Just finished a four day Whitewater Rescue class designed for packrafters. Excellent hands-on class with lots of swimming in Eagle River. Glad some of my buddies took it too. There is another course coming up this weekend. I highly recommend it for all packrafters.
Archive for the ‘Paddle’ Category
Whitewater Rescue Class
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009Packrafting: Startin ‘em early (and a bit later)
Friday, August 14th, 2009
Bard Peak paddle-climb
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Aaaahhhhh.
That noise you hear is me letting out a loud, contented sigh. Finally, after five long months, I made it back into the mountains of Alaska. My main goal as I was rehabbing my Achilles tendon was to heal well enough and quickly enough to do some peak-bagging before summer was over. If I could just bag a peak or two, summer would not be a total loss. By early August, I was feeling ready and the weather was looking good. So Tim Kelley and I got together for a hike.
Tim suggested Bard Peak, which he had done before. If you’ve ever gone to the Portage Glacier Visitors Center and looked across Portage Lake, you’ve seen Bard Peak. Here’s a picture of it in winter time. Bard Peak is the pointy one on the left.
Bard Peak is fairly close to home and seen by hundreds of people every day, but rarely climbed. It would provide enough vertical gain, bushwhacking, and rock scrambling to give my legs a good test without too many unknown-territory variables.
We accessed the peak by paddling across Portage Lake. The paddling made for great bookends to a spectacular hike. Check my photos below, and of course also check Tim’s trip photos.
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It feels good to be back at home with sore muscles and a few scrapes on my arms and legs, enjoying the afterglow of a long-awaited peak-bagging outing.
Professional Backpacker: The perfect job?
Friday, July 10th, 2009Andrew Skurka’s office definitely has a better view than mine does. He’s currently in Alaska and recently hiked from Hope to Homer. Then he turned around and headed north through Kenia Fjords, the Chugach mountains, and is currently in the Talkeetna mountains on his way to Cantwell. Check out his Spot page to follow his progress. http://www.andrewskurka.com/
Early leader in the clubhouse…
Friday, July 3rd, 2009…for “This Year’s Adventure I Envy Most”: Nabesna to McCarthy bikepackraft
Chulitna Float Trip
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Last weekend I floated the Chulitna River with a large group of guys. It was a bachelor party, which means “what happens on the river, stays on the river.” Sorry, no stories here.
The only reason I’m posting this is because I use this website as my outdoor journal. When I can’t remember how far a trip was, or how long it took me, I look it up on in my blog. I think the Chulitna offers some great opportunity for family float trips or short packrafting runs in the future, so I want to make sure I’ve got some of the vitals written down.
If you’re looking for info on floating the Chulitna, this might help. If you are looking for sordid tales of debauchery… man, o man have you come to the wrong place.
We put in on the East Fork at the Parks Highway about 4:30 PM on Friday. We floated for about two hours to our first camp at Honolulu Creek. This nine mile section (and the next several miles after the camp site) were wavy Class II. Quite a few boulders created holes and eddies to practice in. There were some sweepers which were easily avoided. This section was a lot of fun.
On Saturday we floated about 30 miles in seven hours, including stops. The river became braided and flat, but was still moving between 5-7 mph depending on the spot. We camped on a huge gravel bar in the middle of the river. Sunday we floated about 20 miles in four and a half hours (with fewer stops) to complete the 60 mile trip. We took out at the highway bridge near the Princess Lodge. The Tokositna river came in about an hour and half before the takeout.
There is no gauge on the river, but flow appeared to be average for this time of year.
Packrafting Montana Creek
Monday, June 1st, 2009One way that I have consoled myself during my healing process has been to think about packrafting. Of all my favorite activities, its the only one I figured I could do while injured. Well, maybe not the “packing” part, but definitely the “rafting” part. I’ve been scouting road-accessible floats that don’t require any hiking. And now that I am starting to bike again, that will open up a few more options. With my leg on the mend, I am ready to jump into the boat again.
