7/22/18 Mileage: 23 66 miles paddled The sun is beating directly on my tent at 10pm when I'm trying to go to sleep, turning it into an oven. Ah, this is the arctic I was expecting. I lay naked on my neo air with my shirt over my face, drifting in and out of sleep, … Continue reading Noatak river paddle day 4: rapids

7/21/18 Mileage: 26 43 miles paddled I have the wild dreams characteristic of my deepest outdoors sleep and wake up dehydrated but happy. I must try and drink more water today. The boats are where we left them on the beach; we have them all packed up and ready to shove off by 9:30. We … Continue reading Noatak river paddle day 3: faster

7/20/18 Mileage: 17 A cold grey dimness, a sort of precursor to full dark, has returned to the wee hours of the arctic night and I notice this when I wake up to pee in my double gallon ziploc bag. I shiver a little as I empty the ziploc onto the tundra outside my vestibule. … Continue reading Noatak river paddle day 2: systems

7/19/18 Mileage: zero I wake at 7 a.m. at my friends Allison and AK's house in Fairbanks, Alaska. I slept in their 5 year-old's tiny twin bed under dinosaur blankets, because he was sleeping with them. Little kid rooms kind of freak me out for some reason, I can't really say why. I slept a … Continue reading Noatak river paddle day 1: why is it always like this

Bunny and I are in Fairbanks, Alaska. Tomorrow we fly back to the Arctic- from Fairbanks to Bettles on a small plane and then, on an even smaller plane, just big enough for the two of us, the pilot and our gear, we fly from Bettles to near the headwaters of the Noatak river in … Continue reading Back to the Arctic

UPDATE: Ordering has closed. All zines have shipped via media mail. Thanks everyone for your orders!! I made a zine yall! It's a 40 page, 20k word collection of some of my favorite trail writing I've ever done, and it comes with 10 small prints from the hikes contained therein! UPDATE: ORDERS HAVE CLOSED. Thanks … Continue reading Long Distance Hiking Zine #1

6/24/18 Mileage: 11 119 miles hiked I sleep well, more unafraid of bears while camping solo than I perhaps have ever been out here. I think I finally understand why people who do this traverse aren't concerned about the grizzlies. It's because of the rivers. Grizzlies are our fuzzy wuzzy best friends compared to these … Continue reading ANWR day 11: East Chandalar

6/23/18 Mileage: 7 108 miles hiked In the morning I work on my blog in my sleeping bag while the rain continues to fall, hoping that it stops; it doesn't seem to want to, though. I make tea in my vestibule and the stove tips over; luckily the stove tips AWAY from my shelter, spilling … Continue reading ANWR day 10: the whole world is either a swamp or a raging river

6/22/18 Mileage: 10 101 miles hiked I sleep wonderfully and wake to the hot sun (my tent was in the shade of the ridge for much of the night but then the sun moved in its circle above us) and go about my morning chores- drinking tea, eating granola in protein powder, pooping in the … Continue reading ANWR day 9: and then there was one

6/21/18 Mileage: 9 91 miles hiked I wake at 5 a.m. because I'm anxious; what if we can't make it across the Sheenjek? What if it's too fast and deep to cross where we reach it and we have to hike ten miles upstream towards its headwaters, then back down the other side? I have … Continue reading ANWR day 8: Sheenjek