Posts Tagged ‘packrafting’

The Alaska Wilderness Classic 2023 – Little Tok River to McCarthy

Sunday, July 30th, 2023

Warning: I asked my daughter Molly to edit this post, and was told afterward that I would have gotten a D if I had turned this in as an assignment in her English class. I was told my writing is simplistic and childish. So you have been warned 🤣

Last year when the new Alaska Summer Wilderness Classic course was announced, going from the Little Tok River bridge to McCarthy I really wanted to do it.  Unfortunately, a bunch of things contrived to make it so I couldn’t make it, so this year I was committed!    After searching around, I eventually found my friend Peter was interested, and it was a go! 

The evening before we drove to the start, having dinner at Fast Eddies in Tok, then hung out with everyone before hitting the stack.  I joked a bit with someone parked near me about moving my car so it was behind his to absorb the bullets, as we were in a gravel pit that looked like it was a shooting range sometimes.  In the morning someone drove by really early, and in the morning there was a sign left up, facing outwards.  I walked around and was amused to see my joke had come true – it said: “4th of July Trap Shoot No Parking”.  
So after moving our cars, everyone headed out. 

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Peter and I zoomed along on the ATV trails at the start.  I was full of nervous energy and talked a bit too much to folks nearby.  The ATV trails eventually ended (or really, we lost them) in a river floodplain. After several hours of crossing back and forth, we found the ATV trail again, and we followed it up to the first pass, and we camped at the base of the second pass, with great views of Noyes Mountain. 

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Peter is a big appreciator of mountains and thus began the first of many brief mountain enjoyment stops where Peter would stop, look around and say “Mountain!” and point at a new mountain.  Or a mountain seen from a different angle or side.. The next day we zoomed up and over the pass, then headed down Platnum Creek to enjoy the great walking.  Some folks right ahead Peter and I, Caleb and Nate, put in right away, but I suggested waiting a while to see if it was actually worth floating.. A few miles later the group passed us, so we put in.  Platinum Creek was a bit of a mess – it wasn’t challenging but there was lots of wood with very few eddies, so there was quite a bit of panicked jumping in and out of the boat.  I tried to use my whistle to signal to Peter when to get out, but like an idiot, mine was rigged such I couldn’t keep it in my mouth without using a hand or bending down – a mistake.  Fortunately, we were just far enough behind Nate and Caleb that we could often tell there was something coming up when we could see them out of their boats.  Apparently at the pre-race gathering in Anchorage everyone (that is everyone but Jay and Peter from Fairbanks, hah) had been warned that Platnum Creek was a woody mess, but no one had mentioned it to us.  They also said at that same gathering that everyone should have a dry suit.  I almost didn’t bring mine.  Those Anchorage people, hah!  

 Near the confluence with the Nebesna River, we came around a corner and a very large lynx was looking downstream.  Just after that Christof stuck his head out of the woods and said he had flipped avoiding a sweeper and lost his paddle.  Fortunately, he found it in a strainer and had given up on floating.   He seemed a bit shaken up, but ok, so we kept on.  The creek widened out a bunch and then we came out on the big, wide Nebesna.  We worked our way across the Nebesna, taking out at Cooper Creek, then starting our walk up to the next pass. 

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Cooper is a wide flood plane that necks down to a narrow valley, with many crossings. 

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Eventually, we turned off into a smaller creek, then up and over to Blue Lake where we spent the night. 

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Best campsite ever – Blue Lake!

The next day it was down to Notch Creek, over the beautiful Cooper Pass, then down Notch. 

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Again I voted to just walk as Notch looked like pretty marginal floating, but after walking half the creek we put in, floating to near Cross Creek, where we hiked over to the Chisana River,  stopping to inflate to cross.  There was a set of fancy Gossamer Gear poles someone left there on the bank which I grabbed in case we caught up with whoever dropped them.  So light, so fancy, I was sure someone was missing them!   I also apparently left a few things including the fuel on the bank which Peter rescued (thanks Peter!).   At Chisana we caught up with Christof again and chatted a bit, then walked a few more miles before hitting the sack. 

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In the morning we headed up Geohenda to the Solo Flats, then over and down to the White River.  Such a beautiful area!  

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We enjoyed a few miles of ATV trails just before the White River, and the Solo Creek Guides had some fun with their signage. They even had an Iron Dog lath marker, which was super funny, given two mountain ranges separate us from the Iron Dog route.

