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.
