Alsek River Day 6

July 11, 2012

The morning is still fairly windy but not nearly as bad as yesterday. Good thing because we need to move downriver, both for our schedule and because you are only supposed to spend one layover day in this location, not two. 

We start out paddling but after about 20 minutes Pat and I and Michael take our boats to shore and walk the boats. We will be moving through the biggest rapids that we will encounter on this river today so saving some paddling energy for the rapids is the goal of walking.

John helping Anita by pushing the raft!

After about two or so hours later we have gone three miles and are at the end of the lake. Lots of work to get here and we still have the big rapids that are listed in the guidebook to go through today: Bill and Sam’s, Erractic, and Lava North.

Bill and Sam’s: the plan is to take the sneak route, a channel on river right that comes out just below all the gnarly stuff. We find some big waves and a hole or two in the sneak but it wasn’t too bad, there is room to avoid the big stuff.

Erratic: One, big giant, hole but easily avoided if you are paying attention.

Lava North!: This has been the gut twister for me, we looked at pictures and watched YouTube videos of this rapid and it looks nasty. Neither the pics, nor the video do justice to just how nasty this rapid is! We ground out about a mile upstream of the Lava North and walk down to take a look. (Scout stop: N60 08.683 W138 00.249 (7V 666333 6671301) It is stunning in its power and fierceness. The river has control here and it knows it. There is a line down the middle, avoid holes and waves, then put your boat in the slot to slide between two monster holes and brushing the edges of monster breaking waves on your tip toes. Michael makes a comment about the group not being the strongest safety wise (only 4 boats) and John responds “but we have a lot of good sense.” Our good sense tells us to portage!

We eddy hop down the left side of the river until the boulder garden gets too dense and then we portage. Pat and I start lining our boat (gear still in) through and over the boulders. Everyone else starts portaging their gear from the raft. Michael lines his boat down the boulders and then we all work on getting the raft through the boulders. Lift one end, float the other, carry the whole thing. It is a bit of work but we get it down fairly quickly. Heave a big sigh of relief.

Camp is just downstream of gauging station on river right. The day started about 11:30 am and we hit camp about 8:30 pm, a very long day of paddling and work.