The family and I did the classic Beaver Creek float and hike. Jokingly I suggested to my daughter Lizzy that she write a blog post about it for me. Amazingly, she agreed – enjoy!
In a story that was told during one of the Dark Winter Nights productions it was stated that something truly was terrifying because Jay Cable started screaming, and he never screams.
I can say that this is factually false. My dad screams more than probably anybody else I know. Multiple times I have had to tell him to not scream unless he is actually seriously injured because otherwise, nearby people will come running to witness the terrible injury, which would be embarrassing for both him and me.
Note: The dark winter nights episode Lizzy is refering to can be found here: (Also, I never scream. -JC)
The beaver creek trip I went on this summer, luckily, did not include very much screaming, except for a few moments. The weather was fairly perfect, with almost no bugs.
The packrafting was definitely not hot, but also not the frigid hail-filled adventure a previous beaver creek trip was. We had one day of packrafting, then stayed at a cabin for the night, then crossed the creek again to get to the trail on the other side. I was boating in a tricolor boat and took joy in paddling far ahead from the rest of the group so that I had to be shouted at to wait.
Lizzy, in the “tricolor boat”.. Lizzy, in her natural habitat..
The wildlife from the creek was quite impressive. We saw multiple eagles and ospreys, plus a porcupine and a moose. Bank swallows were also a continual presence later during the boating.
Summer cabin life.. Lizzy, the young author of this screed, appreciating the aroma of her well aged socks..
The short journey away from the cabin on the second day turned out to be an unexpected source of adventure. I got across perfectly fine in my boat, which I then deflated and rolled up to go in my dad’s backpack. However, there was a shriek from the middle of the creek as my dad was crossing. Apparently he had a thermos of coffee in the boat which had a poor lid, or a lid he had forgotten to actually screw on. Whatever the cause, he was soon sitting in a pool of coffee that had filled the inside of his raft.
When he got out of the boat the seat of his pants was soaked. There was also a very strong odor of coffee as he walked past. He quickly changed into different pants and underwear. However, he then asked the family to wash both in the creek. I refused and ran in the opposite direction. Finally, he was forced to wash his own clothing, and then changed into dry shorts.
It wouldn’t really have mattered if he had kept the original shorts on. He had told us that there would be a creek crossing after the first, but that it would be shallow and that we would just walk across. It was not shallow. It was thigh deep on my dad, waist deep on me. I told my dad he had to come back and take my backpack for me. I had assumed, on a day we wouldn’t be boating, that I wouldn’t need to seal everything into a dry sack. Apparently, on all hiking trips it is best to assume that you are going swimming.
The trail on the first day of hiking wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. The brush, unfortunately, in some locations was densest beside and in the trail. The brush would grow specifically in the trail because water would flow down it. Specifically the two miles after the trail shelter, or before the trail shelter from our perspective, are very brushy.
When we reached camp I entertained myself by reading the two books I brought, both of which I finished during the trip. I was very appreciative of the large supply of camp chairs in the trail shelter.
The third day, while being the shortest, was somewhat frustrating for me. My wet feet and poor shoes generated blisters. I was also carrying the largest kayak paddles, which stuck out from the top of my pack and caught on all the brush.
Why, what big paddles you have Lizzy!
My spirits improved near the end of the hike, and I was pleased with myself once I reached the parking lot and took my shoes off. I also have an appreciation now for my hatred of coffee. I will never end up with coffee packraft crotch.
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.
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.
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.
Cooper is a wide flood plane that necks down to a narrow valley, with many crossings.
Eventually, we turned off into a smaller creek, then up and over to Blue Lake where we spent the night.
Best campsite ever – Blue Lake!
The next day it was down to Notch Creek, over the beautiful Cooper Pass, then down Notch.
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.
In the morning we headed up Geohenda to the Solo Flats, then over and down to the White River. Such a beautiful area!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Thanks for the company Peter, and for the ride Sam and Jack!
