Spring Break: Day 4 Caribou Bluff

The trail from Windy Gap Cabin Started out on the Ice of fossil creek. I stayed on the ice and had missed where the trail turned off at first, but cut back over to the trail. The trail was good and it was nice to be in the trees and a little out of the wind. There was a long section of overflow ice on the trail where I had to unhook from the sled and ski along the willows. There were a few longer but less steep downhills.


More views along the trail of the limestone jags.

Rock outcropping where we cross fossil creek and make out way to the cabin.

The cabin is up on an exposed ridge. Quite a steep climb.

Nice panoramic views of the cabin from the knob above. (Click on the photo to see full size.)

Sun set, and sun dog.

Caribou Bluff Cabin. Small cozy. Heats up Nice. Good thing it was calm, it would have been hard to keep warm with it being so exposed.

Trapper and Blue are happy to be at the cabin.

Dusk in the White Mountains.

Trapper made herself quite comfortable.

We had Caribou Green Chille Stew for dinner, with tortillas on the side. Some left over pita bread, but we gave the extra meat to the dogs. The hauled the weight, they deserve it. Hot Coco with peppermint snaaps for desert.

Telle Turns!

I am really starting to get cabin fever. We got some new snow this weekend and I was all psyched to get out and go skiing. I woke up this morning and checked the weather, -8 with a -30 windchill! Man I thought Spring was supposed to be here. Is it ever going to get above zero?

Ashley and I were expecting a grocery delivery today so we got all bundled up and as we were walking to the airport we hear the plane take off. The 8 boxes and 195 lbs of groceries were left sitting in the tarmac, er snowmac?

We loaded the boxes into two orange boat sleds and pulled them home. I think we should have gotten the boxes in sooner, the lettuce was a little limp and the scallions were a bit nipped. But other than that, I can not complain, avocado and mango in the arctic are a real luxury. (Even though it cost about $200 to have it all delivered.)

So after having turkey sub sandwiches with fresh tomatoes and lettuce, I waited for the wind to die down. It did not. So finally I got all dressed to go skiing. Bibs, ploypro, light fleece, shell, hand warmers, fleece gloves, balaclava and my beaver hat. I put the goggles on for the first mile because it was so windy.

I think we got an inch or two of nice soft powdery snow. It was great to ski on... where it had not blown away. Out on the open tundra it had blown off and had accumulated in the stream bed of contact creek. I skied up the stream bed for good snow cover and some shelter from the wind.

I continued on into Little contact creek. The valley was narrow and the sides were steep. I had to cross some bare ice and tip-toe around some exposed rocks in the stream bed, but it was really pretty. The back side of Blueberry hill was looking smooth and not so steep. It was inviting. If I could make it up Mnt Ingsted surely I could make it up this little hill. I started climbing, making long switch backs up the slope. This was a lot easier than the climbing I did last week! The slope was so smooth. No rocks, no tussocks, just a firm base of snow with about 2 inches of powder. This was going to be good. I could not make it all the way to the top, it started to get a little bit steeper, and I did not want to take off my skis, the anticipation of making sweeping turns down the hill was just too much. I unhooked Zoey and turned my skis around...

As I started to gain some speed, the muscle memory started to take over and before I knew it, I was making telle turns!!

Zoey loves the snow, but hates to wait for me!

Looking up the Little Contact creek valley.

My tracks in contact creek.

Zoey looking to the West.

Panoramic views of the Mountains.

Click on the photos to view them full size!

Skin Sewing (Animals lovers Beware!)

I have been taking an Inupiaq skin Sewing class. So far I have made a beaver hat and a pair of beaver mittens.

Everyone things I should put a big red felt tongue and some googly eyes on these and make them in to puppets.

What do you do with a little extra beaver fur?

Eyebrow warmer!

The next project will be a dark blue corduroy parka with a wolf ruff. The fur ruff is not for fashion. It is function. The fur keeps the wind off of your face. And as I have mentioned.... it is Always Windy here!

The ruff will be cut from the across the shoulders where to fur is the longest.

This wolf was trapped locally here. I debated for a long time about what species of fur I should use for my ruff. But the state biologist said that the number of wolves this year was high, way above to number of moose in many areas near here. He actually recommended a wolf ruff!

