We arrive back at camp still in sunshine at 10:45 pm and sleep hard until 5 am.

August 5, 2009

Walt had the coffee ready by 5:15 am on this 50 degree morning. After a hot sausage and egg breakfast we head east towards the unmanned Kelly Ranger station at the base of a wooded hill a mile distant, fording one of the braids of the Noatak on the way.

The group became excited when, approaching the wooded bench where the cabin sits chickadees were heard, then seen in the spruce between the river and the cabin. Despite the fact that they turned out to be boreal chickadees (the more common chickadee here)