of bushes by someone who’d also had a fire nearby – looks like this year by the sign.

Can’t believe my luck – I actually found the top end of a fishing rod beside the same campsite – will come in very useful if I get a day or two fishing en route to Ambler. Imagine that.

Sitting boiling water for my tea and watching a small flock of seven Dall sheep graze their way along the side of a mountain – first ones I’ve seen here – although have seen quite a few tuffs of their wool and bones as remains of old kills.

Day 18

Milder night last night and no condensation on the tent this morning – hooray. Low cloud cover and an icy wind though, I didn’t think that the sun would be able to burn it off but by midday all the tops were clear.

Some amazing limestone caves in some of the mountains facing the pass, one absolutely huge one – was tempted to climb up and get a look in.

Water crystal clear – can see fish in some of the pools

Canyon is pretty impressive and a couple of hundred of feet deep, after I’ve seen a bit of it, I stick closer to the mountainside of the plateau to avoid the frequent detours around the deep creeks that feed into it.

Made the end of the Canyon about 15:00 – what a view, the Ambler river with its forested valley, rugged mountains with snow melt water feeding into the river.

As I sit here taking it all in (and eating a snickers) I catch a glimpse of movement over my shoulder – it is 4 caribou, 2 bulls, 1 cow and what looks like a year old calf making their way up the steep incline and onto the plateau – they don’t see me so I can watch them as they move purposefully up the hill.

Steep descent from the plateau but follow caribou trails that lead to a river crossing where some of the rocks have been polished to a marbled shine by the sheer number of hooves over the years.

Eventually I reach the junction of the two streams that is the put in for the Ambler river – looks like a few rapids fairly soon downstream – have a feeling I’ll be getting wet – but will have to be careful.

Can’t believe that’s the last of the walking done – beginning to drag my feet a little as I don’t really want this to end.

Day 19

Another fairly mild morning, although it is amazing how cold it is just before the sun comes up. I was lying awake, cold with all my clothes on for a lot of last night.

Was anxious about the rapids at the top of the Ambler, but I know this is going to be a short day – up at 08:00 longest lie in yet – away by 10:00.

The rapids were great fun, not too difficult although a little more water would have made them more challenging- about 2 or 3 hours of fairly non stop rapids, canyon like, with cliff walls around some of the faces.

As more creeks emptied into the river the volume grew and the river widens. I stopped after 5 hours today and it’s still fairly bumpy class 2 in parts – one rapid very nearly caught me out and dumped me.

The scenery in the Upper Ambler is utterly beautiful, you could spend another month exploring some of the side valleys – would be a trip by itself – no problem.

Just taking it easy the next few days, flight isn’t until the 29^th – nothing really to do in Ambler and everything costs money, so more than content to dawdle for a few days as I know it could be a long time until I’m back.

Day 20

Gloomy and overcast this morning with cloud low over the tops of the hills – same deal as yesterday, late start and not on the river until mid morning.

It came as a surprise to realise that I was out of the mountains and now in a much wider valley with distant low lying hills.

At times it seemed a strange landscape – washed up trees with lots of large pieces of the river banks which had been washed into the river – an interesting time sometimes, trying to pick the right channel to get through, although I got it right most times and didn’t have to get out and walk.

My intention for today was to get as far as a series of bends in the river, and camp there for the next couple of days – at 15:00 when I stopped I realised that I was at the closest point on the river to Lake Anirak, quite a large lake.

It was about a mile from the river to the edge of the lake, forested and tussocky. When I got there, there were rushes and reeds around all of the edges and nowhere really to camp at the part I had come in at – too bushy.

Blew up the packraft waded through the rushes and jumped in and headed across the lake – very beautiful place and I bet it sees few visitors.

There were two places on the other side of the lake that were clear of rushes and it looked like someone had been cutting branches off trees, so I thought that someone must have a campsite nearby.

On closer inspection it turned out to be the home of muskrats who had been gnawing the branches.

Got out beside the muskrat burrows to look for somewhere to camp – the only flat and very spongy bit of ground I could find was full of little mouse holes, the mosquitoes were present in hordes and I couldn’t find any clean water to drink.

Decided to pack up and cross the 3 or 4 miles back to the river, chased by a tower of mosquitoes though wet tussocky ground all the way.

I saw a few smaller lakes on the way back – each very beautiful, one I saw had a large beaver lodge, but didn’t go for a closer look as it was getting late and the mosquitos were eating me.

I saw two moose in the distance – looked like a cow and calf.

Was after 8pm by the time I made it back to the river – no breeze but much less buggy.

Sitting eating my tea watching the fish jump in the river.

Day 21

Fairly quiet day today, woken by the sound of raucous quacking – opened the tent door and saw about 6 or 7 ducks all lined up in a row – one of them shouted “GO” and they all set off paddling furiously – didn’t see who won.

Up and away for 10:30 – only need to go a couple of miles down river to find somewhere to hole up for a couple of days before heading into Ambler.

Saw a Bald Eagle today, usually they stay away and are pretty hard to see properly, but this one flew low over the top of me.

