This is my journal from the 1996 Noatak river Expedition with additional comments added 1 year latter. Formatting added for auto journal entry generation. 7/22, Monday Flew Fairbanks to Bettles to Noatak headwaters. As the pilot was departing we wished him a good flight back. He said he expected to, the weather was great. This puzzled us because it was overcast and threatening to rain, though it was warm. 5 minutes latter we have the bug tent set up. 7/23, Tuesday Arctic start: It's been light for two months, will be light for another day. not sure what time it is now, not sure when we'll get up. ... Hiked ridge line toward Mt Oyakek. Andrew and I went ahead but stopped 2000 ft below summit, which was in clouds. Flew kite in arctic winds. [Notice that Andrew's camera is sounding a little sluggish and ask when he last replaced the battery. It turns out the battery is dying and in the second half of the trip his camera will only operate when it is warm and sunny. Still, it fairs better than all other cameras.] Had good talk on way down. [Back in camp, feeling hungry and impatient for dinner I share one of my large butter bars with Andrew. This is before I realize just how very valuable these things will become.] Dinner is rice-bean burritos. Pete is napping in the tent when dinner is ready so I go to get him, but he chooses to skip dinner. Good news for us because there is really just enough food here for the three of us. 7/24, Wednesday Hike up Portage Cr., the side drainage toward divide. Showers become rain. Pete makes us stop for lunch early and wants to eat a lot of the cheese. From now on, no one misses dinner. Going slow on endless hill side with many stops for group discussion. See 1st G bear, blond, across valley. Descend to creek and walk in water. Camp on gravel bar. 7/25, Thursday Breakfast: Oatmeal, 2 pkts. Andrew & Peter hike while R & I read in tent. Lunch @ 4PM with Richard. We toasted bagels by placing a small flat rock, some sort of slate, on top of the stove, putting the bagel on that, and covering it all with an upside down pot. Once all the water is driven out of the rock it heats nicely and makes a good toaster. Finish by melting some cheese on top. Meanwhile a fine drizzle finds it way into the bug house. More rain. Head hurts from sitting inside reading. Feel a need to get on the river and start moving. Feel like this side trip is a delay. Why? 3 weeks left: a daunting amount of time. Already there have been many discussions about our limited food supply. Are we getting enough calories? Are we eating at a sustainable rate? ... Dinner was a dismal affair. Or would have been had we four not been able to find humor in the conditions. Rain more consistently as evening progressed. Mist to light rain mostly. Dinner was good: 620 calories per person. Yum. Counting calories: did I get enough? NOT YET! Back at the tent Andrew informs me it is 11pm. With out my own watch I am sliding through time with no reference points. Some parts of the day are dimer than others but night never comes. Still, I sleep very well each night. Today was a rest day - time to rest my knee and let my body fight whatever infection has been giving me a sore throat. 7/26, Friday RAIN ALL NIGHT 7AM: STILL RAINING 8AM: STILL RAINING Stops briefly by 9. Breakfast on oatmeal in drizzle. Peter sleeps in. Nothing against that but if me misses breakfast he'll chow on lunch. ... This evening dinner was a rare treat: I actually felt full after eating. Another burrito meal but with extra beans. It was a hard day. After B'fast, packed camp in the rain. Crossed flooded stream 3 times then up ridge line for 2,300 ft. Starts raining half way up. I'm wet and uncomfortable. R. says he feels like a poster child for hypothermia. Looks it too. We all do. As we top out on the ridge the rain stops. Walking down the other ridge line I begin to feel myself dry out. Clouds clear and I see the Noatak valley. At first I think "I don't remember a lake of that shape" then realize it's the Noatak at Flood. Must be up 3 ft +. We left the canoes on a high bank but just how high was it? Hurry along with foreboding. Finally can see bank where canoes should be. Spot them with Pete's binoculars. Still, We hurry. Won't really feel safe until the food is in hand. Pete and I end up in a horrible bushwhack getting down to the valley floor. But by the time we are back to the canoes the weather is clearing a little. We nap in tents while socks dry in the sun and wind then get up and cook dinner. 