Mount Prindle - Rocks!

Flying high above Mt Prindle on an early summer afternoon

Ann and I headed into the uplands north of Fairbanks today. The terrain is rather dramatic for these ancient, highly weathered and rounded hills which divide the Tanana River drainage from that of the mighty Yukon.

Our hike began with 9 miles of easy going on the nicely groomed track of the Quartz Creek trail before diverting east through a break in the hillside. We then ascended a high and exposed spur ridge which leads to the summit of Mt Prindle before returning down the Nome Creek drainage to our starting point. The entire route was 24 miles and made for a fantastic day trip within an hours drive from Fairbanks.

Ann contemplates something philosophically deep as she gazes out from a craggy ridge leading up to Mount Prindle

Splashes of pink woolly lousewort dotted the tundra. The endless daylight and warm temperatures have jump started summer in the far north.

The hiking was superb on the dry and crunchy lichens and rock.

Many pinnacles with precariously placed rocks jutted out from the landscape.

Casting shadows on a few remnant snow fields.

The approach to Mt Prindle is strewn with granite spires jutting up into the skyline.

The granite monuments which define the ridgeline are absolutely spectacular.

As we were winding our way through the graveyard of tors - we came upon a newborn sheep and mother. The abrupt and unexpected encounter startled all four of us and for a moment we just stared at each other in silence. The sheep eventually scurried away...

Ann and I balancing on the summit of Mt Prindle

A spotlight of sun illuminates a chorus of granitic tors.

Weekend on the Emerald Isle

Blades of sea grass are silhouetted against the calm waters of Monashka Bay on Kodiak Island

I traveled down to Alaska's emerald isle with 8 friends for the annual Kodiak Island Crab Festival. Kodiak Island is famous for huge brown bears, world-class sport fishing, and one of the largest commercial fishing ports in the nation. Its also notorious for having long stretches of wet and windy weather since it is situated in the unprotected waters of the north Pacific.

An endless supply of crab legs feed hungry locals and tourists...

The bright blue onion dome of the Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church

The start of the Kodiak Island marathon. Tina , Ted and I made up more than half of the race entrants. Ann was the only competitor in the 43 mile ultramarathon so she started several hours earlier and met up with us to run the marathon course after a 17 mile warm up.

Beach art on Kodiak Island's north shore.

Kodiak is home to the largest US Coast Guard base in the states - they demonstrated an open sea rescue in the harbor.

Sea shells frozen in time break free from the bluffs above Fossil Beach

Driftwood and young vegetation litter the sand on the shores of Ugak Bay

Buffalo roam freely through the grassy terrain of Kodiak Island

The pad at the Kodiak Rocket Launch Facility looms above the horizon

Endless Twilight on Beaver Creek

The late evening sunlight reflects off of the steel grey surface of Beaver Creek

Summer has arrived in the north. A winters worth of snow and ice has flushed downstream and has been replaced by never ending daylight, serenading songbirds, afternoon thunderstorms, bloodthirsty mosquitoes, the sweet smell of the boreal forest, and warm sunshine. I finally packed the skis away for the winter and pulled out the packraft for the first float of the season.

Trevor, Ann and I decided to welcome the endless summer daylight with an all night float down Beaver Cr followed by hike across the countryside north of Fairbanks. We dropped our rafts in the creek around 8 pm Friday night and staggered into the parking lot at the Wickersham Dome trail head around 7 pm the following evening. We traveled the 50 miles non-stop for nearly 24 hours with the excitement of the wilderness keeping us awake - supplemented by loads of sugar, chocolate covered espresso beans, and caffeine injected extra strength Excedrin.

Trevor inflates his Alpacka raft. These unbelievably cool boats tip the scale at less than 5 lbs. We used a specially designed bag to "scoop" up air and squeeze it into the boat. Its a clever idea which eliminates the need to carry a pump. A seasoned professional can inflate the boat in a couple of minutes.

830 pm - Ann is ready to start the first leg of our 50 mile excursion through the White Mountains

Ann and I are looking forward to a night on the river.

