Tag: Brooks Range

Day 20 of Lupe’s 2017 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon & Alaska!

3:12 AM, 36°F – Already seems like there’s a bit of light.  Lupe was out of her blankie.  Pulled it back over her.  Keep the puppy warm!  Too early.  Back to sleep.

4:18 AM, 35°F – Definitely light out now, but the whole world is densely fogged over.  Maybe a ground fog like the morning after Lupe climbed Caribou Mountain (3,179 ft.)?  If so, it may burn away, but the weak Arctic Sun will take hours to do so.  Meanwhile, nothing to do but sleep.

5:35 AM, 35°F – Except for the patch of boreal tundra right here, the whole world is invisible.  Misting lightly.  Loop went out.  Everything’s cold and wet.  She’s back in the G6 licking herself off.  Have to wait for the fog to lift.  Maybe Lupe’s next Dingo Vacation should be to some place with palm trees?

8:48 AM, 38°F – The weakling sun has managed to make some progress against the fog.  Can see 0.5 mile now.  Shared a can of chili and a can of beef and barley soup with Looper.  She’s back to dozing.

10:18 AM, 39°F – Sunshine on the hills.  Visibility is a few miles.  A patch of blue sky is off to the NW.  Loopster still conked out!  A small knoll exists out on the North Slope maybe 0.25 mile away.  It’s lower than where the G6 is, but a bit higher than what’s around it.  Should make a decent objective for Lupe’s farthest point N ever.  Guess it’s time for her Stroll to the North Slope Knoll!

Daylight in the swamps, Loop!

Hmm?  You mean get up?  Can we even see the swamps yet, SPHP?

Yes, we actually can.  Time for your Stroll to the North Slope Knoll!

Stroll to the North Slope Knoll?  What’s that supposed to mean?

Off to the N or NW from here, I see a little rise, a knoll, only slightly above the surrounding terrain.  It’s not far at all.  We’re going to start what’s left of this morning off with a quick stroll over there.  The knoll isn’t even as high as where we are now.  Super easy.  We’ll be back before you know it.

Oh!  A little romp on the North Slope tundra?  Sounds like fun to me!  Any particular reason we’re doing this?  It’s not much like you to want to go to a knoll, SPHP.

Yes, there is a reason.  There’s a good chance that knoll is going to wind up being as far N as you and I will ever be in our whole lives.  Remember your 2016 Last Mile North trek, which we did again only yesterday?  This is like that, except the updated 2017 version of it.  Out here on the North Slope just beyond the Brooks Range, you are 71 miles farther N than last year’s record.

So we aren’t going any farther N than this?  Yesterday evening you were practically a nutcase about the North Slope!

Oh, I’ve thought about it a lot.  If you could take the Arctic Ocean tour, we’d go for sure, but Dingoes aren’t allowed.  I don’t think there’s much in the way of mountains we could climb between here and the ocean either.  At least I don’t know of any.  So maybe it doesn’t make sense to go any farther than this, though I am curious.  Galbraith Lake and Lake Benchmark Mountain are as far N as I’d planned for us to go, so this is probably it.  We are already a few miles N of both of them.

I see.  So we’re just going to take this short Stroll to the North Slope Knoll, oooh and aaah a bit looking at whatever we can see of the North Slope from there, then turn around and come right back?

Eh, yeah, guess that’s about the size of it.  So, come on, let’s do it.  We have bigger fish to fry after your Stroll to the North Slope Knoll, too.

The Stroll to the North Slope Knoll was a marvelous journey!  Learned something right away.  Where the tundra was yellow and gold, the ground was boggy and wet.  Where reddish and pale green plants were dominant, small rocks and drier, firmer footing existed.  The tundra had way more yellow and gold on offer than reds and pale greens, but SPHP found ways to link up the reds and greens sufficiently to avoid getting wet feet.  Lupe sniffed and played wherever she pleased, unconcerned by such trifles as wet paws.

The tundra also harbored large mushrooms, many more than half a foot in diameter.  They weren’t super common, but it wasn’t necessary to look long before finding one, either.

The North Slope Knoll turned out to be more like 0.33 mile from the G6, not 0.25 mile.  Even so, the strange, incredible sensation of walking as far N as one ever would was over all too soon.