7/27, Saturday Lay abed thinking about getting up but wondering if I did how long a wait till others arise. When I finally exit the tent Peter is there to say "finally some life! We have biscuits & eggs almost ready." Breakfast excellent: feel full. Inventory food - looks like it will last @ current rate. Pack canoes and finally start on river. Been eager to canoe since landing. Hiking has been interesting but also felt like a delay. Been looking down stream past 5 days curious about what is there for us. First trial runs in the canoes they seemed wildly unstable. When we first get in the loaded canoe (R & I) it still seems likely to tip. River still at flood. Progress fast. Can make good progress just coasting w/ current - at least till wind comes up and then must paddle to stay in fast flowing section of river. Weather is partly cloudy with light drizzle. Hardly ideal but not really uncomfortable either. I wonder aloud to Richard if we will look back on this as a good day or as a bad day. Lunch on gravel bar - toasted bagels. Temperature drop in afternoon, wind picks up, rain begins. Stop for trail mix on desolate gravel bar. Rain changes to ice. We paddle around next bend and choose to camp. Board with this travel log. Pete's paddle broke today. Blade slipped off and sunk in the muddy water. Later in the scramble to get dinner going Andrew tripped. getting up he smelt gas and found that my fuel bottle had been punctured. A 1/2 inch tear near the bottom. Who would have thought. Can't run the stove with out the bottle. Good thing we brought 2 stoves. Fresh bread for dinner. The bread is indescribably good. Eating it is like an extended orgasm. I decide to dedicate my life to eating fresh bread in remote places. Noodles & sauce for dinner - rather low - cal. Sky clears a bit in the evening and our spirits rise. Andrew and I tent together. 7/28, Sunday Late start - 1:45 on river. Cold. If weather does not improve I'll have to go to Caribbean this winter. Sun low, clouds low, light rain. Good progress. Lunch of toasted bagels on gravel bar. ... Several rapids. In one A & P take a wave over the bow & we call it a day. Camp on gravel bar. I strip down in bug tent. Good to see & feel my body again. Soup & rice & butterscotch pudding for desert. 7/29, Monday Rain all last night. P & A Go fish in lake @ 7AM. Success. B'fast: 5 pancakes. The we prepare the fish for cooking but leave it in the pan for latter. We make this a rest day. Play cards in the tent. More rain. Watch to make sure no wild animals grab our fish. When we finally cook it - YUM. Incredibly good. Lots of calories here. More rain and rising water threatens the gravel bar. We know because Pete always puts out stones to mark the water level. Through the afternoon the water has risen to cover several stones and does not seem to be slowing down. Take to canoes @ 5:30 PM. Dinner on a gravel bar. [must be 10:30 or so but does not feel like it. See foot prints from another party in the wet sand.] Camp at midnight on high bluff. We are near exit of the Noatak headwaters. 7/30, Tuesday Slept till noon. My capacity for sleep surprises me. Join folks for slim breakfast of oatmeal. Andrew & I hike S to side valley. Wet going. The socks I so laborously dried over the past days are now wet again. Knee hurts. Aad I'm low on Energy. Stop for lunch before shoulder of ridge. I turn back and find I'm happy to be alone. ... Afternoon the intermittent showers stop and things begin to dry. Dine on Pasta & Sauce + sauted puff balls & corn bread w/ blue berries. Full for once. Stomach shrinking. Clears in evening. R and I take pictures till sun slides behind mountain @11:45. Maybe this good weather will hold. 7/31, Wednesday Clear skys promise easy going. On river by 10:15. Sunlit scenery is new treat. River is highest ever canoed. may rapids w/ larger waves - always working. Stop on bar for bar beside HUGE overfall w/ easy bypass. 