Brooks Range

Backpacking Flying in the Brooks Range
July 30-August 7, 1986

We flew low through ragged clouds to McKinley Park and then north through Windy Pass. North of the Alaska Range, we cut across country to Manley Hot Springs. This was my first major cross-country flight in a small airplane. I wasn't watching the chart too closely. I realized that we were lost when I looked in vain on the chart for a large braided river we saw ahead of us. The clouds were low so we couldn't see far but eventually we found a river and followed it north to the Yukon. We arrived at the big river just a short distance from our destination. After that scary experience, I became the navigator.

We bathed in the hot springs, rested and picked raspberries the next day, waiting for the weather to clear. When it did, we flew north to Bettles. The road got us most of the way there, but we again got lost not long before we arrived. We found the river, but which way to turn? I had no idea it was this easy to get lost in a small plane! We were eager to get Loran-C and GPS technology when it became available.

From Bettles we flew north and landed in the Brooks Range, then packed our backpacks and climbed up high to camp for the night. In the photo, we're just ready to head up the mountain.

We later flew over the Arrigetch Peaks and down the Noatak River, where we landed to camp on a sandbar and were later joined by a group of canoers. Then we flew on to the village of Kiana. Our dog at the time was named Kiana, so we wanted a picture of Kiana in Kiana. An Eskimo woman there was cleaning and drying salmon.

We flew over a huge area of sand dunes and to Kotzebue, then south to Nome. We stopped and hiked through beautiful rock formations at a wilderness hot springs, just wandering. I love to wander in beautiful places, with no pressure to hurry.

By the end of the trip, I was pretty good at navigation. It was rewarding and I started to get more interested in learning to fly. Near Farewell, we saw a herd of buffalo and circled down to take pictures. I didn't get any good pictures, but I did get airsick. Dennis never gets airsick. I frequently do. I'm envious. We stick to fair-weather flying, for the most part.