If your brother-in-law is an Alaskan hunter/mountain man...and if he tells you that this hike should be easy, don't believe him: He's a liar. A lying liar full of lies.
If you're going in the summertime, it's definitely warmer in Fairbanks than I thought it could be when it hit the 90s. Plus the sun never goes down, so definitely need sun protection...I got fried out there. I wore zip off pants/convertible shorts. After my legs got all tore up trudging through all that scrub, just left 'em as pants.
Oh, and bring a sleep mask if you can't sleep in daylight. My yellow tent was a bad idea, it seemed like it was brighter inside the tent. Didn't have much of a need for a headlamp.
Bugs weren't too bad for the most part, but there were areas where they were insane. I had treated all my gear with permethrin and I had brought a head net just in case. Used it a few times, just to get through the swarms.
Are you going solo? If so, definitely bring a large caliber hand gun if you can, unless you're coming from Canada. We came across a lot of fresh bear scat, tracks, jacked up trees...plus, we also came across a lot of wolf poop in one area. Didn't hear them, but there was a lot of poop with fur. Bunch of moose and caribou bones, some with some sinew and gristle on it. Not fresh kills, but still...Mother Nature, you scary. We saw one huge mama grizzly that had 3 cubs with her. She was up on a ridge maybe half a mile away, and the wind was blowing her way...she could definitely smell us. She would rise up on her hindquarters and sniff around. She herded her brood over the ridge away from us, thankfully.
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