Alaska Traverse: Journal and Photos

[Buck Nelson]

This summer I did a north to south hike/paddle traverse of Alaska, about 1,500 miles total.

Needless to say I saw lots of wildlife and dramatic scenery.

I’ve been posting the story and photos of the experience. I hope you’ll <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>check it out!</span>

[Erik G]

WOW. Impressive doesn’t even come close. I’ve only read the first few days worth of reports, but dang…

You are a true adventurer, Buck! I genuinely enjoy reading about your escapades  :)

 

 

[Buck Nelson]

Thank you Erik!

[Kevin B]

I thoroughly enjoyed the many posts (on an older web platform) of your Desert Trail walk from years ago. Looking forward to reading about this one. I guess I’m due to buy some of your books. Thanks for sharing!

[Buck Nelson]

Glad to hear it Kevin!

[Kevin Babione]

I too got sucked in very quickly – it was just too easy to say “just one more day – his daily journals aren’t that long”.  The writing is great and the adventure is amazing.  Thanks – I’m looking forward to continuing following your journey.

(Another Kevin B)

[David Thomas]

Buck,

Thanks so much for writing up this trip.

“I stopped to slip plastic bags over my wool socks, then put my shoes back on.”

During the very little I’ve hiked in the Brooks Range, it was striking how instead of conductive and evaporative heat losses from having soaking-wet feet, the bigger issue was convective heat losses – the flow of very cold water through my shoes carried away a lot of heat.  During every damn stream crossing.  Wet shoes and socks, in comparison, eventually warmed up a bit.

So glad you got to see such a big caribou migration.  I’ve been on the North Slope various times including one time that I was never out of sight of caribou, but could see “only” a handful or scores at a time.

When you had to re-route the very beginning of the trip and didn’t have enough food (before meeting that other party), did you consider foraging for more calories?  Seems way too early for berries, leaving fish and maybe some roots.  For Manfred & Sons in the Brooks Range and when I’ve been in the Aleutians, going for Dollys, Grayling and Rainbows (or bigger stuff) seemed the highest caloric return for the effort.

[Katherine .]

wow. Keep the posts coming!

Enjoyed your writing in Alone in the Fortress of the Bears.

[Buck Nelson]

Thank you, Kevin Babione. Interesting there are two “Kevin Bs” on one thread. :)

[Pedestrian]

“Keep the posts coming!”

+1

“Enjoyed your writing in Alone in the Fortress of the Bears.”

Indeed!

And the accompanying posts at:

http://bucktrack.com/Alaska_Survival_Journal.html

Thanks much for sharing!

 

 

[Kevin B]

Buck, so what do you eat in a day/week of hiking on this trip?

[AK Granola]

Wonderful photos and narrative! Some day I hope to see ANWR, before the drilling begins. Guess I’d better go soon.

I especially like your surprise, even as an experienced Alaska hiker, when you note how challenging the terrain can be. Until someone has hiked in tussocks, or spent time trying to pick a route across a glacial river while gasping at the cold, they often overestimate how many miles they can go in a day. 20 miles in a day is some darned good hiking!

i also really appreciated your description of the caribou being curious around your tent. I have had that same curiosity from caribou while camping in Denali. It is a bit freaky how close they will get, but I’ve never heard of anyone being stomped by one!

Looking forward to reading more.

[Buck Nelson]

Hi David,

Yup, icy water running over feet will cool them off fast! “Hiking wet” was still the way to go for me though. The plastic bag trick helps dramatically.

One thing I learned on my “Fortress of the Bears” trip is that living off the land takes a lot of work and hours and it’s a challenge to get and stay “ahead of the curve” at first. A big issue is legality. I couldn’t shoot a big game animal every day like Lewis and Clark would have done.

As you suggested fish would have been the best option to supplement food, but I didn’t carry fishing gear on the first section of the trip. And it was too early for berries.
Later in the trip though, I did supplement my diet with fish and towards the end of the trip ate a lot of blueberries and a few lingering salmon berries. That was a treat!

Buck

[Buck Nelson]

I’m happy to hear it Katherine! Glad to hear you liked Alone in the Fortress of the Bears as well. Buck

[David Thomas]

I completely agree that foraging can be a huge time suck.  Remote Alaskan streams where you actually get a fish on the first cast are one exception.  Even then, cooking fish (in bear country!) takes more time and bother than reconstituting a FD dinner.

And berries in the fall.  We need a trekking pole adaptor to a berry picking scoop.  The commercial ones, labor-saving though they are, are bulky and heavier than needed.  A much smaller volume berry picker could let you drag it through the bushes a few times, dump them into your hands, all without bending over or slowing your pace.

[Buck Nelson]

Pedestrian, glad you’ve enjoyed this journal and my other stuff too. I appreciate the support.

Karen, yeah, those tussocks are tough going, aren’t they? Still, thick hillside alders mixed with devil’s club are even worse! I was glad to have pulled off those 20 mile days. Overall, though, it was some pretty good walking by Alaska standards.

Kevin B, on the hiking section I figured I had 27 oz of food per day, for a total of about 3,300 calories a day. That wouldn’t have been enough daily calories for all summer, but it was enough to get me to my first cache.

My food consisted primarily of the following:
Peanut Butter
Coffee/Nido/Boost Mixture for breakfast
Nature Valley Granola Bars
Macadamia Nuts
Dried Salmon
Peanut M&Ms
Corn Chips
Dried Cherries
Just Veggies
Redwick Freeze Dried Cheddar Cheese
Idahoan Instant Potatoes and Ghee
I went stoveless and did what cooking I did over tiny willow fires. I chose instant potatoes for the dinners where I didn’t want to start a fire.

[Ike Jutkowitz]

Buck,

I’ve been following your adventures for the last 10 years, and this one has me once again riveted. Thank you for sharing it here.

Ike

[Buck Nelson]

Hi Ike,

I’m glad you’re enjoying it!

As you’ve been seeing I’m adding about one new post a week.

Here’s the latest post:

[AK Granola]

How did you secure the Ursack without real trees? Also wondering how you secured the bear barrels in the kayak? Would be awful to watch them floating downstream. Or sinking.

[Buck Nelson]

Hi Karen,  where there were no trees my Ursack wasn’t secured. Apparently it’s been tested: “The results, so far, are that bears are leaving Ursacks very close to where they found them.”

My bear canisters were secured by the 20mm ammo can tied down over them.

[Nathan V]

Thanks for sharing, Buck. It looks like this will be another great read. You certainly have a talent for pulling off epic trips and then writing about them for others to enjoy.

[jscott]

Buck, thanks for these exciting and beautiful posts. Keep ’em coming! Great for keeping spirits up.

[Author]

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