welcome to the Alaska Yukon expedition
this is primo big wilderness is a place
where you come to get humble
twenty-nine below zero that morning and
never got above sixteen
it was literally a bear charging at me
right from right there right there being
in those conditions you just have to
always be so on there’s no relaxing at
all that’s when you start to make
mistakes and mistakes are quickly
punished
believe it or not actually started this
trip one year ago today and finished it
about six months ago and ever since then
it’s been still hard for me to sort of
digest it and to try to because my
experiences were also my previous
experiences were also quite different
than what I experienced during this trip
and what’s funny if you would have told
me 10 years ago that I be on stage in
front of a National Geographic live
event telling people about this crazy
trip I did around Alaska I wouldn’t have
believed you I think yeah when my
parents grew up they were there were
certain expectations of them that they
went along the lines of get a college
degree get a job get married buy a house
have kids retire at 65 and maybe have a
little bit of fun and you know I I
bought into that mentality as well
through my teenage years and even into
my early college years but it was
certainly this desire on my part to have
some fun I’m on this planet for 70 to 80
years I want to I want to do the things
that make me happiest in life
so I started long-distance backpacking
which was a natural marriage between my
background as a as a high school and
collegiate long distance runner and my
growing passion for the outdoors my
first long distance trip was the
Appalachian Trail in 2002 I squeezed it
between a spring and a fall semester
finished at 95 days which yeah I guess
at the time that sounds that was 23
miles a day and I forget that that’s yes
still kind of fast but in retrospect to
me I learned a lot on this trip and I
definitely I think this is the trip
where I definitely got the long-distance
hiking bug so after I graduated college
I decided that the Appalachian Trail
wasn’t quite enough that I needed to do
something a little bit bigger that I
wanted to continue challenging myself so
I took on the the CDC route which was my
first mega long distance trip it was
7800 miles
I went from cape gaspé quebec to
washington’s cape a lava after my CDC
trip a year and a half later I I wasn’t
done yet I wanted to go do something
even bigger so I did the Great Western
loop it was a 60 875 mile network of
long-distance hiking trails around the
American West and went through 12
national parks including all the ones
you recognized
the Grand Canyon Yosemite Rainier
glacier North Cascades Rocky Mountain
and also went through 75 wilderness
series if they’re if you were going to
get in your car and drive around and go
see the West chances are I probably
linked together that location or all
those locations but on foot and in
retrospect the Great Western loop for me
was the sort of pinnacle achievement as
an on trail backpacker in the years
preceding this trip I’d been in the
pursuit of a mantra that went further
faster lighter basically to see what my
limits were and to see what the and see
what where an athlete could take long
distance backpacking and I think I found
most the limits during this trip I ended
up averaging 33 miles per day covered a
distance equivalent to 262 marathons and
my pack weight usually ranged the
neighborhood of six to eight pounds –
food and water following the Great
Western loop I realized that if I wanted
to keep things fun and interesting and
to continue learning and challenging
myself that I had to break this mold of
being an entree aback Packer I needed to
expand my horizons to get outside of my
comfort zone or the comfort zone I
developed and do something different so
in 2008 and 2009 I want to went on a
series of smaller trips to learn
different skills become familiar with
different landscapes and to kind of take
my long-distance adventuring to the next
level and one of the first skills that I
knew I needed to learn was to travel off
trail I had always been hiking on trails
I think by the end of the Great Western
if I’d hiked something like 23,000 miles
on man-made hiking trails and but I was
always limited to that network and if I
could learn how to read a map and to
pick a path of least resistance through
a remarkable train like the High Sierra
that opened up a world of new
possibilities I also learned how to ski
and being her being loosely based in
Colorado this was a natural thing for me
to do but now that I knew how to ski I
was no longer relegated to slow shoes a
case no shoes and and I and the winter
in the winter the backcountry opened up
to me and then the last thing I learned
how to do is I learn how to pack raft on
a pack raft it’s a four to five pound
inflatable boat that’s some people joke
about them being glorified pool toys but
actually remarkably durable they’re very
stable and in a large boulder in Syria
like Alaska and the Yukon it’s a
critical tool for wilderness travel just
like skis are in the wintertime it
allows you to get it to float big rivers
to get to Ford big rivers to get across
glacial glacial fjords as well as to
paddle across lakes I decided that I was
going to do my next long-distance trip
up in Alaska I went up there and for two
months in 2009 to kind of scope it out
and just understand the land up there a
little bit and I came back from that
experience up there thinking that there
was definitely the potential for a long
distance trip in Alaska and if I were to
do one then it would have to include
full traverses of the Brooks Range which
runs about a thousand miles across the
northern part of the state it’s the
geographical divide between the Arctic
and the interior of Alaska and then the
other Traverse I wanted to do is the
Alaska Range which is the most majestic
part of the state that’s home to Mount
McKinley as well as a number of 14 15 16
thousand foot peaks as I started to play
out how I might do a trip that included
both ranges I saw that on the west side
of this growing trip that I could
connect the Brooks Range in the Alaska
Range using the Iditarod Trail which is
a historic trail it goes back to the
serum run I think in 1908 or maybe is
1918 and nowadays it’s used as a
recreational dogsled trail and more
importantly as a snow machine trail that
connects connects villages in the
wintertime and then on the east side of
the route I saw that there is a
possibility of linking together a couple
of different mountain ranges and rivers
in the Yukon Territory of Canada and
when I looked at this trip here there
was a potential for me to link make the
linkage using the White River writing
here but when I worked out the time
schedule I saw that I had some
additional time so I decided to end or
to add this last this last little loop
here which included Rangel st. Elias
National Park the Chugach range and then
the lost coast you know I’m there why
not why not make it a it made sense to
me I don’t know why you guys all laugh
yeah so this is the route that came
together it was
ended up being plus or minus a hundred
miles about 4600 79 miles I finished in
a little less than six months I averaged
