Western Arctic National Parklands Residency Day 5: Wilderness
Jessica L. Bryant
We woke up for the morning check in at 9am. After packing gear for the day we sat by the lake for a while, eating breakfast of eggs and apple, enjoying the view, watching the pair of arctic loons here, and osprey. We hiked south across the tundra toward the other lake on our map, which turned out to be the smaller of two lakes that way. It was surrounded by brush and some trees. We hiked down in and along the shoreline where we saw strange plants, prints from grizzlies, moose, and fox. This is the direction yesterday morning's bear was headed so we weren't surprised to see lots of bear sign. There are many snails in all of the lakes here and we looked at lots of shells along the receded shoreline. I heard a frog too, but couldn't locate him for a photograph. Wish I had, these wood frogs are amazing, surviving winter by producing a natural antifreeze-like substance that keeps the insides of their cells from freezing. The water between cells freezes as they hibernate, spending eight months of the year or so frozen, with no heartbeat. We climbed up and out of the lake and continued on to what we saw was another lake. It was much bigger. We lunched in the shade of a tree above the lake: more cheese and crackers, then hiked along to upper bank, planing to go around the lake and back to camp from the other side. As we hiked along, there was a loon floating and calling, making the variety of goofy sounds loons can make. Then suddenly he let out a loud "yip!" before quickly diving. It sounded and looked like he was grabbed from below, maybe eaten by a lake monster. We had a good laugh.
Instead of hiking around the lake we hit a spot at the southwest edge where the turn of a creek (the one from the northern Rainbow Lake) runs tangent to this lake, passing in and right back out with a small island to define the edge between lake and creek. We went down to the bank and found lots of moose sign and trails. We got back up and out and headed back toward camp, pausing again at our lunch spot for a break in the shade. On the way back we went down into the lake bed instead of around, taking a short cut. Such incredible views from down there, the sky and light with the mountains, color of the green grasses, and flowering cotton grass was amazing.
On our slow hike back to camp across the tundra, Tyler spotted a bear along the water edge on the south east side of our lake. That makes five grizzlies we've seen so far. It disappeared into the brush. We headed back into the woods near camp to burn more of the wood from that camp, spending about three hours. We were exhausted from a very long day of tundra travel, which equaled maybe 4-5 miles as the crow flies. Dinner was noodles and red sauce with mushrooms and canned peaches for dessert. I dipped into the lake for a sponge bath that felt amazing. We read and wrote for a while, enjoying the view, and pausing to make note of the many planes that flew nearby, up the Kelly River. We had been asked to keep track of planes with numbers or descriptions. Part of our backcountry duties.
Another late bedtime with the sun still up in the sky. As I periodically wake in the night, I've noticed that the darkest time seems to be around 4am, and it's still not what I would call dark.
Out tents, looking south.
A couple of Osprey we saw while eating breakfast.
Our pair of Arctic Loons.
Ranger Tyler, geared up and ready to hike!
Looking behind us, north, at our tents, the lake, and mountains beyond.
Panorama of the view north.
Looking south at our first destination.
Looking east from down in the lake bed.
The water level was low, exposing mud, plants, and animal sign.
Looking east.
Looking south.
Panorama looking south.
Love these little plants, like miniature trees.
The little plants in context.
Animal tracks! Bear and fox.
Unidentified plants. Working on identifying...
More bear tracks.
Perfect grizzly tracks, one front foot and one rear.
Tyler walking along the tracks for context.
Closeup of the little plants.
Still more tracks: bird of some kind.
A bit of salmon, likely leftover from a bear's meal.
Found some flowering plants.
Bear scat, plenty of berry consumption going on here.
One of the snails we found so many of.
From across the lake this looked like something much more fascinating, a beaver den or something. Still interesting though.
A last view back at this lake on our way to lunch and the next lake.
The south end of the next, and bigger, lake.
Looking across.
Looking east across this lake.
The lake and small island at the tangent point of the creek and lake.
Closeup of the island.
The island from the bank of the north side of the creek.
Looking towards the lake from the creek.
Looking back down on the area.
Panorama of the area.
Looking west as we hiked north out of the creek bank.
Looking north toward the other lake and our lake.
Carribou antler, one of many we've found.
West across the big lake.
Closeup.
The northern shoreline.
A drainage stream into the north end of this bigger lake where we took a shortcut across to get back to camp.
View from the northern shore.
Looking south from the norther shore.
looking south and west from the northeast shore.
The northwest shore of this big lake.
The west shore.
A view of the lake where you can see under the water.
Hiking north across the tundra toward camp.
Panorama of tundra.
A view of our tents from the east side of the smaller lake.
View across the smaller lake.
The smaller lake.
Last view of the smaller lake.
A view of the mountains across Lower Rainbow Lakes from near where we had our fire.
And another view.
Another still night by the lake.
Looking south along Lower Rainbow Lake.
Watching the golden light engulf the landscape. It lasts from evening until midnight.
More great light.
Lake of glass.
I was photographing compulsively at this point. Just couldn't stop.
Love the rich colors the grasses pick up through the evening.
A duck, likely Northern Shoveler, with reflections of the opposite shore.
