Down the Koyukuk with Jackie and Karen (Report 11)

Jackie, postmistress from Coldfoot Camp, Karen, my supervisor, and I borrowed a raft from Coyote Air and put in at Coldfoot for a three day float down to Bettles, a town on the Koyukuk River.  Bettles is only accessible by air, by river or in the winter by ice road.  The week before we left, it rained.  On our return ten minutes before our plane landed back at Coldfoot, it started to rain.  In between when we were on the river, the weather was perfect, not too hot nor too cold.  The river was low but it still moved along at a good clip.  Before the Middle Fork  joined the North Fork at the Gates of the Arctic National Park, we only had a few gravel bars to drag over or phalarope*   We were so blessed!

In one smooth section we drifted and watched a Pacific loon.  We passed one of the tors where Mardie Murie poised in 1924 on her dog sled ride up to Wiseman.  Shortly afterward, we met two second-season grizzly bear cubs. We stopped on the other side of the river to give them room. When we made ourselves known with our “hey, bears” routine, they huffed at us.  Their mom huffed back from the dense willows and then immediately responded to their pleas by rushing down to the beach, too.  I was relieved when they left because I didn’t want any close encounters involving either bear spray or Jackie’s 44 revolver.  

Despite the way the river threw us on the cutbanks into a tremendous number of sweeps which had fallen into the river during the unusually late breakup, the float was mostly relaxing, involving little hard core paddling and almost no wind.  Because the river was down from a dry summer, we worried about getting to Bettles in time on the fourth day to catch our 3:00 pm chartered ‘tweener’ flight home.  Fortunately, the river still moved us along between 3 and 5 mph as gauged by the GPS.  

By the 2^nd night we were at the confluence with the North Fork.  We did the usual check for grizzly bear tracks and scat.  We found only old tracks so pitched our tents and were starting on supper when a young grizzly came curiously out of the bushes across the river.  She tested the water as if trying to decide to cross and casually walked toward us along the river bank.  Obviously she was interested in who and what we might be and didn’t seem to think our shouts of “hey, bear, time to go away” were worth her notice.  Jackie and I were uncomfortable and I knew I wouldn’t sleep well with her snuffling around trying to figure us out so we decamped in five minutes and went along down the river in the beauty of the waning light.  After another two river miles we found a satisfactory sandbar with only old bear sign.  In the morning there we found recent wolf tracks.

To our surprise we made Bettles by supper time on Day Three.  Our choice in the restaurant was lasagna and salad or nothing.  I made the right choice as it was good home cooking.   For dessert I had a warm shower.  We stayed in the bunkhouse, i.e., the ubiquitous double-wide trailer, and hung out in the lodge watching planes land.  Two other guests flew in: a Japanese couple who had been stuck in the Brooks Range at Itkillik Lake for four days waiting for weather good enough for a float plane to find them.  It would have been a loooong walk out for them in the snow if the plane hadn’t been able to fly in.  

In the morning we visited the dog sled yard, the Gates of the Arctic National Park/ Kanuti Refuge Visitors Center and admired the few homes in Evansville.  Steve from NATC arrived on time in his Navaho to fly us out.  We loaded and jumped in quickly since we were paying by the hour for just the three of us.  I was amazed at the many hidey holes in the plane for stuffing in gear. The flight home following the river was uneventful and oh, so quick in comparison to the float.  We saw another grizzly on the banks.  When I was biking home the next day I saw a black bear on the road.  To carry bear spray everywhere I go has been a comfort for me.

*Phalarope are hyperactive water birds who circle manically to stir up snack plankton from bottom of shallow ponds.  A way to get off of sandbars without wading is to let the water swirl the unstuck end around and free you.