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The weather had been sunny and hot, so the White River was raging.  We could have inflated and crossed, but the current was moving fast, so we went downstream to find a more braided section, and crossed with Caleb and Nate, then camped on a little clear creek.  In the morning it was up and across Flood Creek, which looked raging but wasn’t too bad, then along the old glacier remnants, then into Skoli, and onto the Goat Trail. 

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Crossing Flood Creek

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The Goat trail was a bit less trail-like than I remember, but the walking was mostly good.  There was still a fair bit of snow up there though! 

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We pressed on, eventually camping right before the steep part of the Goat Trail. In the morning we did the iconic scree slopes of the Goat Trail, then headed down to the Chitistone.  

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The Chitistone was really moving, and while we could have blown up and crossed it, it would be been a bummer to miss the eddy on the other side, so we walked up in hopes it was possible to ford it where it braided out a bit where the glacier and creek came together.

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No dice, it was still raging, and much too deep to cross.  So we wasted several hours inflating, crossing, and then crossing the glacial river, then finally getting all the way across and packed up.   Next up hiking down the Chitistone to Glacier Creek.  I remember this being a mess of alder swacking from my last visit but the walking was mostly great.  There were two big landslides I didn’t remember.  They are less landslides and more like the side of the mountain exploded. 

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Eventually, we reached Toby Creek, where we found Nate and Caleb waiting for the water to drop.  The water was too high to cross, but we all expected it to drop overnight, so we went to bed. 

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A few hours later there was the cry of “BEAR, BEAR” and I shot out of the tent fully awake, just to realize there was a small black bear across the creek that also couldn’t cross, and it quickly moved on.  From all the cries of “BEAR” I was expecting it to be in camp, trying to eat my food, hah!  Shortly after that Luc, Alan, and Lee arrived, set up their mid, and went to sleep.  The consensus from everyone was that instead of dropping Toby Creek was going up. Odd, I thought and went back to bed.  I wasn’t too worried – if it was still high we could just inflate and take out at the next eddy, it would be fine. A few hours later Peter woke me up, saying the channel that everyone had been looking at was going up, but that was because the creek had rerouted itself, the rest of the channels were all a lot lower.  So we packed up and the whole group of us crossed the creek and hiked down to Glacier Creek, where we put in and floated to May Creek Road.  

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The Chitistone seemed really high and had at least 5x times the volume than when I was here last time.  Rocks were bouncing along the bottom and you could hear the near-constant sound of rocks bouncing off rocks in the upper sections.   I led the group for the first section and ran the only section with any real white water, which looked fine, but as I moved through it, I realized they were way bigger than expected. Not a big deal, with nice clean eddy lines, so move around in it, just lots of water, and a mistake would be painful.  So I hopped out and re-directed everyone to a  cowardly side channel.  After that, we stuck to all the lower-volume side channels and reached May Creek Road uneventfully.   On the Nizna Luke, Lee, and Alan floated by in another channel, a mile or so before we took out.   Nate and Caleb took off, and we didn’t see them again. 

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We finished after the 9 miles or so of road walking with a scenic walk through McCarthy and were met by Peter’s son Sam and his friend Jack – Yay.  They soon had burritos cooking for us, and after that we walked back to town for ice cream, double yay! 

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I was so excited for ice cream that the lady serving it said to the other person staffing the store something about me being a little kid in Spanish, then in English told me I was just like a little kid because I was so excited.  So I did a little dance for them to show my excitement, which caused them to break up laughing.  The next day we drove to my car at the start, where I was excited to see it didn’t have any bullet holes in it, and made our separate ways back to Fairbanks. 

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Thanks for the company Peter, and for the ride Sam and Jack! 