2 bends latter I stay left in ripples to avoid HUGE waves in main channel. Water is shallow with rocks which could tip the canoe. Rather like going through a land mine. Finally through the shallows I relax. We hit the main current, spin, tip, and go over. We are caught in a big whirlpool. Richard and I ride opposite ends of the canoe, spining slowly around. I'm not scared but uncertain how I am going to get the boat load of gear out of the the rapids and to the shore. Try to paddle but the canoe sinks beneath me. Meanwhile, I'm trying to keep hold on my paddle, the spare paddle which was not tied down, and my sit pad. Fortunatly, everything else in the canoe is tied to the canoe. Finally we are released and float down river. No bottom here and we can't swim the canoe to shore. Cold. Yell to Andrew to paddle out from shore and pull us in. On shore: Cold. Camera and all clothing in day day pack got wet. Set up the bug tent and lunch on hot Ramen while clothing dries in the sun. Richard is reluctant but we get back on river. Now I'm shy and take extreme caution, which I decide includes letting Peter and Andrew go ahead. 5 minutes latter Peter and Andrew paddle their boat right into the one hole in a large flat section of the river above some rapids. They were too intent on the rapids and didn't see the hole. Over they go. When R and I catch up two of them are jogging along next to their canoe moving it toward shore. Andrew looks back and says: "We decided to walk for a while." Another 1.5 hours to dry then back on the river. Next big rapid appears. We pull up to gravel bar to inspect what is below us. Then I notice the bar would make a great camp site. 8 hours on the river - little progress - intimidated. We camp. Unpacking I notice I've left my pile jacket at our lunch stop. Nothing to it but to go back and get it. Hike back after dinner. Nice country but 3 hours of fast walking tire me out. Feet wet and blistering. 8/1, Thursday Sleep poorly. Up @ 8AM. Raisin bran & biscuits. I dump some left over oil into my raisin bran and find it tasts great - extra calories YUM YUM. Biscuits YUM YUM On river @ 10:30. Line canoes past 1st rapids then paddle rest. After 1 hour the river mellows. [Heading NW with mostly with the wind through some wide, calm sections of river. We often raft our canoes together to talk and dring the hot lemonade in Pete's thermos. Round northern bend and face head winds again. In a short distance we pull up on a gravel bar.] Lunch @ 1PM during rare sun breaks. Otherwise cloudy w/ periods of rain. Cold. Head winds. Some desperate stretchs paddling into strong wind & rain. Stop @ 5:45 PM. Est 20 land miles & 30 river miles. This has been our first "big day" on the river. Still 10 hours to Cutler river. We are camped on a non-descript bit of flat tundra on a bank 10 ft up from the river. A cold wind is whiping across the tundra today. Try to make a wind block for the bug tent with a canoe and Pete's tarp - only moderate success. Pizza w/ Soup & noodles. Soup & noodles is basically soup w/ a few noodles. An appetizer. Something to cut the hunger. Would be very. grim w/o pizza. We calculate we can bake every day + desert every other day. This improves everyone's mood. Except we are 1 dinner short & look to Peter to provide fish. In talking about the missing dinner Richard says that he expects that our last day will be a long day, arriving in Noatak village sometime past midnight. Andrew and I, however, plan to be there before the stores close so we can buy lots-O-food for dinner that day. 8/2, Friday RAIN. HEAD WINDS Alarm at 6AM Up by 8:15 sharp. Pancakes cooked big for speed & efficiency. On river by 10:30. Our neighbors, the only other party sighed, still abed. 3 hours through rolling tundra to lunch @ 1PM. 1.5 rolls of Ritz crackers + cheese. P-butter & Jelly then 1 cookie each. A fine snack. After lunch the river turns SW, into the wind. Several stretches of strong head wind w/ driving rain. River much bigger & flowing fast. Watching the map I'm surprised by our progress & propose Cuttler river by night. 2 gravel bar rest stops. These are never very long. Walk around on cold wet ground while being pelted by rain. We all take on a chill after 5 min and are ready to push on. Most of day spent in canoes. With a strong wind, most of the time in the canoe is spent paddling. As we stretch out for Cuttler river I start leaning forward and pulling back with each stroke to get more body working. Despite less training Richard is still gong strong. 6:15, beach on a gravel bar at Cuttler river confluence. 