Well, it took until mid-August, but I finally got away for a little while.

This past weekend, Rob and I both had a free day and a craving to do some packrafting. We decided to go hit the East Fork of the Chulitna river. We’d heard that the East Fork is a great packraft river, and we also knew that there were a lot of hiking route options to get to that water. We didn’t have a lot of info on any of the hiking routes, so in the end we picked the route we thought looked best on the map.

The whole trip was spectacular. The hiking, the boating, the weather… all perfect.

It was quite jarring – shocking even – to wake up Sunday morning in Broad Pass to clear skies. The hike only got better from there. We explored two beautiful alpine valleys, crossed two scenic mountain passes, traversed a ridgeline, and had a fun scree descent, all while basking in the only sun of the summer. Along the way we saw a dozen sheep, a dozen caribou, a sow grizzly with two cubs, two porcupines, a few bald eagles, and a whistling army of marmots. In six hours of hiking, we only bushwhacked for, at most, fifteen minutes. And even then, it was very mild bushwhacking (well, except for the wasp incident…).

Just over a dozen miles later, we descended to the East Fork of the Chulitna, about a mile above the confluence with Crooked Creek. Initially, we thought that section might be too bony for floating, but after walking downstream a few hundred yards, we decided to give it a try. We were glad we did, because it was bouncy Class II butt-boating at its best. The water smoothed out a bit when Crooked Creek came in, until we reached the two canyons of class III water. The canyons were tremendous fun. We even did a few sections more than once. After that, it was mostly bouncy waves down to the Parks Highway.

At the highway, we grabbed our stashed bikes and pedaled nine miles back up the highway to Rob’s truck. By this time, the clouds had moved back in, and the rain started just as we pointed the truck south towards Anchorage. The weather window had closed, but we had put every minute of it to very good use.

Hike:
12.7 miles (plus a spur to bag a peak and another detour to look for a lost hat)
6 hours without much stopping
~5500′ of vertical
Great walking with almost no bushwhacking or scrambling

Packrafting:
16 miles of splashy class II, with two fun class III canyons.
4.5 hours, including scouting and playing a bit.
A great river for intermediate boaters looking to try a taste of class III water.

Total trip, including bike shuttle:
37.5 miles
12.5 hours
5 stars

A couple more comments about the route…

We didn’t dally much, so some might find this more enjoyable as an overnight trip. It’s also worth saying that even though the reviews on Packrafting forum give this trip great marks, I think they are under-selling it. It is probably the most fun day trip of hiking and rafting that I have done. A classic for sure.

View a map and more photos:

Watch Rob enter the second canyon:

Second canyon – East Fork of the Chulitna from Cory Smith on Vimeo.