Void of trails and days from civilization, our 150-mile route promised the kind of adventure and beauty our crew of experienced outdoors people craved. With this winter marking the 50th anniversary of the refuge’s designation, we wanted to better understand this place famous for its scenery, wildlife, native heritage, and oil reserves.
A 45-minute flight dropped us on a landing strip a mile south of Last Lake. Ringed by towering gray peaks and ancient moraines overgrown with blueberry bushes, Last Lake was an appropriate place to begin the trip. It served as a base for the 1956 Sheenjek Expedition (named for the 200-mile-long river), which provided much of the scientific evidence used in the designation of ANWR in 1960.
While my husband, Andy, and I searched the lake’s shore for remnants of the historical expedition, friends Heather and Moe climbed the pyramidal peak behind camp and spotted five Northern hawk owls. The stress of days of travel and logistics to reach this place was falling away.
Much of the attraction of our route was its diversity of ecosystems and our first few days hiking up the Sheenjek were no exception. Within half a day we had gained enough latitude to leave tree line and forests of black spruce behind.
Whenever possible we would walk on exposed sections of the Sheenjek’s cobbled riverbed. When the river forced us back on shore, we slopped our way through muskegs (a kind of bog or swamp) pocked with tussocks, grassy mounds the size and shape of a human head and difficult to stand on. When we tired of this, we moved onto dry, higher ground carpeted with tundra.
From a distance the tundra can appear boring. But like much of the Arctic, its complexity is deceiving. It takes patience and close examination to appreciate the sophistication of its intricate patchwork of plants and lichens.
