Derek's Adventure

For as long as I've known Derek, we've been on separate seasons. My winters are packed full of sled dogs and races and tours, and if I have a free day once a month, it's a good month. For Derek, his summers were his "go" time. For over 24 years, Derek has been a wildland firefighter with the last 22 years spent flying all over Alaska and seeing places that many people will never see. Sometimes I'll point at a spot on a map and look at its remoteness and say- we should explore there! To which he'll reply, "nah, that's just a bunch of black spruce and mosquitos but just right here, now that's country that I can't wait to get back and explore." While smokejumping allowed Derek to travel all over the state, it also completely consumed his life from about mid-February to early October. He'd get time off for his annual sheep hunt in early August, but otherwise he was tied to his job. Until this summer.

In April, Derek retired from smokejumping. In classic Derek form, he asked for no party or big celebration. Instead, he wanted to go explore the north slope of the Brooks Range. So that's what he did. For the last 10 days, Derek flew around the North Slope of the Brooks Range, getting the lay of the land and finding remote airstrips. He of course had his "little buddies" Jezzy and Sasha. They saw lots of wildlife- muskox, caribou, ptarmigan, porcupine, and grizzlies. They even had one encounter with a sow and older cubs that was a little too close for comfort. Luckily Jezzy and Sasha rely on their noses and not their eyesight, so they never spotted the trio, and Derek was able to back away without causing a scene. With a couple mornings of snow and a constant 10-15 mph wind, it wasn't exactly a beach vacation, but that's never been Derek's style anyway. I can't wait to join him on the next adventure!