Ned's Pipeline Trek Page

Week 5 - Pipeline Mile 597,

The Top of the World, Alaska Range

June 12, 1997

by Ned Rozell, Geophysical Institute Science Writer

I'm now on an amazing, treeless plateau, lounging on lichen. Jane lies at my feet. My brother Drew, also leaning on a backpack, is a few crunchy steps away. With mountains rising on all sides, we sit like three M & M's in the palm of the Alaska Range (Jane's the brown one).

Drew, 27, is from Syracuse, New York. He joined me at Paxson Lodge at a perfect time a few days ago. Drew, Jane, and I have crested the Alaska Range in near-perfect conditions--no clouds, no bugs, no shy mountains. It's difficult to decide which way to look.

Drew adds fun to the hike. He's carrying a Wiffle ball and bat. It's nice to know I can throw a curve ball after eating so much freeze-dried food, but my younger brother still took me deep, hitting a home run over the only available fence, which also transports 10 percent of the nation's oil across Alaska.

"He flew right at me," Drew says as I report the action live here on the tundra. A snowy owl just glided toward him as if Drew were a tundra vole. "I could see his face."

With the owl silently flapping away, I think of today's hike, and how Drew, Jane and I passed the 200-mile mark from Valdez on my hike to Prudhoe Bay. I didn't plan such symmetry, it just happened.

Two-hundred miles down, 600 to go. With this many miles behind me, I feel qualified to compare thoughts I had before the trip to the reality of hiking. There have been some surprises:

River crossingshave been much less dramatic than I'd imagined. I've only used my Trail Boat once, and I'm not carrying it now. When I come to a roaring river, such as the Tazlina near Glennallen, I hike around the river by taking the nearest pipeline access road, crossing the highway bridge, and hiking back to the pipeline on the other side. I let Jane be the river-crossing judge--if she swims across it, I wade it with sneakers. She has more sense than me anyhow.

Bears aren't common. In 200 miles, Jane and I have had two bear encounters--and those were on days one and two, right out of Valdez. Maybe the lack of bears is due to the bell on Jane's pack. Maybe our timing has been perfect. Maybe I've jinxed us and I'm wrestling a bear as you read this.

Brownies (the kind you eat) grow on the pipeline. At least they did a few mornings ago. Drew went off to filter some water from a stream and came back with a plastic bag. He found it hanging from a pipeline vertical support member. Inside the bag was a note with the words, "Ned and Jane." Behind the note was a paper towel, with four moist brownies with peanuts. The unexpected snack was a gift from Lisa Richard and Ann and Iris Wood, of Fairbanks, who apparently tied the treats to the pipe a few nights before they saw Jane and me at Paxson Lodge. I'm glad we beat the bears to the brownies. Judging by the speed in which Drew erased two of the brownies, I think he would have claimed them if he and a bear arrived at the bag simultaneously.

Go back to Week 4

Go on to Week 6

Note: Media desiring to interview Ned Rozell along the pipeline must first speak to the Geophysical Institute Information Office, then receive a letter of non-objection from Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. The Information Office can be reached at (907) 474-7558 or through e-mail at information@gi.alaska.edu. An event sponsored by the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.