Fishing

Father and son team finish 1,300-mile trek home from Nome to Kaktovik

Soaking their sore muscles in the hot springs with nothing but wilderness around them for miles, Ketil Reitan and his son, Vebjorn, knew it would turn out all right.

They found the springs between Koyuk and Buckland, the strip of country that would also prove to be the most challenging on their 1,300-mile journey back home to Kaktovik from the Iditarod finish in Nome.

Ketil had just completed the race and Vebjorn had traveled by snowmachine from Manley to the finish line, meeting up with his father occasionally along the trail.

"Every time I came to a village, the first thing people would say was, 'Oh, I met your son,' " said Ketil. "Also, he helped some of the other mushers that had some problems. When we came to the musher meeting after the Iditarod, lots of other mushers mentioned they had help from Vebjorn."

After a quick turnaround in Nome, the two set off on an even more daunting challenge: to take their dog team and snomachine back across the northwest Arctic and North Slope to Kaktovik.

It was a journey Ketil, who is from Norway, had done back in the 1980s with a friend when he first came to Alaska. At that time, he had no GPS, no modern equipment and no communication out in the Bush. At the end of that trip, Ketil met his future wife and sons' mother.

This time, the pair was expecting it to be a bit different. They carried a tent, not the skins his father had stitched together the first time around, and they had a motorized vehicle, not just dogs.

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"This is the first time I've ever traveled in the company of a snowmachine. That made it much easier," he said.

[Previously: Kaktovik father-son duo plan post-Iditarod trek from Nome to home]

Ketil has two sons, Vebjorn and Martin. Vebjorn, 20, recently finished high school and has been drafted into the Norwegian military. He ships out later this summer.

With that in mind, Ketil had the idea to dedicate one year to each of his sons after their respective graduations, spending as much time as he could hunting, fishing, traveling, and teaching them how to live off and with the land.

"My boys have been going to school since they were little kids and have been away for the winter so they have never been able to spend an extended period out in nature during the wintertime," he said. "I finally got the chance to teach them what I have learned over the years and I know I am the only one that can teach them that. If I don't teach them that, nobody's going to."

Martin's chance comes next year. This one was dedicated to Vebjorn.

Setting out from Nome, Ketil decided to let his son take the dog team while he rode the snowmachine.

"Once my boy started, I thought it would be fun for him to know he had done the whole trip by dog team," he said. "It was such a great experience."

After passing through Koyuk, they hit their first snag.

"We were told it was a marked trail so it should be easy to follow. But, it turned out to be no trail that we could see. We didn't have the trail marked on our map so we didn't know where to look for it. We had to cross many creeks with deep snow and willows. Many times we had to dig out the snowmachine with a shovel and sometimes we had to winch it up. That was the hardest section of the trail," he said.

But then came the hot springs and one of his favorite moments from the trip.

"To be way out in the wilderness and soaking in hot springs," Ketil said, "we made good memories there."

They continued on up through the northwest and into the Brooks Range, crossing rivers and streams, weaving in and out of the stunted trees, navigating open space.

"Nature-wise I think the best part was probably going through the Brooks Range from Ambler to Anaktuvuk Pass. We had some beautiful weather," he said. "I like the open country and the mountains."

They brought along some basic provisions, like dried goods, and had to melt snow for the dogs along the way. They had hoped to find some caribou earlier on in the trip, but didn't encounter any until they were coming out of the range between Anaktuvuk Pass and Nuiqsut.

"About halfway between (the villages) we got our first caribou," he said. "So, the last part of the trip we had lots of caribou meat to eat."

They relied on the kindness of the people they met along the way to help supplement their provisions and their conversations.

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"We had brought lots of maktak with us so we could give it away," he explained. "Some of the villages don't go whaling so they don't have much, so we brought some to give away and the people in the villages would give us some dried fish and dried meat."

Ketil had hoped to introduce Vebjorn to some of his relatives and they did meet a handful in the pass and elsewhere.

They also weren't constrained by time, so they took their days as fast or as slow as they needed to and always left a few extra minutes to admire the scenery and the solitude along the way or share a cup of coffee with some friends. In total, they spent about 27 days on the trail and an additional seven around the villages.

"We had lots of time. It is beautiful country to travel to. It was very nice to come to all the villages. In every village, we didn't know anybody in most of them. We met friends of friends and made lots of new friends," he said. "It was quite a journey together."

Looking back, Ketil said he's very lucky to have had the chance to help his son learn more about his Inupiat heritage, as well.

"There's not many people who live that lifestyle anymore. I'm the link that has learned that from (my boys') grandparents and their relatives," he said. "And then the stories — I cannot just tell it. They don't understand the importance of it unless they can do it themselves."

That's why next year, he hopes to do a similar trip with his younger son, Martin. They haven't set their plans yet and might consider a few adjustments from what he and Vebjorn did this year, but he thinks the outcome will be the same.

It will give the two a chance to bond, to learn, to go through some tough times, and to make lasting memories to hold onto long into the future.

This story first appeared in The Arctic Sounder and is republished here with permission.

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