The knoll wasn’t all that perceptible even standing there right on it.  The rise was almost a figment of SPHP’s imagination, amounting to little more than a short ridge only a few feet high.  This was it, though.  Likely as far N in the world as Lupe and SPHP would ever be.

A patch of green next to a barely medium-sized rock seemed to be as high as anything else.  That rock would do.  It could be the official endpoint of the Stroll to the North Slope Knoll.  Naturally, congratulations were in order.  SPHP shook Lupe’s paw, praising her for reaching the North Slope of Alaska beyond the Brooks Range.

The views of the North Slope were beautiful.  Rolling tundra, small lakes, big hills.  In the distance, small mountains.  All empty and pristine, as if humanity’s teeming billions didn’t exist.  The world looking as it always had for eons, yet for how much longer?  A blink of an eye?  A depressing thought, but only SPHP’s.  To the American Dingo the world looked as it should, completely normal.

Lupe and SPHP returned to the G6 energized and enthusiastic!  (10:58 AM, 40°F)  The Stroll to the North Slope Knoll, though short, had been an amazing, fun experience to remember always.  Now it was time for Lupe to make an attempt on Lake Benchmark Mountain, the mountain at the far N end of the Brooks Range she had come so far to climb.

Feeling sad, SPHP drove S on the Dalton Highway.  If the sky would clear up for a little while this afternoon, Lupe should have a tremendous view of Alaska’s North Slope from Lake Benchmark Mountain.  However, she would never again actually be out on the North Slope, and as far N as she had just been at the little knoll.

After crossing the bridge over the Atigun River, SPHP parked the G6 at a large parking lot on the W side of the Dalton Highway.  Lupe would start for Lake Benchmark Mountain (5,000 ft.) from here.  (11:32 AM, 42°F)

Lupe started out by crossing the Dalton Highway bridge back over to the N bank of the Atigun River.  She continued N on the highway to a side road that went E to the Alaska oil pipeline service road.

Following the oil pipeline service road is always fun and easy!  Lupe had a good time racing around on the tundra nearby, while SPHP stuck to the road going N.

A beautiful, high rounded ridge was NE of the Alaska oil pipeline.  That ridge was the way to Lake Benchmark Mountain.  After 0.5 mile, Lupe and SPHP left the pipeline service road to start climbing.  The lower and upper slopes of the ridge were spongy, boggy, and full of tussocks.  Only the steepest part of the ridge was relatively dry.  Lupe followed a long ravine containing a small stream as she climbed NE.

SPHP marched steadily upward while Lupe ran happily exploring the wide open spaces.  Once in a while, the Carolina Dog roamed so far away she was completely out of sight.  SPHP had to call her back then lest she decide the life of the wild Dingo was for her.  Meanwhile, the views of Galbraith Lake and the Atigun River back to the S and W were becoming increasingly impressive.

Lupe went on beyond the end of the stream.  The slope of the ridge was gradually diminishing, but Lupe never came to any definite ridgeline.  She was wandering up an enormous slope that kept going higher.  The whole place was spongy, boggy tundra, full of tussocks.

A big hill was ahead at the far N end of the ridge.  SPHP believed this hill was either part of Lake Benchmark Mountain or would lead to it, but wanted to get a view of the territory E of here in order to confirm that opinion.  Although Loop went NE for what seemed like a long way, she never did get to a viewpoint.  She just kept going higher and higher.

Before Lupe got high enough to see anything to the E, clouds and fog blew in out of the W.  Hopefully they were temporary phenomena.  Looper was looking forward to a glorious panoramic view of the North Slope from the top of Lake Benchmark Mountain.

The fog made it certain Lupe wasn’t going to be able to get a view to the E now.  She gave up on that idea, and headed straight for the big hill at the end of the ridge.

Fog completely took over.  The hill Lupe was heading for disappeared.  So did everything else except immediately surrounding terrain.  SPHP used occasional large isolated boulders to help keep Loop aimed in the right direction, sighting along them to the next boulder the American Dingo should head for.

