Brooks Range, Alaska — 2026
Five of us, a river, and plenty of stories. The caribou migration was late, but the grayling cooperated.
No caribou came home with us, but plenty of good stories did.
Kirk lent his tent to a friend’s son before the trip. On the first day in the field, Kirk couldn’t find his tent poles! That settled the sleeping arrangements—he bunked with me for the entire trip, since I had the largest tent.
Doug and Jesse were newbie rafters on the river. Doug learned quickly about keeping enough distance from the shoreline. He caught an oar against the bank, and we watched the oar lock pull out of its mount and bounce off the oar into the water! Fortunately, after wading back upriver, we retrieved it and got it repaired. The river kept us paying attention.
With the caribou migration running late, fishing became a bigger part of the trip than we expected. We caught lots of grayling. No complaints about that.
Wrong Way! Again! After a near-disastrous, unintended detour on a previous trip, I marked some cautionary waypoints to avoid that area. Trouble was, I did that afterward, relying on my best recollection. On this trip, I thought going straight instead of taking an extremely narrow left turn would keep us out of trouble. Less than a minute after passing that turn, I realized we were heading straight for the dangerous logjam. We quickly paddled to shore and dragged the rafts back upriver a couple hundred yards to take the sharp left turn. It was barely navigable, but it was the way we needed to go.
Near the end of the trip, Jesse, aka the youngster, climbed a tall mountain about two miles away to try for the lone bull we had located. We all offered to help pack it out if he got him, but we stayed back so we wouldn’t slow him down getting there. We all envied that youthful drive. We could see something of our younger selves in him.
P.S. Walking on tussocks feels like walking on a waterbed. You end up jumping from one grass tuft to the next. Even a short walk can take more out of you than you expect.
Brooks Range 2026 — Trip Highlights