Art Chowder May | June, Issue 21 | Page 14

Art Chowder: Which destination was the most difficult to get to/work in? Linda: One would think the answer would be Antarctica as our 100-pas- senger ship endured 48-foot waves and wind gusts up to 126 mph crossing the Drake Passage. But, the canoe trip down the Noatak River in 2012 would be the most difficult. Located entirely north of the Arctic Circle, I paddled a canoe 459 miles from Gates of the Arctic National Park to Kotzebue, Alaska. The six of us in three canoes had no guide and no resupply. The three-and-a-half-week adventure, we were told, occurred during the coldest and wettest Alaskan August on record. But, I did get to see musk ox in the wild. Art Chowder: Nice. Ever have a close call with a large animal? Linda: Yes, more than once. Probably the most challenging one was up in Alaska when I did the Noatak canoe trip. I was alone, and ran into a grizzly bear. It was a two-year-old and probably on his own for the first time. He may have never seen another human before too, because we were in a really remote area. There were only six of us and with the strong wind at my back the five others back at camp couldn’t hear me. We hadn’t seen any grizzlies so I’d walked away from camp and wasn’t thinking anything of it, but from my time in polar bear country I know there are three important things to remember. 1) Make sure you’re upwind so they can smell you. 2) You want to be in a large group. 3) You want to be wearing bright colors so you don’t look like food. Well I was downwind, I was in camouflage, and I was by myself. He was coming across this little spit of water about a foot deep and upwind of me, which was a bad position. 14 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE