It is impossible to capture the grandeur of the Brooks Range mountains in photos. At best they can only provide a template for the imagination or memory.
The sky was often as magnificent as the landscape.
With a last look at the peaks surrounding Gilbeau Pass we began our descent.
Dall's sheep (Photo credit: George Michaels)
I haven't mentioned wildlife yet. We saw small groups of caribou, small and larger groups of Dall's sheep, two grizzlies, golden eagles and lots of meadow voles and arctic ground squirrels -- more about them later. My camera was not up to good wildlife photos (with one exception to be included in the next post). George's photo of the Dall's sheep (above) was taken very near the top of Gilbeau Pass.
One of our most pleasant campsites (read soft, dry tundra) turned out to be what we later dubbed Vole City. There were hundreds if not thousands of resident meadow voles and their little holes were reminiscent of Hobbit communities. They were not happy that many of their routes were blocked by huge alien tents. Talk about "no impact" camping... We left hoping they would recover as we did no permanent damage to the site.
A not very clear photo of one of the voles
The campsite in descending clouds and mist
The rainbow appeared at a "rest break" -- another of our many weather phenomena
The kitchen tent was always the first to go up. As there is no way to guard food from bears in this type of terrain ("bear barrels" are very heavy and are only left at airstrips), all food was deposited at night in the kitchen tent. We ate most of our meals inside the tent as it was usually quite cold in the early morning and evening.
The view from my tent at one of our campsites
My tent the next morning!
Bear tracks alongside a walking-stick to provide perspective
An "aufeis" in the river drainage
Aufeis is German for "ice on top". It is a sheet-like mass of layered ice that forms from successive flows of ground water during freezing temperatures (Wikipedia). This one is an accumulation from last winter.
The figure in the midst of the aufeis gives some idea of its size.
Cynthia, Ivor and Theo waiting beside the "bear barrels" for our flight to the Spring Creek airstrip.
Jeff (the photographer) and George (who I came to regard as my guardian angel) on the flight to Spring Creek
From the flight between Collins and Spring Creek airstrips -- another aufeis
A view of the mountains from the plane -- the colors of the vegetation are becoming richer and deeper
We needed two separate flights for all 7 of us to get from Collins to Spring Creek. Here Dirk is landing with the second group.
Spring Creek -- where we began the ascent to Carter Pass
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