Brooks Range Backpacking and Wulik River Packrafting

The Brooks Range is Full of Magic 

Something really special about summer in Alaska is the short but magical window when we can access some of the most wild, remote places. One of the most special? The Brooks Range. Located within the Arctic Circle, I can’t help but keep coming back to these mountains.

This trip consisted of myself, Luc, and our good friend Will. The three of us hiked and packrafted our way around the Delong Mountains, surrounded by wildlife, sweeping vistas, and endless sunlight

How We Planned Our Brooks Range Trip

Planning to spend time in this extra-wild area takes a lot of effort. The Brooks Range does not have any roads or developed trails. A successful trip in this wild place requires hiring a bush plan to take you to a remote landing strip and doing lots of research to find good routes nearby.

Lining up the timing also feels like threading a needle. We try to go late enough so that the snow has had time to melt away for easier walking, but early enough that all the mosquitos haven’t hatched yet. (The consequences of mis-timing this window can be simply awful, as we experienced in Denali last summer.)

We nailed down our timing to the second half of June and sketched out a trip itinerary with plenty of flexibility. I had a rough spring with big work stressors followed by a prolonged illness, and I wasn’t sure how much physical exertion I would be able to handle. To solve this, we mapped out several routes we could do based on how we were feeling. We did the same thing two years ago in the Baird Mountains and loved the flexibility that a basecamp-style trip created. Basecamp trips also allow us to leave a cache of gear and supplies behind and travel much lighter. We also save money by not having to pay for food drops.

Our first day, we flew into an airstrip, where we set up our basecamp and cached things for later in our trip. If you were to draw our trip with our basecamp at the center, our routes would be sort of like a mis-shapen clover. We made three “leaves” by taking loops to different areas–two multi-day trips and one short day hike. Then, we formed the clover’s “stem” with our float out the Wulik River on our packrafts.

The North Loop

When we first arrived at the airstrip, we scouted a few of the routes we had in mind. There was a mountain loop using caribou trails we were really excited about, but we were disappointed to find it was still covered in lots of snow. As a backup plan, we walked up the mountain behind camp and came across some incredible fossils. Luc & Will are both geologists and it was really neat to hear them explain what we were seeing and what it meant about the mountains we were in. 

From the top of the day hike we got great views of a northland loop. That one was clear, so we set off!

We were out on this backpacking loop for about a week. Even though it was June, it felt like winter hadn’t quite loosened its grip. We wore as many layers as possible and were building up heat from movement, and still just could barely keep the chill out. The silver lining was that the refrigerator-like temperatures kept our food so fresh! Instead of our cheese turning soft and melty like it usually does on summer trips, it was perfect and extra tasty.

Besides the delicious cheese, this first loop was filled with many awe-inspiring nature moments. We spotted wildlife everywhere! We saw a small herd of maybe ten muskox several times, including some adorable little babies. Caribou herds were almost always in sight, and so, so many migratory birds. I loved walking along river bars or through brushy areas and seeing birds suddenly flush out. When this happens, I like to pause to look for their nests, which were always so expertly camouflaged.

In the past, I’ve been used to pushing my body on wilderness trips and moving fast for most of the day. This trip was a lot slower-paced. Will is a photographer and took a lot of really nice photos of the beauty we were surrounded by. I noticed how the extra time gave me more of a chance to connect with some of the subtleties of the natural world around me, like slowing down to delight in finding the bird nests hidden like treasure all around us.

The Caribou Trail Loop

When we returned from our first week, great news awaited us back at basecamp. The route that was previously covered in snow had melted out! We resupplied and embarked for week two, following the newly melted caribou trails.

To highlight the way these mountains are full of extremes, the weather flipped on its head. Instead of bundling up and struggling to keep warm, now we were shedding our layers and craving the relief of shade.

Remember: we were in the Arctic Circle in June. That means the sun simply does not set! And the constant sun meant lots of heat from the strong Arctic rays. For many of our breaks, we made improvised shade shelters by rigging our sleeping bags on hiking poles. We even had to wear sunglasses inside the tent!

Solar challenges aside, walking along the caribou trails was wonderful. They had worn down many parallel paths decorating the mountainsides like pencil strokes or topo lines. The trails were also lovely to walk on: nicely graded (mostly) and quite flat. As a former trail worker myself, I can really appreciate a good trail. I imagined the thousands of caribou that carved out this route before we used it. It’s amazing to get a glimpse of how these majestic animals navigate the land by quite literally following in their footsteps.

