rugged wilderness is good for my soul.

i just got back from a week-long trip up north to go backpacking in the Brooks Range! jason had a week off from work at Toolik, so i jumped on a bus up there and joined him on a six-day trip into the mountains. into the incredibly rugged, rocky, beautiful and high mountains.

here we are, setting off into the trevor creek valley
this is actually on our last night, Jason cooking dinner up on a ridiculously small saddle that camped on. when i reached the top of it that evening i looked around, slightly incredulously, somewhat wondering where exactly we were going to camp & eat. but indeed it was beautiful. as usual jason had pegged it right on and we were not only okay, but in a fabulous spot.
one of many stream crossings. here i am, with the water just about coming over the top of my gaitors. i did pretty well, but here and in a few other spots i got a bit of overflow into my (phatty new waterproof) boots.

jason on our first night out.
look close and see me. feeling queasy, but keeping on. personal comfort was definitely pushed on this trip...
the scree slope we went down after lunch one day. it looked like it was pretty short, but indeed it was at least a mile long to get to the bottom....




this was the ridge that we camped on for our last night. please note the sloping off on either side...
a porcupine in the roche montenee (spelling?) valley!
the mosquitoes weren't bad at all, however our last stop of the trip proved to have a small swarm in the vicinity that found us pretty quickly...
a view from our last stop, where we ate the rest of our food. from here you can see the adigun river, the haul road, and the pipeline. we hauled ass from here out, and were at the road in ~45 minutes. my voice was nearly hoarse from yelling 'hey bear!' through the willow thickets near the end.

this trip was incredible, and many many many thanks go out to jason for such an awsome opportunity, incredible patience, and a neverending sense of humor and snarkiness that i deeply appreciate.
at some point i'll post up the rest of the pictures on my flickr site (the link is over on the right)