Day 5: July 9th
We have the best weather today with a cooler, slight breeze, and a few mosquitoes for the third day of paddling.
Charles and I paddle out first and see a long-tailed duck.
At one point the group stops for some bird watching and to look at the landscape. I find grizzly tracks nest to caribou tracks in the sand.
Our next stop of the day is for lunch. Richard decides to fish and his first cast catches a 16 inch grayling. Alena catches two more on two more casts. One more cast and I have the fourth fish for lunch. You definitely will not go hungry in the summer in Alaska, but I know from reading that the Inuit have difficult hungry winters depending on the migrating caribou. We continually see tracks but so far no caribou. Steffen said they are farther north due to the high temperature and the plague of mosquitoes. Not surprisingly many grizzlies follow the herds north.
The horizon seems to be lowering with every turn of the creek. We finally break free of land and the Kealok and arrive at Teshekpuk Lake where we see ice. Due to a north wind, the remaining ice has pushed to the south shore. We wade out into the icy water. The larger pieces are formed by crystal clear blades clumped together. Alena is agile enough to scramble up and walk on a floating ice block. Pictures taken and feet chilled, we walk back to the shore.
On our way to Wyoming Creek to camp, we see several sandhill cranes. They fly off ahead of us. After a mile of paddling east, we realize that it is impossible to get the canoes close to shore, and that it would be too hard to wade all our supplies in, so it’s back to Kealok Creek.
We have the best weather today with a cooler, slight breeze, and a few mosquitoes for the third day of paddling.
Charles and I paddle out first and see a long-tailed duck.
At one point the group stops for some bird watching and to look at the landscape. I find grizzly tracks nest to caribou tracks in the sand.
Our next stop of the day is for lunch. Richard decides to fish and his first cast catches a 16 inch grayling. Alena catches two more on two more casts. One more cast and I have the fourth fish for lunch. You definitely will not go hungry in the summer in Alaska, but I know from reading that the Inuit have difficult hungry winters depending on the migrating caribou. We continually see tracks but so far no caribou. Steffen said they are farther north due to the high temperature and the plague of mosquitoes. Not surprisingly many grizzlies follow the herds north.
The horizon seems to be lowering with every turn of the creek. We finally break free of land and the Kealok and arrive at Teshekpuk Lake where we see ice. Due to a north wind, the remaining ice has pushed to the south shore. We wade out into the icy water. The larger pieces are formed by crystal clear blades clumped together. Alena is agile enough to scramble up and walk on a floating ice block. Pictures taken and feet chilled, we walk back to the shore.
On our way to Wyoming Creek to camp, we see several sandhill cranes. They fly off ahead of us. After a mile of paddling east, we realize that it is impossible to get the canoes close to shore, and that it would be too hard to wade all our supplies in, so it’s back to Kealok Creek.
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