the beauty, the biodiversity and the need
for this incredible refuge to be protected.
The calving grounds expedition was
tough, but we certainly didn’t have the
toughest luck of the eight iLCP expedi-
tions to the area. We saw hundreds of
cow caribou and calves in small groups,
had some epic grizzly encounters and a
grand adventure. Two weeks after our
expedition, a 12-person team embarked
on a 12-day hike through the steep moun-
tains in the center of the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. They spent countless
hours trampling up and down mountain-
sides on caribou trails over 20,000 years
old. The objective of the expedition was
to experience and capture photos and
footage of the porcupine caribou herd
as they aggregated into tightly packed
groups of 50,000 animals migrating eastDark clouds shadow the
mountains of the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. Photo by
Mason Cummings.
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