This Arctic canoeing trip takes us to the boreal forest in Alaska's Kobuk Valley National Park when fall colors have turned the landscape on fire, the insects are long past, and wildlife is on the move. Rising from the south flank of Alaska's Brooks Range, in Gates of the Arctic National Park, the Kobuk (“Big River” in Inupiaq) is an unusually transparent and placid river with deep oxbow bends and excellent fishing. The Kobuk River is one of the major rivers of northwestern Alaska. It drains an area of 11,980 square miles and is about 350 miles long. Cradled within the Baird and Waring Mountains, the river flows through an unglaciated Pleistocene landscape. The ambience of this gentle valley with its open lichen woodland, broad stretches of steppe-like tundra and fade green waters, blends intimately with a long and rich human history.
For over 12,000 years, the valley has pulsed with successive waves of hunter-gathers migrating between Asia and America. The bison and mammoth of old are gone, replaced by caribou, moose, grizzly and black bear, wolf, fox, and an abundance of birdlife. The Kobuk River supports migratory runs of salmon, sheefish, and char, as well as northern pike and grayling. The Kuuvangmiit, “People of the Kobuk,” continue to glean traditional subsistence needs from the valley.
The Kobuk River supports world-class runs of sheefish, largest freshwater fish in the Alaska's arctic by far. The "tarpon of the North" is legendary for its fighting ability. Surely it is one of the most unique fish in North America, reaching lengths of up to 34 inches.
We've timed our trip to take advantage of the migration of the Western Arctic caribou herd. Up to 500,000 caribou head south from their summer feeding grounds, gathering in small herds as the swim across the Kobuk. We hope to stop at Onion Portage an ancient bend in the river that has been used for thousands of years. More than 70 distinct stratified cultural layers document 12,500 years of human encampments, making it one of the most important archaeological sites in North America. Although it falls within the borders of the park, Onion Portage is Inupiat-owned subsistence land.
We paddle the river's mid-section through the Kobuk Valley. Here, the river is wide, slow-moving and clear, and its banks and bottom are sandy. We explore the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, 25-square-mile sand dunes created by the grinding action of ancient glaciers and transported into the Kobuk Valley by wind and water. Dunes now cover much of the southern portion of the Kobuk Valley, where they are naturally stabilized by vegetation. River bluffs, composed of sand and standing as high as 150 feet, hold permafrost ice wedges and the fossils of Ice Age mammals. The Little Kobuk Sand Dunes and the Hunt River Sand Dunes cover other sections of the Valley.
Trees approach their northern limit in the Kobuk Valley, where boreal forest and arctic tundra meet. Large expanses of tundra cover the valley in some locations, while forests cover the better-drained portions. In some places sparse stands of spruce, birch, and poplar grow above a thick ground cover of lichens (reindeer moss). Sand created by the grinding action of glaciers (mostly during the Pleistocene) has been carried to the valley by wind and water. Large sand dunes lie on the south side of the Kobuk River. These are the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, the ittle Kobuk Sand Dunes in the southeastern part of the park; and the Hunt River Sand Dunes.
For additional information about this little-known park and its natural features, check out these sites.
We paddle sturdy, yet portable canoes through the Kobuk River Valley. Schedules are cast to the wind. We paddle when we feel like it, fish when we find good spots, hike as often as we can, and eat and sleep when we're tired. The Kobuk is a perfect introductory river to the Brooks Range and Alaska's subarctic boreal forest.