Lupe reached the base of the hill, and began to climb more steeply.  She went up a series of rocky ramps and benches.  Although Lupe still came to patches of vegetation, overall this was much firmer ground free of the bogs and tussocks present lower down on the big ridge.  SPHP had a far easier time here, despite the greater angle of ascent.

Partway up the hill, Lupe came to a level area where there was more vegetation again.  By now a cold rain had started in.  Suddenly Loop wasn’t having as much fun as before.

SPHP started becoming concerned about what little could be seen.  A substantial cliff dropped into a gray abyss along the NE side of this level area.  According to the topo map, it shouldn’t have been there.  It most certainly was, though.  To the NW, the hill went still higher, but nothing at all could be seen to the E except more fog.

That cliff was bothersome.  It couldn’t be reconciled with the topo map at all, if Lupe was actually on her way up Lake Benchmark Mountain.  SPHP was beginning to suspect maybe Lupe was too far W.  Who could tell, though, in this rain and fog?

May as well check out the rest of the hill to the NW.  Lupe climbed two higher ridges.  She wasn’t at the top of anything significant yet.  All she could see was another two even higher ridges farther up the slope.  The highest ridge was shaped vaguely like what Lake Benchmark Mountain’s summit ought to look like, but hardly any detail could be seen.  How much higher was it?  SPHP guessed maybe 500 or 600 vertical feet.

The rain, which had slackened up for a little bit, now turned to snow.  The snow wasn’t sticking yet, but added to SPHP’s growing sense of uneasiness.  Lupe wasn’t uneasy.  She was just getting plain old wet, cold and miserable.

Wandering around up on mountains at the N end of Alaska’s Brooks Range in rain and snow with almost no visibility?  Maybe this was getting just a little too stupid.  SPHP asked Loopster if she wanted to go back to the G6?  The American Dingo gave her most ecstatic, enthusiastic response possible.

A bitter defeat, but there seemed to be no sensible alternative.  Dang weather, anyway!  How long had it been since Lupe had seen a truly sunny day now?  Seemed like forever ago.  Every day it was dodging clouds and rain.  Lupe and SPHP headed WSW, starting back down.

Lupe hadn’t lost much elevation yet when suddenly a break appeared in the clouds.  Galbraith Lake was in sight!  Out came the topo map for comparison with the lake to try to get reoriented again.  SPHP quickly became convinced Lupe wasn’t on Lake Benchmark Mountain at all.  She was somewhere on the upper S slopes of Peak 4700!  She was indeed a mile too far W, as SPHP had begun to suspect a while back.

While SPHP was still pondering the implications of this discovery, the sky cleared off to the NW, too.  Lupe could clearly see several high points over that way.  Another review of the topo map convinced SPHP that Peak 4700 was really the next peak over to the WNW.  In that case, Lupe actually was somewhere on Lake Benchmark Mountain.

The views disappeared again as another batch of clouds plunged the hill Lupe was on back into fog.  Still, the brief break in the weather had been encouraging.  Maybe conditions were beginning to improve?  The hasty decision to return to the G6 was rescinded.  Lupe and SPHP set off back up whatever hill or mountain this was.

The climb to the top wasn’t nearly as far as the fog had made it seem.  After gaining only 200 to 250 feet of elevation, Lupe was approaching a line of boulders on what appeared to be part of a summit ridge.  Looper scrambled up a gap between boulders.  A survey pin could be seen only 20 feet away to the E!  Hopes soared that maybe Lupe had just stumbled upon Lake Benchmark?

No, there wasn’t a benchmark, just a survey pin.  Looper and SPHP searched the tops of the highest boulders along the ridgeline.  Nothing.  The top of the survey pin was clearly stamped “Coronary Apsoo No. 4”.  Clear alright.  Clear as mud.  Meant absolutely nothing to SPHP.  It may as well have been Chinese.

Apparently Coronary Apsoo No. 4 meant “Go to the obviously higher point so close by that you can even see it through the fog, dummy!”  Nothing else really sprang to mind.  So after drawing a blank by this first survey pin, Lupe and SPHP headed NE on a short easy ridge walk to a noticeably higher point nearby.

