Living on River Time

Papa Bear Adventures & Float Alaska

Once we had made it to Bethel, we were picked up by our host lodge: Papa Bear Adventures. It was a relief all of our bags had made it and that Bella was in good order. Our itinerary meant we were staying one night in the lodge before heading out to the lake and headwaters. This gave us the chance to get a hot meal, quick showers, and real beds before trekking into the wilderness.

The lodge also gave us more maps, information from the last trip that had recently run the river, a safety briefing, and some basics on the conditions of the river, fishing, and locations for good camping spots. The only hiccup so far was our broken jar of marinara sauce and the fact that we all left our checkbooks at home.

Pro Tip One: make sure the final method of payment of your trip in cash, check, or card is well defined. You don’t want to get stuck paying outrageous fees because plastic is all you have at your disposal.

Tail Walkin’ Words

Float Planes

The first morning of our trip, we woke up to a hot breakfast, weighed all of our gear, and ourselves to make sure we were within our limits for the planes, and we waited in our waders.

And waited.

And waited.

If you’re not familiar with bush planes, here’s all you need to know: Everything is weather dependent. Just because it’s beautiful and sunny where you are, doesn’t mean it’s beautiful and sunny where you’re going, or even that it’s beautiful and sunny anywhere in between.

In all honesty, we didn’t wait that long. It was nice to have a chance to see the planes, talk with the guides, play with Bella on the docks, and watch the sun come up over the tundra-marsh that is the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta. On the ground, the delta feels endless. It stretches out lazily to the horizon and makes itself comfortable in the thick tundra, willow, birch, and cottonwood forest.

Before coming to Alaska, I didn’t know what to expect from the land. I had seen pictures, videos, and heard personal narratives. But there is something to be said for witnessing and being in its presence. This land is old.

The Kuskokwim river is 724 miles long from its glacial headwaters. It sprawls out to blanket roughly 48,000 square miles of land (USGS). In the winter the river freezes and is used as a highway connecting all of the villages and towns by snow machine. In the summer, it serves a similar purpose for boats, and brings with it salmon from the Bearing Sea. The constant freeze-thaw cycle carves the landscape into this stunning presence.

Kisaralik Lake

Flying over the delta it’s easier to see this watershed for what it really is. A maze-work of waterways all feeding into the Kuskokwim as it steadily pushes to the sea.

The flight to Kisaralik lake was about an hour. The wait on the dock was well worth it. We could see for miles. Our pilot was gracious and flew us over the landmarks we needed to keep in mind while we floated the river including the set of rapids we would portage. He also gave us a history lesson on our plane: a DHC-2 Beaver. These planes are some of the most popular used in the backcountry because they can take off and land in a short distance. Many of these planes are from the early 40s to 60s, with the last in production created in 1967 (Bae Systems). Even though they are not new aircraft they are still regularly used, maintained, and prized as an efficient way to travel in a state where roads only access about 20% of the state (Alaska Tours).

Kisaralik lake is fed by the Chikuminuk Glacier in the Wood-Tikchik State Park (Alaska Guide). It sits among glacial carved mountains and wide expanding valleys of tundra that stretch to the ocean as far as the eye can see.

Our group took two planes out to the lake, and once we were all together and camp set up for our first night, we took a hike to explore our tiny portion of the lake. Getting up above camp, and the shoreline put the beauty of this place truly into perspective.
Then we tried to make dinner. We quickly realized that we only had half of our kitchen and immediately regretted not bringing our own supplies and/or doing a final inventory check of the boxes we were given from our outfitters.

Pro Tip Two: Inventory your gear before packing it on the plane. All of it. Even the stuff the outfitter gives you. Also, bring back up stove/jet boil with fuel in case you get short-changed in the kitchen department.

Tail Walkin’ Words

Thankfully, Kenley and Lisa brought their in-reach and got in touch with the lodge/our outfitter and requested they bring the rest of our kitchen. This wouldn’t be the first time our group would use the in-reach.

Highly recommended. Definitely worth it.

Portaging

The rapids on the Kisaralik are not something to be taken lightly. Like any backcountry river, the remoteness creates higher levels of risk. We knew we would have to portage. How we were going to do this depended on what the river looked like when we got there.

The fishing up until the rapids was slow, but we soon learned that this river is thick with grayling. This happens to be some of our favorite fish. Us ladies, Lisa, Cassie, and I, were not disappointed. The boating itself was technical. At the flows we experienced there were several boulder fields, even ones that weren’t on our maps, and we got stuck a few times. Thankfully our teamwork and past whitewater and river experience helped a lot.

Once we made it to the first rapid, we all got out and brainstormed. A shark-tooth rock in the center of the rapid made running the boat down the chute empty a no-go. So we decided that carrying and hand-lining the empty boats down the rocks was the best decision. The biggest pain of this part of the trip is that we would have to do this not once but twice. This meant unloading the boats, carrying the gear down to the end of the rapid, hand-lining the boat down over the rocks, re-loading the boat, floating down to the next rapid, and repeating the process over again. It sucked. We had absolutely beautiful weather, and it sucked. I couldn’t imagine doing that portage in the middle of a storm, or if it was super windy, or if there was any type of unfortunate weather. We did it when it was blue skies and calm, and it sucked. There’s no other way to put it. Then, the designated campsite at the bottom of the second rapid was probably the most difficulty of the entire trip. It had a TON of mosquitoes, was extremely small for our party of six.

