Rivers & Waters

Looking upriver the ridge above Pingo Lake. Pingo Lake. The portage to the river follows the spit of land lookers right of the (center left) oxbow to a sandbar at the next bend downstream. Roughly a 1/2 mile walk on a decent trail. You have eaten many berries, You have caught many fish, You have […]  [ Read More ]

Our family summer float for 2023 was a mess of plans. A deep snowpack in Southcentral Alaska, combined with a cold spring meant that local rivers were bankfull at best – and full flood stage in several watersheds. Eventually, after hitting refresh on USGS stream gauges for the better part of a week, we switched […]  [ Read More ]

These are photos and notes from a float down the North Fork of the Koyukuk in Gates of the Arctic National Park –  a Wild and Scenic river that is entirely within Gates of the Arctic National Park.  The standard section of this float is to fly into a gravel bar just downstream from the […]  [ Read More ]

Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons, the canyons of the lower Green River, evoke stories.  The ancestral Puebloan and Fremont people, who made their homes along the river, painted and carved their stories on walls just above the waters edge and on boulders overlooking valleys below.  Utes, Navajos and Paiutes followed and added to the stories, turning […]  [ Read More ]

We pooled permits with a number of families and came away empty.  The backup plan was the John Day River which, as of 2019, was not permitted (note – starting 2020 permits are required).  Coordination with my brother, raft rental from Service Creek Resort, permits from BLM, several hundred pounds of gear packed into duffle […]  [ Read More ]

Summer 2018 found us planning another Yukon River float.   We had floated a section in Canada the previous summer so we opted to float Eagle to Circle – a 150 mile remote section, much of it Yukon Charley National Preserve. Joining us were Bryn Clark, Louis Sass and Aven, who had previously floated this section […]  [ Read More ]

These are photos from an October 2017 raft trip through Desolation and Gray Canyons on the Green River. I’ve wrote up a pretty lengthy post about this trip in October 2016, so I’ll limit this to mostly a photo essay. Todd Kelsey scored another cancellation permit for Desolation / Gray and put together another team […]  [ Read More ]

10 sunny days and 1 day of rain. Temps reached into the 80s, forest fires built on the horizon and an orange haze filled the river valley and on our only rainy day the rainwater tasted like smoke. Our camps ranged from classic Yukon river wooded camps where travelers have beat down dirt platforms near old log cabins, to large open islands with cobblestone beaches and back channels of stagnant warm water and mud that invited children to shed clothes and bathe.  [ Read More ]

With a season of river trips in the works we packed up the boat for a shakedown weekend run down the Upper Kenai. The 2017 fishing season had officially opened a few days prior, but the first few days typically are slow fishing and it was nice to have the river mostly to ourselves from Kenai Lake to Sportsman. From Sportsman's to Jim's we encountered several boats and the usual throng of people at the Russian River. Not even bothering to pull out the rods we pushed downriver stopping only occasionally to stretch the legs.  [ Read More ]

This is a photo dump from a recent trip down Desolation and Gray Canyons on the Green River. 10 of us flew down from Anchorage and spent a week on the river. We had 6 adults and 4 kids ages 3-6. We crowded into 2 16' rafts and brought a packraft as an extra boat. We had perfect weather (7 days of 70 degree sun) and low flows (3000cfs) which meant the majority of the rapids were mere ripples (but also meant that travel was slow).  [ Read More ]

For the 4th of July we packed up the kids, rafts and dogs and headed north to Talkeetna to float the Susitna River from Gold Creek to Talkeetna. This stretch of river is 40 miles of mellow class I with nice gravel bars and islands for camping and an easy take out that’s within 1 mile of where you leave your vehicle. The best part? You approach by train. And not just any train – but the last true flag-stop train in America.  [ Read More ]

Photos and notes from a 5 day kid float down Meander Canyon - the mellow 51 mile stretch of the Colorado River from Potash to Spanish Bottom.  [ Read More ]

These are photos from a 2015 Memorial Day weekend float on the Upper Nenana River from mile 17 of the Denali Park road to the Parks Highway (20 river miles). This is a totally mellow Class I float that is one of the better kid’s river in Southcentral AK. We left Anchorage early Saturday morning […]  [ Read More ]

A quick trip to Boise to visit my (used to be) little brother. Of course my brother wants to entertain so even before I get there he starts sending texts about current levels on the Main Payette (“10,000 cfs on the Main. Big Water. Big Fun!”). I call him and tell him he’s crazy. My […]  [ Read More ]

In July I spent a week floating the Talachulitna River in Western Cook Inlet with my father-in-law, Alain. We took our time and enjoyed the fishing – spending around 10 hours a day on the water and fishing continuously for trout, dollies, grayling and kings. We saw Belted Kingfishers, Rusty Blackbirds, Bonaparte’s Gull as well […]  [ Read More ]

This past weekend I was encouraged by the high numbers of bikers and hikers heading down the trail at Chitina. Perhaps a third of the users were hikers and bikers- and while ATV users still rule, the growth of bikers over the past five years is a trend that I’d like to see continue. And […]  [ Read More ]

“It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong.” – Yvon Chouinard. Drove South to Homer (5 hours) for some halibut fishing this weekend. We went with our friend Becky who has a house and boat down there. Left friday night and by 11ish saturday morning we were uploading the skiff into Kachemak Bay. Weather was […]  [ Read More ]

Summer in Alaska is for family visitors. Some years no one shows up- Other years they show up in mass – a week here, a week there. Sometimes 2 weeks. Sometimes 3 weeks- sometimes more. Not that I’m complaining- when family visits it’s a chance to show them how you live. And how you live […]  [ Read More ]