Linda’s parents are currently visiting us for two weeks. We took them to a cabin on Benka Lake near Talkeetna this past weekend. One of the things we give up by living in Alaska is having grandparents (aka free babysitters) nearby. So when they come to visit, we generally exploit them so that Linda and I can have some play time, sans toddler. This time, Linda and I were able to sneak away during the little one’s nap for a short packraft/bike ride loop near the cabin.
Linda on Montana Creek
We put in on Montana Creek at the Yoder Road bridge and floated eight miles down to the Parks Highway. It was a decent float at the 6.13 foot water level, but lots of strainers and sweepers in the river kept it from being truly fun rafting. Without the wood, it would be a leisurely class I-II float. As is, the obstacles make it a solid class II that requires attention to each bend in the stream. There were about 5 places we had to get out and bushwhack around trees that had fallen across the entire creek. It was similar to the lower part of Willow Creek just before the Parks Highway. The photo is from one of the rare sections without any strainers when I had enough time to get out the camera.
The most excitement came when we spooked a mother moose with calf. She darted across the creek in front of us and up onto the opposite bank. Baby followed, but couldn’t lift himself out of the water. As baby struggled with front legs on the bank, hind legs in the 3-foot deep water, momma moose charged towards me as I tried to float by. When I became convinced she was about to jump into the water and stomp on me, I bailed onto a gravel bar on the opposite bank and ran back upstream. Momma continued to parallel me, but thankfully she stayed on her side of the creek. Baby eventually got up onto the bank after a couple minutes of trying, and they both quickly disappeared into the woods.
When we reached the Park Highway, we grabbed our previously-stashed bikes and rode 8 miles back up to the cabin off Yoder Road. It was a fun little nap-time outing. A perfect warm-up run, since we hadn’t been in our boats since last summer. Two hours of rafting, half an hour of biking.
I was glad to finally be doing an activity where I didn’t need to worry about my leg. I wore my leg brace so I’d be prepared for those times when I needed to jump out of the boat, and it was fine the whole time.
Even better, I was glad to be able to have an outing with Linda. Its a rare treat when we get to packraft together these days. Biking and hiking are easy to do with a two-year old. Packrafting, not so much - he really hates it when I bungee-cord him to the bow.
Turnagain Pass to Spencer Glacier Packrafting Hike
Friday, August 1st, 2008Last summer, Ian and I tried to hike from Turnagain Pass to Spencer Glacier Lake, then packraft out the Placer River. I call this trip “Center2 Spencer” (Center to Spencer) because the route is Center Ridge to Center Creek to Spencer Glacier. Its as clever as I could get.
Unfortunately, we had to turn back at the pass near Tincan Peak, above Center Ridge. The cliff was a little too high and we didn’t have the right gear. So its been on my list to complete this summer. Friday was a nice day, so we jumped at the chance to do it again. We also took along Bastien, an orienteer who is visiting from France.
This time we made it. It was a great trip, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that some parts sucked. The bushwhack up to the top of Center Ridge wasn’t fun, but it was only half an hour. And after that, the walking on Center Ridge was great. Going over the pass was a challenge, but was made much more doable by good snow conditions and the fact that we had ice axes. The walking on the other side of the pass was easy-going with spectacular views, except for one steep bushwhacking section just before Center Creek Pass. And then, of course, the descent from Center Creek to Spencer Lake was awful. Some of the nastiest bushwhacking I’ve done. If they ever build the proposed whistle-stop trail down this slope, this could become a classic packraft trip. But not until then.
The trip took a total of 11 hours. We hiked quickly, but didn’t push the pace, and we stopped for a few snack breaks. We had a great time and made the most of a rare sunny day. Check out the photos for more details. Thanks to Bill for giving us info from his ski trip on this route in June.