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
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 buildings were neat to explore, and the campsite was top-notch. We did find a few odd things though…
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. /
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…
We arrived in Eagle too late for the store to be open but explored a bit.
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.
Then camped at “Fort Egbert”, a place of some significance to me. My middle name is Egbert, and I’ve always hated it.
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.
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!
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..
Hot lunch – luxury!
We stopped briefly to check out an old cabin on the USGS topo maps, and found it – yay I love rusty old stuff!
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.
Ruby waiting for a ride across the creek..
Shuttling across the creek
Wading Wick 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.
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, well bug proofed
Pollen-licous!
Shiloh the dog is not excited about this hiking stuff.. 🙂
Lunch!
BLM had installed new boardwalk on the really muddy section, and it was a fantastic addition – thanks BLM!
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.
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 🙂
Bob and I were packing up on the side of Caribou Creek, looking forward to the last 15 to 17 miles of hiking to the finish. A super cub flew over us, then came back to fly circles fairly low right above us as we got ready for our final hike, packing up our boats and our floating stuff. It kept flying circles above us, and Bob and I gave them several thumbs up to make sure they knew we were ok. Oddly, they kept circling above us. As we got ready to go we speculated what they were doing:
“Maybe looking for someone’s boat?”
“Maybe someone is lost and they are looking for them?”
“You sure your Inreach didn’t go off?”
When we packed up, and hit the trail, we soon figured out why they were circling – we had taken out a few miles early on the wrong trail. It was marked clearly on our GPS – very obviously. Had I actually checked I would have known we were taking out at the wrong spot. There was a connector, but that turned out to be a lot longer than anticipated. We finally reached the trail we should have taken out at, over two muddy hours later. Sigh.
So, this post is a bit wordy – it is hard to condense this experience down to something short and pithy, and that is of course beyond my writing skills, so to feel free to skip to the end to just look at photos.
The Alaska Wilderness Summer Classic is a point to point human powered event. It is now in its 40th year, and the last year for the current route, which is from the Cantwell area to Sheep Mountain Lodge near Eureka. It switches every three years normally. Last year Tom and I did a mostly overland route, and I was really looking forward to taking a boat and getting some floating in this year. Alas, my normal partner, Tom, had back issues that were looking like they would be severe enough to require surgery, so he was out.
Note – Tom ended up needing surgery, and finally got the operation done the week before the classic, and is recovering fine.
I am too big of a wimp to do the whole route by myself. Besides the extra safety factor, although I am not a people person, that much time without any people seems like it would be a bit beyond me. Fortunately Bobby Gillis said he was interested in doing it with me, and so it was a go! Yay! One problem is that Bob walks faster than me and is considerably more hardcore, so I was pretty worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up.
The evening before the start, everyone met up at the start, attended a mellow pre-event chat, then camped on the side of the road. The next morning everyone gathered up, everyone fiddled around a bit, then took a photo and we were off!
The first few hours flew by. I was pretty worried, as it didn’t take Bob too long before he was poking me about walking slowly. After I tried to speed up he didn’t poke me again – hard to say if I actually walked faster or he just gave up on me.
At one point I had to stop to re-adjust my pack. I have one of those super trendy Hyperlite Mountain Gear packs that everyone loves, and while I mostly love it, it is a bit too floppy for really long days with loads over 30lbs for me, and I always seem to be brought up short at some point with an excruciating shoulder neck pain. I think this is my last trip with over 30lbs in that pack. I quickly repacked my pack to move everything of any weight right up against my back and things seemed better. I also took out the trekking poles I had been carrying, and unfolded them, only to discover the connecting part on one of them had been pushed down into the body of the pole. I break poles fairly regularly and these were one of a set I had bought to replace another pole I had broken, and for the classic I brought the unused one as I assumed it would reduce the chance of breaking – but now I was going to carry a broken pole for another 100 miles – arrg! When we got walking again I was pretty irritated, but happy my shoulder muscles were not killing me. Thirty miles later I broke my other pole, leaving me to carry two broken pole, sigh.
