Alaska! Man: 0, Wild: 1, Part 5

I awoke to more cold and more rain. I hurriedly packed up my wet tent and, in complete rain gear, started heading back. All was fine for the first few mile or so, until I hit a dead end (a drop off that was too steep to safely climb down, especially when wet) and had to backtrack. I did see this set of antlers, complete with partial spine:

Then, as I was crossing a stream, it started to thunder. Great. From what I remember on how to not get hit by lightning, if you can't find immediate shelter, you're supposed to crouch on the balls of your feet, minimizing both your height and your area of contact with the ground. Doing that in the rain with a heavy pack isn't a whole lot of fun.

Incidentally, the reason you're not supposed to lie prone is in case of electrical current traveling through the ground. If you are on your feet, then ground to ground current can travel up one leg, through your genitals, and down the other leg, rather than going through your heart or nervous system. :/

Not many other pics, as it rained the entire trek back to the car. My rain gear gave out after about three more miles, so I ended up completely drenched when I got there. One thing I hadn't noticed until the next morning was that the upper hills did receive new snow:


And that's it for the Brooks Range. Since I had planned to be there for six days but only stayed for three, I had some time to kill. I visited the village of Wiseman (population 22) on the way South, then decided to continue past Fairbanks and down to Denali. But that's for the next update.