about a marathon day and then I ended up
taking seven days off out of 176 three
of which were not voluntary one bit
where I got stuck in the field shut down
by by the natural conditions so go ahead
and get this trip started started in the
middle of March and my decision to to
start in the northwestern city of
Kotzebue was both a practical and a
logistical one practically speaking it
offered it was a major airport quote
major airport that I could get a direct
flight in from Kotzebue so that was that
was convenient and then logistically it
was more important though because I
could pick up snow machine trails
heading south and then in when as I was
finishing up the trip I could float the
co buck River out of the Brooks Range
and basically right in Kotzebue good
morning it’s about 8:30 on March 14th
I mean Kotzebue Alaska 30 miles north
conducting circle about to begin my
Alaska Yukon expedition it is about 25
below three days ago I was in
Massachusetts running in shorts and a
t-shirt should be a great trip I’m
looking forward to starting this thing
oven planet forever and I think that
this trip will put me or take me to
higher highs and lower lows compared to
any other trip but that’s partly what
this game is all about put yourself on
the line and see what comes out of it so
walk it into this thing with some
humility and some respect for the land
and hopefully it was some good judgment
and some luck that will get me right
back here to Kotzebue by the end of
September beginning of October in six
and a half months or so here we go I
think it should be obvious why no one
wanted to join me on this trip right
so the tone of this trip trip was set
was set quickly I soon as I left
Kotzebue I found myself in this vast
white frozen expanse of just these
gently rolling hills or flat Tundra
there’s even a section where I crossed
frozen pack ice for about 30 miles and
if as if the landscape were not in alone
intimidating enough the conditions for
the first couple of days of the trip
were just brutal I was starting at the
end of their winter but temperatures
were unseasonally cold and you can see
like you know welcome to the alaska
yukon expedition right you know 29 below
zero that morning and never got above 16
there was a 20 mile or across when I
remember just thing I just remember
skiing with my head down and you know
just being so thankful that I had taken
a lesson from the natives and had my mom
so on a coyote fur off to my hood that
was you know it saves my nerves and I
guess you can say that on day three we
started a heatwave when temperatures
finally climbed above zero for the first
time between the winds and the
temperature it was just I was just way
outside of my comfort zone I was kind of
always focused on my immediate survival
I had to make sure that my my nose
didn’t get frostbitten my hands and feet
didn’t get too cold that my water didn’t
freeze up being in those conditions you
just have to always be so on there’s no
relaxing at all that’s when you start to
make mistakes and mistakes are quickly
punished in these conditions I reached
the Alaska Range in about a month it was
the middle of April I was really excited
about getting me to the Alaska Range
this was one of this was again one of my
original inspirations for the trip this
is just this incredibly majestic part of
the state is just these huge mountains
and enormous glaciers and of course
you’re always skiing in the shadow of
Mount McKinley at least while you’re
going through Denali National Park
I remember I I had I carried satellite
phone with me and I would send home a
short message that my mother would
upload to my Facebook and Twitter
accounts to kind of keep everyone posted
somehow in the span of 140 characters
and but there were a couple of days like
it was like three days in a row where I
wrote home and said best day of skiing
ever and then the next day was like best
day of skiing ever even better than
yesterday and then the third day was
something to that effect to you just one
beautiful day after next
eventually you’re gonna need a job so
that was the the photo assistant that
National Geographic crew came out for
about a week and that was the photo
assistant giving me some some advice
once the summer arrives there are two
important things that happen if you are
traveling through the Alaskan bush and
the Yukon bush as well one is that the
Bears come out and the other is that the
bugs come out I’ll talk about the bugs
later but we’ll do the bears now since
I’m sure everyone everyone loves to ask
me those do you see any bears well like
well I was in Alaska yeah
and they’re like what did you do and I
tell them I carried a can of pepper
spray and they’re just in disbelief that
I didn’t you know carry a semi-automatic
weapon with me so ideally this is how a
bear encounter goes down you see it from
a distance you can get out your bear
spray you yell at the bear and the bear
decides you know you’re human I don’t
really want to mess with you plus you
smell bad and and it either runs away or
it or it’s wanders away like this one
did and this one this encounter was
actually really funny on the bear it
came at Roman enough I actually
geographically was out again and during
this photo the bear came running down
and the bear and I I was the only one
that there spray and the bear and I’d
end up doing this western-style duel we
were like around the circle and he ended
up going the way that he was coming and
I we eventually we continue going down
our way too and then you know if
everything ends well then you can laugh
about it wasn’t that fun yeah but some
very encounters don’t end that well or
they’re a little bit scarier than this
one here so I have another video clip of
some some bear footage that I took as
well as two really good bear encounters
the latter of which is probably the best
footage I’ve ever taken during any of my
trips
I need to go that way don’t go that way
another very nerve-wracking bear
encounter was like huh you know you
should stop for a second and you get a
good vantage point I wonder if there he
bears grazing on the hillside here and I
was like this and I came around this way
and there was literally a bear charging
at me right from right there right there
is it possible I have two close calls
with grizzly bears within like 30
minutes because I just had a second one
and he came running he must come running
across your his footprints that’s my
trekking pole right there I threw it at
him I threw my trekking pole at him and
those are his footprints right there now
look he is running he’s still running
everybody came running across I threw my
trekking pole at him yelled at him and
he ran up here and he’s actually he was
so scared I scared the bottom look I
scared the out of a grizzly bear
he’s ready he’s buried Yallah he is so
scared he himself ha I love that I
scared
literally anyway he’s gone he all scared
the V I need to go she is to use
freaking clothes he was too close that’s
that’s way too close
so I hit the coast after floating the
Copper River which is famous for its
Copper River red salmon and this began
my 500 mile section along the lost coast
and into the Inside Passage and I did