It was much hotter than I expected, and I was having a hard time staying hydrated. I had brought chlorine dioxide tablets, which treated a quart at a time but required 20 minutes of waiting. For pretty much the whole way I was filling up whenever I had a chance, tossing a pill in, waiting anxiously for the 20 minutes to go by, then chugging. If I had been thinking more clearly I would have brought the uv wand for faster treating and to carry less water.
It was hot enough that Bob was worried that his bacon would go bad, and he offered some, which I took “some” as most, and nearly choked myself to death cramming a huge wad of it into my mouth. I survived, but Bob didn’t offer me any more food.
Near the headwaters of the Jack we saw a huge group of people on the other side of the valley that looked oddly well organized – everyone was in a line, and their tents were in a pattern. We were later to find out they were a NOLS group on a several week trip.
As the hours zipped by, we gradually made our way up the Jack River, and down to Tsusena Creek, where we passed the leaders, Matt, John, and Brian, blowing up their boats. The water looked pretty thin, so Bob and I kept walking, waiting for another tributary to come in before putting in and floating. The creek was a bit low on water, but the floating was non-threatening and bouncy at times. It was much faster and more fun than walking along it like I did with Tom the year before. I only have a few landmarks to watch for along the creek, and was in constant searching for the tree stand Tom and I had walked by. It was hours before we passed it. I think Bob quickly got sick of me constantly looking for it, and mistaking various bushes for it.
A few hours into our float, well past the point where we dropped back into the treeline, Bob was slightly ahead of me, and just ahead of us on the river’s left there was a huge brown bear, with its head in the water, big butt up and facing towards us. After I realized Bob had not seen it yet, I started to panic, worried we would float right into it, surprise the bear, and have it bounce us around like beach toys. After much panicking I finally got Bob’s attention, and we pulled over, only to discover it had wandered off. Yay! This was the first of several bear miscommunications – apparently I just suck at communicating. We continued floating until we finally took out just after the sunset, cold and wet. As we packed, up the “leaders” – Matt, Brian, and John – floated by us. We had been in the lead for the whole float – yay! Apparently walking instead of floating had been a good call.
Bob and I packed up, hiked over to the Tsusena Lake, floated across the lake in the dark, arriving at the far shore where I staggered off to find a place to camp for a few hours. Morning came too soon, and we were off again, hiking over to Deadman Creek.
At one point my watch warned me that I should get more sleep and my recovery would be reduced. Hah, if only! The next few miles were a slog. We tried the direct route and that didn’t work as well as we hoped – there was lots of not so good walking, and brush. We did hear another group at some point, and Bob saw them briefly, and they seemed to be moving much faster. We made it down to the Susitna, where we inflated, crossed, then hiked up out of the river valley in the boiling hot sun. I don’t do well in the heat, and I was hammering down water. It was quite a contrast to last year with warm nights and hot days.
As we hiked up Fog Creek we saw two groups in the distance behind us, which we assumed were other AWMC people, but they were traveling slowly and soon dropped out of sight. In retrospect it is possible they were another group? In the early hours of the morning we camped just above Tsisi Creek.
The next day we hiked over to Kosina and there our route diverged from the route I took last year, and we headed up river.
The internet has said the Kosina was great walking – and there was some wonderful walking in there, but while there was some good walking, but a lot of trudging through wet swamp.
Unfortunately Bob’s knee was starting to give him trouble, and by the time we made it to the second tallest pass of our route it was starting to look like things might be over.
After several rounds of inreaching, we decided to give it some rest, and set up camp near the top of the pass looking down on the Black River, far below us. The advice relayed via the inreach from the marvous Dr Leistikow, my wife Nancy, and Bob’s partner Lee (who is a nurse) said to tape it and rest it. Bob taped up his knee, and then we went to bed, planning to sleep in, and hopefully all would be well in the morning. Just as I tucked into my tent it started raining, and I invited Bob into the vestibule.
