Last fall Ed the packrafting God of the Interior told me about a trip he had done on the East fork of the Jack river, giving it a “5 stars!” rating. I had been thinking about doing a trip in that area, as it is supposed to be very scenic, and fairly accessible without a long shuttle. Tom, Ms Marsh, and I headed out of town early Saturday morning, and in late morning we were heading up a valley heading into the headwaters of the East fork of the Jack river.
The weather treated us well on the first day, though there was a brief hail storm, and late in the afternoon several thunder storms rolled by.
The hiking was fantastic..
Though things got a big harder once we headed over the pass, with a fair bit of side hilling.
Eventually we made it down from the pass and started heading down into the Jack.
We had been told there was a wonderful game trail the swapped sides of the creek but was wonderful walking. It turned out that the creek had a bit too much water in it for easy crossing.
The game trail was nice super highway for the sections we could follow it.
Eventually we decided the creek looked floatable enough to make it worth inflating the packrafts for, and made camp with plans to start floating in the morning. Morning came a bit earlier than some would have liked..
The floating on the jack was fast and fun. The creek was near bank full with all the runoff and the water was moving fast. Alas, there were not a lot of places to eddy out, so there was not a lot of time spent out of the boat.
Eventually we reached the main fork of the Jack. The water sped up a bit more, and the volume increased a fair bit.
There is a small canyon with a brief bit of (allegedly) class III-is water. Just as we were eddying out to go check on the canyon, one of us dumped and floated up to the rest of the group, requiring a throw bag rescue. It was decided that given the fast, high water it might be a good idea to just portage the canyon, so around we went. Fortunately, there was a fast hiking ATV trail that made for fast walking. This ATV trail could be picked up from the Denali Highway, and could be used to make this trip into a day trip, or to cut out the less exciting floating near the end (more later).
The rest of the float went by very fast. Once past the canyon things flattened out a lot, but the water remained fast. The last 20 minutes or so of floating had lots of fast moving water with lots of wood – not really all that fun, and we had to be on our toes to make sure we didn’t end up with some sweeper or snag related trama. We made to to our take out, and while Tom and Ms Marsh headed off to get some dinner I jumped on the bike and headed off to fetch the truck. I enjoyed a mellow 12 mile ride back to the truck. Biking that short section of the Denali Highway got me back into the mood to bike tour that road again.. Soon I was back at the truck, loaded up, retrieved Tom and Ms Marsh, and headed back to Fairbanks.
Five stars, indeed – this trip was fantastic and highly recommended. We did it during peak snowmelt driven water levels, so the floating was pretty fast, but I expect durring a more normal time of year the water would be a bit mellower. The hiking was great, the views spectacular, and the floating fun.
If I was to do this trip again I would probably take out after the canyon and hike out to the denali highway on the ATV trails, or take out as early as possible near Cantwell, as the last bit was the only bummer. Lots of cotton wood (Balsam Poplar) in the water, and not much to see, making all the wood dodging not all that rewarding. We took out where the old Parks Highway bridge used to be, but further upstream should be possible and a good idea.
This trip involves traveling a lot of land owned by AHTNA and requires a permit.
More mapping action here. and a GPX file here.
Tags: Denali Highway, hiking, jack river, packrafting
Hi Jay- I’m looking for inspiration by browsing your old trip reports. Really interested in this one, but it looks like the map is broken. Did you follow the route on this map: http://yak.spruceboy.net/2009/10/trips-for-next-summer.html ? Thanks for all the great write-ups!
Cory, I updated the map, alas, the old mapping stuff uses the older google API, which doesn’t work anymore. Anyway, it should be good now, and includes a link to the tracklog. Have fun! Oh, check out http://sethdadams.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-white-mountains-packraft-and-hike.html , a packrafting loop a few of us did last weekend in the Whites. Hope you are having a great summer!
This trip can also be done as a day trip hiking in the pull off at mile 131 of the denali highway. The hike is sort, under 5 miles, and is on atv trails that are fairly dry. The trails hit the jack just above the canyon.