Musk Ox Magic at Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Alaska

The Trip

On this trip we will have the opportunity to visit a wild and untrammeled part of Alaska at the point where the Brooks Range foothills meet the coast on the Chukchi Sea. We fly into an area within Cape Krusenstern National Monument established to preserve scenic Arctic coastlands and lagoons along with the adjacent limestone ridges. The trip is timed to allow us to witness the tundra when a drab brown landscape is exploding with new life. The Cape is known to have a good population of resident musk oxen, and we will spend days hiking on the firm lichen surface of ridges as we glass the countryside looking for them and other wildlife. The Cape is also famous as the location where the pioneering archaeologist Louis Giddings worked out the sequence of local Inuit culture. He was able to do this by tracking changes in artifacts along a profile across sequentially deposited coastal dunes in the days before radiocarbon dating was known. The Cape has a series of more than 100 beach ridges that span a human settlement history of over 5,000 years!

The trip includes a bush charter flight from Kotzebue to the Cape, with panoramic views of the vast Noatak River delta, the rising crest of the Brooks Range to the east, and the great series of coastal dunes studied by Giddings. You will fly over the farthest northwest limit of trees in all of North America to see the intricate inter-fingering of spruce galleries, alder scrub, willow thickets, and then open tundra. Other wildlife we may possibly see includes moose, caribou, grizzly bears, wolves, and arctic or red foxes. Another attraction is the presence of many ground-nesting birds such as plovers, jaegers, and longspurs. Birders should be on the lookout for Asian species such as the white wagtail, which irregularly show up on the wrong continent.

Our trip will take us well north of the Arctic Circle so that you will experience the midnight sun. We may have some cloud cover, but nothing even like twilight will occur during our stay. Our day hikes will be mostly on the firm footing of ridges and promontories with the Chukchi Sea almost always in view. In addition to our constant lookout for musk ox bands, we will learn to read the arctic landscape with patterned ground and solufluction lobes on hillsides as the hallmarks of permanently frozen soil beneath the shallow turf. Along the way we will celebrate the restoration of the musk ox to Alaska as one of the great ecological recovery achievements in American wildlife history.

Getting There

Trip members are responsible for arranging their own transportation to and from the trip's starting point in Kotzebue. Please plan on arriving in Anchorage on or before June 2, then flying to Kotzebue on the early morning of June 4, and finally departing from Kotzebue on or after late afternoon on June 11. There is a good, modern hotel in Kotzebue, and an older (lots of character) lodge with a good restaurant for those who want to stay over. The leader will provide details on flight options to registered participants. Arctic air travel, commercial or charter, is not always on schedule and luggage is occasionally delayed. It is strongly advised that you allow leeway for delayed luggage due to weather conditions at both the beginning and end of the trip. Round-trip charter flights between Kotzebue and the Cape backcountry are included in the trip fee. Please do not make non-refundable travel arrangements until notified to do so by the trip leader.

Accommodations and Food

The Sierra Club furnishes stoves, pots, fuel, and a first-aid kit. As usual on Sierra Club outings, all members will help with cooking and clean-up. Food while in the field is included in the trip fee. Trip members should notify the leader of any special dietary requirements. The food on this trip will be vegetarian-friendly.

Lodging on the night before and the night after the trip is not included in the trip price. There are many good places to stay and lots of things to do around Anchorage if you choose to visit there on the way. Most current flights from Anchorage to Kotzebue also stop in Nome. There is an extensive road network around Nome to be explored by rental vehicle, although none is connected to the outside world. For those staying over in Anchorage, the Palmer musk ox farm is a great day excursion about an hour northeast of town. 

Trip Difficulty

The trip will be rated moderate, but due to the highly variable nature of arctic weather and cross-country travel, some days may be  strenuous. Musk oxen may be located in drainages among the willows, which requires walking on lower slopes in rough sedge tussock terrain in order to approach them. In this vast wilderness area, there are no trails except those made by wildlife. Therefore you should be in good physical condition and have hiking experience and have experience camping in the rain. Each day may vary from 4 to 10 miles, depending on the location of wildlife and the terrain.

Equipment and Clothing

Early summer in the Brooks Range is generally moderate in temperature, although cold, stormy periods can occur. Be prepared to be out and active in the rain. Temperatures can range from the 20s to the 70s, although wind chill can make it feel colder. Proper equipment that is rain proof, thoroughly field-tested before the trip, is critical. Personal gear must not weigh more than 25 pounds, including cameras and other hand-carried items so that we can meet weight limits for the bush flight and have a comfortable hiking experience. Participants will also be expected to carry approximately 12 pounds of group gear. Participants must provide their own backpack sleeping bag, tent, raingear, and other camping necessities. A complete packing list will be sent to registered participants.

References

Some of these titles are out of print, but may be available at major libraries. The Title Wave Book Shop, in Anchorage, usually has used copies. Contact the leaders for an additional list of Alaska books related to specific topics of interest such as geology, climate, history, and wildlife.

• Pielou, E.C., Field Guide to the Arctic. Probably the best and most readable textbook on the Arctic.
• Brower, Kenneth, Earth and the Great Weather. A rich resource on the Brooks Range.
• Gray, David R., The musk oxen of Polar Bear Pass. The single most detailed reference on musk ox ecology and behavior.
• "The Kotzebue Basin," in Alaska Geographic, Vol. 8, No. 3.
• Giddings, J. Louis and Douglas Anderson, Beach Ridge Archaeology at Cape Krusenstern, NPS Publications in Archeology, No. 20 (1986).
• Brower, Charles E., Forty Years Below Zero. Memories of an earlier trapper witnessing the adaptation of native Inuit to Western culture.
• The entire area around our base camp can be seen on the U. S. Geological Survey 1:250,000 scale Noatak sheet. The most detailed maps are the B-3 and B-4 1:63,360 scale Noatak quadrangles (roughly equivalent to 15 minute quads for the lower 48). All can be ordered from the U.S.G.S. website.

Conservation

Alaska is a major conservation battleground. Throughout the state, issues of national significance involving wilderness protection, oil and mineral development, and forest and wildlife management receive high priority from the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations. And well they should -- Alaska's public lands belong to all Americans. One of our objectives is to inform participants of these issues so they'll become advocates for this very special land.

Of particular concern to us is the effect of a major mining operation to the east of the Monument on adjacent National Park Service wilderness lands. The 55-mile haul road for ore concentrate from the Red Dog Mine passes through the Monument and is currently a real concern for both native communities and the Park Service. The haul road now forms the nucleus for further development of additional metal mines and even coal, and ore dust from the current concentrate hauling has been leaving a heavy metal residue on the adjacent tundra. We will see the extensive port facilities for ore handling along the coast in the far distance from our vantage on the highest ridges surrounding our base camp.

Sierra Club National Outings is an equal-opportunity provider and will operate under a permit from Alaska National Parks.