The trip finishes!

Three adventurers, for sure! (think of poor Meghan... three guys to deal with!)





Friday morning was easy, easy fishing. I was just using rod and reel (not like those fly fishing other guys!) I spent about an hour on a hole upriver from our camp and in under an hour had caught 2 dollys, 2 rainbow and 1 graying. And that was just the fish I landed. Another two or three spit the hook before I got them in! Not being a huge fisherman, after that I spent a nice few hours in the sun reading while the others got their fishing fix.






A big group of our friends met us on Saturday for the pickup. They boated several hours up from Bethel and met us up on the Kisaralik river. And thank goodness they did! By that point the river had slowed so much we were barely moving. The mountains and hills were gone, we were tire and ready for home! That night our friends prepared a great feast of fresh salmon for us. Yum



Sunday we all came home. I got home about 7:30pm and luckily had the foresight to have taken off Monday from work. What a trip!

The trip continues...

Sunday we again got off to a mid day start. (a routine began developing here). We would get up somewhere around the 9-10am mark. Usually not too much conversation as Ryan made his coffee in his fancy French press and we all got our oatmeal for breakfast. Key tip - adding craisins to oatmeal adds good fruit and flavor! We would talk and strategize a bit, then go back to some quiet time as we broke down camp.



By noon to 1pm or so we were usually out on the river. Not the type to underprepare, we had two GPS units with the latest topographic maps, several paper maps and a guide paper with some key landmarks/ obstacles to watch for. We also had a VHF radio and a satellite phone for emergencies. (see, mom? safety first!) As you can see, we had some navigational prowess.




Unfortunately while Chris and I were consulting our maps, charts, GPS etc, we floated right by a black bear on the shore! Megs and Ryan later told us how the bear had watched us float by, even raising up a bit. We wouldn't have believed in, but unfortunately photo documentation exisited.



Moving on! We hit the upper falls on Sunday. We climbed up a bluff to scout the area before we went through.



The view from up there was pretty amazing. We could see all the salmon piled up in the water waiting to leap up the falls and continue their journey.



We were able to raft one part but the second part we had to use ropes to line the boats through. Prior to that we had to empty them and carry all the gear around the falls.... whew! So much work!



Monday we hit another section of rapids and had an amazing bear day. Depending on whose boat you were in, we saw between 12-13 bear just that day! My total for the week ended up being 17 bear sightings. Everywhere we camped was covered in bear tracks, but we were never bothered and never saw any signs that bear had been near our camp in the night.



As we continued our trip the river changed fairly rapidly. Mountains faded to background scenery and more rolling hills and bluffs started to appear. The upper river had amazing beauty and a decidedly un-Bethel feel.

Kisaralik Float Trip

Recently got back from a 10 day trip out in to the wild. Three friends and I went to float down the Kisaralik River. To get to the start we took a float plane about an hour from Bethel to Kisaralik Lake. We were supposed to have a large float plane to take all of us, but last minute it was unavailable, so instead we had to take two trips in a smaller plane (poor Chris missed out on this start photo)


We had the plane stuffed full. No sense going light when rafts are carrying all your gear! We finally got out of Bethel around 4pm on a Friday.





Compare the scenery from photo 1 to photo 2.... the difference? Mountains! Ahhh.... I do miss mountains.



We got camp set up on the lake, did a short hike and prepared to embark on Saturday morning. Friday had been a little questionable with the weather, but once we were out to the lake we had gorgeous blue skies. The only disturbance was the occasional helicopter coming through. There is a gold mining exploratory group not too far from the lake.



Saturday we got a mid-day start. Not having much paddling experience, I started off on the oars. Unfortunately first up on the river was a challenging rock garden obstacle course. Well, a few rocks never hurt anyone, right? As we began down the river, bright red salmon were all over fighting their way upstream.

Bethel has had a pretty cold summer. When my parents came to visit everyone (myself included) commented on how beautiful it was one day - True weather was in the mid 60's with partly cloudy skies. But up on the river, the gods of weather smiled down on us. The weather stayed great, and we took some time to enjoy the views and sunshine. I wouldn't say it was warm that day- it is still Alaska after all- but it was very pleasant....