An ode to my tent – a sidebar. Fifteen years ago when the twins were tiny, I looked around for small, light tents that would fit all four of us, and found a Tarptent Rainshadow 2 – an under 2 lbs tent for three adults. Our family used it until the twins got too big for it, then moving on, but I liked the designs of the Tarptents enough so I got another one, the “Moment ”, a single person tent. This summer, I noticed Tarptent was making a tent that was just 17oz – the Aeon Li and it looked like I could fit into it – yay! It was expensive, but I figured in the classic I would get at least a few nights out of it, so it could be worth it so I bought one. I figured four nights in it would cost about the same as a cheap hotel.. I am glad I did – it isn’t quite as roomy as the Moment, but it is fast to set up, roomy enough, and has a wonderfully large vestibule that fits Bob in a pinch. A lot of other folks use plastic bags, tarps, or bivvies, or other small sack like options in the classic, but I just don’t think it is worth it – saving a few ounces and being unable to sleep due to bugs or rain seems like a poor tradeoff. I also brought one of the twins’ sleeping bags (the lightest one we own), and a short foam pad. Bob was using some sort of plastic sack, down pants, and a down jacket. I think my total sleep stuff weight was a little under 3 lbs, which I think was weight well spent, as it let me enjoy the limited sleep I could get.
Bob isn’t a tall guy, so he fit fine, and when it started raining as we went to bed, I offered him the vestibule and he joined me in the tent. He looked more comfortable than he was in his plastic sack, and I quickly drifted off to sleep. We ended up sleeping close to 10 hours, and when I woke up I felt completely normal and totally refreshed – yay! Bob’s knee was better too, double yay!
Soon we were zooming down to the Black RIver, and up to another pass. The Black River valley is beautiful, but oddly the Black River is glacial, and very white.
White River would be more appropriate.. Unfortunately now my knees were starting to hurt and near an old crashed plane we stopped and Bob did up his feet while I attempted to fix my pole with the slipped insert in hopes that would help. Finally with the use of Bob’s pliers I managed to pull the insert out and super glue it in place – my pole was working again! Yay! The headwaters of the Black expand out into a huge open bowl with a landing strip marked out by cairns. Just as we passed the landing strip I noticed two people hiking down a far ridge, and after I pointed them out we sped up – competition!
The next pass (the second to last big one) was an easy walk up topped by a loose screen field.
Above us, seemingly an nearly infinite distance away, a caribou walked the ridge above us, running along the ridgeline as if to taunt us about our slowness. Topping the ridge we dropped down into a beautiful valley with a small creek that quickly dropped into a deep channel, eventually reaching Nowhere Creek.
While researching the route I had read that Nowhere creek had lots of petrified wood, and much to my excitement Bob pointed out some huge chunks of petrified wood. Bob works for the Alaska Division of Geological Surveys and is a geologist, so there was much discussion of rocks and geology, but petrified wood was one of the highlights for me!
After crossing Nowhere Creek we headed over the Oshetna, following an amazing maze of caribou trails winding through the tussocks, eventually camping after dark just below the final big pass.
In the morning it was up and over into the Caribou Creek drainage, where we hiked on the west bank until running into an uncrossable flowing mud stream, something that I had never seen before.
The mud was actually flowing down like a stream, with large rocks floating down it, and it was nearly bottomless – I couldn’t feel the bottom with my trekking pole. Bob was in full on geologist mode, and was super excited by the muddy stream of certain death. It was not going to be possible to cross it..
We tried going down to the creek, but found it to be entirely blocked off with very soft and deep mud – it was either deep water, soft mud, or both, and thus uncrossable without swimming. We then headed back up a quarter mile before finding a place where the lake was shallow enough to cross – it was still up to my chest though, and very opaque so I had to feel my way across and hope my pack would float enough I could hang on to it if there was a drop off.
