timing was not right to see much wildlife - every trip report I've read people see lots of stuff - wolves, musk ox, bears - we saw next to nothing.  Decided not to bring a shotgun on this trip - with a group of 10, when we stayed with the group that is, bears don't seem to bother large groups.

Keith preferred to have the river to ourselves, so he eliminated time frames where there would be outfitter trips at the same time - I'm thinking two weeks or so earlier would have been better, and would have had higher water also - the animals, except for loner caribou bulls, all seemed to have gone farther north, or farther away from the river.  There were musk ox tracks at most of the places we camped, but all 2 weeks or so old it seemed - saw zero bear tracks, and only 1 set of moose tracks.  I was surprised at how much forest there was along the river (micro climate) this far above the arctic circle.