*Somehow I never actually posted this story from 2 years ago, so here it is!*
Objective: Paddle some sort of river in Interior Alaska for 3-4 days with an awesome roommate.
Trip Length: Planned 4 days, but only needed 3.
Trip Type: Packraft Paddle (for me), 16′ Raft Row (for Rusty), fishing for both
Group Size: 2
Dates: July 5th-9th, 2018
The Tale:
I planned a four day weekend off from work in July, and as the dates approached, I was scrambling for something to do. I tossed around the idea of driving to Whitehorse or the Arctice Circle, flying out to some backcountry location in Alaska, and many other ideas. Luckily, I have an awesome roommate who is more adventurous than me, and after deciding he could take four days off as well, we decided on a float trip. The original plan was to packraft the Nabesna River, but the road to it was inaccessible. Then we thought about paddling 40 mile river in a larger raft, but the water level was too low. After Rusty talked to various state agencies about conditions, we settled on the Gulkana River.
After packing up Thursday night, we headed out on the road. About two hours out of town, I began to develop a terrible blockage that reminded me of the time I had a blockage the resulted in surgery. Rusty and I drove separately to be able to do a car shuttle for the river, so I was able to stop a few times on my own to irrigate at a couple of pull-offs. We decided to see how the night went, and if things still weren’t going well, we could fish in the Glenallen area or do some day rafting trips. We camped at a state park campground that night, and I was able to use the outhouse to thoroughly irrigate.
By morning my blockage had cleared, and we decided to continue on with our plan to paddle the Gulkana. We staged my car at the Sourdough campground and headed up to the put-in at Paxson Lake. The weather was gorgeous, with sunny blue skies and warm temperatures as we unloaded the truck and prepped the big raft for the paddle across Paxson Lake.
I took the passenger seat as Rusty rowed us across the lake. It was a long haul across. At the outlet to the river, we were able to stop, and Rusty gave me a lesson on fly fishing, since I had never fly fished before. We caught a few Grayling and then continued on. We traveled through a class II section and then back to quite calm class once, at which point, I decided it would be fun to get the packraft out and do some paddling myself.
We pulled off at an eddie, and I went to empty my ostomy a bit. Then, as I was unloading the packraft, I realized I hadn’t quite snapped the coupling back together, and I had poop leaking onto my clothes. After another 20 min or so cleaning myself up, and blowing up the raft, we were back on the river. We spent the next few hours, lazily paddling downstream, fishing along the way. The river was barely flowing and it was slow going, but we relaxed and enjoyed the sun.
Around 8:30, we started looking for a campsite. We pulled into a few spots, and finally settled on a beachy area next to the river. As we unpacked, we remembered how horrible the mosquitos are in the interior, and we quickly took shelter in the tent. I then proceeded to spend the night barely sleeping because of all of the noises coming from the river. Every two minutes, I thought there was a bear coming across the river toward us, but it was just a bunch of gulls splashing around.
The next day, we continued on the lazy river until we reached about river mile 20. At this point, there is the option to portage or run the Canyon Rapids. We hauled some of our gear up and over the portage to the camping area and end of the rapids to lighten our loads. Rusty then ran the rapids in the larger boat. He then generously supported me in being my safety on shore as I ran portions of the rapid and then successfully completed the whole thing on another go. It was a great confidence boost, since I hadn’t been packrafting in a while. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out in camp and fishing. It felt like luxury camping with an outhouse and our fancy food that we were able to carry on the larger boat.
The next morning, we set off for the take-out. Feeling more confident, I spent the day in the packraft and enjoyed the splashy water. The final day felt quite long, but finally the pipeline crossing the river signaled that we were close to the finish. We made it to our takeout at the Sourdough Creek Campground and packed up the boats.
A full-on river trip in Alaska was a new type of trip for me, and I enjoyed learning new skills, spending quality time with a good friend and roommate, and appreciating the nuances of the river and the ecosystem that Gulkana provides to the region.