describe the Lost Coast as mostly easy
beach walking punctuated by moments of
terror and the terror is all due to how
big nature is along that Gulf of Alaska
coastline there was nothing blocking
anything that came off that ocean and me
I was walking along the beach and
encountering gales that were at their
their full force just inland from the
beach is the Chugach range and you have
peaks like Mount st. Elias at 19,000
feet Cape Fair or Mount Fairweather at
15,000 feet and these mountains just
catch a tremendous amount of that
moisture that comes down a lot of which
falls as snow and if you end up with all
that snow over tens of thousands years
you end up with huge glaciers and for
scale this is where you wish you had a
hiking partner for scale when I walked
right next to this piece of ice right
here is about up to my like upper like
sternum area so I figured that the face
of this glacier this is the Brady
glacier was somewhere in the
neighborhood of 150 200 feet high just
massive massive glaciers and of course
if you have all of that ice and you’re
there in the summertime a lot of it is
melting so a quick video clip here of
one of the outlets of one of the large
glaciers the grand plateau glacier
thankfully there was a way I forwarded
this was I went hiked hiked along
up-stream and found the terminal Lake
where the glaciers receded blew up my
pack raft floated across the terminal
lake for about a quarter mile took out
and walked down to the beach so
thankfully I didn’t have to try to
afford that I would have been exciting
most of this route was off trail in
2,100 miles so–but imagine hiking from
Georgia to Maine which is basically the
length of the Appalachian Trail but not
having a trail to do that and then about
a quarter of the trip was was on water
and then about 20% of the route was was
on winter route namely the Iditarod
Trail so basically the rest of this
route was was extremely organic in
nature where I was just sort of finding
my way across and obviously if you if to
travel that much off trail map reading
was a was a critical skill but it’s not
just enough when you’re traveling off
trail like this to be able to look at a
map and identify exactly where you are
and say I’m here or to find North that’s
that’s basic stuff but really in
planning this trip I needed to be able
to look at the maps and I needed to be
able to figure out in the wintertime
which passes in the Alaska Range would
be Avalanche prone and which ones
wouldn’t be and then I also needed to be
able to look at the maps and figure out
the gradients of rivers and which is a
good indication of how fast they might
be flowing as well as the size of the
rapids and then Alaska is also not
shortage of nastiness there is just you
know probably several states like
Virginia’s worth of heinous bushwhacking
to be found in Alaska and you know the
force often times it’s this black spruce
and tego with the sponge of floor or
these this is a giant tussock just
brushy and nasty and then once you get
above or outside of the forest
oftentimes you end up in the brush so
all there dwarf birch resin birch willow
and then even when you get above the
brush you oftentimes will find tussocks
and tussocks I can only describe it as
imagine like take them take it bunch of
like one gallon paint cans cover them in
like six inches of grass and then space
them out evenly and try to walk across
them for miles without twisting an ankle
or falling the only thing that I’ve ever
seen be able to walk across tussocks
with grace where the caribou the rest of
us just stumble there is no way to get
across tussocks with with any sort of
elegance
so in Alaska it’s critical to be able to
look at that map
and figure out where all the nasty stuff
is hiding and generally speaking the one
way to go is to get to get high to get
in areas that recently have been
glaciated and also try to find areas
that are well-drained so old River old
gravel river bars this is a good example
in the Brooks Range where there’s
there’s there’s a the force is slowly
coming back but this is hard travel and
then the other option sometimes is to
follow game trails and there are
extensive game trails in Alaska and if
you can if you put yourself in the mind
of an animal and you can look at the map
and know exactly where they are they’re
generally going to run along creeks they
run along the noses of Ridge lines they
follow natural geographic boundaries
like like the edges of slopes so you
need to be able to just kind of put
yourself in the mind of an animal and
believe it or not I mean you look at
these trails you think oh no someone was
out there with a Pulaski but no these
are this is a bear trail here along the
Lost Coast and this is a caribou and
moose trail up in the Brooks Range of
Alaska and sometimes you end up with
both well-drained areas as well as game
trails and this is a photo in the Brooks
Range taken of the caribou trail and
walking along these game trails can be a
powerful experience so uh how did here
in northern Yukon Onam follow on the
trail the caribou basically me and I
just I came up and over this Ridge and
there’s just this like I’m not sure how
well you’re gonna be able see it but
just you know dozens of dozens of tracks
following the base of this mountain you
gotta think you’re like wow this species
been doing this for thousands of years
and they’ve got it figured out they know
exactly where to go this is the best
travel that I’ve seen I feel like I’m
like I’m kind of like tapping into the
energy of their migration it’s like like
I’ve got that mentality where just like
it’s like you know move eat sleep move
eat sleep it’s like you know just it’s
the same thing over and over you just
you got you got destination in mind and
you know you’re like you know what the
seasons are changing you got to move you
got to move and on and eating and and
sleeping those are just your tools
there’s
there’s in a blurs but it’s all about
the movement so here’s a better view of
these trails just dozens of them
hey they haven’t figured out why I’m
crying by the side of these trails maybe
cry but I think I is I think it has
everything to it like I’m just an animal
right now I’m just like these guys my
just like creature uh sure I get all
this trick down hearing it like deal
with the same stuff that they are it’s
like this it’s this very natural connect
like this it’s primal just raw and you
know I think and I’m looking at these
caribou and I’m thinking to myself like
wow these guys been doing this for
thousands of years and like no one no
one publishes story is about about them
a National Geographic or you know they
don’t have a blog you know the magnitude
of my trip kind of kind of pales in
comparison
so route finding and identifying my map
or identifying my route was probably the
biggest task that I had in planning for
my trip and I was planning for on both a
macro level and a micro level as well
and this is all before I left so on a
macro level I was I made the decision
that I needed to go from The Lost Coast
into the Inside Passage and icy
straights area was a fairly good way to
do that this is the exact route I
planned alongside the Brady glacier so I
was spent hours and hours in National
