Chapter 1

Tracy and Sheila Del Monaco were sisters who married two college friends. Tracy married Richard Ray who founded, and was now the President of the Animals First Foundation, one of the most radical and politically powerful Animal Rights organizations in the world. Sheila, younger by five years, married Barry Wilson, now the Vice President of the AFF. Tracy Ray was the Secretary-Treasurer of the AFF, while Sheila was the writer for the organization's bi-monthly magazine.

The Wilson family lived in White Plains, in Westchester County, New York. They had come up with the Rays, from their home in Philadelphia, to go on a ten-day wilderness backpacking and rafting in the Brooks Range, northwest of Bettles, which in turn is northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. There were the two sets of parents, and three children each. Ricky Ray was the oldest teen at twenty-two, followed by his sister Kathy, at twenty, and then Carol, at fifteen.

Sheila's son Tommy Wilson was twelve, and her two daughters, Donna, and Bonnie were seventeen and ten. They would begin their trip on foot at Walker Lake, and be picked up at the village of Kobuk, on the Kobuk River after they reached the six inflatable Zodiac boats the outfitter left for them at a pre-designated point near the mouth of the Reed River. The party according to the time previous groups had taken, should make the junction of the Kobuk in three days, and had the remaining week to make the pick up point by noon on the next Friday.

They had been planning this trip for several months. Barry Wilson was by trade, a well-known wildlife photographer, whose photos adorned his wife Sheila's articles in the Animal Rights group's publication. They were taking this trip with the intent of making annual trips a club function as well as a moneymaker, by booking their Animals First friends on this trip. The AFF had many affluent members who would pay good money to see Moose, Caribou, Wolves, and Grizzly Bears in the wild.

Dick and Barry and their wives discussed the logistics of the trip with Rudy and Grif who strongly recommended that a guide travel with them in case of any accidents or unpleasant encounters. Dick and Barry insisted that they had enough experience in British Columbia, Ontario, Glacier Park, and Yellowstone in dealing with wildlife, and that their older offspring would be able to do lead their own groups by the next season.

The men of the group were very indignant at the suggestion of carrying a firearm with them or allowing anyone to accompany them. Dick made a remark about how a guide would shoot the first bear to come within binocular range of them. They insisted that nobody outside of their group accompany them and Walker Lake Outfitters would be responsible only for the transportation of the party and their supplies. One of the "reasons" for the trip would be testing a portable pocket size "Sonic Bear Repellent" device that would produce a high pitched whine that had been tested successfully on black bears in Ontario.

The outfitter's job was to fly their gear out to Walker Lake, and place it in a "Cache" built twenty feet off the ground so the animals wouldn't get it before they did, and to place another food stash in a second one further down the trail at Reed River. Their trip would be some twenty miles by foot and another sixty-five miles on the Kobuk River once they reached the second cache. Barry "demonstrated" the Sonic Bear Repellent" for Rudy and Grif, and it sounded like what a twenty-foot mosquito might sound like in a power dive.

Two weeks before the group arrived, their dehydrated food came to Bettles by UPS. There were six cartons, two of which were to be left at each Cache, and a third Cache on the river along their way. Their tents were lightweight "Backpacker" nylon dome tents each supported by only two fiberglass poles that crossed at the top. Each would sleep two people. All were adorned with the "Animals First!" logo.

Both Rudy and Grif kept a rifle and a shotgun with several rounds for each in whichever plane they were using, along with a couple of fishing rods and assorted tackle. There was a sturdy three-man dome tent that had been tested in winds of over a hundred miles an hour a few years earlier on the Alaska Peninsula, and a well supplied First Aid Kit. Other items included tools to work on the plane, a hacksaw, a bow saw, a hatchet, a Survival Kit with a few MRE's, and granola bars, with matches and a fire-starting kit and a hundred feet of nylon parachute cord. These were stored in the luggage compartment, with the exception of the First Aid kit.

The Wilson and Ray families arrived in Bettles on the 18th of August 2004, and met the outfitters who would fly them out to the starting point at Walker Lake. The Cessna and Beaver both were equipped with amphibious floats, pontoons with landing gear built in to land on a paved runway. There being ten of them, the Beaver was able to carry six, and the Cessna, flown by Grif the other five. The Rays went ahead with Rudy in the Beaver, while Grif brought the Wilson family as soon as the females of the family returned from the village store with a few more last minute supplies they felt the need for.

The sky was becoming overcast, as Grif took off from the Bettles Airport and flew in a northwesterly direction following slightly above and a mile behind Rudy in the Beaver. The flight time would be about twenty minutes, at an altitude of 5500 feet to clear the hills they would cross. Grif kept pretty quiet, during the trip, having already decided the less he spoke to him, the better he liked Barry. Grif did tell him to keep an eye out for other planes, or birds, particularly eagles, geese, and sand hill cranes, like the one that bent the prop when Rudy and Grif had to retrieve it. Up ahead he could see a wall of clouds, and Rudy squawked on the radio, "We better drop down under this, or we come back tomorrow."

"Let's give it a shot, " Grif told him, and banked left to drop to just a few hundred feet above the valley where he could then see for well over a mile ahead.

"Where the Hell did you learn how to fly," Barry asked?

"Courtesy of the United States Air Force in 1971," Grif answered, "although my Dad pretty much taught me how when I was younger."

He mumbled something about "that stupid war." Grif was watching the ground and the plane ahead threading their way through the hills. "One distraction at the wrong time, " Grif said aloud, "and we become part of the landscape!" That shut Barry up.

After about ten minutes of nerve wracking threading his way between the foothills, Grif broke into sunshine, and was able to climb out again for the remainder of the trip. Tommy spoke up then and said, "That was so way cool! This is what I am going to be when I get older." Of course that didn't set well with his Dad. First Rudy landed and taxied to shore, then Grif set the flaps, cut the throttle, and pointed the nose down to land on the glassy pond. Again Grif told them, "Watch for birds."

Fortunately the landing was uneventful, and Rudy and Grif helped unload the planes. The Wilson girls had done some last minute shopping in Bettles before boarding, and had their pockets full of chocolate candy bars. Grif advised them against the candy bars out in the bush, and keeping it in sealed plastic bags, because the animals were attracted to it.

Donna, the older girl spoke first, and said, "Can you please keep it a secret? I don't want Dad to know we brought it. That awful so-called food we brought is pathetic. I'll die without something else for two weeks."

Grif reached in a pouch on the door and pulled out 4 large size Ziploc bags and handed them to Sheila and told her, "Just to be on the safe side." She thanked him politely, and as he looked over his right shoulder and saw the youngest girl Bonnie just smiling as pretty as can be.