We started our trip by rafting for about half a mile and then pulling over to camp for 2 nights. The next day was followed by an all day hike in the mountains. We did 3 all day mountain hikes and after the first one I decided not to go for the extra weight of carrying my camera on the next 2. The major missed opportunity was when we flushed a beautiful Rock Ptarmigan with several new chicks ;) (sometimes the birds win). This shot shows a mountain glacier which forms the runoff for the nothern coastal plain rivers. These rivers are only open a few months of the year. A few weeks after the Hulahula was fully open the summer solstice had already passed. The channels these glacier runoffs form on the arctic tundra are variable and of unconstant depth. On day 9 we did a 4 hour portage from the Hulahula to the Okpilak River to try and give us a better shot at Arey Island. After getting to the Okpilak it looked too shallow to run so we had to regroup. Since it was already midnight we decided to camp in place and make supper. The next morning the guides called their home office in Juneau with a satellite phone and they sent up a bush plane from Kaktovik to scout it out for us. We talked to them on a ground to air radio and they said the west channel of the Okpilak looked good to the Arctic Ocean. We did some further scouting on the ground and thought the east channel gave us a better shot although it was shallow. So the 2 lightest of us half pulled and half paddled the raft while the other 3 of us hiked the last few miles to the Arctic Ocean.