Planned Itinerary
June 10: Leave Seattle, arrive Deadhorse, Alaska. Deadhorse is the town that supports Prudhoe Bay. I'll be doing two tours. One will be a brief tour to see the Arctic Ocean. The other is an oilfield tour of nearby Prudhoe Bay.

June 12: Leave Deadhorse, arrive Fairbanks. Meet with guide and two other group members for Caribou Basecamp trip. Overnight in Fairbanks.

June 13: Leave Fairbanks, arrive Arctic Village. Meet with bush pilot and fly in two groups out to the Aichilik River. The Aichilik River drains into the coastal plain of the refuge and what's known as the "1002 Lands." The 1002 area is where oil companies want to drill. The 1002 area is the biological heart of the entire refuge. This is where the 130,000-member Porcupine River caribou herd come to give birth. It's the largest on-shore denning area of the Beaufort Sea polar bear population. More than 180 bird species use the coastal plain to nest and rest during migration.

June 13-19: Basecamp on the Aichilik River. Hope to see some of the Porpcupine caribou herd migration.

June 20-28: Bush plane picks us up and takes us to the headwaters of the Kongakut River, another major drainage into the coastal plain. We'll meet up with one other guide and 5 new group members for a combination raft/hike trip.

June 28: Fly by bush pland back to Arctic Village and then on to Fairbanks.

June 29-30: Two days in Fairbanks. Possibly visit the natural history museum at the University of Alaska. Possibly talk to officials with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Fairbanks, the managers of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

July 1: Leave Fairbanks, arrive Seattle.