35 land miles in 7:45 hours, including breaks. It is raining so we take a rest in the tents. At dinner we discover that the river is rising at a significant rate. Our position on the gravel bar is not secure. Pete and Andrew scout the hill and report good sites. Andrew and I drag my tent assembled through brush & up hill. Sure is pretty up here. Sleep _well_. 8/3, Saturday Wake at 10AM. Discover we've camped on a blue berry patch & pick berries for an hour. Blueberry pancakes (with out syrup, save it for latter). A little bitter but food of _any_ flavor is enjoyed. YUM YUM. Richard and I read in bug house till drizzle threatens to get more serious. Wash some socks (feed cold for past 10 days). Retreat to hill. I sit out & take in scenery till gnats cover me 2 deep then retreat to tent. Some map work shows 1st 3 days @ 12 miles/day, 1 rest day, the 10 mile day with 2 swims, then 20 and 28 for 94 miles. 165 land miles yet in to 10s. Can do this in 8 20 mile days + 2 rest days. Gotta move. But we are 2 dinners short. Rivers have all been in flood with a load of silt and prospects for more fish are slim. Gotta move. Andrew and Peter return from their trip to the lake (no fish) and report that the shack we saw coming in has some food in it. Clouds are breaking up and we bath from river water in the shelter of the bug house. Dinner start w/ cheese and crackers (from the lunch we didn't eat) & whiskey. The whiskey is so good. I think it is genetic with me. What ever reason, I decided that in addition to bread I will also drink whiskey in remote pl-aes. As we work through our allotment of whiskey talk turns to supplementing our supplies from the cabin cache. Peter and Andrew go off (I'm busy rising bread on my belly). I'm glad the are going slightly inebriated, they may be more liberal with what they choose to appropriate. Meanwhile, I put the bread on and Richard starts the Soup. Pete and Andrew return from raid with a box of instant spuds, 40 servings, & can of corn to make 1 dinner. A larger bag of calories^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hbrown sugar. And a fist full of spaghetti to supplement this megar soup and noodles we have been getting for most dinners. A high pressure zone comes... And then goes. Light rain by 9PM as we get into the tents. I can only think that who ever advised sun screen, of which I brought 2 tubes, must have mis-booked their flights and ended up in in the Bahamas and failed to recognize the difference. 8/4, Sunday Rain in morning, cower in bed. Finally ask time. 8:45AM. Pick blue berries to go with grape nuts. YUM. On river by 11:30. Clouds but no rain. Round first bend and we see large party of rafters. This is the 2nd other party sighted. Good progress with some pleasant drifting till lunch at 3PM. Ration of 4 pilot bread, cheese and peanut butter. Sufficient. Round Okak bend and put head down and paddle into wind. Several LARGE meanders. Stop at 21 land miles on nice tundra plane. Clouds breaking and sun on hills is beautiful. 2 carabo tot down near by ridge and pass near us. When Pete stands up one stops and tries to smell us. What are we? Dine on mashed potatoes, corn, and satey sauce. YUM. But don't try this at home. Decide to paddle another 5 miles to a tributary, the Anisak river. Weather improving, wind down, birds out. Landscape inviting. Most pleasant stretch so far. Tributary clear and beautiful. Andrew immediately tries for fish. No luck. Tents up. Bug house up. I sit back to relax and reflect. Andrew joins me to make some hot chocolate. We sit and watch the light change. Rain starts as we enter tent. Letter to the Alaska tourist beaurow: Just back from 2 weeks on the Noatak river. Love the river and love the state. However, am writing to inform you that you have a severe bug problem out on the tundra. Understand how you may not have noticed as few people go there. The bugs population is _way_ out of proportion. Of out control. Hampered our enjoyment many evenings. Many thanks for your prompt attention to this problem. Will return when we receive word the bugs are under control. -- 1996 Noatak River Expedition. 