There was still a little bit of remnant river ice left along the banks of Beaver Cr.

The evening was quite chilly and the water was cold. The local wildlife was not deterred by this though. We observed (and were observed) by more moose than I can count, beavers, bald eagles, owls, and waterfowl. The nightlife on Beaver Creek was vibrant.

2 am - We were teetering on the edge of mild hypothermia and decided to stop for a few hours to warm up by a raging bonfire. The high water from the spring snowmelt had left the gravel bars littered with driftwood so there was plenty of amunition to ward off the cold.

The "bushbuddy" in action. This is a very small and light (5 oz) wood burning stove. It boiled a liter of water in about 8 minutes - no fossil fuels required!

630 am - The transition...we pack up the boats after 30 miles on Beaver Creek and prepare to hike 20 miles out the Steese Hwy via Wickersham Dome.

Crap! We had to cross Wickersham Creek about a mile after we started hiking. The only way to avoid a cold swim was to yank out a boat and ferry across.

We followed a trail which traverses the ridgeline between several drainages - this way we avoided the boggy/wet areas down low. We were treated to some nice views in all directions. Beaver Creek makes a sharp 45 degree turn to the north around the nose of this limestone ridge and this area is aptly named the "big bend"

A view of the White Mtns and the Beaver Creek valley.

Up and up...the ridge route kept us out of the lower wet areas but it required us to make multiple steep ascents.

When we climbed above treeline we could see many distant mountains but the weather quickly deteriorated and obscured all of our potential views.
Snow and rain pelted us for hours and we were completely soaked. Sleep deprivation also started to kick in and Trevor began to see people on every ridge as he stumbled down the trail.

We reached a shelter cabin just as the sun broke out of the clouds and the sloppy precipitation ceased.

Trevor and I dry off in the warm sunshine at the shelter cabin. We ended up making it to the trail head around 7 pm - about 23 hours after we set out on the creek. We were met by Dea and Lisa's smiling faces - even though we were overdue by more than 5 hours and they waited patiently the entire time.

Transitions...

8 pm May 11, 2008 - Green-up arrived today as the leaves burst forth into the warm sunlight and the hills suddenly turned a bright lime green in a matter of hours.

11 pm April 30, 2008 - Taking my final ski of the season in the late evening light at Smith Lake on the University campus. The transition from winter into summer this year was shockingly fast. In less than 2 weeks the winter snowpack melted away and was replaced by green leaves and mosquitoes.

Asian Particulates

The late evening sun is on fire above the northwestern horizon.

The skies over northern Alaska have been unusually hazy the past few days. It has looked more like the smoggy LA basin as the haze has obscured the mountains. Our more typical bright blue atmosphere was replaced with a "dirty" airmass as a gigantic high pressure center built in over the state this week. The fine particulates which are clogging up our skies are apparently originating from fires burning in Russia and dust storms raging across Mongolia. The only benefit of the haze that I can see are the intense red sunrises/sunsets.

There is an article about the haze in the Daily News Miner.

Tour De Alaska Range

An ice fall plummets thousands of feet down the east face of Mt Hess.

I flew around the Alaska Range south of Fairbanks for a few hours today with some NOAA pilots that have been in AK for the past 2 weeks. They are here with an aircraft that is equipped with instrumentation that uses gamma radiation to measure the amount of water in the snowpack. There are a few hundred flight lines around the state that are roughly 10 miles long. They fly these lines at an altitude of 500 feet above ground level and obtain an average snow water equivalent for each flight line. This data provides insight into how much water is stored in the winter snowpack and is used to estimate the amount snowmelt runoff that will enter the river systems.

We flew over some absolutely awesome terrain and and countless glaciers.

The Black Rapids downhill ski area - I have heard about this ski hill south of Delta Junction for years but I have never actually seen it before. There was a lift and a few short runs.

One of the flight lines took us within a few miles of Bus 142 where Chris McCandless died back in the summer of 1992. The pilots were psyched to see the rusting hunk of steel so we made a low pass over this "sacred" location. For more photos of my ski to the bus click here.

