Day 1: Orientation Day
After breakfast at your accommodations, we will pick you up and bring you to the homestead to meet your guides and your new teammates: the dogs!
We will go over gear, have a brief lesson on mushing, take a test dog sled ride through the boreal forest, and prepare our sleds for departure the next morning.
Lunch will be provided in between preparations and we will finish the evening with a relaxing dinner at Arctic Dog Adventure Co. After dinner, your guide will show you how to use your cold weather sleeping system and you will test your pad, bag & liner in the comfort of the ADAC lodge.
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Meals: Lunch and Dinner at Arctic Dog Adventure Co.
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Accommodations: Shared accommodations at ADAC. No running water. Outhouse.
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Milage: 5 miles
Day 2: Blackspruce Horizons
After breakfast, we will load up the sled dogs and start the 1-hour drive to the trailhead, where we will unload gear, hook up our dog teams, and set off. The trailhead accesses the one million-acre White Mountains National Recreation Area and its beautiful network of winter trails and log cabins. With an ocean of forest stretching hundreds of miles in either direction, we will follow ridge lines until we reach an expanse of burn — black spruce forest burnt up in a wildfire a decade ago. (7-16 miles)
This landscape is marked by candlestick-like tree trunks blackened by fire. The small vegetation that has grown up since the fire makes this area rich in wildlife: moose, grouse, ptarmigan, martin, and wolves. Limbless trees allow for good visibility in all directions.
We will pass up and over small hills and down through clumps of charmingly crooked black spruce forest before reaching an open expanse of meadow and tundra. The cabin is just above us, perched on a small bluff that overlooks the Moose Creek drainage. Once we reach the cabin we will tie the dogs out, build a fire in the cabin and enjoy the pleasure of a hot meal after miles of fresh air on our faces. The cabins are the ultimate Alaskan retreats. Remote, rustic, but beautifully crafted and warm, they are heated by large wood stoves, equipped with bunks, lanterns, table, benches and have ample room for gear and leg stretching.
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Meals: Breakfast at Arctic Dog Adventure lodge, lunch on the trail, dinner at cabin.
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Accommodations: Bunk in shared cabin.
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Mileage: 16 miles
Day 3: Cache Mountain Cabin
After breakfast for both humans and dogs, we will gear up, hook up, and head further down the trail. These travel days bring us deep into the White Mountains.
From our camp in the burn we will travel rolling hills of intermixed boreal forest and burn, watching the mountains slowly rise above us as we near. Beaver Creek, a National Wild & Scenic River, snakes below us. We will drop off a steep ridge down onto the river, following it a short way before leaving the ice to follow a tributary that leads into the mountains.
We will make camp at the scenic Cache Mountain, giant granite formations known as the Sled Dog Rocks watching over us nearby as we care for the dogs and prepare for the next day’s crossing of the mountain pass barely visible in the distance.
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Meals: Breakfast in the cabin, lunch on the trail, dinner at Cache Mountain Cabin.
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Accommodations: Cabin.
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Mileage: 23 miles.
Day 4: Crossing the Divide
Each morning after coffee & breakfast, we will gear up, hook up our huskies, and head off. Leaving Cache Mountain Cabin we begin the climb up to Cache Mountain Divide.
We follow a trail that parallels a winding creek bed lined with ancient thick white spruce trees. We gradually ascend several hundred meters before reaching tree line.
We climb up the side of smooth white mountains before summiting in a beautiful windblown pass surrounded by ancient rounded peaks. We will pass through this mountain gate before dropping down to a more sheltered area for a lunch stop. After lunch, we have some technical mushing to do as we navigate the backside of the mountain. This area is commonly covered in overflow and thick drifted berms of snow. We follow a stream with wide areas flooded by beaver dams and frozen over, allowing for smooth travel.
Our direction will turn from north to west as we enter the limestone jag corridor, which is marked by spectacular limestone cliffs, caves, natural bridges, disappearing streams, and hidden springs punctuated by stretches of thick aufeis. Tucked into the heart of the corridor is the Windy Gap cabin, our camp for the night.
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Meals: Breakfast in cabin, lunch on the trail, dinner at camp.
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Accommodations: Cabin.
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Milage: 24 miles.
Day 5: Limestone Jags
Upon leaving the cozy Windy Gap cabin we will continue through the land gap that gives the area its name. Our passage was formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by a long-gone stream that channeled its way through the mountains. We will follow this natural path through the wilderness, winding through thick spruce forest and across rocky creeks.
We travel parallel to Limestone Gulch. Beautiful rock formations loom around and above, completely at odds with the Interior Alaskan landscapes we have been traveling through. This region is home to animals rarely spotted in Interior Alaska — the rocky overhangs and crumbling talus of the limestone create habitat for hoary marmot and the nests of peregrine falcon. Perhaps we will spot one of these elusive creatures?
We take our time today — this run is relatively short, but incredibly scenic. We stop often for pictures, running along the foot of the limestone jags before swinging north and ducking behind a ridge of granite rock formations. Behind the ridge is a narrow valley with a cabin perched high on a bluff. Considered the crown jewel of the White Mountains, Caribou Bluff cabin will be our home for the night.
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Meals: Breakfast at cabin, lunch on the trail, dinner at the cabin.
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Accommodations: Cabin
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Mileage: 9 miles. “Rest Day” for the dogs.
Day 6: On the Bluffs of Beaver Creek
Leaving Caribou Bluff is always interesting, but by Day 6 everyone is an expert sled driver and drops off the ridge with no issues, perhaps some whoops of excitement.
Once back on the main valley trail, we will climb a long gradual hill, emerging from the mountain corridor to a wide open landscape of charred black spruce and rolling blue hills. The transition is striking. We will stop for lunch, the limestone jags still visible in the distance, and savor the experience of seeing such a remote and wild landscape.
After lunch, we will follow the trail southeast back to Beaver Creek, several miles to the west of our first crossing. We’ll follow the river around a sweeping bend. Perched on a scenic overlook is the beautiful Borealis LeFevre cabin, our camp for the evening.
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Meals: Breakfast at cabin, lunch on the trail, dinner at the cabin.
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Accommodations: Borealis LeFevre cabin
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Mileage: 9 miles. “Rest Day” for the dogs.
Day 7: Ridge Running
Our last day on the trail. We drop off the river bank and charge across the frozen river, sweeping through twisty stands of old-growth forest before emerging into a burn that runs up a ridge.
From there we climb up through the burn, intermittently transitioning from burn to black spruce forest to burn. If skies are clear, the Alaska Range will be visible in the distance. We will follow the spine of the ridge, swooping south and rising far above the valley floor; the mountains and river valleys we traversed are visible in the distance behind us. We will be near the trailhead by late afternoon. You will feel a burst of energy in the dogs. They know they are almost to the truck!
The final miles wind through a thick old alpine spruce forest unique to the Wickersham Dome region. The last mile is downhill and a bit bumpy. We will sweep into the parking lot seemingly all of a sudden. After loading dogs and sleds into the truck, we will head back to the kennel to sort out gear before shuttling you back to your hotel in town.
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Meals: Breakfast at the cabin, lunch on the trail, dinner on your own.
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Accommodations: You will need to arrange your own accommodations for this night in Fairbanks.
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Mileage: 25 miles
* Please note that the Cache Mountain Crossing Itinerary is subject to change due to cabin availability and significant and unpredictable shifts in weather. Due to the nature of our permitting process with BLM, there is no guarantee we will be able to secure the cabins mentioned here. Rest assured, every cabin in the Whites is a scenic delight!
