I woke up on Sunday morning at 7:30am to begin preparations for this trip. I took some basic survival things, extra clothes, and extra food. Unlike most snowmobiling in the lower 48, snowmobiling on the YK Delta can be dangerous. There is no managed trail system, everything is maintained by the local people. When trailing overland on an “established” trail, you typically follow a line of stick tripods with reflective tape on the tops. In bad weather conditions, these are easy to lose and get yourself turned around. However, when traveling on the river, things can be trickier. Ice conditions change rapidly so what might have been a good trail the previous day is now covered in overflow. There is a road that cars and trucks follow when driving on the river, which is marked by large willow branches stuck in the ice. But on this trip, I was going past the ice road for the first time.
I met up with Mike and Alisha and we hooked the sled to the back of my snowmachine. This was also the first time I got to use the hitch on my machine. We packed it with our gear and extra gas. When filled it was pretty damn heavy but even still, those 120 horses had no problem pulling it around. Mike rode on the back of Alisha's machine since it's a 2-seater and mine isn't. Originally it was going to be just me and Mike. But last minute Alisha got her snowmachine up and running, so she joined us. This was nice since I didn't have to spoon with Mike for 3 hours on a bumpy trail. However, we did worry that perhaps her snowmachine would break down, which would really suck.
Finally we get out on the river. Perhaps I didn't notice it earlier, but when we actually got on the river I noticed that it was very foggy. It wasn't so bad that you couldn't see in front of you, but it was bad enough that you could easily lose sight of the shoreline if the trail went too far toward the middle of the river. At one point, the river road for trucks turned up a tributary of the Kuskokwim river, the Johnson river. We followed the road for a while but then realized we were going the wrong way and quickly turned around and met up with the main trunk of the Kusko.
After the Johnson river, we followed snowmachine tracks that stayed near the shoreline. Basically, we knew that if you followed the western shoreline of the Kusko, there should be a used trail and that we should stick to the trail that looked most used. So we did. It was really cool following, by Michigan standards, a very light trail through the foggy wilderness. In fact, between the Johnson river and Tuntutuliak, on the trail, we didn't see a single other person. Also, did I mention that there was a nice thick layer of Horfrost (fog frost).
Then, abruptly, the trail turned toward the shore and we found ourselves on a land trail. This one was well defined, which means the path has pressed down the tundra significantly, which typically means it's an old trail. We followed the trail, which in turn followed, more or less, stick tripods with reflector tape. The trail went over and used as many lakes, rivers, and streams as possible, because they are always smoother than riding on the tundra. Sometimes the lakes can be very large and they mark the trail with willow branches. Since it was still foggy, we'd be cruising on a huge lake following willow branches and unable to see the shoreline. The whole experience was quite surreal, eerie, and comforting, all at the same time.
Eventually, 3 hours later, we noticed a large building to our left and figured that must be Tuntutuliak. As we approached we noticed that it was the airport so we followed a road back to the village. And by road, I mean raised wooden boardwalk on steel pilings road. We guess-worked our way through the house and finally came upon the school. We called the principle of the school, who met us outside and opened the conex which held our friends snowmachine. Now, if your wondering what a conex is, you are like me and have never heard of this word. One of the most interesting things about living in the Delta is that one of the most useful building structures are barge containers (a conex). They have the huge big rig doors and are sturdily made. People convert them into sheds and storage facilities all the time because they are so damn tough.
We got into the conex and in only 4 or 5 pulls got the machine up and running. It had been well kept and store properly so that was nice to see. It was a Ski Doo 550 Expedition; it was a nice machine and I couldn't believe how tight the turning radius was. My Yamaha turns like a fatty compared to that thing. But before we could leave, I wanted to adjust my track. I spent some time in a friends shop Saturday night adjusting the track and about halfway to Tunt I felt that my track wasn't in the proper alignment. My stock tool kit had all the proper tools but the wrench to loosen the rear axle nut was too short to get the proper leverage needed. Luckily, this little 4th grader, named Jesse, was hanging around telling us how cool our machines were. We asked him to go ask his dad for a longer 19mm wrench. He returned speedily with the right tool and then proceeded to help us lift my snowmachine onto a plank of wood so as to lift the track off the ground. The four of us then ate lunch in the conex to escape the cold and wind. Without the help from our little friend, fixing my track would have been a much longer and painful problem.
As we geared up to leave Tunt, the sun very suddenly burned the fog away. This made the ride back to Bethel feel like an entirely different and new adventure. This time, we got to see everything the fog had previously concealed. The veiled landscape from before was revealed to be one of flat, frost laced beauty. The near nothingness was grand. As always on a trip like this, the ride back feels much shorter than the ride there. I didn't really think about it until the ride back but I travel the whole way to Tunt and back with my visor open. It struck me that our entire ride had been a pretty warm one.
(Turn Volume DOWN/OFF)
That morning we left around 10am and we arrived back in Bethel around 6pm or so. The whole trip was a great experience and we successfully brought back our friends snowmachine. We all learned how to get to Tuntutuliak. I learned how to adjust and tighten my track. I also reached 500 miles on my machine so I'm bringing it in on Wednesday for it's initial service. After that, the engine is pretty well considered broken in. All in all, this was an ending to a very successful and wonderful weekend.
