Brooks Range Trek rebooted

Mark Knapp

Mark Knapp

Joined
Dec 20, 2009
Messages
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I'm starting another extreme bushcrafting trek in the Brooks Range starting Saturday July 14. My last one was cut short due to threatening winter storms and the late spring in the arctic.

Like the last time, you can follow along, if you like, at my blog web site

https://www.markknappalaskaadventures.com/

I will be trying to simulate a real survival situation, living off the land, no tent, no sleeping bag, no cook gear. I'll have a complete gear list posted on my site. I'm doing this for many reasons. Of primary importance is to get/stay in better physical shape, test my gear, expand my knowledge, hone my skills and teach a little of what I know.

Also, I hope to help expand the known ranges of some of our fish species in Alaska. It's not known what fish inhabit most of the lakes in the arctic. It's my wish to help the Alaska Department fisheries fill in some of the gaps (I've done a little of that in the past). I may also be able to identify some archeological sites.

On my last trip I used a hardware store tarp and space blankets for my shelter. On this trip I'll be using BCUSA 10 x 10 tarp exclusively. It was graciously sent to me by our friend Jason for testing and evaluation on my trips. On my previous trip I had problems with the grommets pulling out of the hardware store tarp. It's easy to see that the BCUSA tarp is not going to have the same problem.

On this trip I'll be walking the Sagavanirktok (Sag) river from it's head to the pipeline haul road, a distance of 100 to 120 miles. It will take two to three weeks. The Sag was to be the final leg of my earlier trek.

Follow along if you like. I'll be making daily journal reports via IN-Reach along the way and have plenty of video to share when I get back.

Wish me luck, thanks Mark

 
Awesome! I wasn't very active during your last trip but I did read up on it after the fact. I'll be looking forward to seeing this one in real time this go around. Best of luck and I'll be rooting for you.
 
I am sad to report that my second attempt at a solo, living-off-the-land trek in the Brooks Range this year was also thwarted by severe weather.

After getting my take out vehicle staged at the right spot, while we were headed to my drop off point, 70 road miles higher in the mountains, the fog rolled in and filled the valley right down to the deck. It's not possible to navigate in the mountains with such bad visibility so we returned to our base camp to wait it out. Soon after the fog came in it started to rain, then changed to snow. A day and a half later the snow stopped and the fog rose.

When we returned to my drop off location at the 3000 foot elevation the mountains were blanketed with three inches of new snow and ice from freezing rain. My trek involved crossing the mountains through a pass at 6000 feet. Given what we had at 3000 feet I could only imagine what was waiting for me at six thousand. With possibly up to a foot of new snow and ice covering shale slides and boulder fields it would have been foolish to attempt it.

My support crew had obligations to attend to in Fairbanks like jobs and family to pick up at the airport so we didn't have time to wait for the snow to melt. Once again I had to call it off.

I was able to get some really good video of grizzly bears, musk ox, caribou and a red fox hunting mice as well as me catching my biggest lake trout ever on a fly. You can check these videos out as well as others of the weather conditions in the mountains on my blog if you like.

My time and budget have been stretched to their limits for this summer, so I'll have to wait to try again. Maybe one of these times I will catch a break.

Thanks for all the support, Mark
 
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