First off, I must have been smoking crack when I scanned these. Despite numerous people telling me they were dark and grainy, I insisted on telling these kind well meaning souls that it was their monitor settings, and various other rubbish. Somehow I thought they looked good at the time. Now I know better. I came back and looked at them again and instantly thought, "They look dark and grainy" Oh well. I'm not rescanning any of them yet. Too many other things to scan. When I catch up. (I will, honest) I will come back to these. This is also about the time that I got a loupe and a light box and started scanning a bit more intelligently. This has since proved to be a massive plus, but at the time I was obvously not quite accustomed to it. The only thing I can think of is that I spent too much time staring at the light box and had my head filled with light. I did rescan a couple of them to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and yes, they can be made to look a lot better than this.

Also, seeing as I've now got my photo's online, it's now time to show yours Mick. (Scott is excused, he left his camera on a rock in the park somewhere)

Oh, I also really should put down all the contact info and details of things here for anyone else planning a trip to this area. But I am writing this up without internet access, so that may have to come later.

But on to alaska. This was all Mick's idea. Some time earlier in the year, Mick had mentioned over a guiness or three that this year we would get two days off for fourth of July, and with only three days off work, we could have a 10 day weekend. He then proceeded to mention that he thought Alaska would be a worthy goal. With various suspects initially in for the ride, The group eventually came down to the two intrepid adventurers, Mick and Myself, and our american interpreter, Scott. (Scott may not approve of this titling, but so be it.)

Faced with the enormous task of "what do we want to do in alaska in mid summer, at the height of the tourist season" we all sort of went away and thought about it for a bit, and whoever came back with an idea first won. Or something like that. I dug up an overview map of alaska, that had all the National Parks labelled, saw this enormous park enticingly called, "Gates of the Arctic" and decided pretty much then and there that that was where I wanted to go at least. Further research was not overly helpful. We found very few writeups of anywhere, and even fewer photos. A lot of fun examining topos at work courtesy of the terraserver, the usgs and topozone dug us up some likely destinations that also helped find a few more tidbits of info.

The ranger station had a bit of info, but not a whole lot more for actual venue planning. All we had decided was that we wanted to do a 4-5 day walk, north of the arctic circle, and cover some nice terrain. Mick and I wanted to see big animals. Grizzlies, mountain sheep, elk and moose preferably. This was actually a very big goal for the trip for myself. Scott emphatically didn't want to see a grizzly, but was quite keen to see the other animals.

We came up with a couple of destinations, my choice was Mt Igipak, of which I'd seen a single photo (which I have since been unable to find) and no writing, but looked almost doable. (I now know that it probably wasn't) and also a walk in the Arrigetch Peaks area, which it seemed was a "popular" place to visit in the park.

Bettles Lodge was our next port of call, to find out costs and chartering info for the bush plane we would need to get us out to our venue. This basically eliminated Mt Igipak. As we found was often the case, you could easily be dropped off somewhere, but getting picked up was a different matter. (float planes need a hell of a lot more runup to take home three walkers and their gear than they do for just the pilot) Mt Igipak would have required a 7 day walk or so and we simply didn't have that much time. (It was also going to be substantially more expensive as it was further away from Bettles) So an Arrigetch Peaks walk it was then.

We now had our general plan outlined, a plan penciled in to take us from Bettles to the Bush, and back again. Now we just need to get to Bettles, and to cover food and gear and such forth. As much of alaska turns out, we flew to Bettles. There's no road. (Except in winter, when it's an ice road, and only massive trucks drive it, not cars) So by the time we'd got tickets from San Jose to Fairbanks, Fairbanks to Bettles, and Bettles to the Bush, and all back again, we were up to about $1100 or so.

On with the trip.

Friday June 28 San Jose to Fairbanks via Seattle. $xxx, Alaskan Airlines. Stop in Seattle for beers and a feed, just on dusk. Took off north again, and from here on out it didn't get dark till we came home again. Some awesome views over the panhandle and fjords and all the big mountains in the Elias/Wrangell area. Very very nice area, would love to go back there.

