Alaska Packrafting

Ever since I (Sandra) first heard of the sport of packrafting I've always wanted to explore its source...Alaska. Luckily I landed some NOLS work this summer working in Prince William Sound and the Southern Talkeetnas and Troy was able to come and join me after for a chance to explore some Alaskan classic packrafting trips.

Getting around Alaska is hard without transport, so a big shoutout to our buddy Liz for lending us her car and getting us mobile. Once you have a car you need to know where to go, so next thanks goes to Tim and Amy, experienced explorers of the Alaskan packrafting scene and also Jule Harle's online guidebook for river beta. The Alaska Packraft School is really a one-stop-shop for newbies to the state whether you're looking for river info or guided trips/instruction, it's all there!

First on the hit list was the Denali area, not only because we wanted a glimpse of the tallest peak in North America, but also because apparently there are some fun rivers there. We joined Tim and Amy for a beautiful hike into Honolulu Creek and an exciting descent which was all fun and games until an evil drop managed to tear not one, not two, but three of our packrafts. So began a riverside repair class and we were very grateful to have Tim and Amy's expertise and comprehensive repair kit handy. This put us off the water a little later than anticipated and quite tired but we smashed some dinner and said hi to Adam who had joined us for tomorrow's adventure. The Moose/Yanert/Nenana combo is a real treat as you get 35km of paddling on 3 distinct rivers for just a casual (as Tim sold it to us) 17.5km hike in. A thunderstorm and moose sightings (on the Yanert not the Moose incidentally) added to the excitement of the day and the switchup between low-volume creeky to big volume surfy made for a great day out. Sadly we then had to say goodbye to our friends who had to go back to work, but not before they kindly hooked Troy and I up with a shuttle for the Bull/Chulitna which was a boggy tramp into a very scenic river combo. After a night of culture at a local pub and getting quite tired from these long Alaskan days Troy and I decided to hike in to the put-in of Wells Creek following some enormous bear prints then camp the night before descending the river the next morning. Another downpour had us regretting our decision to start walking, though after it cleared up we were rewarded with stunning mountain views and a rainbow. Wells Creek was fun boogie with one major feature and a pleasant end to our Denali-area mission.

After a quick re-set back at the NOLS base we headed off for a real treat...a bushplane ride into the Chickaloon catchment. We got to fly with Matt from Meekin's Air Service who was not only a great pilot but also good chat. He dropped us off at an air strip from where it was a few hours hike down to the Chickaloon River. We set up camp then hiked upstream to the very source of the river where it comes out the glacier. This top section is steep and cold, but provided some exciting paddling for me though I didn't dare paddle all the way from the glacier. After hacking off some ice to put in our pre-mixed margaritas we settled down for the night. Day 2 involved lots of fun paddling after initially being lulled into a false sense of security by the tranquil braids of the upper reaches. The notorious 'hotel rocks' turned out to be good to go or an easy portage on river left. A beautiful campsite with wildflowers was a great end to the day. Day 3 was over far too quickly with fun whitewater all the way to the takeout. At the flows we had we were still waiting for a ledge drop with a potentially retentive hole, but reached the highway bridge before encountering it...we figured it probably washes out at higher flows.

We had a fantastic time in Alaska and would love to go back for some more packrafting adventures.