Geographic topo software making comments
and planning my exact route and I would
go up and over this pass and float float
across this river or go along the edge
of the glacier and my route was very
much dependent or was based on what I
thought to be the path of least
resistance based on where I thought the
game trails would be where the best
travel would be where there’s going to
be the least amount of brush and nasty
force and oftentimes I was having to
check these topographical maps with land
satellite images because the landscape
up there is changing fairly dramatically
in
some regions so keep your eyes on north
deception lake here and they give you
some scale this section this is a
section line which is square mile and
this the new edge of the glacier is is
this red marked and then if you also
want to watch you can watch North trick
Lake and south trick lake which are now
just trick Lake so this map here this is
a 1961 map and in the land satellite
image you see a great deal receding on
that lobe at the deception Lake and then
the North trick lake and South trick
lake or now are now combined
once I had a route that I that I liked I
started putting it into Microsoft Excel
and I guess I sort of fall on the camp
that all the world’s problems can be
solved in Excel so this is the this is
the meticulous planner part here you
know yes this is also where those Wall
Street’s skills come in as well so I
identified the distances between key
landmarks so and then once I did that I
was able to figure out where I was going
to resupply not only where I was going
to resupply with distances between them
how many days it probably would take me
and then based on that figuring out
exactly what supplies and food needed to
be sent there so I needed 36 snacks I
needed a new pair of socks I needed a my
lighter weight sleeping bag so the last
third of the trip starting here in
Dawson and going 1,700 miles through
northern Yukon across the Arctic and
through the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge and Crossgates directly National
Park this section of the trip had a
distinctly different feel in the first
two-thirds of the trip I thought that in
the first 2/3 that I had been I felt I
had experienced wilderness and I’d felt
more exposed and vulnerable than I had
on any other previous trip but the last
third of the trip was on a totally
different scale and even the locals in
Alaska in Yukon refer to the northern
parts of their regions as as a different
part of the state this stretch here was
the most remote stretch of the entire
trip I went 657 miles and 24 days
without seeing a human being and without
crossing a road now in addition to just
the you know the magnitude of it and the
weight of my pack leaving Fort McPherson
and this was also a challenging stretch
for a couple of different reasons one
was that the bugs were just horrific oh
my gosh so a video clip here and I think
after this trip or after this video clip
I’ll again prove to you why no one
wanted to join me here we go this will
forever be known as the Black Flag camp
at least they’re not mosquitos
wish the wind were blowing just a little
bit and that would help a lot oh I
thought I’d seen bugs but I hadn’t seen
Arctic bugs boy our bad – my aren’t they
so I’m out here on blow pass which has
become the the tussock the tussock II
and bug infested nightmare that I had
hoped it wouldn’t be as miles of
tussocks and the whole time these bugs
are mean you have to keep in mind is
that there’s nothing attracting the bugs
my camera it doesn’t have blood it’s not
breathing it’s no warmer than the air so
the bugs that you see immediately
swarming in front of the camera that’s
you kind of consider that the ambient
bug intensity and you can only imagine
what was flying around my head this
stretch of the trip was also difficult
due to a couple of floods that I got
caught in but I think mostly I struggled
with just how wild this place was the
sense of being so big and so open and so
vast and feeling as I said the
introduction feeling like I could have
been the last person on the earth that
the outside world was fairly irrelevant
it didn’t it didn’t matter that I was a
human or that my name was Andrew skorca
I was just I was out there completely
self dependent on myself and for a long
time I
I really felt like I actually had much
more in common with the animals on this
trip as I said in that video that there
was something about experiencing the
landscape on on the same term we’re
dealing with the same bugs the same
river forbs we’re both getting chased by
bears and it was this very primal very
raw connection that I’ve never
experienced on any pass trip right now
I’m stuck in my shelter on the South
Fork of the ribbed and river about five
days away from Dalton highway I’ve
almost been out for three weeks and I
haven’t seen a person and I haven’t
cross the road and they need rather so
many places you’d rather be then pinned
down under a under a five foot by eight
foot pyramid-shaped tarp in the middle
of the kind in the middle of nowhere I’m
looking forward to get into the highways
but a tough stretch have a you know big
big wilderness big wilderness has a
different has a different feel to it now
and I’ve been in big wilderness now for
the last the last three weeks and a
wilderness wilderness with a capital W
as we call it in lower 48 is not really
wilderness because because true
wilderness isn’t a place where you
really have wahoo moments or a place
where you know you seek refuge to get
away from things big wilderness is a
place where you come to get humbling it
really is it’s a place where you were
one of the few times in your life you’re
put back in your place and rise that
you’re just another animal on this
planet and that you are as vulnerable
and is exposed to nature as the
creatures around you you’re no different
and you’re not special
that there are bigger powers at play and
you can ever understand or imagine so
the after that moment in the tent
that for me was was kind of that was
what I was looking for out there I think
you know as I’ve talked about a number
of occasions there was always this
deeply ingrained sense of me needing to
keep on moving and being so sort of goal
driven and destination oriented but I’ve
always believed that you know that old
saying that it’s not the destination it
really is the journey but what I think
is is really helpful is to have a very
clear well-defined destination in mind
as a motivating excuse to pull through
some of those some of the hardest
moments of the journey and my arrival
back in Kotzebue in the beginning of
September certainly confirmed that
attitude I rolled in it was later it was
10 o’clock at night and no one knew who
I was no one knew what I had just done
there was no welcoming party there was
no my part no sense of conquer there
wasn’t I was going back to Kotzebue
Alaska it’s a far cry from say the
summit of Mount Katahdin and as I pulled
on the kind of that last that last hill
where I finally caught spew out and open
up and for me it was very clear to me
that it was it was always about that
journey and that and that the hope that
maybe something would would remarkable
would come of it thank you very much
you
