The Atigan River flows right under the Dalton Highway, joins with the Sagavanirktok (the Sag), and flows back to the road. This class III/IV river was perfect for Bill (Ty’s Dad) to join us. We couldn’t have asked for better access to such a remote area on the North Slope of the Brooks Range. We saw some incredible wildlife, including an attack by arctic gulls defending their nesting area. Near the take-out we saw, agreeably the largest bull moose any of us had EVER seen. Most photos are being shot on slide, so you will have to wait for the quality images until we get down the road……just a little disclaimer for all the digi images you see on this blog.
The hitch-hike shuttle took us 6 hours to complete among the lifeless road-way of the Dalton Highway, but finally we got a ride. The run measured out to 30 miles on the map, so we packed our self-support gear for a 2-dayer (or nighter if you will).
We straggled our loaded boats down to the put-in at 8pm.
The scenery was unique to most rivers we’ve done. It could be compared to Iceland, or the Great Naryn Basin in Krgyzstan….for those of you world travelers out there.
We’ve arrived at camp at around 2:30 am, and slept until late in the day the next morning.
Cowboy Coffee never tasted so good. Thanks to MSR/Thermarest. We are finally able to test out some of the awesome gear they have sent along with us including the MuthaHubba tent, and XGK stove that we are running with Biodiesel. Therma-rest has these sweet Dream-Time pads that are coated w/ fleece and super cushy. The cool thing is that you can zip out a light-weight internal pad for expeditions like this!
The mosquitoes were the worst we’ve seen, but we handled it well.