Arrive Fairbanks. Very low key airport, get a taxi to Billies Backpacker Hostel (479-2034) which puts us up for $20/night. Nice enough place, we were only staying the evening, as we were flying out to Bettles the next morning. Booked nights for us for when we would come back through Fairbanks on the way home. Taxi driver was Truk. (Badger Cab, 490-4737) Scott and Truk hit it off, perhaps because they spoke the same language. He drives taxi's during the summer, and lives on a house in the sticks with his sled dogs.

Mick and I head to a pub we'd seen on the way here, Scott decides he will sleep, then eventually that he will come with us. We head to the "Marlin". (All places in the Lonely Planet AK guide) This place had apparently re-opened recently after a fire gutted it. Classic venue, and in our opinion the best that fairbanks had to offer. (Mick and I tried many other venues on our return trip) It's a hostel above ground, and a creaky door leading into a cellar bar downstairs. Very very dark. perhaps to combat the still broad daylight outside (it's about 11pm now) Tiny bar, fantastic beer. (Pickaxe porter I would rate as one of my favourite beers of all time) They had a "beer garden" outside and upstairs again, which was a few rickety chairs, some stumps, and a bit of tarp fenced in by some palings to keep the wind out. We sat and drank and met the locals. All sorts, gravediggers. (they only work 3 months of the year, the ground is too hard the rest of the year.) More sled dog people. Muso's. People studying at UAF. Lot's of fun. Very surreal feeling to be sitting around, drinking beer at 3am in the morning with the sun still up.

Fly to Bettles. Eventually. When we had spoken to Bettles Lodge and asked how to get there, we had been given two airlines in fairbanks, and their numbers. I had written them down backwards. So we had an address and name for one company, and a flight time and a confirmation number, and a phone number. We get dropped off by the taxi, and it turns out that the place is deserted. Someone turns up not too long later, thankfully, but it turns out that they don't fly to Bettles at that time of day, and they don't give out confirmation numbers, and that wasn't their phone number. Interesting. The lady puts us on standby for their flight, which is full, and tries another airline for us to see if we were missing from there. Eventually I take to the phone book looking at airlines and trying to match the airline to the phone numebr we had. Rang them up and yes, they were wondering where we were. Turns out it was just up the road and the very helpful lady at Larry's (I think we went to Larry's mistakenly) kindly took us up the road to Warbelow's in the back of a ute. Saved us a walk. Flight from Fairbanks to Bettles and back (Jun 29, Jul 5) $292 taxes included. (Warbelow's Air Ventures, 907-474-0518)

This is where I earn my reputation for being "HUUGE" as I understate my weight by 20 pounds and manage to outweigh even Mick. Guess I had put on weight in the last 6 months or so :) Scott and Mick drool over our pilot, and we load ourselves into a freight plane. Our give shoved into compartments in the wings and nose and cabin, and us in the cabin with some mail, some slabs of gatorade, and other general goods and stuff. Not much view, flew too high.

Until we get to Bettles. We now realise that the interior of Alaska is not generally a pretty sight. Well, not overtly. It's flat, borderlne swamp, with taiga everywhere, and the odd big river meandering (really really meandering) across it. Taiga is a russian word meaning little sticks, or so I'm told. It basically refers to the stunded black spruce that grows in this terrain.

Bettles is a 40something person town in the middle of nowhere, about as far north as settlements go until you get to Prudhoe. It's an important stop for flights to some of the small native settlements furhter north, and also just as a generally big airstrip in the area. It has internet access. (very very slow, but they're very very proud of it) The lodge serves meals, (and unless you're cooking for yourself, this is the only option. It has free camping on a section of very nice lawn outside. It sells whitegas for $10/gallon. or $9.50. It doesn't seem to really have a price. We were quoted one price, but actually got charged a different one. This is a bit of raping, but unless you can convice a carrier to fly whitegas into Bettles with you, this is your only choice. From here on out, the pilot will pretty much carry anything if you pay them. This is also the only place you can get bear spray. Allegedly the airlines won't carry them either, but I reckon they probably do, they have to get out there somehow. Bettles is an alright place really, it serves decent food, at rather high prices, it serves beer at very very expensive prices. (A sixer of alaskan was $16 or so) It has national geographics to read if you're bored. There is absolutely nothing to see however, and really no need to spend a night here unless you have to. Organise to have your flight take you here one day, have lunch here and then fly to the bush, and same in the other direction. (If you can, weather will still make a meal of these sorts of plans, but there really really isn't any need to stay here overnight.) Bettles to the Bush and back, $303 Bettles Air Service, 907-692-5111 http://www.akcache.com/bettleslodge/ or bttlodge@alaska.net Bettles Ranger Station were pretty useless. "Whoa bear, how are you doing bear" was there advice on bears, and they had no more information than we did on our proposed walk, despite it being a very popular walk. One thing to note here, They say bear cannisters are compulsory in the park, which is fine. They have cannisters to rent, (for a far more modest fee than REI) but refuse to book them, and refuse to say whether you have a good chance of getting one here or not. They have plenty, and we needn't have bought our own. Note that we apparently did come in early season, almost the first walkers of the season, not the high season we thought we were coming for.