this is primo big wilderness is a place
where you come to get humble
twenty-nine below zero that morning and
never got above sixteen
it was literally a bear charging at me
right from right there right there being
in those conditions you just have to
always be so on there’s no relaxing at
all that’s when you start to make
mistakes and mistakes are quickly
punished
believe it or not actually started this
trip one year ago today and finished it
about six months ago and ever since then
it’s been still hard for me to sort of
digest it and to try to because my
experiences were also my previous
experiences were also quite different
than what I experienced during this trip
and what’s funny if you would have told
me 10 years ago that I be on stage in
front of a National Geographic live
event telling people about this crazy
trip I did around Alaska I wouldn’t have
believed you I think yeah when my
parents grew up they were there were
certain expectations of them that they
went along the lines of get a college
degree get a job get married buy a house
have kids retire at 65 and maybe have a
little bit of fun and you know I I
bought into that mentality as well
through my teenage years and even into
my early college years but it was
certainly this desire on my part to have
some fun I’m on this planet for 70 to 80
years I want to I want to do the things
that make me happiest in life
so I started long-distance backpacking
which was a natural marriage between my
background as a as a high school and
collegiate long distance runner and my
growing passion for the outdoors my
first long distance trip was the
Appalachian Trail in 2002 I squeezed it
between a spring and a fall semester
finished at 95 days which yeah I guess
at the time that sounds that was 23
miles a day and I forget that that’s yes
still kind of fast but in retrospect to
me I learned a lot on this trip and I
definitely I think this is the trip
where I definitely got the long-distance
hiking bug so after I graduated college
I decided that the Appalachian Trail
wasn’t quite enough that I needed to do
something a little bit bigger that I
wanted to continue challenging myself so
I took on the the CDC route which was my
first mega long distance trip it was
7800 miles
I went from cape gaspé quebec to
washington’s cape a lava after my CDC
trip a year and a half later I I wasn’t
done yet I wanted to go do something
even bigger so I did the Great Western
loop it was a 60 875 mile network of
long-distance hiking trails around the
American West and went through 12
national parks including all the ones
you recognized
the Grand Canyon Yosemite Rainier
glacier North Cascades Rocky Mountain
and also went through 75 wilderness
series if they’re if you were going to
get in your car and drive around and go
see the West chances are I probably
linked together that location or all
those locations but on foot and in
retrospect the Great Western loop for me
was the sort of pinnacle achievement as
an on trail backpacker in the years
preceding this trip I’d been in the
pursuit of a mantra that went further
faster lighter basically to see what my
limits were and to see what the and see
what where an athlete could take long
distance backpacking and I think I found
most the limits during this trip I ended
up averaging 33 miles per day covered a
distance equivalent to 262 marathons and
my pack weight usually ranged the
neighborhood of six to eight pounds –
food and water following the Great
Western loop I realized that if I wanted
to keep things fun and interesting and
to continue learning and challenging
myself that I had to break this mold of
being an entree aback Packer I needed to
expand my horizons to get outside of my
comfort zone or the comfort zone I
developed and do something different so
in 2008 and 2009 I want to went on a
series of smaller trips to learn
different skills become familiar with
different landscapes and to kind of take
my long-distance adventuring to the next
level and one of the first skills that I
knew I needed to learn was to travel off
trail I had always been hiking on trails
I think by the end of the Great Western
if I’d hiked something like 23,000 miles
on man-made hiking trails and but I was
always limited to that network and if I
could learn how to read a map and to
pick a path of least resistance through
a remarkable train like the High Sierra
that opened up a world of new
possibilities I also learned how to ski
and being her being loosely based in
Colorado this was a natural thing for me
to do but now that I knew how to ski I
was no longer relegated to slow shoes a
case no shoes and and I and the winter
in the winter the backcountry opened up
to me and then the last thing I learned
how to do is I learn how to pack raft on
a pack raft it’s a four to five pound
inflatable boat that’s some people joke
about them being glorified pool toys but
actually remarkably durable they’re very
stable and in a large boulder in Syria
like Alaska and the Yukon it’s a
critical tool for wilderness travel just
like skis are in the wintertime it
allows you to get it to float big rivers
to get to Ford big rivers to get across
glacial glacial fjords as well as to
paddle across lakes I decided that I was
going to do my next long-distance trip
up in Alaska I went up there and for two
months in 2009 to kind of scope it out
and just understand the land up there a
little bit and I came back from that
experience up there thinking that there
was definitely the potential for a long
distance trip in Alaska and if I were to
do one then it would have to include
full traverses of the Brooks Range which
runs about a thousand miles across the
northern part of the state it’s the
geographical divide between the Arctic
and the interior of Alaska and then the
other Traverse I wanted to do is the
Alaska Range which is the most majestic
part of the state that’s home to Mount
McKinley as well as a number of 14 15 16
thousand foot peaks as I started to play
out how I might do a trip that included
both ranges I saw that on the west side
of this growing trip that I could
connect the Brooks Range in the Alaska
Range using the Iditarod Trail which is
a historic trail it goes back to the
serum run I think in 1908 or maybe is
1918 and nowadays it’s used as a
recreational dogsled trail and more
importantly as a snow machine trail that
connects connects villages in the
wintertime and then on the east side of
the route I saw that there is a
possibility of linking together a couple
of different mountain ranges and rivers
in the Yukon Territory of Canada and
when I looked at this trip here there
was a potential for me to link make the
linkage using the White River writing
here but when I worked out the time
schedule I saw that I had some
additional time so I decided to end or
to add this last this last little loop
here which included Rangel st. Elias
National Park the Chugach range and then
the lost coast you know I’m there why
not why not make it a it made sense to
me I don’t know why you guys all laugh
yeah so this is the route that came
together it was
ended up being plus or minus a hundred
miles about 4600 79 miles I finished in
a little less than six months I averaged
about a marathon day and then I ended up
