Gates of the Arctic National Park Guiding Photos

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Gates of the Arctic National Park Guiding Photos

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Out from under the clouds, and into the sunshine! Morning of day two with our first group (day one had us dropped off at Lake Omelaktavik besides the Noatak River - a mushy, boggy start, indeed) Hiking up the Kugrak River towards a high pass to cross over into the Angayu creek drainage, which we'll follow to link back up into the Noatak. The frozen snow/ice on top of the Kugrak made for good footing and a bit of relief from the tussocks we were starting to become intimately familiar with.

Overlooking Chitiok

One of the more curious characteristics of the terrain of the Gates of the Arctic National Park is the tundra: deep and spongy, it's also usually quite wet - even when high up a mountain pass (like here). Where it's wet and boggy, and where it's instead dry and (more) pleasant takes some mental conditioning, and guessing our future hiking conditions became a topic of many a heated conversation (all in good fun). If you take the time to look close at the carpet of green below your pack, you'll notice a incredible variety of different species of plants and lichen that make up this tundra - a full ecosystem in minature. Whole books on this tundra have been written. In stark contrast, Mount Igikpak (8,510') looms mightily in the distance, several drainages away. Igikpak will become to us a tireless sentinel, watching over our group, wherever we chose to roam. The highest peak in the Park, it's ridgeline cannot be easily passable, and our path will need to be routed far around its ramparts. I naturally would refer to it as,

Igikpak smiling down on us clear on the other side of its massif. After a bit of riverside hiking, our group made it over a series of mountain passes dubbed

In the Arrigetch Creek Basin - Photo by Andrew Skurka

Arrigetch Creek Basin

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