Cindy and I began our journey together in Seattle. Even though we had been up since 3 AM to catch our flight to Fairbanks, she found it necessary to wake me up to show me the mountains. They were beautiful.
More mountains, this time with glaciers.
Denali (aka Mount McKinley).
A girl, her dad, and a horse at the Alaska State Fair. We were there during a Kid's Day and we saw all sorts of creative races.
Clouds... between Fairbanks and the rest of our adventure.
Kaktovik, a town of around 200 inhabitants, mostly children and mostly of native descent. We spent an extra day (and night) here on our way out because the bush plane couldn't fly in the fog.
The white on the horizon is just an optical illusion called fata mornana that is common in the Arctic.
Instead of spending the night in the only "hotel" in Kaktovik, we decided to camp on the beach. That night the yellow tent next to us had a visitor. A polar bear bent in one of the poles and left a muddy paw print on the tent.
A fog-bow. Despite the incident with the bear, thick fog, and the abundance of bear tracks, we decided to go for a walk to see whale bones from the annual whale hunt.
Some of the bear tracks we saw on our walk.
Whale bones left from the annual whale hunts.
My sister walking back a bit more slowly, more confident on her own now that the fog was lifting. This is also the runway in Kaktovik.
A braided river in the arctic trundra.
The Kongakut seen from our bush plane.
Our wonderful bush plane. We flew 75 miles up the Kongakut River three at a time in the tiny plane and then waited around for the rest of our group to arrive.
A bear berry plant without the berries. They were everywhere.
A caribou on the Kongakut.
The mass migration of 100,000 caribou occurs in June, but the river is also more populated by humans then too.
Not actually striking a pose...
Cindy and Sarah. Note our attire; the weather for most of our trip was beautiful.
One of our first hikes.
It was a bit hazy the first few days with smoke from the forest fires near Fairbanks.
Taking a rest.
Since the Kongakut is a braided river, there were times the channel we were on wasn't quite deep enough to float our raft and we had to get out and drag it. It took a few days before I was able to keep my feet dry.
Cindy rafting.
A view of the other raft.
Our next camping site... tiny and rocky with a great view.
