Fifty Days Living off the Land in the Brooks Range

October 15, 2024 by Bjorn Dihle

Note to readers: The Brooks Range is the most impressive stretch of wild country left in North America. It is unforgiving, hungry country that has swallowed experienced outdoorsmen. Buck Nelson has made plenty of epic and unique solo adventures in tough landscapes and spent years considering and planning this trip. If you’re planning an excursion in the Brooks, Nelson joins us in cautioning you to do your utmost to be prepared, be safe, and be realistic about the challenges you could potentially face.

For many, a trip to the Brooks Range is an adventure of a lifetime. Stretching from Canada in the east to near the Chukchi Sea in the west, it is Alaska’s most arctic mountain range. Buck Nelson, a retired smokejumper who has called Alaska home for more than 40 years, has made more than twenty trips to the Brooks. This last summer he made good on a longtime dream of going there and living off the land.

This wasn’t his first long stint living off the land in the backcountry — in 2014, Nelson spent 70 days doing so in Southeast Alaska’s Admiralty Island. This time around he planned to spend 50 days foraging, fishing, and hunting in the Arctic before using a packraft to paddle out to meet a plane.

“I wanted a challenge,” Nelson said. “I was familiar with the Brooks Range ecosystem and knew that food sources would be limited, but there were still some surprises.”

Into the Arctic Wild

On July 20, 2024, Nelson flew into a small river in the western Brooks Range. He brought no food, stove, hatchet, or canner, the latter of which was instrumental during his time on Admiralty Island. He brought the bare minimum of gear and clothing. His one luxury was salt and pepper. For getting food, he brought along a fly rod, a shotgun, and a plant guidebook called, Plants That We Eat: Nauriat Nigiñaqtaut – From the traditional wisdom of the Iñupiat Elders of Northwest Alaska.

This trip was quite different from most of Nelson’s adventures. More often, he covers lots of country, like when he traversed the entire length of the Brooks Range in 2006. This time, he got to know just a few square miles while searching for food. Fish — primarily grayling and char and, to a lesser extent, chum and pink salmon — were his most important food source.

Since Nelson camped near a salmon stream, he knew there would be a lot of grizzly bears using the area. Bears messed up his cooking area and solar panel, which he used for charging camera gear. On two occasions, they ran at him but veered off before making contact.

“It was exciting, but I don’t think either bear was actually trying to get me,” Nelson said.

He brought a shotgun in the hopes of hunting grouse, ptarmigan, and waterfowl. He saw plenty of ducks and geese until the season opened; then didn’t see any within range. As luck would have it, he didn’t see a single ptarmigan or grouse. So game birds were never on the menu. Nelson did enjoy plenty of blueberries and cloudberries and some crowberries, bearberries, cranberries, and nagoon berries.

Weight Loss

During the first weeks, Nelson dropped around twenty pounds. His rapid weight loss did not alarm him. From past trips, particularly from lessons garnered from Admiralty Island, he understood his weight loss would level off.

“Your body learns to adjust. Initially, you are just shedding all the pizza weight you got from town,” Nelson said.

Having chosen to leave behind his canner, he could not keep meat for more than a day or two. This prevented him from ever having a surplus of fish. While he was not approaching starvation, he was not able to gain back any of the weight he had rapidly lost at the beginning.

“I never had preserved fish for lean times but, thankfully, it was an incredible blueberry year, so I always had something to eat,” Nelson said.

Heavy Rain

In August, it began pouring rain and things became significantly more challenging. On average, the region gets just 12 inches of rain annually. Nelson estimates it rained 13 inches in two weeks. The Arctic landscape, with permafrost just below the surface, does not absorb rain well. Overnight, rivers and creeks can rise several feet and go from trickles to flood state. Nelson was unable to catch fish for a week and had to subsist on berries, roots, and leaves.

One of the more interesting foods he learned to forage for was Eskimo potatoes. He had noticed several areas where grizzlies had dug the roots along the river gravel bars. Consulting his plant guidebook, he learned that the bears were digging for Eskimo potatoes. A source of vitamin C, protein, and fiber, the “potato” roots offered an important addition to Nelson’s diet.

41 Days Alone

Nelson hoped to spend all 50 days without seeing another person, but on the 41st day he ran into two anglers.

“After I told them how long I had been out, they said something to the effect of, ‘Man, I bet you’re glad to see us.’ They were nice guys. I didn’t tell them the truth,” Nelson said.

The short Arctic autumn arrived swiftly, turning the tundra red and the willow leaves gold. During summer, there is no night in the Arctic. Now, the hours of darkness grew longer each night. Winter was not far off. Nelson met his goal of 50 days of living off the land and, on September 9, 2024, he inflated his packraft, loaded up his gear, and began the paddle to where he would fly out.

The Proposed Ambler Road

Nelson says people frequently ask if his epic trips provide him with any epiphanies. He’s not sure he’s garnered any that will solve any of life’s many mysteries, but he encourages people to “make hay while the sun shines” and make a dream trip a reality.

“It’s always easy to find an excuse not to go,” Nelson said.

Nelson does have a big takeaway specific to the Brooks Range. He sees the proposed Ambler Road as a threat to this area, its wildlife, and opportunities for future generations to adventure, fish, and hunt. If built, the Ambler Road would be a 211-mile private industrial corridor across the southern Brooks Range, with its only aim being the development of an unknown number of open-pit mines.

“It would cut through the middle of one of the greatest remaining wilderness areas in the United States,” said Nelson. “I could not have had an experience like I just had if the Ambler Road were built. That project would amount to the loss of such a wide swath of wilderness. Wilderness is what makes Alaska, Alaska.”

There are several rivers the planned road would cross that Nelson hopes to paddle someday. He points out that the road would affect a lot more acreage than it lies on. For the sake of future hunters, anglers, and dreamers, Nelson does not mince his words when he expresses his feelings about the Brooks Range.

“This wilderness belongs to us all. We must preserve these last, best places.”

Check out Nelson’s adventures, videos, and books at bucktrack.com.