After returning from my year as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in New Zealand, I was lucky enough to spend 24 days worth of leave at home in Alaska. My first adventure began the day after I arrived home. Roman Dial and I drove up to Hatchers Pass to packraft the Upper Little Susitna River (Class IV-). The run was great, weaving though technical boulder gardens with a moderate flow. Roman and I’s run was a good warm up for a later run on 17th of July at a higher (and thus pushier) volume. Hatcher’s Pass is a truly special part of Alaska. I have been there to camp, hike, and ski, but this was my first time out rafting and it was not a disappointment.
On the evening of the 7th of July, dad and I drove down to Soldotna to meet up with my granddad and cousin and go fishing. We drifted the Kasilof River, but over the past five years the Chinook salmon runs have been terrible. The only one from our party (perhaps appropriately so) to catch a “king” was my cousin, Thomas, from Oklahoma who had never caught a salmon before. What a rush. The following day we all flew across Cook Inlet to fish Sockeye in the waters of Big River Lake. He we did substantially better catching seven sockeye in the span of a few hours. On the trip back, we passed over Double Peak and Double Glacier and much of the wildlife sanctuary surrounding it. The density of brown bears was amazing. We must have spotted two dozen or more over an expanse of 20 miles or so. Very impressive. The finished off the day with a leisurely float down the Kenai River and some bald eagle spotting.
One of the trips I had been meaning to tackle all summer was packrafting the Upper Eagle River (starting at the terminal lake fed from Eagle Glacier). Jan’s friend Missy was up to the challenge, so on July 11th we elected to push on over Crow Pass and take on the 26 mountain and rivers miles in a single day. Even leaving at 8 AM, it turned out to be a big day (big as in tiring that is). Crow Pass still had some snow at its upper reaches, though not as much as the previous two times I have climbed it. More importantly, the Eagle River had a good flow going though, which was key so we would not get hung up on the sand (silt?) bars. On the way down, I managed to pick up a blade from a cracked paddle of some previous packrafters, who apparently were in for a much more challenging trip than us. Our dry suits were really what saved the day though. Eagle River flows rather slowly (for my standards) in its upper stretches and the 10 or so miles down the river took us approximately 4 hours. During this entire time we were getting splashed and sitting centimeters away from melted glacier water. Dry suits are truly amazing!
Over the following week, I did a number of things in and around town. My mom enjoys entertaining and our family was happy to have two sets of friends (the Michol’s and the Mitchell’s) over for dinner. I also was lucky enough to attend to Anchorage Philatelic Society meetings when I was home and give a presentation about my time in New Zealand to the local Rotary club. Mom and I spent half a day framing a dozen or so pieces of artwork I had collected over the years, which I was very grateful to get done.
I spent the week of the 19th-23rd of July in Denali National Park visiting my sister, Jan. I try to make this annually as a sort of pilgrimage both to see my sister and experience the magnificence of Denali. On the bus trip in along I saw moose, caribou, wolves, dall sheep, ptarmigan, and grizzlies among the numerous inhabitants of the park. It was good to catch up with Jan (I usually only get to see her twice a year, which is too bad) and I was glad to find that she was still enjoying her job as a naturalist guide and administrator at Camp Denali (Jan is in her 7th year now). As Jan had to work on the 20th, I did a solo trip down Moose Creek, which was quite fun. I also made sure Jan tested out the waters and the packraft before we launched on a big trip. The following day we headed out into the park. Traveling over the McKinley River and Muldrow Glacier, on the first day we made it to the headwaters of Pirate Creek. We camped out there and the clouds swirled in around us. The following morning we inflated our packrafts to max capacity and put in on the steep creek for what turned out to be one bumpy ride. Ducking under the willows proved to be a critical skill as did staying on the seat (Jan learned this the hard way). We hit the confluence with the Clearwater River and the scenery changed completely. A small creek morphed into a large river with abundant waterfowl and expansive views. We followed the Clearwater down to where it is crossed by a small foot and pony trail. This trail was blazed by climbers on their way to summit Denali before the Kahiltna Glacier Route was popularized. We followed this trail over Turtle Hill were we made our second camp and waited for the river levels to subside overnight. The following morning we got up at 5AM to catch the water level on the McKinley River at what we hoped would be its lowest flow of the day. Even at this hour we were still in up to our waists. I helped buoy Jan over the most challenging part of the river and we pushed on to Wonder Lake where we were able to catch a bus back to Camp Denali. Later that day I drove back all the way from Kantishna to Eagle River.
The last three days I had in Alaska I spent packrafting and having my household goods picked up. I went packrafting with Matt Johnson down the Upper Willow Creek (Class III+) on the first day. The Upper Willow has one tough entry rapid and a bunch of other fun, splashy rapids. The following day we took on South Fork of Eagle River (Class III+) and Campground Rapids (Class III), both of which were at extremely high flows due to the heavy rains South-central Alaska had been receiving. South Fork was a different experience as it flows though residents’ back yards and is a very small stream only paddleable at higher flows. Though it is small, it packs a punch due to its steep grade, little maneuver room, sweepers, and blind turns. Quite a fun run, especially for being right in the backyard. The day before leaving I made the last of my packraft modifications including reinstalling my thigh straps, doubling the Velcro all around, and adding a snap to the top of the spray skirt. These mods should help to make my packraft more bombproof for whitewater runs in the future. (Thanks to my parents for helping me out in the process and for your patience).
Though I was a bit sad to leave Alaska, I was very much looking forward to the next part of my summer plans: Turkey!
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