Late last June, I drove from my home in Anchorage to Fairbanks to join a group of folks for a backpacking trip in the western Arctic. The next morning, we jumped into a mail plane to the village of Anaktuvuk Pass, poised between the Anaktuvuk and John rivers within the Central Brooks Range.

It was a bumpy and spectacular ride. The wind blew hard and cold in late June, so we bundled up after landing.… Read More