Alsek River 2014

Day 6, Sunday, June 29

No way to make it much better: this was a yucky day, at least weather wise. We slept in until 6:30 am, which felt pretty luxurious. So we were later getting on to the river, about 10:15. I think if I knew we had over 20 miles to go to our next camp, across from Tweedsmuir Glacier, I would have been more concerned. Seeing how it was pretty cloudy on this morning, I decided to add yet another layer of fleece to my wardrobe. No wonder it was tough to move around.

It started sptting rain as we were leaving camp, and except for a couple of breaks, it rained virtually all day. There were nearly continuous rapids downstream of our camp. Something like 2 miles worth right after we started. We did stop for a bio-break mid-morning (my photos show serious rain all over the camera lens). And then resumed our run down the river. During a break in the rain, we stopped and Joe and Thirsty took us on a little “nature walk.” One of the things Susie and I noted right away, after we stopped, was the bounty of large bear tracks all over the beach. So we were particularly wary as we busted thru the tree line a hundred yards back from the beach and climbed some low hills to our west. We climbed a couple of hundred feet elevation to a small knob with a good view of Mt. Blackadar. Walt Blackadar was the first human recorded to have run the unrunnable rapids (Class VI) in Turnback canyon, just downstream from our planned camp for the evening. Of course, the views would have been much better if the clouds were not so low. But it was good to climb up a bit to get a different perspective on things.

We hiked back down to the beach and found a lunch of smoked salmon and bagels waiting for us. Sam had been busy while we were out goofing off. The lunch was hearty, which was good, because the weather was cool, and riding in the rain in cold air was even cooler. Shortly after lunch, the rain resumed and continued through our firewood pick up stop. It was still raining lightly as we pulled into camp sometime around 5:15 pm. This was the “helicopter camp,” (Camp was at 8V, 333323 E, 6636140 N) and Sarah had warned me that it would be stark. Of course, it did not help that the clouds were very low, it was raining and there were rocks everywhere. But a quick looked at things as I was unloading my gear suggested that there was some order to the rocks. Well, hello! This camp is used by most parties coming down the Alsek, as it is a good place to stop, take apart the rafts, unload gear and has a large landing site for the helicopter, due to arrive tomorrow morning. As a result, the obvious tent sites had been cleared of big rocks and the small ones had been used to outline the individual sites.

Of course, all this was nice, but it was still raining. So Sam suggested after we got our gear unloaded, was to set up the large tarp and use one corner to put together a tent, cover it with the rain fly, and then move the tent to its “outside” location. Since Susie and I were/are fairly proficient tent-wise, we set ours up first underneath the tarp, and several people helped us carry it to its home for the night. We also helped others when we could. Some folks wanted help and some didn’t.

As the rain continued, I could see it getting to Susie. Not only were we having to deal with everything covered with wet coarse sand, but in addition, one could not see shit, to put it bluntly. Very frustrating. Just bending over and getting stuff in the tent with this much clothing on was a real chore. I confess that I did have some concern as to whether the helicopter pilot could make it in the 70 miles by air from Haines Junction to meet us. But then, I figured that as long as the fog (which was probably due to the huge glacier right across the river from us) stayed a few hundred feet off the ground, he could likely just fly down the river. Anyway, it was not a pleasant evening. At least we had the tarp to keep the rain off us. Dinner was very simple tonight. Some heated up banquet of Tasty Bites (Indian food) which was good but I could not figure out what exactly I was eating. I imagine the guides had to have planned on a couple of really simple meals for those nights when real cooking is less attractive. After the rafts were all unloaded, most of us went to bed. I am sure that Susie was not a happy camper.

Additional Photos and videos can be found here: The Alsek Days 5 - 8 album on our SmugMug Photo Album Site

You might enjoy reading a different perspective on this same trip: Sarah Boomer's Report on the Thermophile.org website

Previous day Next day