During this loop, we revisited a spot by the Wulik River where Luc and I had camped during a trip in 2019. Conditions were so different back then: rain was pouring and the river was rising. The surging water kept pushing us out of campsites, and we ended up packrafting out the river at flood stage. Suffice it to say, it was a memorable time! That trip was also right before we got married, so ending up in the same spot was a fun and unique way to commemorate our five-year wedding anniversary.

We’d gotten a tip that a spot near our river camp had some archeological artifacts called lithic scatters. We poked around looking for them, but to be honest we weren’t totally sure what we were looking for. While our archeology skills weren’t exactly professional level, it was a fun activity to look for them anyway!

After we left the river, we hiked back to our basecamp via one more short day hike loop, then geared up for our final leg.

Floating the Wulik River to Kivalina

The river we’d initially planned to float out was too low for our boats without a long hike downstream. Thankfully we had backup plans! We hiked a short distance and put in on the West Fork of the Wulik River instead. We’d noticed during our flight to the area that this fork had good flow, not to mention looked beautiful. We had about 60 or 70 river miles ahead of us to arrive at our final destination in Kivalina, where a plane would take us back home.

We knew from the satellite imagery (which we luckily had downloaded to our phones because of the many hiking options we’d considered) that this river had a few canyons we’d need to watch out for. In a remote backcountry setting, we really didn’t know what to expect from the canyons & rapids, so it was critical for safety to scout the water to see if conditions were boatable.

After scouting an initial rapid section that was beautiful and within our abilities & safety margins, we then came to the first two canyons. Walking alongside them was quite the experience! We could see that the water was very rowdy. The first canyon had a Class V rapid that was totally not boatable, so we portaged past this section and enjoyed the views from dry ground instead. The second canyon was also pretty technical but not as dangerous. Luc decided to boat through the canyon rapids, so Will and I portaged past it to wait for Luc downstream as safety back-ups. The third and final canyon section had a really tight squeeze at the end, but the water was flat Class II so all of us boated through the spectacular canyon scenery.

It felt like a fun adventure to tackle the unknowns of these canyons together, not knowing what we would find at each turn. Luc is a river safety instructor and wrote the Packraft Handbook, so he is an excellent person to follow downriver and make boating decisions with. And he loves it SO much, it’s really fun to watch him take so much joy in beautiful river experiences.

The water was gorgeous, and the weather was warm. It made the float down the Wulik a super pleasant experience. It took us several days, and along the way we came across a couple more little treats and curiosities before our trip wrapped up.

Before the river took us fully away from the mountains, we went out for one more day hike. We stumbled across rock features that looked like the drip sand castles kids build at the beach. It had a very magical look about it. Luc was reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” during the trip, and he talked about how the area reminded him of the Shire.

Later down the river, we caught some grayling and cooked them up on the riverbank, which was so satisfying after eating backcountry food for over two weeks! The fish weren’t the only interesting thing in the river, though. On the less natural side of things, the river had these big aluminum pipes we came across that had somehow landed haphazardly along the river. We puzzled over where the obviously human-made junk might have come from–likely they were from natural resource exploration from the nearby Red Dog Mine.

Planning, Flexibility, and Aging Gracefully

Reflecting on this trip, one of my favorite parts was feeling like I got three trips in one! Every leg of our trip was radically different from the last, which kept me excited and engaged every step and paddle stroke of the way. Conditions changed, our mode of travel changed, and the terrain changed, too. The variety felt really satisfying to both my brain and body.

This experience really highlighted the importance of both researching your route in advance as well as checking your research with ground truth! Making contingency plans and knowing what to expect is a form of coping ahead. Coping ahead means anticipating our needs and putting support systems in place that will help avoid unsafe and/or high-stress situations before they even happen. This trip was very low stress, and that wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t have plenty of detailed plans, especially in a place as remote and wild as the Brooks Range. I’m grateful to have such amazing and capable trip partners where we help each other stay agile and make smart choices.

All that planning supported our motto for the trip: “half as far with half the weight.” While I love the satisfaction of tiring myself out during a wilderness trip, I made the conscious choice to take a more gentle approach this time. I felt my curiosity and sense of wonder fully engaged, not just my muscles. And I read 10 books, which is a new record for a backcountry trip! As I start to move along the aging process, I’m learning to cultivate more and more ways to enjoy the outdoors. Even when my physical capacity changes, I’ll still be able to learn new birds and wildflowers.