Arctic Daughter
A Wilderness Journey
Jean Aspen
Copyright 1988, 2015 by Jean Aspen.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
Arctic Daughter was originally published in 1988 by Bergamot Books, Minneapolis, Minnesota (ISBN 9780943127019), and a Delta Expedition trade paperback was published in 1993 by Dell Publishing, a division of Bantam, Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., with permission from Bergamot Books (ISBN 0-385-31400-0). A hardbound edition was published in 1993 by Menasha Ridge Press, Birmingham, Alabama (ISBN 9780897321211). “Arctic Journey,” an excerpt from the book, appeared in the November 1993 issue of Reader’s Digest (p. 189). An excerpt from Chapter 1 of Arctic Daughter was used with permission along with part of a chapter from Constance Helmerick’s book Down the Wild River North in Making Connections: Mother-Daughter Travel Adventures, edited by Wendy Knight and published by Seal Press in 2003.
Aspen, Jean.
Arctic daughter : a wilderness journey / by Jean Aspen.
pages cm
Originally published: Minneapolis, MN : Bergamot Books, 1988.
ISBN 978-1-941821-16-9 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-941821-58-9 (e-book)
1. Brooks Range (Alaska)—Biography. 2. Pioneers—Alaska—Brooks Range—Biography. 3. Alaska—Description and travel. 4. Frontier and pioneer life—Alaska—Brooks Range. I. Title.
F912.B75A76 2015
979.8'7—dc23
2014034764
Cover design: Jean Aspen and Vicki Knapton
Illustrations by Jean Aspen
Photographs by Jean Aspen, Phil Beisel, and Tom Irons
Map by Elizabeth Barnard
Published by Alaska Northwest Books®
An imprint of
P.O. Box 56118
Portland, Oregon 97238-6118
503-254-5591
For my mother, Constance Helmericks,
who taught me to dream.
Constance and Jeanie Helmericks, 1952.
Constance Helmericks, age twenty.
I love the summers in this land. But I also love the feel of winter winds against my cheek, when the snow squeals underfoot, and the ptarmigan, the white grouse, come whirling down from the Arrigetch Peaks once more—or any peaks in Alaska!—to talk along the valley by my house. I love the colors of the bleak wastelands where nobody goes. When the circling sun falls low, and the leaves hang and rattle in the wind, and cranberries turn to mahogany brown, and frosted blueberries taste of wine, then my cabin on the river will be snug and tight against the arctic gale. When wild grass has turned to hay and the wild geese wing their way once more over mountain and valley to the southern land below, the canoe is put away and the snowshoe will appear. But when the Arctic turns to green again and the geese return with the sun, I shall take my canoe from the tall cache, and I shall travel on the river to see some new place.
We Live in the Arctic Constance Helmericks, 1947
Jeanie, age twenty-five.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I had just turned twenty-two and Phil was only a year older when we set forth into the arctic wilds. It was a time for testing ourselves and discovering our own strengths. In truth, I would never have envisioned such an undertaking nor had the tools to do it without my mother. There were, of course, others whose names I have forgotten that provided guidance and support along the way. I regret not paying closer attention, but at the time my need for independence blinded me to this greater community. With a few additions, I leave these acknowledgments as I wrote them in 1988.
Through their love and support, the following people helped create this book:
• My mother, Constance Helmericks, inspired and championed our adventure;
• Phil’s