taking seven days off out of 176 three
of which were not voluntary one bit
where I got stuck in the field shut down
by by the natural conditions so go ahead
and get this trip started started in the
middle of March and my decision to to
start in the northwestern city of
Kotzebue was both a practical and a
logistical one practically speaking it
offered it was a major airport quote
major airport that I could get a direct
flight in from Kotzebue so that was that
was convenient and then logistically it
was more important though because I
could pick up snow machine trails
heading south and then in when as I was
finishing up the trip I could float the
co buck River out of the Brooks Range
and basically right in Kotzebue good
morning it’s about 8:30 on March 14th
I mean Kotzebue Alaska 30 miles north
conducting circle about to begin my
Alaska Yukon expedition it is about 25
below three days ago I was in
Massachusetts running in shorts and a
t-shirt should be a great trip I’m
looking forward to starting this thing
oven planet forever and I think that
this trip will put me or take me to
higher highs and lower lows compared to
any other trip but that’s partly what
this game is all about put yourself on
the line and see what comes out of it so
walk it into this thing with some
humility and some respect for the land
and hopefully it was some good judgment
and some luck that will get me right
back here to Kotzebue by the end of
September beginning of October in six
and a half months or so here we go I
think it should be obvious why no one
wanted to join me on this trip right
so the tone of this trip trip was set
was set quickly I soon as I left
Kotzebue I found myself in this vast
white frozen expanse of just these
gently rolling hills or flat Tundra
there’s even a section where I crossed
frozen pack ice for about 30 miles and
if as if the landscape were not in alone
intimidating enough the conditions for
the first couple of days of the trip
were just brutal I was starting at the
end of their winter but temperatures
were unseasonally cold and you can see
like you know welcome to the alaska
yukon expedition right you know 29 below
zero that morning and never got above 16
there was a 20 mile or across when I
remember just thing I just remember
skiing with my head down and you know
just being so thankful that I had taken
a lesson from the natives and had my mom
so on a coyote fur off to my hood that
was you know it saves my nerves and I
guess you can say that on day three we
started a heatwave when temperatures
finally climbed above zero for the first
time between the winds and the
temperature it was just I was just way
outside of my comfort zone I was kind of
always focused on my immediate survival
I had to make sure that my my nose
didn’t get frostbitten my hands and feet
didn’t get too cold that my water didn’t
freeze up being in those conditions you
just have to always be so on there’s no
relaxing at all that’s when you start to
make mistakes and mistakes are quickly
punished in these conditions I reached
the Alaska Range in about a month it was
the middle of April I was really excited
about getting me to the Alaska Range
this was one of this was again one of my
original inspirations for the trip this
is just this incredibly majestic part of
the state is just these huge mountains
and enormous glaciers and of course
you’re always skiing in the shadow of
Mount McKinley at least while you’re
going through Denali National Park
I remember I I had I carried satellite
phone with me and I would send home a
short message that my mother would
upload to my Facebook and Twitter
accounts to kind of keep everyone posted
somehow in the span of 140 characters
and but there were a couple of days like
it was like three days in a row where I
wrote home and said best day of skiing
ever and then the next day was like best
day of skiing ever even better than
yesterday and then the third day was
something to that effect to you just one
beautiful day after next
eventually you’re gonna need a job so
that was the the photo assistant that
National Geographic crew came out for
about a week and that was the photo
assistant giving me some some advice
once the summer arrives there are two
important things that happen if you are
traveling through the Alaskan bush and
the Yukon bush as well one is that the
Bears come out and the other is that the
bugs come out I’ll talk about the bugs
later but we’ll do the bears now since
I’m sure everyone everyone loves to ask
me those do you see any bears well like
well I was in Alaska yeah
and they’re like what did you do and I
tell them I carried a can of pepper
spray and they’re just in disbelief that
I didn’t you know carry a semi-automatic
weapon with me so ideally this is how a
bear encounter goes down you see it from
a distance you can get out your bear
spray you yell at the bear and the bear
decides you know you’re human I don’t
really want to mess with you plus you
smell bad and and it either runs away or
it or it’s wanders away like this one
did and this one this encounter was
actually really funny on the bear it
came at Roman enough I actually
geographically was out again and during
this photo the bear came running down
and the bear and I I was the only one
that there spray and the bear and I’d
end up doing this western-style duel we
were like around the circle and he ended
up going the way that he was coming and
I we eventually we continue going down
our way too and then you know if
everything ends well then you can laugh
about it wasn’t that fun yeah but some
very encounters don’t end that well or
they’re a little bit scarier than this
one here so I have another video clip of
some some bear footage that I took as
well as two really good bear encounters
the latter of which is probably the best
footage I’ve ever taken during any of my
trips
I need to go that way don’t go that way
another very nerve-wracking bear
encounter was like huh you know you
should stop for a second and you get a
good vantage point I wonder if there he
bears grazing on the hillside here and I
was like this and I came around this way
and there was literally a bear charging
at me right from right there right there
is it possible I have two close calls
with grizzly bears within like 30
minutes because I just had a second one
and he came running he must come running
across your his footprints that’s my
trekking pole right there I threw it at
him I threw my trekking pole at him and
those are his footprints right there now
look he is running he’s still running
everybody came running across I threw my
trekking pole at him yelled at him and
he ran up here and he’s actually he was
so scared I scared the bottom look I
scared the out of a grizzly bear
he’s ready he’s buried Yallah he is so
scared he himself ha I love that I
scared
literally anyway he’s gone he all scared
the V I need to go she is to use
freaking clothes he was too close that’s
that’s way too close
so I hit the coast after floating the
Copper River which is famous for its
Copper River red salmon and this began
my 500 mile section along the lost coast
and into the Inside Passage and I did
describe the Lost Coast as mostly easy
beach walking punctuated by moments of