Julian C. has a great video here:

Christof T also has a great video:

Ben A has a great one too:


A few things I would do differently  – 

  • I need to rig my whistle so I have to keep it in my mouth so I can signal hands-free.  I had it setup way too short, so I had to either bend my head down or use my hand to hold it – a huge mistake. 
  • I need to get a bit more serious about getting better at packrafting.
  • As a spur-of-the-last-minute gear choice, I had brought little mini gaters. Alas, they worked just well enough to show that gaters were a good idea, but not all that well.  Next time I will bring mini-gaiters that actually stay on. 
  • I brought my really old, and lightish paddle with a floppy connector.  I really regretted that on the chitistone – I need to not take that paddle on trips with actual white waters, it is either going to break, fall apart, or do both at the same time. 
  • I really, really should have brought a helmet. Listening to the rocks bang around under us on the Nizina and the Chitistone was pretty terrifying.  Next time I need to bring a  helmet!!
  • I need to spend a lot more time in class III water to get comfortable.  I need to find some white water friends in anchorage I can float with more often. 
  • My packrafts cargo fly’s zipper is really having trouble closing.  I need to figure out what is wrong or get it replaced, it is a huge pain and takes forever.  I have cleaned and lubed the daylight out of it, and it still is a pain in the butt, with lots of separation issues. 

A few things that worked really well: 

  • We had a hot freeze-dried meal every night.  That rocked, I would totally do that again.  Maybe also have one mid-day. 
  • I bought a lightish dry suit from REI using a coupon – the best $500 I have ever spent.  It is well under 2 lbs and adds a large comfort and safety factor.  Love it! 
  • I brought an extra day’s worth of food and ate most of it.  Including two nearly inedible Range Bars. One I had picked up in McGrath and took it to Nome with me.  They were like eating coffee grounds combined with dirt and chocolate.  Not enjoyable, but space efficient.  Otherwise, I was pretty happy with my food choices.  Peter less so, he had stomach issues most of the way. 
  • We used a tent of Peters, an MSR Hubba Hubba 2. It was surprisingly light for a “normal” tent, and while we could have saved some weight with something specialized, it was pretty roomy and convenient. 
  • Taking May Creek Road, while boring, is faster.  We walked pretty slowly and did a bit of dinking around and still finished within 4 minutes of Luc, Alan, and Lee who took the Nizina.  If we had hustled we would have beat them. 
  • I got an old Osprey Exos pack off REIs used gear site as a spur-of-the-moment replacement for my HMG pack after it became clear that a Seek Outside pack would take too long to get to me.  I am super happy with that pack and am now questioning these small niche brands now.  I like the design of my HMG, but I don’t like how floppy it is, and how hard it is to get it loaded so it isn’t moving around a lot.  On really long days it takes a toll on the stabilizing mussels in my upper body.  The Osprey pack was much, much nicer to carry – the best $110 I have ever spent!   I wish Osprey would make packs out of XPac or something similar that is waterproof or at least didn’t absorb water rather than the same fabric they used 30 years ago.  I might still try getting a Seek Outside flight or some other pack, but I am less convinced at this point that the normal options are not better. In particular, the side pockets are great – I was taking my water bottle in and out constantly, and never had any issues. 

I will likely add more to this when I get a chance. 

Our route can be found here: https://caltopo.com/m/EVJ7K

Tok to Tok via Dawson, the Yukon, and Eagle!

Monday, November 14th, 2022

Tom and I had been planning on doing the classic Nebesna to McCarthy trip, but as the time approached, it was looking more and more like it was going to be pretty horrible weather-wise.  The Nebesna Road washed out, then the Richardson highway washed out, and the forecast had more rain than I thought was fun.  Walking up Cooper and Geohenda at a near flood stage seemed less fun than it could be.  Eventually, we settled on the backup plan of biking Tok to Dawson, then packrafting to Eagle, and biking back to Tok.  It would be a loop, with some bike rafting, yay!   I hadn’t been to Eagle outside the winter, and I had never been on that section of the Yukon. 

So on a sunny early afternoon, Tom and I left Tok, heading to Taylor Highway. 

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The first day was awesome, but oh so hilly. The road had also had its lines newly repainted, and DOT perhaps spent less time cleaning up than they should have…

Hmm..


We spent the night at the West Fork Campground, which is the nicest campground I have been at pretty much ever.  We camped in a biker spot that had a covered area with a nice view from a small bluff.

Best Campsite Ever!

In the evening I watched a muskrat or very small beaver swim back and forth in a little lake below the bluff.  It is a beautiful spot!  The campground host was a bit starved for human company and was super chatty.   

In the morning we left for Chicken and Canada.  A few minutes into our ride coming around a corner I startled a wolf, which gave the rest of the day a nice feel. 

Taylor Road Damage


We stopped to explore the various parts of Chicken, then moved on and camped in Canada across the border. 