Unfortunately the skin has not been tanned yet. This is going to be a long and interesting process involving scraping, and drying and rubbing with flour and water, then scraping some more, then rubbing with lotion. Hopefully I will not poke too many holes in the skin as I am scraping it, and I hope the fur does not fall out if it gets too warm as it dries.

I was surprised they do not use salt or any other chemicals or even brain in the tanning process. But I guess this is how they do it here. Maybe they do not worry so much about it smelling or growing bacteria here in the arctic.

Kiita

The Puppy got a name. Kiita! It is an Inupiaq (Eskimo) word meaning "hurry up" Or "Let's Go!" This was a suggestion of one of my students, I was trying to find and Eskimo name, he picked this one beacause it is one I can pronouce.

Kiita with the marten.

Zoey is good at sharing her toys!

Zoey and Kiita are friends, some of the time.

Kiita is getting bigger!

Kiita taking Zoey for a Walk.

Kiita King, er Queen of the hill!

Norweigen Skiiers and Mount Ingsted

A group of six Norwegian Skiers made it here from Weisman on Tuesday. They skied through wilderness for 14 days over 130 miles in sub zero temperatures. They are part of a school program in Norway. Most of them are taking a year between high school and college, or as they say between college and University and this adventure is part of that year. A group from the school comes here every year. This was a friendly group. I hosted them for dinner one night and they invited me out on a hike up Mount Ingsted with them.

Stefan with frosty whiskers.

waxing Skis. I am glad I have waxless skis. Seems to be less hassle and better traction.

We met at 10 am and skied over across the tundra. It was one of the nicest days all year, it was only -15 and there was no wind. I took off several layers of clothing and left behind my beaver hat. We skied across the Tundra to the base of the mountain where we entered a narrow valley.

Zoey was staring at something upslope from us. I looked and saw two Dall Sheep on the rocky hillside ablove us.

We climbed on our skis for a bit until it got too steep. The skis came off and I put on my micro spikes and started climbing. A few of the guys bolted a head, but one was afraid of the steepness of the slope and turned back. He was coming down as I was headed up. I watched him make some nice telemark turns as he made his way down the narrow valley. At one point zoey sat down and started sliding down the hill. She was attached to my skijour harness and she pulled me down about 100 feet until I was able to dig my heals in a stop us. At that point I decided to unhook her and climb back up. I slowly made my way of the steep slope. I do not think I have ever climbed anything so steep in my life. Zoey followed faithfully in my tracks.

As I neared the top of the ridge the snow was deeper and I punched through more, banging my shin and knees on a thick layer of crusty, icy snow. I made it to the top where Pernille was having a snack and waiting. I shared my hot coco and she gave me some of her energy "bombs." I needed the boost of energy after making such a steep ascent. I looked at my GPS we had traveled only 3.25 miles from my house, but had climbed about 3000 ft! The ridge was about 5000 ft and my home is around 1800. Wow what a day.

Pernille at the top of the ridge with the peak of Ingsted in the back.

From the ridge there were spectacular views of the valleys in all directions. I had seen many from the plane flying over but to be able to get a panoramic view was awesome. The Valley where the headwaters of the Anaktuvk river was especially stunning with the blue ice that braided its way through the valley.

This was the skiers first view of Anaktuvuk pass, as they came in from Ernie pass. The encountered some overflow on the river, but they were so close to civilization it was not life threatening, they were able to dry out a bit before camping out for the 14th night.

We made our decent down the steep slope slowly. I worried that Zoey would either bolt a head and start sliding down or that she may cause us to tumble down. She was good though, staying mostly behind me and patiently following in my tracks. (most of the time)

We took a rest on the slope for a photos opp. It is hard to tell how steep the slope is from the photos.

Where the slope was less steep, we were able to slide down on our bottoms, easier than making every careful step. I made it back down to my skis and made some sweeping turns down the narrow valley.

Unfortunately Zoey got in the way on one of those tuns causing me to fall on her and I sprained my knee. This made the rest of the ski back a little more uncomfortable and difficult. But we made it back home with out incident.

Later I headed over to Colby's where Alex had cooked up the ptarmagin he had shot the day before. It was cooked very well and tasted great, better than the first time I had tasted Ptarmagine. Thank you Alex!

The skiiers are to fly out today. It was nice to have the comapny of such adventurous folks. I look forward to the visit from the school group next year. Perhaps I will make it over to Norway someday to visit some of them. That would be an adventure!