Visiting the little people

I have been in Toksook Bay for a solid week now and enjoying it very much. The weather has been dry, which means that you don’t have to wear rubber boots when you step outside your door and people are oot and aboot everywhere. Many women and children are out picking berries, the men are working or doing odd jobs and a couple of people, including myself, go hiking or running.

I’ve climbed the hill behind the village for the past two days in a row now and it was just as spectacular the second time as the first. It’s only about a 4 mile round trip, but would make a pretty strenuous run. There are several 4 wheeler trails that climb the hill, which isn’t very steep for the most part. The trails make me wish that I had my Mtn. bike right here, right now. Of course when it rains, which it does more often than not, it would be a very, very muddy trail.

Near the top of the mountain, it actually gets very characteristic of tundra, meaning the ground is very spongy and there is standing water in places. If you are careful and able to leap from one dry mound to the next, you can keep your feet dry. The structures that you see at the top are 7 – 8 foot tall mounds of rock covered with a yellow/orange lichen, sort of like giant cairns.

Native folklore has it that there are tiny people that live among the holes in the rocky ground. The little people are a mountainous tribe and are known to be tricksters, getting hikers and wanderers lost or disoriented. Sometimes they will reach out of their holes and pull down under ground with them, sort of like leprechauns.

I haven’t seen many people up there from the village, nor have I seen any little people myself. They must stay well hidden.