A healthy mid-morning snack at Chicken. Photo compliments of Tom M.

The Chicken of Chicken!

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The Yukon!

The Top of the World

The Top of the World

We went to bed in the rain, and I had to get up in the middle of the night when the floor of my tent started floating – apparently, I had set up my tent in a puddle!  After I relocated it was much better.
The next day we made it to Dawson, and it started with a really long downhill – yay!

Long Downhill to Dawson

Ferry ride

Tom enjoying the ferry life..

We explored a bit, had dinner, resupplied, and even showered – yay!  Tom got some scanned copies of a Yukon river float guide with really wonderful maps and notes that I was later to by Yukon River (Dawson-Circle) by Mike Rourke .  

My resupply was a bit chaotic – the little Dawson store was crowded, I was overwhelmed by options, and I had not yet processed that the next 100 miles were by river not bike, so I could take almost anything with me. 

The guide was great, but I was amused by references to “overgrown” this, and “overgrown” that.  I got the feeling the author hated trees.   The next day we floated down the Yukon, putting in at a little tiny cove right above the ferry landing.

Getting ready to float!

It was an awesome launch spot, and the float was fantastic.  I had been worried a bit about floating the Yukon – it is a big river and moves fast, and the bike on the boat is a bit awkward but was all good, and a super fun float.  There were a few odd eddies called out as “Strong Eddy” in the guide, but otherwise, it was a fast and mellow float.

Steamboat Graveyard

Steamboat Graveyard

Cool rocks

Tom hamming it up.


We made Forty Mile (which is 50 miles from Dawson) in the late afternoon and made camp.  Forty Mile was awesome, and a super neat place to explore.

The "metal shop"



The buildings were neat to explore, and the campsite was top-notch.  We did find a few odd things though…

Odd..



Alas, I discovered in my confused shopping daze in Dawson that the “Wow Butter” I had purchased was soy butter, not peanut butter.  It was still good, just gave my “peanut butter” & bagel lunches an odd flavor.   When I got back the twins made fun of me for being such an idiot.  The peanut in the red circle with the cross should have clued me in…

In the morning we headed out and floated to Eagle.  We had the river entirely to ourselves besides seeing a dog on the river bank, and a single skiff headed upriver.  The driver of the skiff was too busy scanning the riverbanks to notice us, and I think didn’t even see us as he zoomed by.

Tom at one point accused me of being a weather doomsayer.  I was apparently always pointing at dark clouds and saying we were about to get rained on.  Fortunately, we didn’t get rained on much on the float.   I had been told stories of horrible headwinds on the Yukon, with big waves that come up quickly, but we didn’t see any sign of it, though it loomed ominously in my avid imagination. /

Old Man and Old Woman rocks

Yukon Floating

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The views from the river were fantastic!   At one point Tom and I agreed the trees on the hillside above us looked just like a scene from a model train set – idealized trees, surrounded by green foliage.  There were also huge rock bluffs, and neat rock formations, not to mention a very curious seagull that followed us for miles.  The gull might have gotten some crackers from me…

Buddy

We arrived in Eagle too late for the store to be open but explored a bit.

Sunny morning..

Sign of things to come?

Portent of doom?

I was very worried about calling into customs, possibly overly concerned about it.  We had been told about a phone next to the dock, near the store.  After a bit of searching, we found it and called customs to report in.

The "special" phone

 Then camped at “Fort Egbert”, a place of some significance to me.  My middle name is Egbert, and I’ve always hated it. 

Fort Egbert!

In the morning we hit the store, arriving an hour before the opening time due to our not changing our clocks, but the guy running it didn’t mind and let us in.   We then headed out and biked to the  Walker Fork Campground. 

Taylor raspberries

American #1 Creek!

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Tom Zooming

Up, up, up!



The ride was fantastic, but again, oh, so hilly!  It was very, very scenic, and I really enjoyed the narrow road with almost no traffic.   The next day we completely loop back to Tok, stopping for a nice dinner at Fast Eddies, and were home in the late evening. 