terror and the terror is all due to how
big nature is along that Gulf of Alaska
coastline there was nothing blocking
anything that came off that ocean and me
I was walking along the beach and
encountering gales that were at their
their full force just inland from the
beach is the Chugach range and you have
peaks like Mount st. Elias at 19,000
feet Cape Fair or Mount Fairweather at
15,000 feet and these mountains just
catch a tremendous amount of that
moisture that comes down a lot of which
falls as snow and if you end up with all
that snow over tens of thousands years
you end up with huge glaciers and for
scale this is where you wish you had a
hiking partner for scale when I walked
right next to this piece of ice right
here is about up to my like upper like
sternum area so I figured that the face
of this glacier this is the Brady
glacier was somewhere in the
neighborhood of 150 200 feet high just
massive massive glaciers and of course
if you have all of that ice and you’re
there in the summertime a lot of it is
melting so a quick video clip here of
one of the outlets of one of the large
glaciers the grand plateau glacier
thankfully there was a way I forwarded
this was I went hiked hiked along
up-stream and found the terminal Lake
where the glaciers receded blew up my
pack raft floated across the terminal
lake for about a quarter mile took out
and walked down to the beach so
thankfully I didn’t have to try to
afford that I would have been exciting
most of this route was off trail in
2,100 miles so–but imagine hiking from
Georgia to Maine which is basically the
length of the Appalachian Trail but not
having a trail to do that and then about
a quarter of the trip was was on water
and then about 20% of the route was was
on winter route namely the Iditarod
Trail so basically the rest of this
route was was extremely organic in
nature where I was just sort of finding
my way across and obviously if you if to
travel that much off trail map reading
was a was a critical skill but it’s not
just enough when you’re traveling off
trail like this to be able to look at a
map and identify exactly where you are
and say I’m here or to find North that’s
that’s basic stuff but really in
planning this trip I needed to be able
to look at the maps and I needed to be
able to figure out in the wintertime
which passes in the Alaska Range would
be Avalanche prone and which ones
wouldn’t be and then I also needed to be
able to look at the maps and figure out
the gradients of rivers and which is a
good indication of how fast they might
be flowing as well as the size of the
rapids and then Alaska is also not
shortage of nastiness there is just you
know probably several states like
Virginia’s worth of heinous bushwhacking
to be found in Alaska and you know the
force often times it’s this black spruce
and tego with the sponge of floor or
these this is a giant tussock just
brushy and nasty and then once you get
above or outside of the forest
oftentimes you end up in the brush so
all there dwarf birch resin birch willow
and then even when you get above the
brush you oftentimes will find tussocks
and tussocks I can only describe it as
imagine like take them take it bunch of
like one gallon paint cans cover them in
like six inches of grass and then space
them out evenly and try to walk across
them for miles without twisting an ankle
or falling the only thing that I’ve ever
seen be able to walk across tussocks
with grace where the caribou the rest of
us just stumble there is no way to get
across tussocks with with any sort of
elegance
so in Alaska it’s critical to be able to
look at that map
and figure out where all the nasty stuff
is hiding and generally speaking the one
way to go is to get to get high to get
in areas that recently have been
glaciated and also try to find areas
that are well-drained so old River old
gravel river bars this is a good example
in the Brooks Range where there’s
there’s there’s a the force is slowly
coming back but this is hard travel and
then the other option sometimes is to
follow game trails and there are
extensive game trails in Alaska and if
you can if you put yourself in the mind
of an animal and you can look at the map
and know exactly where they are they’re
generally going to run along creeks they
run along the noses of Ridge lines they
follow natural geographic boundaries
like like the edges of slopes so you
need to be able to just kind of put
yourself in the mind of an animal and
believe it or not I mean you look at
these trails you think oh no someone was
out there with a Pulaski but no these
are this is a bear trail here along the
Lost Coast and this is a caribou and
moose trail up in the Brooks Range of
Alaska and sometimes you end up with
both well-drained areas as well as game
trails and this is a photo in the Brooks
Range taken of the caribou trail and
walking along these game trails can be a
powerful experience so uh how did here
in northern Yukon Onam follow on the
trail the caribou basically me and I
just I came up and over this Ridge and
there’s just this like I’m not sure how
well you’re gonna be able see it but
just you know dozens of dozens of tracks
following the base of this mountain you
gotta think you’re like wow this species
been doing this for thousands of years
and they’ve got it figured out they know
exactly where to go this is the best
travel that I’ve seen I feel like I’m
like I’m kind of like tapping into the
energy of their migration it’s like like
I’ve got that mentality where just like
it’s like you know move eat sleep move
eat sleep it’s like you know just it’s
the same thing over and over you just
you got you got destination in mind and
you know you’re like you know what the
seasons are changing you got to move you
got to move and on and eating and and
sleeping those are just your tools
there’s
there’s in a blurs but it’s all about
the movement so here’s a better view of
these trails just dozens of them
hey they haven’t figured out why I’m
crying by the side of these trails maybe
cry but I think I is I think it has
everything to it like I’m just an animal
right now I’m just like these guys my
just like creature uh sure I get all
this trick down hearing it like deal
with the same stuff that they are it’s
like this it’s this very natural connect
like this it’s primal just raw and you
know I think and I’m looking at these
caribou and I’m thinking to myself like
wow these guys been doing this for
thousands of years and like no one no
one publishes story is about about them
a National Geographic or you know they
don’t have a blog you know the magnitude
of my trip kind of kind of pales in
comparison
so route finding and identifying my map
or identifying my route was probably the
biggest task that I had in planning for
my trip and I was planning for on both a
macro level and a micro level as well
and this is all before I left so on a
macro level I was I made the decision
that I needed to go from The Lost Coast
into the Inside Passage and icy
straights area was a fairly good way to
do that this is the exact route I
planned alongside the Brady glacier so I
was spent hours and hours in National
Geographic topo software making comments
and planning my exact route and I would
