4/10/98
Location: Ambler, Alaska
Temperature 21 degrees F
Wind 40 to 50 mph

(From Helen Thayer)

Today I spoke to forty junior high school students in the village of Ambler, located fifty miles above the Arctic Circle. I emphasized our plan to bring the four corners of the world into the classroom and the need for everyone to set goals, plan for success and be the very best we can be. I described places such as the Amazon, Sahara, American Desserts and Antarctica to them. They were open mouthed in awe to hear how different these places are to the very closed and local society they know here.

Most of these kids will never see the outside world. Their most often asked questions concern the many tribal cultures Bill and I have lived amongst in the Sahara, Amazon and New Zealand. They have a curiosity to know how other cultures live and cope with the modern world. These students have had little contact with the outside world, but they have many questions. Bill and I were delighted to speak to them; it is our personal goal to motivate and encourage kids of all cultures wherever we travel.

Here is some of what I told them about our recent days with the caribou.

When we arrived in Ambler, we had ice inside and outside of our boots; our snowshoes were one big layer of ice two inches thick. The chance to thaw and visit with other people has renewed our excitement! Already our year-long project has given us the opportunity to cross the Brooks Range from south to north. When we crossed Ivashak pass with the caribou, and looked ahead to the Cutler and Noatak River Valleys, the bad memories of our sleds tipping over on the tundra tussocks, and our thrashing through the willows from hell all the way up the Redstone River faded. They tell us here that they know of no one to have crossed the Brooks Range on foot via Ivashak Pass in the last twenty years-before then, only the miners had crossed it. So, I guess it's our caribou friends and us.

The early spring, with temperatures up and down erratically, is causing bad ice on the rivers-a lot of overflow and holes is making travel dangerous. The water flows through the holes and spreads over the ice. Sometimes we walked in two inches of water on top of the ice. Then when we left the river, the water inside and outside of our boots and on our snowshoes would freeze, and our feet would be like lumps of ice. Our sled runners also iced up, a real mess. We also ran the risk of falling through the ice as Bill did once already. It is too easy to be hurt or killed under these conditions. With a few more warm days, the bad ice could it impossible for a plane to land and we might have been trapped. This is the main reason we had to come south when we did.

Our next trek will take us North with the main herd. In June, we will return for calving on the North Slope. In August and September we join the big migration south from the North Slope back to the wintering grounds.

Helen and Bill Thayer