8/5, Monday Back to work! For some people at least. Andrew is up early but I lay a bead to some unknown hour. Breakfast on Oatmeal. I'm coming to dread oatmeal, not because of the taste which I still enjoy, but because I get only 2 for my meal then nothing till lunch. On river at unknown time. Here the river runs WNW with fewer meanders than before. Make good time over land with many sections being floated. In this sense, floating involves laying back on the canoe stern and watching the clouds and banks spin past. At lunch Pete and Andrew report seeing a lone bull moose while floating a very long straight stretch. We watch rain clouds around us but feel nothing more than a few wind blown drops till half way through the afternoon paddle when one of those clouds passed overhead. Banks are lower here and distant scenery is spectacular. There is a lot of open country up here. Each day we get up and travel through a chunk of it. I like these long days of covering lots of ground. I look at distant mountains and know I'll camp at their base by evening. Easily make our goal, the nimucktuk river. The river's water is clear and I see several fish jump. Up river are distant peaks, range up on range. Signs other have camped here: a tent pad and an old rope. Pete and Richard swing the rope and I run in and jump. Andrew tries to join me but misses the timing. Pete catches a salmon: reaches in and picks it out by hand just like the bears do. Easy because it is near the end of its life and looks old and tired. Pete cooks it any way but reports the taste is poor. Meanwhile, freeze dried lasangna, fresh baked calzone and brownies. A real feast. More like how we _should_ be eating. 8/6, Tuesday Andrew's alarm goes off and I have to wake him. He hikes up a knoll for a view. See a fox out the tent. COLD out. Oatmeal. Count breakfasts and find 1 extra. who knows... 3 packets each this morning! Weather is changing with wind from N which means a nice tail wind most of this day. Fast progress on stretches of the river. Much time spent reclining on the stern of canoe. This section of the river winds more or less S. Rest while we can, who knows what the future will bring. Even though there are 7 days left I feel like we are in the home stretch. The troubles are behind us. 3 days of paddling can get us out. Talk frequently turns to what we'll do when the trip is over. That mainly means we talk about what we'll eat first. By evening we camp on a gravel bar at a tributary river flowing in from the S. After dinner Andrew and I canoe across the river to explore the gravel bar there. See many moose track and returning see bear tracks a day or 2 old. Encouraged by the sun. In the tent I strip down to my underwear, first time I've had the leggings off in 1 week. And that was just to turn them inside out. But after the sun "sets" the combination of the cold wind blowing through our tent and my naked body beneath my open sleeping bag nearly proves fatal. Sometime during the night, which there is really an extended sun set merging to an extended sun rise, I get up to pee. In the near by side river backwater I see a moos and child which spooks me as they can be surly and dangerous animals. Especially one so large. I watch from the safety of the tent. 8/7, Wednesday Morning comes clear! Rest day so we sleep late. When I really wake up we are in fog. Wind back to the W with high clouds and a new front moving in. Breakfast on crepes with brown sugar and lemon juice YUM YUM. But tedious to make and consumes much fuel. Richard and I sit, face to the wind reading while mosquitos buzz around our ears. I count bars enough for 1 a day plus 1.75 extra. We survey fuel: 2 quarts plus some. Enough? I do a small load of laundry so I'll have something clean when we arrive in town in 7 days. Cold in evening. As we sit in the bug tent making dinner we use Andrew's watch to measure the air tempature. Low 50s. Doesn't sound that bad but it feels quite cold living in it. By 11:30pm clouds fill sky and rain shuts down our evening of lingering in the bug tent. Some themes from this trip: Arctic is colder than I expected. Meals over before begun. Not enough food. Trying to get up on bars/personal food. Pete says: "Let's make a big thing of X" Tom says: "Now that's got to last us another N days." Andrew says: "Well, how much of X do we have?" Richard says: "About 2 cups" 8/8, Thursday 7AM: alarm. Rain. 8AM: alarm. Rain. Rain stops and Pete gets up. I follow and start biscuits. Pete cooks eggs and onion and cheese. YUM YUM. But the meal has more fat that we are used to and Richard feels a little queezy. Another arctic start, on the water at 11:30, in the rain. It lets up for lunch then sets in again late afternoon. We are paddling WWNW in this strech in a midly meandering river. We pass a small motor boat pulled up on the shore and spy a cabin tucked way back from the shore. In the late afternoon we begin to see some trees, a very welcome sight. Rain continues to fall as we scout our camp site. We are all damp and uncomfortable as we set up the bug tent and tarp. Still, plenty of energy to cook a meal. I carefully crush garlic into the pizza sauce and cut cheese fine. 32.5 miles covered on one of our hardest days. We are all eager to get off the river. Tired of being wet, cold, and deprived. 