Fortunately no drop off was encountered so we climbed up the other bank and enjoyed a wonderful “sound of music” hillside walk down to the ATV trails that we took to where Caribou Creek was floatable.
The ATV trails were fast walking, and were littered with lots of interesting relics from old mines.
We did run into one more section where the creek was dammed up by a huge mudslide, and this time went completely around it, only to find the mud was asphalt hard.
There was lots of speculation between Bob and I if both slides were the result of the same weather event, as we didn’t see any signs of other slides. Feeling a bit silly, we walked over the rest of the mud slide back to the ATV trail and then on to where we put in. I was pretty worried about the float, as I had heard it was class III and IV, but it turned out to range from mellowish to bouncy class II, and we zoomed along, enjoying the float. Eventually we reached what we thought was the take out, packed up while a super cub flew circles above us, before finally leaving just as we discovered we had taken out at an ATV trail a few miles upstream of the actual trail we wanted to get. Oh, well, what’s a few miles.. well, a lot, it turned out. The “extra” bit of trail we took was muddy, rutted, and had several climbs including one that seemed to go straight up. I have no idea how ATVs get up that climb. Those folks must be crazy!
Finally we reached our actual take out, and hiked up May Creek trail, where I filled my remaining freeze dried meal with cold water and hiked along, hoping it would hydrate and I could enjoy a nice final snack.
The last few hours zoomed by, as we hiked up May Creek trail, which was less muddy than I remembered, across the beaver swap of doom (which now didn’t have any swamp), and up and over the ridge near Gun Sight & Sheep Mountain, before heading down to the old abandoned highway.
We were supposed to avoid walking on the Glenn HIghway, and last year Tom and I were forced to walk along a utility cut, but I vetoed that this year – there is no way I was going to be walking though folks property at midnight in the dark, someone would likely shoot us! Instead we walked the highway for the last few miles, getting off as trucks came by, zooming along in their bubbles of light. We finally pulled into the finish at Sheep Mountain Lodge a little after 1am.
I was saddened to find that I had forgot to pack any food in the truck besides a few Muscle Milks, but Bob was nice enough to give me his remaining freeze dried meal, while he had a ramen noodle packet, topped off with a few beers – the finish trailer was well stocked with beers. Such a fine finishing feast – thanks Bob, I will always be thankful for that meal! In the morning we caught up with John, Brian, and Matt who finished 17 hours or so ahead of us, and enjoyed a huge breakfast, before heading back to Fairbanks.
Thanks for the company Bob, this was the adventure of a lifetime! Of course, a huge thank you goes out to my family for letting me disappear for a whole week, only to be asked random medical questions about knees via inreach, and then come back all sleep deprived. Thanks Molly, Lizzy, and Nancy!
And finally, a big thank you to Matt K for organizing. Thanks Matt, it is a lot of fun!
Some thoughts
Gear
I brought a 30 degree bag I originally got for my daughter lizzy and a short section of closed cell foam pad. It worked great.
We took an older MSR Pocket Rocket and a quart-ish pot for heating water for freeze dried meals. Totally worth the weight I think.
Foot stuff – I bought ¾ of a roll of Lukotape, and still had lots left at the finish. I brought a fairly large amount of homemade hydropel replacement, and used lots. I used some inov-8 RocLite 300 shoes, and they worked fine but were toast by the end. I wore a thin liner sock and a thick outer sock. Mostly I was quite happy on the foot front, and finished with just two small blisters.
Boat stuff – I took a dry top and float pants. That worked fine, but would have been cold if I swam. It was lighter than any other option I had. I had a “normal” lama boat with am white water deck, Bob had one of the newer narrower boats with thigh straps. We both had pfds, and bike helmets.
