Going Solo: Freedom

Standing atop a minor summit straddling an unnamed and out-of-the-way pass. It was not a remarkable peak, but there was a reasonable possibility I was the first person to climb it, which made it basically Everest to me.

"But if you judge safety to be the paramount consideration in life you should never, under any circumstance, go on long hikes alone. Don't take short hikes either--or, for that matter, go anywhere alone. And avoid at all costs such foolhardy activities as driving, falling love, or inhaling air that is almost certainly riddled with deadly germs."

-- Fletcher & Rawlins, The Complete Walker IV

I hadn't decided to embark on this adventure alone simply because I was a friendless misanthrope.

Soloing offers a level of freedom far exceeding that which you'll get on an organized tour, trek with friends, or even with just a single companion.

Every decision was mine to make, with no consideration beyond basic wilderness care but to my own pleasure. I could hike until I was dead on my feet, or decide that a day was for resting and contemplating the literally awesome wild beauty I was immersed in.

See the Unheard-of Weyahok Falls!

On the third day I had just begun experimenting with my packraft on the Weyahok river. It was shallow but exciting. As a named river, I could only assume that people had at least traveled along it, but the only reference I could find to this high tributary of the Alatna was a single geologic survey from the late seventies that told me nothing except of the mineral deposits I might find there (basically that there were none). As for packrafting, or any water travel, there was nothing.

On the map, it looked similar to the headwaters of the Alatna, so I assumed it would be low and it was. But I approached it with caution: I had basically no experience with white water rafting (the closest I'd come was floating down the White River of Vermont on an inner tube a few weeks earlier.) And while the map didn't seem to indicate anything like dangerous rapids or waterfalls, as I mentioned earlier, the contours of the map left room for doubt.

After about an hour out, I had traveled a few exciting miles and was fairly soaked from a combination of the turbulent water, my own inexperience with the craft, and a brief attempt to operate my waterproof camera while paddling. I considered taking a lunch break to see how the gear in my pack was faring.

My picture doesn't really do it justice, but I guessed the falls were about sixty feet from  drop-off to bottom.

At that moment, I happened to look right and caught sight of an impressive waterfall nestled into one of the narrow side valleys. I made the immediate decision to stop and make camp to  check it out up close. After lunch (and taking a short nap in my tent during a brief rain shower), I spent the afternoon hiking to the falls, then up to the valley it flowed from. I followed it as far toward its source as seemed prudent. As I worked my way back, I spent some time observing caribou, until they became aware of my presence.

This sort of experience would have been impossible to have as part of an organized group trip. For one thing, tour organizers understandably avoid planning trips through areas that they nothing about. For another, it either wouldn't be on the itinerary or the itinerary would have been built around it ("Day 4: Lunch at Weyahok Falls, 2 hours. Please be back at the boats by 1pm at the latest."). There would not be the opportunity for the spontaneous decision that exploring a newly spotted feature was more important than completing the twelve mile route prescribed for that day.

Even with a single other person, by the time one of us had seen the falls and we'd both managed to beach our rafts to take a better look, we probably would be another half-mile down river and one of us might feel it wasn't worth the bother to bushwhack back.

Most of us, even the loners, spend our time surrounded by other people and our choices are circumscribed by considerations for them. In a rare span of time where I was truly alone, I welcomed the opportunity to exercise a freedom of movement seldom enjoyed.

Sometimes I don't want to be nice and share. Here, I got to hog all the beauty to myself.