“To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.” John Muir.
It’s been almost a week now since we’ve returned from the Alaska High Adventure trip. I wanted to share some pics of our intrepid crew and highlights from the trip. This is just a small sample (click to view). We have yet to pool our photos, may have a slideshow at a meeting in September, and expect there will be written stories about the trip’s adventures for the Troop’s newsletter this fall.
The fabulous guides and staff from Midnight Sun Council in Fairbanks hosted 6 scouts and 4 scouters from Troop 104 and Crew 104. The group earned the 50-Miler Award while backpacking and canoeing. We were fortunate to have Lost Lake Scout Camp, the council’s own ‘Wolfeboro’ all to ourselves as a base for our wilderness excursions, complete with a lake teeming with fish. We hiked above the treeline for the most part, surrounded by caribou, and climbed to the craggy top of Pinnell Mtn, with sweeping views in all directions of the White Mountains. The subarctic alpine tundra surely is the most beautiful and varied flora one can ever see. We spent two days paddling. The Tanana River was wide and wild, and the Clearwater calm and crystal clear with grayling hugging the bottom (we caught some!). We hiked to two glaciers, the Castner and Gulkana and camped in the Amphitheater Mtns, surrounded by snow-covered peaks. The salmon and caribou in this area, the Tangle Lakes Archaeological District, has supported human occupation and hunting for the past 10,000 years. We learned a lot about Alaska, its history and peoples as we visited three museums in Fairbanks, and also went on a sternwheeler riverboat cruise in Fairbanks, where we were able to get off and visit a recreated Athabascan fish camp and village and play with sled dogs. Lots more pics and tales to share … !