Skiing to the Nine Mile Hills

To the north of Bettles are the Nine Mile Hills, a set of foothills to the Brooks Range. I’ve flown over them a few times but look at them almost daily. We gauge the weather by them on cloudy days, mainly on how much of them you can see. Today we skied to them. 

Looking north at the Nine Mile Hills from our first rest stop about two miles north of Bettles

A winter trail, the old Hickel Highway, heads north from Bettles, passes through the Nine Mile Hills and continues on to Wild Lake and up the John River. If a piece of equipment wasn’t flown into a mining camp in this area, it most likely came over the trail.

Almost to the hills--have to cross the overflow first

After crossing the Koyukuk River, we skied through spruce forest the entire way. There was an occasional patch of aspen, birch and willow, but mainly spruce. Animal tracks increased in these patches because of the increased food sources. Wildlife sightings were minimal—a snowshoe hare, gray jays, boreal chickadee, a raven and lynx tracks.

Lynx tracks that weren't there on the way out

The Nine Mile Hills are aptly named for being nine miles north of Bettles. We followed the trail into the hills until a small divide where we ate lunch. We decided it was best to turn around because we were only half way through our ski, which ended up being 20.6 miles.

Headed back to Bettles with Alatna Hills in the distance

The weather was beautiful—a warm, sunny spring day. Warm enough to ski without a jacket and for the first sighting of pussy willows.

First pussy willows of spring

We skied two-and-a-half hours to reach the Nine Mile Hills at which Ryan informed me that it takes nine minutes to fly here in an airplane.