"Around the middle of June I took a long trek in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with two female friends, Susan Hall and Kristin Janssen. We walked from the Arctic Coastal Plain to the Sheenjek River on the south side of the Brooks Range. During our hike we saw many different species of wildlife including wolves, Dall sheep, gyrfalcons, whimbrels, caribou and grizzly bears. Once more than 500 bull caribou in full velvet walked right below our tents. They were so close we could hear

the clicking of their heels. Early the next morning a grizzly almost walked into our camp as I was just getting out of my tent. One afternoon we crept up on 45 male Dall sheep at a mineral lick and watched the two leaders bump horns for more than an hour to show who was the stronger. We were also there during the height of the wildflower season and counted more than 20 species in full bloom. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing for the first time in my life a bird called a Bluethroat which nests only in the Brooks Range. It winters in Africa, Iran and India, so is quite the travelin' bird!

I also took a couple of long canoe trips with my son Steven on two of Alaska's Wild and Scenic Rivers. While we were running some very rough white water on Birch Creek we took a spill and had to swim for our lives. We lost our kitchen utensils and for the next three days on the river we had to cook on rocks and an old piece of flattened chimney pipe. We had to use eighty year old rusty cans to heat our water in, and when they developed pin holes from the fire we had to wrap them with duct tape! It worked, and we survived.

I also flew down to Montana to visit some of my cousins and to meet Jen and Steven. After our visit we drove up the Alcan Highway together and back to our home in Fairbanks."