In search of Big Windy Hot Springs

Dan and Brad ski up Birch Creek in search of Big Windy Hot Springs

Big Windy Hot Springs - You mention this destination to almost anyone and they sort of cock their head and give you a blank look and then ask: "Where is that? I have never heard of it." And the few folks that have stumbled across Big Windy during a Google search of Alaska hot springs have most likely never been there. Here in lies the mystery of Big Windy and the reason for our search of this rarely visited location.

Big Windy Hot Springs is located 20 miles as the crow flies south of Circle Hot Springs. This translates into about 33 miles of skiing up several tributaries of Birch Creek. The springs are situated in a deep valley on a rocky slope above Big Windy Creek. I have never actually met anyone that has ventured out to this oasis in the boreal forest on foot. A researcher at UAF did write an informative paper about the unusual flora and fauna which inhabits Big Windy. Apparently this is the northernmost extent of the water shrew...interesting.

Dan and his younger brother Brad geared up for the journey to Big Windy. Brad was up from Colorado for the weekend. Dan informed me as we were getting ready to depart that Brad had only cross country skied a couple times. Dan what are you thinking?!? -- this could be a grueling trip.

For first 12 miles from Circle Hot Springs to Birch Creek we followed the Bielenberg Trail which was nicely packed by snowmachines. After that we broke trail the last 20 or so miles on the creek. The Bielenberg trail is an old mining trail which continues on towards Woodchopper and Coal Creek on the Yukon River.

Dan had forgot his sunglasses so he improvised some eye protection using a hat and bandanna.

We encountered many stretches of overflow, or river water under pressure that is forced to the surface and then spreads out over the ice. So our feet got soaked as the icy water splashed up or poured over the top of our ski boots.

The river ice is so abrasive that we had to re-apply kick wax numerous times.

Dan throws himself on the ice to suck water (and possibly giardia) from a small fissure.


We came across some awesome stretches of glare ice where you could just tap your poles and effortlessly excel forward. These are moments of glory to embrace as you shoot across the ice.

We tried to dip at every watering hole in order to stay hydrated. This is much more efficient than stopping and pulling out the stove to melt snow.

As we traversed up the Big Windy drainage, the valley gradually narrowed, the snow deepened, and we began to encounter thin ice and open water.

We had to negotiate stretches of open water a mile or two downstream from the hot springs. This required precariously jumping from rock-to-rock in order to cross the river.

Dan was too lazy to keep taking his skis off and thought he could jump this small stretch...he was wrong.

In some places it was possible to bridge your skis between rocks and work your way across the stream. Dan is still having some bad luck. He will keep his skis on to the bitter end...

The boulders and deep snow increased as we continued up the valley.

Finally the boulders were impossible to ski through. So our only option was too walk up the creek or bushwhack along a steep slope through deep snow and downed trees. So it took us more than an hour to cover the last 1/2 mile to the springs.

At last - Big Windy Hot Springs!!! Hmmm...where is the inviting pool of warm water? The bathing beauties? the wet bar??

This really doesn't look too inviting.

And this looks more like a slimy water slide and not something to plunge your body into.

So it looked like at some time long ago someone had piled some rocks up around this location. Maybe this was the hidden oasis we had traveled 2 days to reach...

I stuck my snow shovel into the murky abyss and found that there was about an 18 inch column of hot sludge beneath the green slime surface - perfect!!! So I played pool guy, dropped my pants and got to business scooping out some of the natural healing mud and algae.

Voila! Big Windy Hot Springs is open for business.

The camping was very limited. The best spot was on a slight slope littered with rocks.

We had a nice campfire to dry out our gear. The grass adjacent to my boots caught on fire and before we knew it my boots had ignited and totally torched the toe. Fortunately they would still fit into my ski bindings even though the plastic sole beneath the toe was deformed.

So we did the Big Windy. The mystery of this springs has been uncovered. There are reasons why its not a hot spot on the hot springs circuit: difficult to access, limited sites suitable for pitching a tent, and a not so appealing pool of muck to soak in. But--overall its a great trip and well worth the hard work to get there.

I have more photos of our trip in picasa.