The Alaska Trip

Here are some pictures from a trip I took summer 1999 with my friend Kurt. We went up to the Brooks range for an 8 day hiking trip in the northern part of Alaska. We got flown into a lake near the Alatna river, and hiked up along the Alatna creek into the Arrigetch peaks. It's beautiful up there; see by the pictures? We didn't see any bear, but did see some Caribou. Our guide Dave Hamilton figured the size of our group (5) was generating enough noise to warn the bear and so they were staying clear of us. One of the highlights for me was flying in a DeHavilland Beaver, an awesome plane that is still considered one of the top ten feats of Canadian engineering. They were first flown in 1947 and there were only 1,657 built. They don't make them anymore--I guess they were losing money; they were too labor intensive, too well built! That's why so many of them are still in service.