Brooks Range, 10 days, June 2015

[Tyler H]

Hi BPL,

I thought I would put my gearlist for my trip in the Brooks Range out there for any thoughts from the community. This is a heavier load due mainly to bears and remoteness, so feedback on safely cutting weight is welcomed. Or, adding weight through essential items I may have forgotten.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HmIYxk6ePcepCptLz7pxN7ucu2m6WmUq3xjjgpHrsz4/edit?usp=sharing

The planned trip will be 10 days of hiking in the Gate of Arctic NP / Brooks Range late June. Climate almanacs suggest lows in the mid 40s and highs in the upper 60s F. I will be traveling with at least one buddy. Some points of potential gear debate:

Pack: GoLite Jam. I love this pack but I think this will be pushing the limits of it load carrying capacity at max pack weight of ~35 lbs. Any thoughts welcomed. Don't tell me to buy a Cuben fiber/Dyneema rucksack unless you want to buy it for me.

Shelter: With two people, and because I expect a bug-free zone will be valuable this time of year, I've opted to take the MSR fling, the lightest 2-man tent I have. Split between 2 people its 28 oz each which is pretty decent for total rain and bug protection.

Cooking: Again, group cooking. Planning to bring the Kovea Spider and a MSR Titan, pretty good weight value at 20 oz total, including windscreen and empty 450g fuel canister.

Bear Gear: The base weight isn't very low for this trip in part because of the bear gear, including spray and canister for each person. We have a BV500 and will borrow another one form the visitor center, which will probably be heavier. Any thoughts about this based on personal experience in the area would be helpful.

Safety: We'll take a DeLorme in inReach which can be used in panic mode or to communicate a non-emergency evac.

Thanks!

[David Thomas]

+1 on the InReach. Having helped folks in the Brooks Range based on their inReach messages, I'd carry one if going for more than a few nights.

-1 on spray and bear canisters. Neither of them is wrong, per se, and if you're only hiking 3 hours a day, take whatever you want. But if you're trying to do some miles (and in the BR that means 10-15 miles per day) you're going to have to watch your weight. Mostly you'll hike high to avoid willows, larger stream crossings, and bugs. That leaves the bears behind as well. Better, IMO, to practice clean camping, cook your food on the trail and make a few more miles before camping. Spray is better than a gun in every way, but you still need the timing and wind in your favor. Making noise weighs nothing. And you're not solo, so yak it up when you have poor sight lines.

[Bob Gross]

I assume each person is carrying one bear canister equivalent to a BV500. How in the hell are you going to get nine or ten days worth of food into one?

–B.G.–

[Brad Rogers]

I am very interested in this too as I am spending 12 days in Gates of The arctic in late August. I carry frameless packs a lot but this isn't a trip for a frameless pack IMO. I would watch gear swap for a HMG Porter or Exped Lightning if you can swing it.

[Buck Nelson]

Depending on where you land, you should be able to hang your food nearby. There are some fairly big trees around Circle Lake and the Alatna River. Just do a good job hanging your food, between two trees, nice and high and away from the trunks. After you leave the big trees you could leave a cache hanging for the last night or two as well, or even to return to for a resupply. That will really extend your food supply and lighten your pack. For much of the hike you'll need to rely on your canisters of course. If the BV500 works with your Jam, I'd stick with that combo.

Bears are the #1 danger people worry about in Alaska it seems, but they are way, way down on the list of what actually kills people in the backcountry. Out of all the millions of people-days spent in grizzly country, no one has been killed by a grizzly in Alaska for almost three years. Falls, drowning, plane crashes, avalanches and hypothermia is what gets people.

It looks like you have a gallon of water storage? If so I'd drop one of those liters.

I like to wear a bandana "Foreign Legion" style from the back of my cap and around the sides of my face. Helps a bunch for bugs. Combined with DEET when needed it works great for me. What are you wearing for shirt when you're hiking? I like a long sleeve nylon shirt that will keep the skeets off. If you don't have one I'd drop the capilene t-shirt for the long-sleeve and use a headnet rather than a bug shirt.

Looks to me you know what you're doing and are making good choices.

[Tyler H]

Thanks guys for the comments.

Bob, you assumed correctly that we'll each take a canister in order to actually fit 10 days of food.

David, I appreciate your thoughts on the bear issue. I agree with Buck that bear danger is generally over rated. I also agree with the comments about practicing good camp hygiene and bear country etiquette to avoid the problem altogether.

The issue is that although the risk of bear trouble is low, the danger associated with a potential encounter is high. That is, it would be a really big bummer to lose your food out there. You are right on with the mileage, we have a flexible route but are aiming for 10-15/day. Perhaps we could just take 1 of each and that way we wouldn't be stranded without food, and the slowest guy can hold the spray :)

Bradford, I basically came to same conclusion as you pack-wise. Your thoughts on a gear swap HMG, Cilo, or the like would be ideal but if not I'm still undecided. But other pack would be the real bear, a Gregory Palisades. I think I could pack for about a month in that thing.

