Alaskan Dinosaur Expedition

A Tale To Tell

Aug. 1

It is here. My last morning, and I find myself dragging my feet. At breakfast, Roland tells us he has rarely seen a sky up here that compared to last night’s. My thoughts were that the sky reminded me of so many I had seen down in the 48, but all of those clouds, combined with the long sunset, worked well for producing our extraordinary show. It is a memory that will stay vivid in my mind for a long time to come. In fact I realize now that I was so captivated that I failed to get my camera to even attempt to photograph the sky.

After we loaded the boats, we headed downriver. I watched the bluffs, trying to get one last piece of information from them. Most of the trip was uneventful.

Downriver between Ocean Point and two prominent pingos, we spotted what appeared to be a large mass of yellowish-brown foam on the river. But for foam it was moving oddly. That’s because as we approached it the foam sprouted eyes, ears and a nose. We had come up on a young polar bear, perhaps 2 years old. It swam to the bank and ran up the small rise, stopping at the ridge to give us a perfect profile view of it before disappearing from sight. The sighting was so amazing that it was several minutes, it seemed, before any of us could speak. Unfortunately for the others, mine turned out to be the only functioning camera at the moment. But I, or perhaps it was my camera, soon became the most popular item in the boats.

The crew is now asking the same question: How can our sendoff get any better than it’s been? Breaking for lunch, we are still giddy. The weather begins to get heavier on us, but I’m not entirely sure it’s just the weather. The site of Nuiqsut again is gloomy. The trip really has come to an end, and I find myself rapidly approaching a foul mood.

At the boat launch area, Dave runs into a village elder that he knows and tells him of our polar bear encounter. News of our sighting beats us to the hotel, where we gather for warm drinks. The sighting was spectacular in itself, but I hadn’t fully appreciated its oddity; both Dave and Roland have never seen a polar bear that far inland, especially at this time of year. The villagers are excited by it as well. Those that know Dave seem to be having fun asking him if he knows the difference between a polar bear and a grizzly bear.

As we gathered at the hotel for dinner, the smell of the food begins to sink in. On the river I had felt like I was comfortable and well fed with the dry goods; I was content to keep going that way. But now as I see all this fresh, hot food here, it’s as if my stomach has awakened from a long sleep and is now demanding attention.

After dinner, the next step is a shower. Watching the dirt flow down the drain, I would almost swear I was seeing sand dunes form. It is numbing to be here again; slowly my mind and my body are releasing themselves into the comforts of this hotel.

I would still prefer to be on the river but now I am realizing how exhausted I am. We move on to a garage we are using for the next few days: I roll out my sleeping bag on a dirty wooden floor, and the smell of fuel is everywhere. But to be out of the wind and the rain and to be in a hard-sided structure … I feel as if I’m in a four-star hotel.