All our food was freezedried, chosen from the expansive collection at REI. Bear cannisters make good seats. You don't need an awful lot of food if all your food is freezedried. In 5days/4nights we used less than an MSR bottle of fuel. We had carried three.

Eventually we were off to the bush, and from here the pictures will do the talking. (mostly) For a handful of pretrip photo's and some photos that fill in the blanks...Mick has some pictures scanned

The Walk!

teaser05.jpg Scott and Mick in the "lounge bar" at Bettles Lodge	teaser06.jpg Halfway up our first hill. (near (2))	teaser07.jpg Our first view of the Arrigetch Peaks, from (5)
We got dropped off about 2:30pm or so. Followed Lance from Bettle's Lodge's advice and walked up and over the ridge, instead of up Arrigetch Creek. Apparently it is choked with vegetation and hard walking. The ridge was a long slog through thick vegetation. Had a nice rest and lunch on top of the ridge about 5:30pm. Much traversing to our first views of the peaks themselves. Magnificent, yet not optimal lighting. The weather was generally overcast, but the temperatures were lovely. Plenty of light for walking, but a bit too dark for good photos generally. (It does get darker at night, just not really dark) Down a steep wooded, less scrubby valley to Arrigetch Creek, then up it again to Camp1 (008Camp1) and dinner about midnight. (No animals, some tracks)
teaser08.jpg Scott Walking up Arrigetch Creek towards our first camp	teaser09.jpg Arrigetch Creek from what would be Camp2	teaser10.jpg Just before (009JCT1) looking further up the valley (West)
Day 2 was a day trip up to the Aquarious Valley. No map uses this name, but we found it on some website, with some lovely pics, (which was how we decided on this path to take in the area) and it stuck. Easy walking generally, on a light track. Probably a game track, as it showed plenty of sign. But obviously a human track as well for the few humans that come out here, and a veritable highway really compared to the rocky scrubby surrounds. I at least wasn't really expecting any tracks at all, and thought this was obviously human, but apparently bears make bigger tracks than wallabies :) and tracks are more easily made in soft dirt here than in dry schellophyl (sp) back home. Bear tracks in both directions on the track anyway. The Valley was Beautiful. very very scenic. Mick took lots of photos. Scott sat by Lake 1 and contemplated life. Didn't even come the extra 200 metres to see the second lake. Oh well. To each his own, and who am I to say what is right or wrong. (I still love you scott, I just don't understand)
teaser11.jpg How Mick looked most of the weekend.	teaser12.jpg Looking SE from just W of (008) There is a climbing route up that wall called "German Wall"	teaser13.jpg Lake 1, Aquarius Valley.
Apparently there is about 1 or sometimes 2 climbing trips to this region a year. Most get very little climbing done, normally due to variable weather, and logistical problems. The normal tactic is apparently to parachute a load of climbing gear and provisions into the area, then walk in, and carry all the climbing gear out after eating all the food. Seems quite troublesome. Beautiful area to climb in though. Totally vast and empty. The Sierra's are vast, but nowhere near as empty, and nowhere near as "wildernessy"
teaser14.jpg Mick amongst different coloured rock between Lake 1 and Lake 2.	teaser15.jpg Looking back over Lake 1.	teaser16.jpg Cool rock formations looking South from Aquarious Valley.