Clothing – In addition to what I was wearing at the start, I took an extra top, bottom, a puffy synthetic top, and one set of extra socks.
Navigation Stuff – Bob and I used cell phones for navigation. That worked great, when we looked at them and didn’t do dumb things like take out earlier than we where supposed to.
My total pack weight was a little under 40lbs. Which seems pretty heavy.
Food
I took roughly 12 lbs of food, plus four full size freeze dried meals. Two of the freeze dried meals were the jumbo Expedition Foods (https://expeditionfoods.com/ ) 1k calorie meals – and those were great. The last one I had with cold water on Squaw creek trail, which was surprisingly good. Otherwise I was pretty unhappy with my food selection – I needed more variety and easier to digest food. My notes from last year told me to bring more variety and easier to digest food, so maybe I should read my notes and not stupidly repeat my errors. I did take some fatty meat sticks’ ‘ and they were great and went down well. I ate almost all my food.
Route
The route we took this year was great – it was fast walking for the most part, and floating cut out a lot of time. The walking was mostly good,and in parts it was fantastic. The walking in the Oshetna and Kosnina valleys had some sections where it wasn’t as good as I would have liked, but otherwise it was mostly pretty good. The area is super scenic, much more scenic than the ATV trails I took with Tom last year. However, I think the walking on the ATV tails is actually a lot faster, and that still might be the “fastest” route, if a boat is taken to float Tsusena Creek. Floating Tsusena Lake was also a time saver, and it was very neat to float across it in complete darkness. Caribou Creek was a blast, super fun!
What I would Change
I would take another water treatment system, like a steripen for faster hydration if it was hot.
I would take different poles. Those black diamond poles I have been using suck, with their connector pieces coming out at inopportune times.
Better food choices.
Reduce! My pack was ~40lbs, I should be able to get it much lighter.
After Effects
Last year my feet swelled up a ton. This year I used compression socks just after I finished, and while my feet swelled a bit, it wasn’t nearly as bad. However, my knees were super sore after finishing, and it took weeks for them to feel normal again. I need to figure out something so these things are easier on my knees. Otherwise I was mostly intact at the finish.
I love Beaver Creek! I try to do the classic Nome Creek to Summit trail float and hike once a year or so in some form. It is beautiful and the logistics are simple so it makes a great easy packrafting trip.
Four years ago our whole family packrafted (google says it should be spelled pack-rafting, but what does google know? 🙂 ) Beaver Creek, floating down to the Summit Trail and hiking out to the Wickersham Dome trailhead. It was a mixed bag – the twins had fun for sections, but Lizzy in particular hated the brush and didn’t enjoy the packrafting with two people in a boat that much. The weather was not ideal – we got hailed on several times during the float and rained on a fair bit. This year we ended up with a Memorial day weekend without commitments and so I started aggressively pushing to do something fun outside. Doing a repeat of the Beaver Creek came up, and Molly seemed excited about it once I pointed out they could be in their own boats, and that BLM had trimmed the dense (!!) brush in the first eight miles from the river. Lizzy was not excited about the hiking part because of all the brush in the trail, and “packrafting is dumb”. Her irritation about the brush is understandable as it was in her face when she hiked it four years ago, which is a lot worse than having it waist level like it is on me. Her disliking of packrafting is also sort of understandable, as the the only trip the twins have been on they didn’t get to control their own boats and were in double boats, so there wasn’t much to do besides bob around and be cold. Eventually a compromise was reached, and we decided Molly and I would float Beaver Creek, then Nancy and Lizzy would meet us half way on the hike out. My friends Tom and Amanda were going to join us.
Alas, as the trip came closer Tom hurt his back and the forecast was for unseasonably cold weather. Yikes! Tom’s back issues were abating but not well enough for the hike, but Molly was still up for it, and the weather was to go back to the normal sun by the time we were hiking so we charged ahead. Our friend Heath dropped us off at the put in were our car read 37f with a stiff breeze. Molly was in my boat with a white water skirt, and I was in an open double boat (alpacka calls them double ducks). After a bit of messing around we got inflated and were soon floating down the river.
