2010 Trips

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Sheenjek River Rafting in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

We're pleased to offer this trip on the 50th anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as a way of honoring and continuing the legacy of Olaus and Mardy Murie. The Muries were leaders of a pioneering scientific research expedition in the Sheenjek River valley in the summer of 1956, and they played a key role in the foresighted creation of what became the Arctic Natl. Wildlife Refuge, to protect this unique, vast arctic ecosystem.

The Sheenjek valley remains as beautiful today as it did when the Muries fell in love with it. The river meanders gently across the wide valley, surrounded by rolling mountain slopes covered with an incredible autumn carpet of reds and golds. On this south slope river, we encounter the northernmost edge of the spruce forest, and rich animal and bird life. Because of the great hiking opportunities and the beauty of the upper valley, we designed this trip as more of a "floating basecamp", rafting a relatively short section of the river, which allows for multiple layover days.

This relaxed pace also allows us to connect with the essence of wilderness which Mardy Murie expressed so eloquently in the introduction to her book Two in the Far North, first published in 1962:

"My prayer is that Alaska will not lose the heart-nourishing friendliness of her youth-that her people will always care for one another, her towns remain friendly and not completely ruled by the dollar-and that her great wild places will remain great, and wild and free, where wolf and caribou, wolverine and grizzly bear, and all the Arctic blossoms may live on in the delicate balance which supported them long before impetuous man appeared in the North. This is the great gift Alaska can give to the harassed world."

We'll travel through Arctic Village at both at the beginning and end of this trip.

Trip Details
We don’t have set “daily itineraries” since all of our trips are true wilderness expedition-style trips, where we build in flexibility to respond to weather and water conditions, animal sightings, etc. Here is a sense of the general flow of the trip:

Each trip leaves Fairbanks in the early morning of the trip start date, so you need to be in Fairbanks by at least the day before that. We're scheduled to be back in Fairbanks by late afternoon/early evening of the trip end date. We recommend leaving at least a day's leeway at the end of the trip in scheduling other travel plans, since there's always a chance of getting weathered in at the pickup point.

We’ll be doing a relatively short portion of the river on this trip, spending 2-3 days rafting down the river, with 3-6 hours a day on the water. There will be at least 4 layover days on this trip, where you can go for long or short day hikes or just relax in camp (not everyone has to do the same thing).