Alsek River 2014

Epilogue

The next day, Susie, Sarah and I took a 2.5 hour walk from our motel to the Montana Creek greenway, while Roger B took a cab to the Mendenhall Glacier and went for a hike. We all gathered back at the motel in mid-afternoon, and took the motel’s shuttle to downtown Juneau. Along the way, one of the other women in the shuttle was asking us if we stayed in lodges on our Alsek trip. No, we said, this was a wilderness trip and we slept in tents. (Not sure she had a concept of “wilderness.”) So then she asked us if the guides set up our tents at night. We just laughed.

Anyway, we walked around near the tourist stores for a while. Then Sarah treated us all to dinner at the Twisted Fish. (Noisy, but good food.) More walking before Roger B treated us to gelato at a coffee shop. We ended up taking a cab back to the hotel, so we could repack for the next morning’s flights. Ours were uneventful, but delayed by an hour on each of three legs. Very frustrating.

I would hope, after having read this report, that the reader will come away with a sense of the extreme positive feeling Susie and I both have for this trip. Both of us have been to a LOT of wilderness areas in North America, both designated and de facto. We have seen a LOT of really spectacular scenery. But the Alsek trip has got to sit near the top of all the wilderness trips we have taken. That speaks volumes. When you cross scenery and remoteness, it was a true winner. Yes, the weather was challenging at times. And although one is camping on sand most of the trip, don’t bother bringing your bikini. Yes, we know it can get quite warm in this country, as our friend Sarah reports from the trip she made on the Alsek 10 years ago (see link: http://www.thermophile.org/alsek.pdf ). But for sure, it was not warm on this trip.

Susie had expressed some concern, prior to the start of the trip, that maybe she was “getting in over her head.” She later confessed that the feeling might have come because two of her/our female friends, Roger B’s spouse Noreen, and Sue (of Sue and Andy fame on many of our trips) are very experienced outdoor women, and yet they declined to do this trip. So Susie had some thoughts: “boy, if they think it is too tough, what business do I have going on it?” Well, of course, the answer is: All the business in the world. We had done a self-guided week long sea kayaking trip in Alaska 13 years ago, which involved ocean travel and certainly our share of yucky weather, and Susie was fine with it. And having backpacked many many places in North America, including Wrangell-St Elias National Park in Alaska, she and I have both experienced a lot of challenging circumstances. Which all brings me to the question: To whom would I recommend this trip? Susie and I have thought a lot about this, and I guess the best we can come up with is: anyone who has done a fair amount of non-mechanized wilderness travel and was comfortable under a variety of conditions and situations. That experience is essential to your enjoyment of this sort of trip.

The trip was not demanding physically in the way that backpacking is. One is not having to haul all their gear on their back for 5 – 7 hours per day. But that said, there are still physical demands on the trip. We had ten different campsites, which means having to load and unload the rafts that many times. And of course, it ain’t just the personal gear, but the tents, kitchen, boot bags, etc.. Setting up the tarp, which we did several times, required at least 6 – 8 people working. Then, there was the raft dragging our first full day on the water, against the wind, and the raft dragging down Door #3. And nearly every day, there was wood gathering, which can take some effort as well. And let’s remember that the air temperature when you are in the rafts on the water is dramatically cooler than while you are standing on land. That in itself burns a lot of calories. Suffice it to say that I ate a LOT on this trip and did not gain a pound.

We both thought that Alaska Discovery/Mountain Travel Sobek did an amazing job with the logistics and layout of the trip. The logistics are challenging, in part because the area is relatively remote, the weather can be bad, and you are dealing with a big river that crosses an international boundary. And that river has a stretch of essentially un-runnable rapids that require a helicopter portage. We both thought that the logistical part of things worked nearly flawlessly. The equipment AKD/MTS seemed well suited to the trip. (I keep wanting to use the term expedition in place of a trip, because sometimes, it felt that way.) We liked the fact that there was a strong emphasis on hand washing before each meal, and loved the little hand wash station that was set up near the kitchen area morning, noon, and night. The equipment we were loaned was great. We noted that one person complained that their sleeping bag was a bit thin on top (where you need to have the insulation). Susie and I brought our own synthetic sleeping bags, which were virtually identical to those offered by AKD/MTS (Marmot Trestle 15 degree bags). Yeah, we had to haul them in our luggage to Juneau and back, but it is always nice to sleep in your own bag. The sleeping pads were full length Thermarest pads, which were fine and provided good insulation and comfort. The tents which we used (Mountain Hardware Trango 3.1’s) were great. We had no problems setting them up, nor with the tent itself. DB and Thelonious did have a problem with one of their doors, but it is hard to say whether or not part of the problem might have been due to “cockpit errort.” The small dry bags used for the “sleep kits” were very stiff and a pain to pack, but the large bags for our personal clothing, etc, were huge and more than adequate. (And easy to pack.)

The guides on this trip, Sam, Joe and Thirsty, HAVE to be given a lot of credit for making the trip a wonderful experience, even when the weather left much to be desired. The guides work their asses off to make sure their clients’ experience was the best that it could be. Susie and I would often get out of the tent at 5:15 am, and it would be clear that the guides had been up at least an hour before we were. And they would go to bed later than we did. The food they cooked was superb for these conditions, and they all were very skilled oarsmen. The latter really scored big with Susie, because she had never been on a big whitewater river before. She confided to me that the day we were going to run Lava North, it did not matter to her in whose raft she was riding, as she felt safe with any of the guides. I always felt like the guides were genuinely concerned with our safety, and not just the big stuff. But little things, like helping to steady the raft as I was trying to get out of it on to shore with those awkward rubberized rain suits. As I said in my notes of the trip: I remember the guides on the Grand Canyon trip I did with Arizona Raft Adventures in 1988. I thought they did a fine job. But the guides on this Alsek trip, well, they operated at another quantum level. (For those of you unfamiliar with electron orbital mechanics, suffice it to say that such is a high compliment.)

What would I do/bring differently? Well, I thought that the equipment list provided by AD/MTS was a good one. But then, we have done a lot of wilderness travel. The Atlas gloves were a nice touch. That was my first experience with them and they were pretty neat. If I were to do this or a similar trip again, I would likely bring my own rubber boots, ie, those I used on our sea kayaking trip, as they would have been a bit more comfortable. But then such would have required more luggage. The one thing I really missed was something like a small nylon ground cloth to put at both of the entrances to our tent, inside the vestibules. That would have kept a lot of wet sand off our gear, and made getting in and out of the tent a less messy experience. I might also bring some dark chocolate. I loved the desserts we did have, but missed having just a piece of really good dark chocolate each day. But that is just me. And I would have let Susie have all the Chambord, and just bring a bottle of Makers Mark, or Canadian Club for myself. Oh, yeah, I would have brought a small bottle of dish detergent, so as to add more detergent to the dishwashing buckets. It could have used more, but then, my personal preference is always to have lots of hot, SOAPY water. Speaking of cleanliness, I would likely bring more wipes with me. (I had brought none, and had to use some that Susie generously offered.) I like to clean up every day, and put on fresh, washed clothing (one reason why we have carried a fair amount of Camp Suds when backpacking.) On this trip, schedule, weather, and location of campsite was not conducive to my usually overall bath. More wipes would have helped.

I guess the summary question would be: knowing what we know now, would we recommend the trip to qualified individuals. The answer is absolutely yes! Will we go back and do the Tatshenshini in a couple of years? Stay tuned……

Additional Photos and videos can be found here: The Alsek Days 9 - 12 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

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