The next high point appeared to be the top of the mountain.  The summit area wasn’t huge but was plenty big enough to wander around a bit.  No survey benchmark could be found up here, either, only another survey pin stamped with an equally cryptic message.

Lupe must be at the top of either Lake Benchmark Mountain or Peak 4700, but which was it?  Lupe stood in the rain while SPHP tried to work it out.  A slightly lower narrow rock ridge was in view to the E or SE, but didn’t look nearly large enough or long enough to be Lake Benchmark Mountain’s E ridge.  A short distance to the N was a subpeak nearly as high as where Lupe was.  That didn’t look right either.

On a sunny day, there wouldn’t have been any question where Lupe was.  It appeared more and more that she might well be at the top of Peak 4700.  However, if this was actually Lake Benchmark Mountain, there ought to be a “Lake” survey benchmark back somewhere along the line of boulders near the first Coronary Apsoo No. 4 survey pin.  Looper returned to the pin and once more searched diligently along the line of boulders.  Nothing.

One last thing to try.  Loop and SPHP returned to the mountain’s summit, then continued over to the N subpeak.  Nope.  Not a thing here either.  So this was almost certainly Peak 4700.  Due to the fog, Lupe had climbed the wrong mountain!

The heavy mist turned to snow.  Sheesh!  Better head down.

Lupe lost 200 feet of elevation.  The snow quit again.  Already it wasn’t as foggy as higher up.  Maybe Looper should angle SE hoping to catch a glimpse of Lake Benchmark Mountain?  Seemed like a reasonable course of action.

Going down the ramps and benches, Lupe started to discern the faint foggy outline of some big hill off to the E.  Lake Benchmark Mountain?  Seemed like it had to be.  The Carolina Dog reached the fairly level area she had been to on the way up Peak 4700.  She headed E near the cliff to the NE.  Yes!  No mistake.  Lake Benchmark Mountain was in view!

Wow, there was still a pretty big elevation drop between here and there!  At least it wasn’t as foggy out as earlier.  The really good news was that what could be seen of Lake Benchmark Mountain looked climbable.  Just a really big, fairly steep hill, but no worse than that.

Now or never!  By the time Looper had worked her way down Peak 4700’s long SE ridge to a wide boggy flats leading to Lake Benchmark Mountain, she had lost 600 feet of elevation.  She would have to regain it all plus another 200 feet to reach Lake Benchmark’s summit.

The climb was definitely steeper than Peak 4700 had been.  The lower slope was easy.  As things became steeper, lanes of vegetation leading up scree covered slopes helped.  Lupe eventually reached areas of nothing but scree.  Fortunately she had already regained a ton of elevation by then.

By the time the slope of the mountain moderated, Lupe was pretty high.  She was back into fog, and it was snowing.  The snow was starting to stick.  A series of wide, relatively level areas covered with vegetation ran roughly E/W in long strips.  These strips of land were separated by minor slopes or ridges, which presented walls of rock or lines of boulders in some areas, although it was always possible to go around them.

Lupe followed each of these vegetated bands some distance E before turning N and climbing up to the next one.  The climbs were short and never difficult.

After crossing several of these vegetated bands and climbing to higher ones, Lupe was faced with a more formidable, longer wall of rock.  Was that the summit ridge?  It certainly seemed possible.  The Carolina Dog traveled E below the wall of rock until she reached a place where it was possible to scramble up.  Nope.  Not the summit.  Off to the NE was an even higher rounded hill.

Lupe could get up on that rounded hill easily enough!  She went right to it and was soon on top.  Poking around a collection of rocks at the high point revealed nothing.  Then suddenly, there it was!  Lower down, a little farther E, some sort of survey marker was sticking up from a loosely assembled modest cairn.  Was it true?  Was that it?

Oh, yeah!  This was it!  Lupe had found the really, truly, genuine Lake Benchmark.  Celebration time!

Although finding the Lake Benchmark was cause for joy and undeniable proof that Lupe was actually on the right mountain this time around, the survey benchmark was not quite at the top of the mountain.  The topo map showed an elevation of 4,928 feet here.  However, it also showed a small area within a 5,000 foot contour not too far away to the E.

