In Bettles, which seemed like so long ago, we heard the sound of rain on the metal roof of the airplane hangar, while we were inside our dry tents on the hangar’s concrete floor. On our first night in Kobuk Valley National Park, we heard what first sounded like rain on our tents, before we realized it was white sox doing their best to get inside. Now, we all had a first-hand reminder of what rain on our tents actually sounds like. Needless to say, it was one of the last sounds we wanted to hear, especially at this point in our trip.
The rain continued throughout the night and into the morning. Waking around 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 7th, we packed some of our gear before venturing out of our tent, being careful to keep everything inside the tent and vestibule as dry as possible. Sitting on our respective camp seats on the ground under the tarp, we welcomed a hot breakfast, coffee and tea, and commiserating with the rest of our group, all of whom remained remarkedly upbeat given the circumstances. The original plan was to fly back to Kotzebue mid-morning, where our Arctic adventure would end. Then Dave, Doug, and Brian would catch an early evening flight to Anchorage; while Matt, Isabel, Sara, John, and I would begin another Ala Alpine Adventures trip. A quick walk to the top of the dunes by Matt, along with a call to our pilot, confirmed that, at least for the time being, all of those plans were on hold; we would not be leaving the park.
It was mostly a lazy day that alternated between reading, napping, organizing and packing gear, removing sand from inside the tent, and making occasional forays out to the tarp for lunch, snacks, or a change of scenery.
It continued raining and then misting throughout the afternoon. The cloud cover was still low; we knew what that meant….
No one was more surprised than John and me, when shortly before 5:00 p.m., Matt announced that our pilot was going to try to pick us up around 5:30 p.m. With that, the great scramble began. Everyone sprang into purposeful action to finish stuffing gear into dry bags and day packs; collapsing and packing wet tents and tent flies; pulling up tent stakes from the wet, sandy ground; and then, struggling to climb back up the sand dune with loads that were cumbersome and too heavy. As we had correctly predicted when we set up our campsite three days ago down in the forest, lugging everything back to the top of the dune field was definitely challenging. What we had not imagined, was that this task would need to be accomplished in a matter of minutes!
As had always been the case with our group, everyone pitched in to help anyone needing an extra hand. Just after Matt and Brian made sure all traces of our group had been removed from our campsite, and the rest of us were literally catching our breath on top of the dunes, we saw our Golden Eagle Outfitters plane emerge from the clouds, fly ever closer, and land several hundred feet away. Knowing the weather window could close at any time, once again we scrambled to carry our personal and group gear across the sand to the plane.
That done, we hopped inside, took our seats, helped move remaining gear into the aisle, buckled up, and donned our headsets. Almost that quickly, we were off for our flight back to Kotzebue. It was 6:00 p.m.
It was surprising to see that the low-cloud cover that delayed our departure until late afternoon, was primarily over the dune field.
Within ten minutes or so after the plane took off, the cloud layer was significantly higher. While still flying fairly low, our pilot had an unobstructed view of the way ahead. Once again, no one slept on the approximately one-hour flight. Instead, we enjoyed seeing the rivers, creeks, wetlands, and ultimately, Kozebue, below.
We were still a bit giddy knowing that we were about to embark on the next phase of our adventure.
Following our arrival in Kotzebue, we bid a quick farewell to Doug, Dave, and Brian as they quickly retrieved their personal gear from the plane before they hurriedly made their way to the Alaska Airlines counter at the nearby airport terminal. With literally just minutes to spare, they caught their flight back to Anchorage. In the meantime, John, Isabel, Sara, Matt, and I walked toward the Golden Eagle Outfitters office, where we would meet up with a new guide and three new guests for our flight, yet that day, to Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. We could never have imaged at that point in time, what adventures lay in store for us over the next several days!