I definitely need to swap out the short sleeve calipene for a light long sleeve, suggestions welcomed. I'll probably find cheap collared shirt at the thrift store.

If anybody is interested in the route: http://caltopo.com/m/1L4C . Basically, driving from Fairbanks to Galbraith Lake. Heading west to the Nanushuk River and walking up that drainage, eventually crossing over to the Oolah Valley and heading back down that way, potentially hopping up and into another drainage.

[Brad Rogers]

How are you planning on crossing the itkillik river? It looks to big to wade on the areal imagery.

I would think a HMG porter, Cilogear work sac, Exped Lighting 60, or even a ULA catalyst would be good packs for the trip.

I hope you have a great time. I would love to hear your gear thoughts after your trip so I can incorporate any lessons learned into my gear list.

[Tyler H]

Bradford, that's a good point about the Itkillik there. The river seems very braided there, and I think we will be able to move upstream or downstream and find a point where we can pick our way across the gravel bars. Difficult to tell from the topos and imagery and impossible to know for sure until we're there, but a good thing to be aware of.

I will likely post a trip report and will let you know when I do. Do you have any major differences in your kit so far?

All this talk of pack weight makes, and following Buck's suggestions, has got me thinking a resupply could be really good. It would be pretty easy to rethink this route and cross the highway at some point where we could have a cache.

[Luke Schmidt]

"Difficult to tell from the topos and imagery and impossible to know for sure until we're there, but a good thing to be aware of."

When I looked at river trips in Alaska and Canada I often found poor satellite images on Google Earth. A tip from a friend was to check satellite imagery from all the different mapping programs (google, bing, yahoo.com etc.) in at least some cases they are using different imagery so one might be clearer then another.

[Buck Nelson]

You shouldn't have trouble crossing any rivers as long as you are patient and smart and plan ahead. It might mean walking upstream many miles, or spending hours looking for good, braided places to cross, but there's no need to take risks crossing rivers. People have drowned crossing the Sag. One guy drowned in the Atigun not long ago. Keep in mind that the Atigun Gorge is a gorge!

http://www.thearcticsounder.com/article/1231hiker_dies_after_fall_in_north_slopes_atigun

[Brad Rogers]

Tyler – No major differences other than the pack. I have used frameless for a week in the Winds and a week in the Sierra, but at 26 pounds that was all I wanted without a real frame. For Brooks Range my base weight is about the same as yours. I have a lighter rain shell, but Alaska might be one of the few places that a bomber shell might be worth that weight. You are also carrying a lot of fuel but I only boil dinners and don't do coffee or a hot breakfast so that might be the difference.

I will be a little further west, over in the Alatna River drainage and a trip to Arrigetch Peaks. I have never been to Alaska before, nor done a trip more than 9 days.

[Bob Gross]

Typically how deep are these river crossings?

–B.G.–

[Buck Nelson]

Bob, river crossings can be anywhere from ankle deep to swimming deep. Needless to say, just like in the Sierra, people tend to get themselves in trouble with water that is a combination of too deep and too fast and too cold. I crossed the headwaters of the Itkillik where it was a little stream that just got my feet wet. When I crossed the Dietrich River in that area it was marginal, thigh deep and fast, but it had been unusually rainy. Under normal conditions that crossing would have been easy as well and if I had crossed close enough to the Divide it would have been inconsequential, even at that time.

There's no reason that river crossings on that whole route he's planning can't be done safely if he chooses when and where and how he crosses.

[Bob Gross]

" from ankle deep to swimming deep. "

That sounds like it could be _refreshing_.

–B.G.–

[David Thomas]

>"Perhaps we could just take 1 of each and that way we wouldn't be stranded without food"

Yes and no. It would be unpleasant, but drinking water for 10 days and dropping 10 pounds of body weight, you'd make it out. I suspect you'd develop a keen eye for berries. In California, before I developed the balls to chase off black bears and the hanging skills to avoid the problem, my experience was that bears don't get ALL your food, although you do have to wipe a lot of bear saliva off anything they don't consume.

If you put your smelliest stuff in one canister and placed it well away from your camp, would that be a comfortable middle ground? Less attractive nuisance odors from your dry goods stash and some food that should presumably survive a concerted bear's efforts.

Speaking of having balls (ovaries?), here's BPL's Erin in far Western Alaska (she, Hig and the two kids are currently 500 miles north of there hiking/skiing hundreds of miles along the very snowy, very windy coast) doing everything right in a grizzly encounter:

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