Much to my surprise Molly was quite warm sealed into the boat with a skirt. I was not though – my feet were very cold by the end of the day.
The float down beaver creek was uneventful but fun. Molly seemed to pickup the packrafting basics quickly, and my worries of her flipping or getting into wood in Beaver Creeks class I (maybe II if one is very generous) whitewater didn’t come to pass. The twins have been doing an internship with the Alaska Songbird Institute helping monitor Tree Swallows, and have developed a keen interest in birds.
There were lots and lots of birds to see. Bald eagles, a few other large birds of prey, tons of ducks and other waterfowl.
lots of wolf tracks on the river..
The brief bit of winter trail near the river looked great.. the other side was a different story though.
A few miles upstream of our take out in a straight line the river had cut off a long oxbow and was now taking a new channel, leaving a deep backwater pool were the river used to flow. Seeing the river evolve was pretty neat!
The “too much floating look”..
Our plans were to float most of the way to the takeout then camp on the river, but the float was faster than I expected, and in around eight hours we pulled into Borealis-LeFevre cabin just across from the take out. The place was a bit of a mess – very muddy, with TP and trash littering the grass around the cabin, but the warm of a woodstove was very appreciated. It took several hours for my feet to recover from the cold float.
Mystery drift wood..
The previous visitors had left the new window open and the shutters unlatched, and as we arrived they were banging in the wind – I was bummed to see it left like that. BLM had just put a new opening window in this winter (I think? Maybe it was earlier..) and it still has a screen free of holes. An opening window with a screen without holes is quite a luxury in this cabins, but it is going to be a short-lived one if folks leave it open all summer. A bit of sweeping and picking up, the fire started, and the place was warm and cozy. In the morning we loaded up into the double boat, and with two trips we are across the river and hiking out.
BLM had done a fantastic job clearing the trail. The dense brush of our last hike is gone, leaving a nice clear trail – yay!
It was wonderful to see all the clearing that had been done – they really put a lot of effort into it! It has turned brushy hike were it is hard to follow the trail into a fun and pleasant easy to follow trail. As forecasted the weather warmed up, and Molly and I enjoyed a fantastic (but longer than I remembered) hike to meet up with Nancy, Lizzy, and the dogs.
Molly’s snow field crossing technique..
Along the way we found a small pool with magically delicious “mountain water” as Molly put it that she hoarded for the rest of the hike. A mile or so from our meetup point the brush came back and we had to smash though a brief but dense thicket – I expect the trail clearing crew ran out of time and didn’t clear the whole thing.
The remaining brushy section..
The evening was spent reading books, playing games, petting the dogs, and searching for water, as alas the water catchment’s barrel had split open.
The next day we hiked out, with Lizzy setting a blazing pace.
We had a question from a man in a kilt who upon seeing our paddles and life jackets asked about the trail up from the river, and was excited to be informed the brush was mostly trimmed out. Apparently we were not the only group put off by the thick brush. Lizzy I think ended up being sad she missed the float – I don’t think it entirely dawned on her how much difference having your own boat would have made fun wise. She and Nancy still had fun though, and the group of us arrived at the parking lot tired, muddy, and happy. I did have one freak out /breakdown as folks were getting in the car in regards to the mud free-ness (or lack there of) of their shoes – my apologies Nancy!
As a postscript, after checking with BLM to make sure it was ok, the following Friday I hauled in two new trash cans to function as rain barrels and a roll of hardware cloth to wrap around them to keep them from getting chewed up. Someone had put in a trash bag in the split barrel meanwhile and it was mostly holding water again. I swapped out the split trash can with a new one, stashed the extra, and hauled the broken one out. Hopefully it will several seasons.
