Walkabout Charlie.

At C3 camp this year, the new teachers were able to have a shared cultural experience either Upriver on the Kobuk River for the teachers of inland villages or on the Coast in Buckland for those serving in the Coastal villages. Me, I was with the C3 Buckland crew because in case you haven’t heard by now, Kivalina is about as “Coastal” as you can be before becoming one with the Ocean.

At the Coastal C3 Buckland camp, us newbies grew close through the harvest of a reindeer and a spotted seal. We gathered firewood, did craftwork and played all sorts of made up games.  We shared smores and stories around the campfire. You could tell we were growing close because many people earned nicknames.  There was Kermit, Long Jon, Big Paul and Little Paul, Dirty Lyle, Krazy Kim from Wisconsin and Kodiak. But the best was our good buddy from Texas, Walkabout Charlie.

Good Ol’ Walkabout is a wise old man with the wind in his vanishing hair and a dream on his always turning mind. No rules to tie him down and few worries in the world. Our C3 handlers gave us very explicit instructions not to walk off on our own.

“Alaska is a BIG place.”

“You can get lost.”

“You are not armed and it’s not safe to be by yourself.”

Walkabout Charlie knows not of those limitations. Often he wandered from the rest of the herd and he always came back with a story to tell. Sometimes a little scratched up from the willows and the tundra. Sometimes a little dirty from a personal adventure but always looking like a renaissance man, with his sweater tied over his shoulders or a walking stick in hand.

I admired his courage and carefree attitude.

Last weekend I went on my own adventure in honor of Walkabout Charlie.

Long Jon and I were beginning to feel the constraints of an unexpected Kivalina Lockdown. I guess we both kind of expected that we would be included on a fishing trip or a caribou hunt by now. Word on the streets was that the caribou had come down off the Brooks Range and were on the move. The buzz of outboard motors every day was evidence that the locals were finding ways across the lagoon and across the channel.  They just weren’t interested in toting along a couple of white guys. It was beginning to look futile that I would have another shot at an Outdoor Alaskan Adventure until freeze up.  That weighed heavily on my mind every day.

So Friday, Jon Claude Van Damme and I decided that on Saturday we were going to take the Bull by the Horns and create our own excitement for the day. On Saturday we walked the length of Kivalina Island.

Reports had the measurements somewhere between 6 and 8 miles long and about 300 yards wide. Now that I’ve traversed the entire span of this island. I can confirm that it is much closer to 6 miles long. The GPS that I brought along, not for navigation, but more as a clock and a pedometer, logged us in at 5.23 miles from the clinic to the North Channel. Even though I feel like we’re somehow closer to satellites here and although I clicked that bad boy on shortly in to our trip, we weren’t being digitally tracked until the north end of the village. So unofficially, I’m sticking with 6 miles long.

Found a whale rib - Michele says I can't hang it in the Living Room. 

As far as width, that’s debatable too. I mean, I’m sure it may be 300 yards wide down here by the school, teacher housing and the store. But there are parts of this sliver of an island that are probably closer to a hundred yards wide than they are to three hundred. There were times on our walk that I could feel the ocean spray reaching my face but looking off my right shoulder, know that I was a solid shortstop to first throw from the lagoon. This is a skinny island.

Along the way, Long Jon Silver and I found a few trinkets. Jon spotted a nice skinning knife that had fallen out of someone’s sheath. I found an authentic left-handed mitten, pieced together from the hide and fur of some animal that is now only with us in spirit and hand comfort. Actually, I contemplated buying a pair of these Eskimos Mittens on my most recent trip to Kotzebue. The $250 price tag gave me indigestion. Finding a solo on the trail made my day!

After about a two hour walk, the two of us refueled with some light snacks and a good chug of H2O. We dug out our fishing gear and began chucking lures in the Chukchi Sea. The village was visible to our south but you couldn’t make out specifics. The Mountains that now seemed clearer and closer were our new friends while the mountains outside the village were out of focus. A few seals played in the North Channel much like their cousins do at the south point. It felt good to be out in the fresh air and just enjoying the day.

We left teacher housing at roughly 11:00am and returned at 5:00pm. Along the way Jon and I visited and other times just stepped out the miles. We meandered back and forth from the Lagoon to the Ocean side when the notion struck us. Never once was I bored. It was a perfect Saturday walk above the Arctic Circle.

Yours truly,

Walkabout Kirby

That's why they call it fishing and not catching.
Still loving every minute of it.