Expeditions: Adventure Grants: August 5 Journal

Expedition Journal--August 5

Alex Perry
I was allowed to be sweep boat in the klepper once again for our 17-mile float today. We had originally planned to camp above a swampy area on the map and make a long trek through it tomorrow, but before we knew it, we were seven miles into the swamp. We decided to camp on a beautiful gravel bar in the so-called "swamp," and we are so pleased that we are going to lay over here again tomorrow. I went with John and Cleve for a short hike, which turned into a massive blueberry hunt. Now that we are here the river has slowed down due to lesser gradient, but the size of the river and the fact that it has converged mostly into a single unbraided channel keep it a steady and fast-moving current. Today was once again sunny and beautiful, with only a short drizzle.

Rachel Flood
It is now far enough into the river portion of our expedition for me to say that I am comfortable with the canoe. I've paddled in the bow every day so far but I think I could probably handle the stern.

We planned to canoe for 10 miles today and camp before a flat area that showed up as a marsh on the map but we were making such good time that we just kept going. When we stopped to look at the map, I was surprised to see how far we'd come. We are camped 17 miles downriver of Squaw Rapids at the bottom end of the marsh. We have three days left and only 35 miles to travel back to Bettles so we're going to have a layover day tomorrow.

Vanessa Bacher
Today we traveled about 18 miles and found a camp space in a swamp area, which is not at all what I expected a swamp to look like. It basically resembles many of the gravel bars we have camped on previously. The weather was even nicer today than it was yesterday and in fact, it's about 11 p.m. right now and the sun is shining right in my eyes. I am finally getting used to the sun and we have to leave in a few days.

It bothers me to think about leaving this place because I am fairly used to being disconnected from society and I really enjoy it. The six of us have been like a family these past couple of weeks, having to deal with everybody's mood swings, bad habits, body odor, and many more wonderful things that will stick in my mind forever. All six of us are completely different from one another but yet we seem to do okay out here together, doing everything together. We do things here that we would never imagine doing at home. The guys have farting contests and perform surgery on mosquitoes or they just plain murder the bugs. The girls try to locate all our foul and mysterious odors and compare the length of our armpit hair. Some of us spend most of our energy doing wild and crazy things to make the rest of us laugh. We play pranks on each other and then pick sides with each other and have constant battles. The strange thing about it is that I love every minute of it. I feel like I am living in a world where everything is carefree. We have seen each other at our worst and in many we have had the chance to get to know each other for who we really are.

This trip has really made me learn about people and how they interact in groups. I have not only learned about people but about all the wildlife here in Alaska. We followed many game trails while backpacking and identified hundreds of different animal tracks. Right now the wolves are out howling and I can hear other animals calling out but I can't identify them.