Barrow area rivers, when are they free of ice to travel by kayak/canoe? (Lakes: beach)

[JohnPF]

As above. I am under impression that it used to be only couple of weeks in July. How true is this today?

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by JohnPF

As above. I am under impression that it used to be only couple of weeks in July. How true is this today?

They can be accessed after a couple of weeks of July... but then they are open until well into October at a minimum.

The shore ice in the ocean usually does not break up until July, and that essentually blocks access from Barrow to other locations along the coast at least through most of June. Farther south at locations like Point Lay they are out traveling on local rivers long before Barrow people are.

Lakes are different. Some of them melt the ice relatively early, others relatively later. Hence there are places inland that can be accessed by 4w ATV relatively sooner than the rivers can be accessed along the coast; but other lakes are full of ice just about as long as the ocean shore line is.

Regardless of all that, at some point in mid-July the ice is gone, and it does not come back until freeze-up. It snows here in the first week of October and almost everything freezes up sometime in November.

[JohnPF]

Thanks Floyd! So there is a window of couple of months to travel on the rivers. Sweet! Is earlier or later in the season a better time to do it? I'm thinking bugs or animals.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by JohnPF

Thanks Floyd! So there is a window of couple of months to travel on the rivers. Sweet! Is earlier or later in the season a better time to do it? I'm thinking bugs or animals.

Like everything, it sorta depends... :~)

For bugs, the later the better. Mid-July, just as it gets really warm and the shore ice goes away, is the worst time for mosquitos here. But then again, it is also the warmest time too, so for many things it's the most pleasant. June and July are dry, while August and September can be wet, plus it starts getting dark at might by mid-Autust. After late September it can be relatively cool, and it snows by the end of the first week in October. But that also means that the end of October and November can be nice for snowmachines, except that things aren't necessarily frozen up yet. Sometime in late November or early December things freeze up good. And by late December the weather can be cold enough to make snowmachines miserable (-20 or colder isn't much fun).

We seem to be having spring a week early this year. Right now it's possible to go a few places on a 4-wheeler, but the beach still has too much snow on it. And as of the last couple days the shore ice has too much water on top.