go up and over this pass and float float
across this river or go along the edge
of the glacier and my route was very
much dependent or was based on what I
thought to be the path of least
resistance based on where I thought the
game trails would be where the best
travel would be where there’s going to
be the least amount of brush and nasty
force and oftentimes I was having to
check these topographical maps with land
satellite images because the landscape
up there is changing fairly dramatically
in
some regions so keep your eyes on north
deception lake here and they give you
some scale this section this is a
section line which is square mile and
this the new edge of the glacier is is
this red marked and then if you also
want to watch you can watch North trick
Lake and south trick lake which are now
just trick Lake so this map here this is
a 1961 map and in the land satellite
image you see a great deal receding on
that lobe at the deception Lake and then
the North trick lake and South trick
lake or now are now combined
once I had a route that I that I liked I
started putting it into Microsoft Excel
and I guess I sort of fall on the camp
that all the world’s problems can be
solved in Excel so this is the this is
the meticulous planner part here you
know yes this is also where those Wall
Street’s skills come in as well so I
identified the distances between key
landmarks so and then once I did that I
was able to figure out where I was going
to resupply not only where I was going
to resupply with distances between them
how many days it probably would take me
and then based on that figuring out
exactly what supplies and food needed to
be sent there so I needed 36 snacks I
needed a new pair of socks I needed a my
lighter weight sleeping bag so the last
third of the trip starting here in
Dawson and going 1,700 miles through
northern Yukon across the Arctic and
through the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge and Crossgates directly National
Park this section of the trip had a
distinctly different feel in the first
two-thirds of the trip I thought that in
the first 2/3 that I had been I felt I
had experienced wilderness and I’d felt
more exposed and vulnerable than I had
on any other previous trip but the last
third of the trip was on a totally
different scale and even the locals in
Alaska in Yukon refer to the northern
parts of their regions as as a different
part of the state this stretch here was
the most remote stretch of the entire
trip I went 657 miles and 24 days
without seeing a human being and without
crossing a road now in addition to just
the you know the magnitude of it and the
weight of my pack leaving Fort McPherson
and this was also a challenging stretch
for a couple of different reasons one
was that the bugs were just horrific oh
my gosh so a video clip here and I think
after this trip or after this video clip
I’ll again prove to you why no one
wanted to join me here we go this will
forever be known as the Black Flag camp
at least they’re not mosquitos
wish the wind were blowing just a little
bit and that would help a lot oh I
thought I’d seen bugs but I hadn’t seen
Arctic bugs boy our bad – my aren’t they
so I’m out here on blow pass which has
become the the tussock the tussock II
and bug infested nightmare that I had
hoped it wouldn’t be as miles of
tussocks and the whole time these bugs
are mean you have to keep in mind is
that there’s nothing attracting the bugs
my camera it doesn’t have blood it’s not
breathing it’s no warmer than the air so
the bugs that you see immediately
swarming in front of the camera that’s
you kind of consider that the ambient
bug intensity and you can only imagine
what was flying around my head this
stretch of the trip was also difficult
due to a couple of floods that I got
caught in but I think mostly I struggled
with just how wild this place was the
sense of being so big and so open and so
vast and feeling as I said the
introduction feeling like I could have
been the last person on the earth that
the outside world was fairly irrelevant
it didn’t it didn’t matter that I was a
human or that my name was Andrew skorca
I was just I was out there completely
self dependent on myself and for a long
time I
I really felt like I actually had much
more in common with the animals on this
trip as I said in that video that there
was something about experiencing the
landscape on on the same term we’re
dealing with the same bugs the same
river forbs we’re both getting chased by
bears and it was this very primal very
raw connection that I’ve never
experienced on any pass trip right now
I’m stuck in my shelter on the South
Fork of the ribbed and river about five
days away from Dalton highway I’ve
almost been out for three weeks and I
haven’t seen a person and I haven’t
cross the road and they need rather so
many places you’d rather be then pinned
down under a under a five foot by eight
foot pyramid-shaped tarp in the middle
of the kind in the middle of nowhere I’m
looking forward to get into the highways
but a tough stretch have a you know big
big wilderness big wilderness has a
different has a different feel to it now
and I’ve been in big wilderness now for
the last the last three weeks and a
wilderness wilderness with a capital W
as we call it in lower 48 is not really
wilderness because because true
wilderness isn’t a place where you
really have wahoo moments or a place
where you know you seek refuge to get
away from things big wilderness is a
place where you come to get humbling it
really is it’s a place where you were
one of the few times in your life you’re
put back in your place and rise that
you’re just another animal on this
planet and that you are as vulnerable
and is exposed to nature as the
creatures around you you’re no different
and you’re not special
that there are bigger powers at play and
you can ever understand or imagine so
the after that moment in the tent
that for me was was kind of that was
what I was looking for out there I think
you know as I’ve talked about a number
of occasions there was always this
deeply ingrained sense of me needing to
keep on moving and being so sort of goal
driven and destination oriented but I’ve
always believed that you know that old
saying that it’s not the destination it
really is the journey but what I think
is is really helpful is to have a very
clear well-defined destination in mind
as a motivating excuse to pull through
some of those some of the hardest
moments of the journey and my arrival
back in Kotzebue in the beginning of
September certainly confirmed that
attitude I rolled in it was later it was
10 o’clock at night and no one knew who
I was no one knew what I had just done
there was no welcoming party there was
no my part no sense of conquer there
wasn’t I was going back to Kotzebue
Alaska it’s a far cry from say the
summit of Mount Katahdin and as I pulled
on the kind of that last that last hill
where I finally caught spew out and open
up and for me it was very clear to me
that it was it was always about that
journey and that and that the hope that
maybe something would would remarkable
would come of it thank you very much
you
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