8/9, Friday Rain stopped mid night and morning shows clear sky forming to the NW and a strong N wind. We sleep longer. After breakfast I hiked up to near ridge and get a view. With a little sunlight this country shows very nicely. Andrew hiked further and found a large, beautiful lake. In the PM we padle through Noatak canyon, the last place likely to hold any real hazards. Some big waves but they are easily avoided. Turns out to be a pleasant paddle. Coming out of the canyon we are pointed N into a strong wind and have to lean into it to make progress. The river turns west again and going eases. We pass 1 or two cabins set by the river. Stop at Kugururok river and like it so much we decide to camp. It is a large tributary floing in from the north with several channels of beautiful, clear flowing water. Pete fishes but has no success. We are about to prepare freezdried when Andrew reports seeing several fish jumping at confluence. Soon we have 2 large Dollyvarden trout which cook up deliciously. We are camped on this huge gravel bar, by a clear flowing river in a great place with old bone mountains in the distance to the east, north, and west. All evening the sun has slowly been sliding toward the horizon, providing ever richening light. Reminds me of being in the Land of Standing Rock in Utah. What a contrast from yesterday when we were huddled under the tarp. Now we think if this weather holds we will just stay here another day. After settling down in the tent I hear a growl, think its Pete's stomach, hear it again and now it is not. Looking up stream we see a mother and 3 cub bears coming toward us. I talk loudly to them and start getting dressed in case I have to move quickly and spend a while away from camp. They don't hear us until Pete stands up and says "You should know: I'm bigger than you" Which is a bluff but the mother hears, stands up for a better view, then takes off away from us. 8/10, Saturday Clear. Breakfast on a double ration of pancakes. Meal lasts till 1PM. I fish and soon pull in a big Dollyvarden Trout, clean and filet it. Spend rest of day reading and wondering aroung the gravel bar. I go check out the foot prints from last nights bear. From the depth I can see that when she took off away from us it was with a fair amount of force. The cubs, on the other hand, were just romping around and showed no particular concern. Dinner at 9 pm: Fresh wheat berry bread, fish soup with peanut base and fresh onions (delicious by any standard), and more grilled fish. Every meal I eat up here is delicious but this meal is exquisite. I sit out and watch the slow sun set till chilled then to bed. 8/11, Sunday Can't sleep, thinking about return. Up soon after sun returns. Set up kitchen and brew tea and wait. Bake corn bread and get crew up. Beautiful paddle today. More trees. I sure missed trees. Aesthetic channels. Latter we pass on to a large plain. The river bed is wide and often changing. Many large gravel bars with scrub vegetation. Camp on vast gravel bar - not aesthetic here. Cook bread made from double pizza dough with cheese, potato pancakes, brownies. Read J-H-P chapter fishing and loss. Poignant description of sadness over loss of landscapes and beauty. I feel privileged to have seen this river and clean and untouched as it is. Another place I'll never be able to return to. Wash my self and my pants in the evening light. I like living outside ... as long as it's warm, sunny, and bug free. We amuse ourselfs by batting rocks out across the water. The rocks make interesting humming sounds as they spin. I'm not very good at this. 8/12, Monday Oatmeal again! Clouds again! Cold on the water today. Paddle more. The channel shifts to much for the old maps to be much help in tracking our progress. Don't know how bit Noatak village is and worry about missing it. We stay right and I survey the tree line for antenna. It can't be so small that nothing is visible Then, as we are looking for a lunch spot we round a bend and I see several large buildings in distance. As soon as I see them I think the journey is not over, just changing. But is it possible for me to continue to look at life as if I am on a journey? 