What didn’t suck was the fact that no one got hurt during the portage and we didn’t lose any gear. We were able to make camp, take river-showers, have a hot meal, and fish the deep pools below the rapid with a whole lot of success. There was salmon, trout, and grayling waiting in the crystal blue depths. From this point on in our float, we were greatly rewarded for our struggles. The fishing picked up significantly, and we soon found ourselves being incredibly spoiled with tight lines, incredible landscapes, and long river days.

Pro Tip Three: Take time for yourself. When you’re on a group trip and you get frustrated, take a deep breath and walk away if you can. Go to bed early or take a river-bath. Take time for yourself to re-center, relax, and remember this is an adventure.

Tail Walkin’ Words

Float Days 4-5

The list of suggested campsites came in handy for the first half of the trip. We were able to find ourselves an accommodating gravel bar each night. We found plenty of firewood and reasonably flat places to pitch our tents. Our party of six chose to bring our own tents, so we had four tents total to set up and take down each day. Overall, we brought a combination of backpacking and car-camping tents. All of them had vestibules to keep gear out of the weather, and we took advantage of the gazebo that was an option through out outfitter. We used the gazebo for our kitchen and any other gear that wouldn’t fit under our own tent vestibules. This worked out well for our party, and gave us a space to have dinner and play games away from the weather and bugs.

After the hiccups of starting with half a kitchen, getting to know everyone’s preferences for floating and camping, and navigating in the backcountry we fell into a rhythm of breaking down and building camp.

Between campsites, the fishing did not disappoint, and we finally got into what we were looking for. The goal for the timing of our float was to try to get all five species of salmon in the river while we were on it. Our timing paid off. On day four, we got into king salmon. At the time, the regulations required keeping them in the water at all times and immediate release. This wasn’t difficult at all. We didn’t plan on keeping fish. Half of our party had already experienced much of what Alaska had to offer for salmon fishing, but the other half of our party had seen nothing like it. Spoiled. We were spoiled with so many opportunities for encountering healthy, beautiful fish, and all on a fly rod. By day five we were seeing pink salmon with the king salmon, rainbows, and grayling. The rainbows were healthy, gorged, and freckled. The grayling were equally healthy, bellies full, and sails so long some of them brushed their tails.

Before the trip, the research we found on this river didn’t include much information on what to use for flies. Talking to people who had floated the river before, and our outfitter were the most helpful resources. Among the six of us, we were well stocked with a variety of flies and beads. Each one of us using a fly rod with experiences ranging from beginner to seasoned.

Pro Tip Four: Talk to people! Your guide, outfitter, lodge, and people who have gone before you are the most valuable resources. Don’t be afraid to ask what works. Also – for the people who have been there – sharing is caring and honesty is important when traveling into the unknown.

Tail Walkin’ Words

In the evening on day five the landscape changed from mountains into high-land tundra. The landscape started to stretch out to embrace the lower delta, and there were more rolling hills and willows than we had seen before. The banks of the river stretched up to plateaus similar to what is seen in the desert landscapes of Colorado, but with thick brush instead of desert cactus. It was on one of these plateaus that we saw the biggest bear I’ve witnessed to date.

It’s not uncommon to see a grizzly bear in Alaska. There are estimated to be 1,500 total in the lower 48 states. The numbers are recorded at at least 31,000 in Alaska. Most people use “grizzly” and “brown” bear titles interchangeably up here. This bear we watched on the plateau above us on the river was old. His toes were curled in on themselves to support his mass. He stood up and sat down heavily and deliberately as he grazed along the hillside. He smelled us below him on the river, and he didn’t care. He sat back on his thick haunches like a happy buddha, toes and claws splayed in opposite directions, scooping grasses and berries into his jowls. We watched in awe of his mass and completely nonchalant nature. We were glad he could enjoy his snacks in peace, and we floated on our way.

Float Days 6-8

The last three days on the water we watched the river stretch and yawn lazily into the tundra. The high water that year contributed to adding new channels, islands, and routes in the river that weren’t there before. We were warned about this from the lodge, and given maps and general instructions of what to avoid and what was safe. But – water is an amazing force and it carves the landscape as it wishes.

Aside from the portage, this was the most challenging portion of the trip both physically and mentally. If you’ve ever been on a long trip with a big group of people, there is always a point where there is tension and uncertainty. It’s guaranteed. The difference is how your group chooses to solve the obstacles it encounters. This reality also coupled with the reality that some sections of our maps didn’t look at all like what we were floating down made for difficult days six, seven, and eight.

Day 6: We were at the end of our suggested camp sites and kept an eye out for our next gravel bar as we floated that day. Like all other days there was a number of recommended river miles for us to accomplish, and we planned our stops to fish accordingly. 