This trip was very worth doing.  I had a blast.  Things to note:

  • All the float times I got for the Yukon were way off.  The water was hauling.  Going 6-8mph consistently. 
  • Getting to shore required work – the current was so fast often that the perfect spot would be way gone by the time we reached shore.  
  • Packrafts were fine but were not fast (See above.) 
  • The road surfaces were pretty good and not very muddy. 
  • Chicken has several gas station-type places with some basic snacks and several places to eat.  Otherwise, the only resupply options are Dawson (a big store) and Eagle (a small, but well-stocked store)
  • Check the expiration dates on anything you get from the Eagle store.  On a past trip, I got several years expired cheese, and on this trip Tom got a box of granola bars that were several years expired. 
  • Water worth drinking was a bit hard to find on the Yukon, but not impossible. 
  • The Yukon was so much more scenic than I expected! 
  • Eagle has a post office, with better planning I would have mailed my boat back to me in Fairbanks. 
  • The BLM campgrounds and the campground on the river at Dawson are fantastic! 
  • The highways are much, much hillier than I expected.  So many hills! 
  • Mileage Totals:
    Tok to Dawson – 190 Miles, 16kft of climbing
    Dawson to 40 Mile – 50 miles
    40 Mile to Eagle – 51 miles
    Eagle to Tok – 175 miles, 16k ft of climbing

I really want to float Eagle to Circle now.  I hope it is in my future! 

Beaver Creek & the Summit Trail with the family

Monday, August 22nd, 2022

Note – This trip was in June 11-13, 2022, but I am falling behind on my blog..

A long time ago our whole family floated Beaver Creek, and hiked out the Summit Trail. Lizzy (daughter), Nancy (wife) both decided after that trip packrafting was “dumb”. A few years later Molly (other daughter) gave it another chance and had a blast. With a weekend (plus a day) free, Molly and I decided to do it again, floating Beaver Creek in packrafts and meeting up with Nancy and Lizzy half way out on the Summit Trail. This time we were joined by Ruby the loaner dog, who we were taking care of while her owner was off on the north slope. Our dogs Shiloh and Eddy are terrified of water, and are in no way packrafting dogs. It was a great float, the float was fantastic, the weather warm… just about perfect, though the water was a bit slower than ideal..

Ruby the dog on lookout beaver creek Mellow beaver creek floating
Lunch

Hot lunch – luxury!

Fellow travelers

We stopped briefly to check out an old cabin on the USGS topo maps, and found it – yay I love rusty old stuff!

Old Cabin

We spent the evening in Borealis Cabin, enjoying the clean (yay!!) and warm cabin as the temps dropped to near freezing overnight. Ruby enjoyed snuggling with me and found the cabin full of exciting smells.
In the morning we crossed the creek and started hiking after watching some beavers busily doing beaver things.

A Beaver on Beaver Creek! Ruby waiting with Molly for a ride

Ruby waiting for a ride across the creek..

Shuttling across Beaver Creek

Shuttling across the creek

Fording Wickersham Creek

Wading Wick Creek..

Footprints on Wickersham Creek

Busy banks!

We then hiked to the trail shelter, roughly 12 miles from the river. The trail was mostly great once off the winter trail (tussocky!), with marvelous colors and great views.

Tussocky Ruby The summit trail! PXL_20220612_195135432 PXL_20220612_195438110 Going under..

Under…

And under..

“I can make it!” – Molly

Eventually we made it to the trail shelter where we caught up with Lizzy and Nancy and spent the evening enjoying snacks, books, and games.

In the morning we headed out and hiked the rest of the way out..

Lizzy is preped for the bugs!

Lizzy, well bug proofed

A bit of spruce pollen

Pollen-licous!

Shiloh is unimpressed

Shiloh the dog is not excited about this hiking stuff.. 🙂

Lunching

Lunch!

BLM had installed new boardwalk on the really muddy section, and it was a fantastic addition – thanks BLM!

Eddy leading the way Eddy leading the way

The family dropped me off at Cleary Summit, and I biked to Nome Creek to fetch the car. The ride was great, but I didn’t bring enough food and bonked a bit.

The Davison Ditch! Nome Creek Road Almost done..

We are so lucky to have the Whites and Beaver Creek so accessible to us. It is amazing to go on a three day trip and to have the place completely to ourselves. Yay! Thanks again BLM for such a wonderful area! And of course thanks to Molly, Lizzy, Nancy, Ruby, Eddy, and Shiloh for the company. And Sinbad the cat for watching the house while we were away 🙂



Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic 2021

Wednesday, December 29th, 2021
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