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Packrafting Resurrection Creek
Sunday, July 20th, 2008Toby and I decided to go packrafting on Sunday. After looking at the weather forecasts (cloudy, chance of rain, same as every day this summer) and the river levels (high, from rain), and my recent luck (or lack thereof) on new routes, we decided to stick to a known entity. Recently, a number of people have raved about Resurrection Creek in Hope, so we decided to head down there and check it out.
We parked at the Resurrection trailhead and walked upstream past the impressive river restoration project. After scouting a canyon, and deciding that it was more than we were interested in tackling, we put in just below the canyon.
Wow, was it fun! The restored section of the river had quite a few boulders that created big (for a packraft) waves and holes. We had a great time hitting the drops and popping in and out of eddies. After the restoration area, the river eases slightly, and the rest of the run (about 8-9 miles total) is fast and lively but without any major dangers until near the very end. There was very little wood until the last half mile, where we encounted a number of strainers and sweepers. Some were across the whole river and we had to portage around them. I could have done without that part, but it was well worth it for the rest of the run. We completed the loop with a bike shuttle back to the parking lot.
The water seemed to be pretty high. Where we took out in Hope, the river was above its banks and flowing through the willows. There is no gauge on the creek, but nearby Six Mile was at 10.8 feet. My best guess is that the restoration section was easy class III at this level, and the rest was fun class II.
Because the river kept us busy, I didn’t take many pictures. So all I’ve got to show you is this one picture of Toby near the end of the run.
Swing and a miss
Saturday, July 5th, 2008Many of the outdoor trips I do are fairly standard. They are on well-defined trails, doing routes that many people have done before. But the best trips are always the ones that are unique. In Alaska, a land with an infinite number of outdoor opportunities, it always seems like a shame to do the same old, same old. So I constantly have the urge to step out and do something a little different. Sometimes these ‘different’ ideas turn into successful trips. Other times, not so much.
Recently, my batting average on successful trip ideas has taken a nose dive. I’m hitless in my last three attempts. I think part of the reason is that I am searching for adventures closer to home. With greater family responsibility in the past year, my windows for play time have become shorter and less frequent. The problem with this strategy is that I live in a city of almost 300,000 people, many of whom are avid outdoors men and women. Chances are, if there is a great trip to be found within an hour’s drive of Anchorage, it has already been discovered. But that doesn’t stop me from searching. It just means that my failure rate goes up. Way up. Maybe someday I’ll learn to stick to the tried and true, but it hasn’t happened yet.
The unsuccessful trips rarely make it onto this website, especially when they get stymied in the first few miles. But I am making an exception for this one, for two reasons:
1) Its the only thing I’ve done recently
2) It was supposed to be the first ‘adventure’ that Linda and I have done together (just the two of us) since our son was born. So I felt added pressure to make it successful.
But alas, it was not. My plan was a day-hike/packrafting route on the Kenai Peninsula. I estimated about 6 hours of hiking and two hours of rafting. The area is not remote by any means, but I did think I had selected a unique route that could potentially become a packrafting favorite. I’m not going to tell you where, but maybe you can figure it out from this photo…
… or maybe not.
I knew there would be some nasty bushwhacking, which I thought we could handle for a mile or two. But the vegetation was even worse than I expected. Additionally, I hadn’t planned on dealing with a steep side-hill while bushwhacking, and the fact that the creek was raging, which prevented us from being able to cross in search of easier terrain. Plus, it was raining. Eventually, I admitted defeat, and we pulled the plug.
As a consolation prize, we went to the Johnson Pass trailhead in Turnagain Pass and hiked into the bridge over Center Creek, and rafted out to the road. I did this a few years ago as part of another trip, and it was a fun, relaxed float with a few sweepers to keep us on our toes. But today the creek was raging (Six Mile was at 11.4 ft, ‘action’ stage), and there were a lot more sweepers, especially in the first mile or two. Center Creek, usually on the easy side of class II, seemed closer to class III. But after three portages in the first mile, it opened up a bit and we enjoyed a nice run to the road.
So not exactly what I had planned for the day, but it was still nice to get out and about with Linda for the first time in forever.
