Summary: This trip was beautiful in a different way than other parts of Alaska because of the diversity of birds and wildflowers we saw in this area. The Alaskan poppies and the tundra swans were my personal favorites. The contour of the land was different than that of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; it was much more flat and wide than the mountains that surrounded us on the trips to A.N.W.R. The weather was absolutely beautiful, it sprinkled one morning and the rest of the days were blue skies and 50-70’s. It was windy throughout the middle part of the trip, which of course was great considering the effect it had on the mosquitoes. It was never too windy to paddle except one afternoon. We thought we would see more wildlife, but the wildflowers and birds made up for the lack of wildlife. Of course we saw about a 1000 caribou that crossed very close to our campsite, which was a treat. This area that we vacationed on was spectacular and beautiful; it was unlike anything else I have ever visited.

July 17: This morning we at biscuits and gravy, sausage, and potatoes which were delicious. Then we went for a four hour hike up the Nolan Mountain. For at least two mile we went directly vertical, scaling the mountain side. It was grueling and I was sweating like none other. It was really humid, with misty rain and hot, plus the mosquitoes were being pesky. But it was a beautiful mountain and when we got close to the top we saw a gorgeous view of the valley in which Wiseman lies and we could also see the pipeline that runs along the town.

July 16: This morning we ate breakfast in Clutch’s cabin –eggs and pancakes! Mom, Dad, Mark and Charles went back to Coldfoot to pack up the rest of the stuff to ship back to St. Louis. So it was just June and I for a couple of hours. To fill up our time we walked around the town for awhile, went to Eightball’s store and checked out his collection of antiques. We then went to Jack’s place and rode his bikes around the town, which was fun. June and I then made a beautiful necklace out of native beads at Jack’s store. Then in the afternoon, Clutch took all six of us out to Union Creek and we mined for gold. When we got back we panned it and only found 5 tiny pieces of gold, not even worth five cents. But it was a good and fun experience.

July 15: We had company for breakfast, about 1000 caribou. There is a herd of caribou that lives around the lake, called the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd. We watched them and they watched us as we packed up the rest of our stuff getting ready for our return flight. There were babies, males, and females in the herd, with a large percentage of males. The males are impressive with their large racks. The babies looked adorable as they wobbled around looking for their mothers and checking us out. The herd seemed to be constantly on the move. The mosquitoes were bothering us and the caribou. For a long time the caribou stood in the lake, we assumed to get away from the mosquitoes.
Dirk was later than we had expected, which was fine. Mark, Charles and I were on the first flight out. We got into Coldfoot and had a friend of ours named, Clutch, pick us up and drive us to his Bed n’ Breakfast in Wiseman. The town is best known for its Gold mining operations. Clutch cooked hamburgers which were delicious considering the fact that we hadn’t eaten anything relatively fresh for the last week and a half. So the burgers were a treat. He also took us for a drive in his 1943 World War Two Jeep, which still ran.

July 14: More oatmeal for breakfast around 11am. We decided since the wind had died down and there was less blowing sand, we would go to landing strip along the lake. We packed up the canoes and checked to make sure we didn’t leave anything on the tundra. Then as we approached the spot we saw the people that we had seen earlier from the University of Fairbanks, Alaska. We talked with them about our trip and all the birds we had spotted. Then it was time to take the boats down, which was a tedious process. We had to clean all the sand out of the poles and the skin of the boat. But after that we ate dinner and talked, laughed, and took a group picture was which was a lot of fun. Since the sun was in the west we had to face it and the wind was to our backs and so the mosquitoes started to attack us again all the while trying to pose for the group picture.

July 13: Today we ate breakfast and went for another hike. We went to the other side of the creek past our landing strip and onto Wyoming creek. We thought we might see more wildlife and ended up being disappointed for there wasn’t much of anything as we hiked along the lake. What we saw in numerous numbers were the wildflowers such as Lousewort’s, pink bistort, and Alaskan poppies. We saw a few birds. We ate a picnic lunch at Wyoming Creek, which was beautiful. When we came back to our campsite, my mom and I played cards inside my tent. After dinner, Mom and I took a hike along the creek and took pictures of willow ptarmigan. We also took a closer look at the Red Throated Loons. The evening light was beautiful, warm and glowing.

July 12: Another windy morning. I had sand in my oatmeal, yuck! We debated which is worse: mosquitoes or blowing sand. We took a hike along the coastline to see if we could spot any geese. As we were hiking we played upon the soft and cushiony tundra and spotted many types of birds. We even saw a duck that was molting and it looked sick, but later it got up and waddles off into the lake. We saw many Arctic terns that dove up and down along the air currents; they look like little acrobats. We ate lunch in a ditch so as to get out of the feisty wind. We had crackers with salmon and dried fruit. Then the others decided to hike back to camp while Charles and I decided to go a little bit farther or so we thought. We ended up walking three extra miles along the beautiful lake and spotted some sand hill cranes.
Charles got a good video of them feeding off the tundra. As we started our journey back, Charles and I felt as though we might not make it since we had gone so far away from our camp and now we had to make up all those miles. Eventually we made it back to camp and took a rest in our tents before dinner. As we calculated the distance we had gone we figured about 8-9 miles round trip, which out on the tundra is a very far and grueling distance

July 11: We ate breakfast (consisting of oat meal and granola, dried fruit, and water) as usual. Dirk had given us GPS coordinates of where he would pick us up for our return. We decided to go and check out the area where Dirk was going to pick us up; to see if that spot was going to be accessible from the lake or from the creek. So we got out Mark’s GPS and read the coordinates and found the landing strip which was in between the lake and sand dunes. It was a very windy day and sand kept blowing into my eyes, not fun or pleasant, but at least we found the landing strip. As we thought about it we came to the conclusion that we might want to look for an alternative spot, but later decided on staying with the original coordinates. In the afternoon we took a hike along the upper part of the creek and saw some more Pacific loons, plovers, terns, geese. This area is a bird paradise, lots of lakes and lots of food (mosquitoes) and no people to bother the birds.