If Lupe wanted to claim a peakbagging success, she needed to go find that higher ground where the true summit of Lake Benchmark Mountain had to be.  After going through all this miserable weather and climbing the wrong mountain, the Most High Exalted Dingo of the Arctic Sisterhood most certainly did want to claim a peakbagging success here, too!  Whether she could see anything or not!

So after congratulations and a brief celebration at the actual Lake survey benchmark, Lupe and SPHP headed E along a relatively narrow level ridge looking for the summit.

Joy turned to dismay.  Loop hadn’t gone far, when up ahead, ghostly rock formations appeared in the fog.  They looked potentially unclimbable for the American Dingo.

SPHP’s fears were unjustified.  Lupe reached the summit area to find massive boulders and a wall of rock, but open lanes existed providing her an easy scramble to the top.  And just like that, Lupe was there, perched at the undeniable summit of Lake Benchmark Mountain (5,000 ft.)!  Oh, happy day!

The summit was a knob of rock perhaps 20 feet long and 5 feet wide.  The S side of this knob was a solid rock wall 6 to 8 feet high next to a level patch of tundra.  To the N, the knob sloped steeply away toward a chasm of undetermined depth.  Of course, standing up there in light rain and fog, Lupe could see none of the glorious view of the North Slope that she had come so far to see, and would have had on a clear day.

Lake Benchmark Mountain was a grand peakbagging success for the Carolina Dog, but a complete scenic fail.  That really was a shame, since Lake Benchmark Mountain was likely destined to be the northernmost peak Loopster would ever climb in her whole life, and the views ought to have been spectacular.

At least Loop had gotten to see the North Slope this morning on her Stroll to the North Slope Knoll.  Better yet, yesterday evening she had arrived at a fantastic, magical moment to see it for the first time ever when there was rain and sunshine and rainbows and a sea of gold out there.  Still would have been fantastic to see the North Slope from up here, but that’s the way it goes.

With no views, and no real hope of seeing them anytime today, there wasn’t much point in hanging around up here in the chilly rain for long.  Shaking her cold, wet paw and trying to make her achievement sound as grand as possible, SPHP congratulated Lupe on her Dingo persistence and ultimate success in getting to the top of Lake Benchmark Mountain.  Lupe loved the attention, but looked rather miserable.

Lupe was ready to go.  A mere 10 minutes after arriving, Lupe and SPHP began the descent.  By the ghostly rocks, Loop paused for a final look back.

The rocky apparitions vanished from sight almost as soon as Lupe left them.  She would never see them again.

Going back down the bands again was pretty easy.  SPHP had built a cairn on the way up to help mark the route, but Loop didn’t come across it.  It started snowing again for a little while, but turned to rain lower down on the steeper scree slopes.

For 10 minutes, the clouds lifted a bit.  Lupe could see the Atigun River 2,000 feet lower at the bottom of a deep valley to the S.  Off to the SW, where it was still foggy, the fog had a strange brownish tinge.  It looked like smoke.  Smoke?  How could that possibly be?  SPHP puzzled for a moment or two, before the fog thinned.

That wasn’t smoke!  That was the golden boggy tundra way down there on the big ridge Lupe had come up at the start.  Loop was going the right way.  She was heading straight for it.

The fog returned.  The big boggy ridge seemed endless.  It rained the whole time.  For a while, Lupe trudged along sopping wet and depressed at SPHP’s heels.  Finally, something caught her interest.  The Carolina Dog was off like a shot.  Despite the rain, she ran great distances.  Loop was having fun again!  She ran and sniffed the rest of the way.

At last, Lupe was far enough down to get below the clouds.  Galbraith Lake came back into view.  The Dalton Highway and Alaska oil pipeline were down there, too.

Wouldn’t be too long now before Looper was warm and dry, snoozing snugly beneath her blankie with a full belly.  Lupe never would see that glorious view of the North Slope from Lake Benchmark Mountain, but she had been up there.  She had stood at the very top of a mountain at the N end of the Brooks Range in northern Alaska.  Not many Dingoes can say that.  (7:29 PM)

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Lupe in the SCREE! – the Mountaineering Club of Alaska’s monthly newsletter & the story of Henry Pinkham

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