Day 1 - Fly from Fairbanks to Arctic Village, Then in a Bush Plane to the Jago River Valley
Two plane flights take us into the bush and offer us our first views of the amazing northern Alaskan terrain - which seems to consist mostly of water! (In frozen or liquid form.)
24 Photographs
1
Dale and Cherie: “We’re ready... Let’s get this monster bush plane off the ground!
2
Cherie: “There’s nothing to it - the autopilot’s doing all the work”
3
Fairbanks from the air. It’s mighty green this time of year!
4
Water, water everywhere!
5
An hour and a half later, we find the Arctic Village International(!) Airstrip.
6
Cherie and Dale at the Arctic Village International Air Terminal! The Brooks Range peeks out below the clouds in the background.
7
We explore the lake beside the airstrip while waiting for our next plane.
8
The pilot for our second flight refuels the plane with a hand pump, and lots of elbow grease!
9
Cherie and Dale inside: “Yeah, it might be a bit breezy without that door...!”
10
Dale, Cherie and Lynn: “See, there’s plenty of elbow room in here!”
11
Our pilot, Kirk: “If I just smile nicely, they’ll think I know what I’m doing!”
12
We start over the Brooks Range...
13
...where the amazing views are nonstop all around.
14
Can’t go any higher than this with the clouds so low!
15
A glacier is born...
16
Yikes! We’re close enough to walk on this icefall!
17
Whew! We’ve finally got some altitude under us again!
18
There’s camp, where earlier arrivers have already set up their tents. The airstrip is just to the right of camp, beside the snow strip.
19
It’s a luxurious airstrip (straight ahead) by Alaskan bush standards!
20
Did they all get out of that little plane? Nope, just three of us, three backpacks, and that big black bag full of all our food.
21
Ooh! We’ve got some beautiful Glacial Avens to shoot right away. The flora as well as the fauna have fur coats in this climate.
22
Some Purple Saxifrage adds color to the mostly brown and grey vegetation.
23
A short hike up the hill above our campsite lets us take in the view up the Jago River Valley...
24
...and lets Cherie start her never-ending vigilance for local wildlife.