8/13, Tuesday Epilog After sighting Noatak village we pulled up on a gravel bar for one last lunch (hot ramen and crackers). Another 20 minutes of paddling and we pull up near the main boat ramp. Once I'm out I find I feel a little lost. Soon an old guy pulls up on his little 4WD scooter and chats with us in a slow soft voice, asking about our trip and if we have seen any caraboo. We decided to check out the village before unpacking the canoes. First stop is the store. An anticlimax after our large meals of the past few days - I don't remember what I bought. But I do remember wondering around in wonder and the selection available. I make some calls to arrange a flight out. We are mostly of two minds as to getting a flight this evening or spending a night in the village. After a few calls it looks like an evening flight is not an option then I'm directed to a local agent in the village. We find him out working on some plumbing, and inquire about flights. He jumps on his 4WD scooter and disappears, leaving us to chat with his partners. They ask softly about our trip and if we have seen any caraboo. I report on our sightings then ask if they have seen any. They know exactly where the big herds are and where they are heading. One says that when the snow comes he'll ride out and shoot a couple. I realize that for hundreds of years up here, when travelers met one of the first questions was always "Have you seen any caraboo?" The agent returns and we have a 5 PM flight. Back to the canoes to unload. The canoes get left with an agent for the outfitter. The outfitter said that the locals have a loose sense of personal property. When he was paying his agent a fixed annual fee he was loosing canoes. When he started paying per canoe returned many more started turning up. I can see how a small, remote village would not be well served by the strict sense of personal property that I am accustomed to. We quickly sort through our gear and get it transported to the air port. The plane lands, someone gets off, we get on. We're in the air. The plane makes it's noisy way across the last 50 miles of the Noatak and Kotaebue sound. We had the option of canoeing this section but I think it would have been less aesthetic that most of the river that we did see. And the big water of Kotzebue sound could have been daunting for us guys in open canoes. So we land in the airport and taxy to the Hagland Air terminal. The folks at Hagland are very friendly. They recommend some restaurants and offer to keep our stuff in the hanger till we return. First stop is Alaska Air terminal where for a small fee we change our tickets to tomorrow departure. We walk through town and settle on a Chinese restaurant were we have a very satisfying meal. Next to another restaurant to get some shakes. Finally back to the hanger to get our stuff and camp for the night. But what is this? The hanger is locked at no mechanic in sight. 22 days in the wilderness and not a single uncomfortable night. Now our first night in civilization and it looks like we'll have to bivi. I walk round the building and find a way through the fence. On the other side of the fence I'm able to jimmy the door to the office but the office-hanger door is secure. Someone else shows up looking for the mechanic. Heoffers to jimmy the door for us. This is Alaskan hospitality: "Can't get your stuff out of the hanger? Here, I'll break into the hanger for you." I tell him it's no use. Eventually he finds the mechanic, who like everyone else we have met, turns out to be a very friendly guy. He gives us a ride out past the airport where we can camp then stays and chats for a while about life in Alaska and killing things. In the morning we board the plane and fly Kotzebue to Anchorage, Anchorage to Seattle, and share a cab home. When I'm dropped off at home it is dark for the first time in 24 days. I think we were all surprised at how quickly we got back home. I was eager to return but once home sorry that I had missed out on spending some time in Noatak Village and Kotzebue, both interesting places and very different than where I live.