I see ravens everyday, sometimes on their own and sometimes in groups of two or three, you can usually hear them before you see them. The one I saw today was a large magnificent jet black raven who sat on a stump beside the river and silently watched as I silently drifted by – it was quite a solemn occasion.

About lunch time I spotted a bear on the side of the river, he saw me first and wondered who or what I was and I drifted right up alongside him (in the middle of the river) before he must have caught my scent and ran into the willows.

Reached my current position at about 13:00, sun broke through shortly afterwards. Tent up and sleeping bag out to dry.

Filled the 2 litre platypus with water and set it on the upturned bottom of the packraft (black) to catch the sun and warm the water. Solar charger out as well – this has worked really well this trip – the battery pack is still almost fully charged.

At about 4 PM I rigged up the platypus bladder onto the top of the paddle and used one of the straps to secure the paddle fairly high up a small Spruce tree and had a short, moderately warm shower – felt good too.

After that I washed my clothes – all dry by night time apart from my fleece.

Kind of a “Make and Mend” day

All the migrating birds are getting ready to leave again as the days grow shorter, most of the young I see are well on their way to being fully grown.

Day 22

Uneventful day today, as I’m staying at the same place where I camped last night.

Dull and cloudy all day with rain on and off (mostly on) for most of the day.

Went for a walk this morning along the river front downstream, found five dead salmon all partially eaten, birds and bears must be full up.

Went for another amble this afternoon where the old gravel river bed I am camped on meets the forest – there must be lots of bear favorite roots here, Indian Potatoes, as there has been recent digging everywhere you look.

Found a spot when a bear must have been having his afternoon nap – a large circle of crushed grass, looks very recent too.

Afternoon spent reading ebook – will be glad to get back on the move tomorrow – rain or no rain. 

Day 23

Quiet and rather anticlimactic final full day to end the trip, very wet in the morning with no let up until midafternoon.

Used the last freeze dried meal this morning as I had cereal bars last night.

When I was setting out this morning I noticed a very wet, bedraggled and forlorn looking bald eagle sitting in one of the tree tops – he had been swooping in low over the strand of willow I was camped in, as earlier this morning I had heard the swoosh of wind from his wings as he passed overhead.

A chunk of the bank must have fallen off at some stage during the night – upstream somewhere, as I heard it go and the splash that followed.

Passed 3 or 4 cabins in the way into my Ambler stop short, some looked pretty decent and well cared for – others not so much. Got here early afternoon, camped in a dense willow thicket about 3 miles from Ambler.

I can hear dogs barking now and then along with ATVs and the occasional shout, someone’s out hunting this evening as I hear gun shots, although fortunately not in this direction.

It’s a strange feeling coming back to civilization – not sure I’m ready for it , another month or two would do nicely, although I’d need to sort out my boot insoles and get a warmer sleeping bag. It was nice moving every day, travelling through as wild and beautiful country as this.

Day 24

Quite an eventful day today, very dull, cloudy and misty and for once no mosquitos in the air. Was up around 07:00 trying to take my time, but wanted to get going.

Breakfast was a cup of tea and two snickers.

About 20 minutes after I set off, I came across a beaver swimming across the river with a branch in its mouth, I glided quite close before it saw me, did a tail slap and dived leaving it’s branch behind. I hung around to see where it would come up again but couldn’t see it.

Made Ambler by 09:45, there was a couple by the shore front gutting and drying fish, so I stopped to ask where the best place to get out of the water was and have a chat, it was a good conversation, unhurried and felt like it meant something.

It turns out the lady was the agent for Ravn (the airline company). She checked and there was space on a flight that was landing in just over an hour, so I packed the raft away along with the rest of my gear

Her husband, who was also mayor of the village, but had given it up this last year gave me a lift on his quad bike to the air field which was about 2 miles away.

No terminal building, just quads and trucks waiting on the flight coming in.

Once the plane pulled in and the pilot was helping load up the gear, he noticed my PFD and asked what I had been doing. My trip earned me a seat in the copilots seat ( I was careful to avoid the stick and rudders) for a great view, although slightly cloudy at times.

I originally intended to go onto Noorvik about another 140 miles, but it would have taken too long in the packraft. The two places I really wanted to see along the Kobuk river were Onion Portage, where the Caribou cross most years and where artifacts dating back over 8000 years have been found, making it one of the most continuously occupied places in the Arctic. The other place I wanted to see where the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, remnants of sand from glaciers and windblown deposits, over 30 square miles of towering sand dunes deep in the midst of a boreal forest.

The clouds cleared just as we were starting to cross the sand dunes and I got a great view of them.

Very thankful I didn’t paddle the Kobuk, with the wind and the slow moving current it would have taken days longer than I thought.

Got to Kotzebue ok, the weather was better there and it looked like most of the town was out long lining for Salmon – I wonder if Seth Kantner was among them.

Taxi to Little Louie’s diner and had a slap-up late breakfast and a couple of coffees

Finished !!!!