July 10: Today, I slept in until 11 in the morning since we didn’t have to paddle anywhere. We ate breakfast and decided to take a long hike around our new surrounding of Teshekpuk Lake. As we walked along the tundra, we passed several lakes that were inhabited by many different species of birds. We saw many Pacific loons which were black with white stripes. And we also saw many beautiful tundra swans. As we were walking we saw a baby bird scurrying across the tundra trying to get to its mom for protection from us giants, very cute might I add.
At the top of the ridge from our camp, was a broken down cabin that looked very old and had lots of miscellaneous things surrounding it. There was stuff from mittens to pots and stoves. We had several predications of whom and why the people that lived there, how the cabin used and the kinds of things that they might have been researching up around this area. June and Charles checked out some of the garbage that had been left by previous people at the top of the hill. They found an old worn out ski-du. It turned out to be a beautiful and sunny day with a slight breeze making for fewer mosquitoes. Later on we ate dinner and talked about lots of random subjects, enjoying the landscape and weather. Dinner was pasta, with cookies for dessert.

July 9: This morning I got up excited because today was going to be the day when we get to Teshekpuk Lake and there would be hopefully some new and exciting things to see. So we packed up and started paddling. We went for a few miles and then decided to catch some fish for lunch. We stopped and got out our reel and fishing net and quickly caught five fish to cook up for lunch. We caught a fish on every cast, boy were the fish hungry and inexperienced with fishermen. We caught Grayling and they tasted delicious when caught and cooked fresh.
It was a lot of fun because of how easily we caught the fish. After lunch, we headed out onto the creek again and soon were at Teshekpuk Lake. We took a break and played out on the ice, took pictures and soaked in the beauty of the land. At the edge of the lake there were chunks of ice. The lake water was warm and there was mist rising from the ice. We explored the ice. At the confluence of the creek and lake, it was all sand and no vegetation. The camping did not look inviting. So, we decided we would try and go about a mile and a half to another creek to look for a good camping spot. When we got there it was horrible terrain, all uneven and hard, so we went all the way back to Kealok creek, paddle up the creek a short distance and camped up on the tundra. This was a long day and we didn’t end up eating dinner til 11 pm. Of course, it was still light. The continuous daylight gives us freedom. There is no need to finish dinner or set up tents before dark.

July 8: This morning there were light rain showers and tons of mosquitoes. We had guests, two people came from the University of Alaska of Fairbanks (not FWS), and they lived in the tents we saw. They were studying specifically the King Eider and its nesting spots. We chatted with them for a while about the birds of this area. The man, Stefan, asked us what we were doing here; he had not seen any “tourists” in his four years in the area. They told us that they would wait about three miles down the river and we would meet up with them there, so that they could show us the Eider’s nest. We ate breakfast and got started down the river, eager to see the King Eider’s nest. We got there and he took us up to the tops of a couple of sand dunes and spotted the King Eider’s nest and the female King Eider sitting on the nest. We took pictures and stared through binoculars at the wonderful spectacle of an Eider sitting peacefully upon its nest. Soon after I had to shed some clothes, because the sun was beating upon us and it was getting really hot out in the sand dunes. It looked as though we were out on the desert, which is the one unique topographical change from other trips, rather than having the Brooks Range surround us on either side, we have sand dunes that are around us. Then the wind picked up shortly after we got back on the river so we decided to call it a day and set up camp. We ate dinner, and then I went to bed. Mom and Dad took a hike to look for birds and flowers. There are small and large lakes everywhere.

July 7: When I first awoke, I thought it was raining. It sounded like water hitting the tent. I then realized the noise was not water hitting the tent, but mosquitoes hitting the tent. On no!!! We ate breakfast, but the mosquitoes were so fierce that I could barely eat my oatmeal without swallowing five or six of them.
After breakfast and five new mosquito bites, we decided to pack up our stuff and head out onto Kealok Creek. Unlike other trips, this creek did not offer any white water which I was very happy about. We had no problem fitting all of our gear into the canoes, which was a relief. I was surprised, the water in the creek was warm, or at least it was not freezing cold, like the rivers in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The water was warm and the bottom was sand. Actually, there were no rocks to be found. As we floated down the creek we spotted many different types of birds. We did have some challenge going down the creek because of all the channels; we were constantly trying to spot which channel would have the most amount of water so as to make our trip smoother down the creek. Later in the day we saw some tents way off in the distance, which we believe to be part of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Hopefully we will see them and be able to chat with them about Alaska and some of the interesting birds/wildlife that is unique to this specific area.

July 6: Last night was a chilly night; I was definitely all the way under/inside my sleeping bag. Since its light outside 24/7 it takes some time to get used to it. When I woke up this morning it was very windy which kept the mosquitoes away. As I peered out of my tent I looked out onto very flat tundra, but what most people don’t realize is the lush layer of wildflowers that covers endless miles of Alaska. It drizzled lightly throughout the morning as we ate breakfast. As I ate, my hands went completely numb making every simple task difficult. After breakfast, it was time to set up the folding boats. It took us about two hours to set up each boat, so there went the morning and part of the afternoon. While we worked on the 3 canoes, were watched Charles chase a ground squirrel in order to get a closer picture of it. This was quite hilarious. The ground squirrel would leave it’s burrow and travel long distances. It seemed oblivious to our presence. Upon it’s return, it would have a mouthful of dried grass and it would dash down into the burrow.