By this point in the river we had seen and caught king salmon, pink salmon, sockeye, dolly varden, rainbow trout, and more grayling than we could possibly imagine. Day six we were overjoyed to learn that we had indeed timed our trip right and started catching coho – silver salmon. This put us at all five species of salmon in one trip down the river. It was breathtaking. 

On a high from our joy at catching coho at our last fishing spot, we continued down the river. Up until this point, we had been following the well-known river rule of choosing the braid with the most water running through it. This simply means whenever we came to a split in the river, we would always take the path that had the most water. As long as we were in the main flow of the river we were good. 

The split in the river we came to this time looked identical to its partner, and because our map didn’t look like what was in front of us we made the best decision we could with the information we had. 

As we floated it became more and more apparent that the section of water we were on was new. Debris from blown-out beaver dams and flooding was stacked against trees and the bank creating a deep channel of water that wove its way through the willows. The water was high and swollen as it moved from deep pool to narrow channel and deep pool again. Then it got louder. Then it took an abrupt left turn with water pushing against a wall of trees and debris. Mac and Wes shoved us off the wall and by some miracle we made it to the tiny gravel bar on the other side of the river channel and not shoved underneath the debris from a blown-out beaver dam.  As the lead boat, we collected ourselves, and walked up river on the gravel bar to catch the other boat and the rest of our party. 

At the end of the gravel bar the river took a series of sharp turns back on itself flanked by walls of stacked timber making it hard to see what was a head of us. This created a tight channel that barely fit our 12ft rafts and strong eddy lines that competed with each other for space. 

We spent 20 minutes securing our gear on the rafts and talking about a gameplan to safely navigate the water in front of us. It was definitely a team effort that we all took in stride. With a combination of oaring and hopping from gravel bar to gravel bar our group made it through our second biggest river obstacle of the trip. We celebrated at the end of that stretch of river with some much needed chocolate and snacks. 

Towards the end of day six, I had started fishing a top water. The water was clear but turning murky the further we got down the river. Taking advantage of probably the last day of clear water we would see, I was throwing a mouse pattern Wes had made for rainbows. I made one of the most beautiful casts of my life at this spot on the bank just beneath a willow branch and started swimming the mouse back to the boat. I watched as this beautiful chunky speckled rainbow came up from the depths of green and blue. I watched him hit the mouse in a strike to kill it, and then again in a promise to take it to a watery grave. I set the hook, and he was on!

In the time it took me to hook the most beautiful speckled rainbow I would see for the whole trip, Cassie’s perfect net job, and Wes parking the boat – we donated the phone with our downloaded maps and 50% of our pictures to the river. It was probably the most devastating and joyful moment of my life up until that point. 

Pro Tip Five: Bring a waterproof floating camera(s) and navigation devices on river trips. 

Tail Walkin’ Words

Day 7: There were two more river obstacles that we needed to look out for. One was a set of rapids and the other was a split in the river. The rapids were easy enough, but it was the split in the river that had us the most concerned. One stretch of river was the main flow, the other we knew went off into the tundra to disappear into the marsh. The phone we had donated to the river the previous day had this split in the river marked and was tracking our milage each day, it was also marked on our other phones and maps. But the maps we were given from the lodge and outfitter we had already established as not completely certain and our milage wasn’t clear. We knew where we were, and we knew there was a split in the river coming up, but we weren’t really sure how far it was or if we had passed it already. All of this uncertainty, coupled with the fact that it was day seven, made for difficult conversations and a lot of tension. 

Our group got into less and less fish as the water grew murky. We had read that there could be pike close to the end of the float, so I kept the mouse I caught my rainbow on and tried to hit as much of the clearer water close to the bank as possible. As it started to rain, I cast into a pocket of clear water under a willow. Sure enough, like a mini-torpedo a small pike drowned my mouse. I set the hook and immediately the line went slack. For those of you that don’t know: pike have needle-sharp teeth. I did not switch to a steel leader. Surprisingly the little guy spit my mouse out after it cut my line and Cassie was able to scoop up the tattered fly in her net.

Pro Tip Six: See Pro Tip Three, try to see your situation from multiple perspectives, and don’t forget to breathe.

Tail Walkin’ Words

 Day 8: This was the last day on the river we had to float. The water was mostly flat and had turned to a murky gray from the rain. It also rained the entire day and we did nothing but soak it in, thankful for the nearly six days of beautiful weather we had before. The landscape had changed for a final time from tundra to willow, cottonwood, and birch marsh and the mosquitoes came with it. The good thing about the rain is it kept the mosquitoes to a minimum. Except when you went to go to the bathroom. 

The water on this day was mostly flat and slow. We knew from our maps that this is where the river started to meet the rest of the Kuskokwim delta. Navigating this stretch was easy and we came to our designated pickup spot after battling an upriver headwind and rain that barely cased in its onslaught. 

We celebrated our final night on the river with mac and cheese and were thankful we made it down 102 miles of river relatively unscathed and thoroughly spoiled with memories of beautiful fish and breathtaking views. 

Pickup & Back to Bethel

The next day we woke up early and broke down camp one last time. We also broke down the boats, frames, and gear just as we had it delivered with us on the lake 8 days ago. It wasn’t long before we heard our ride coming up the river to meet us.
The jet boat ride back from our pickup took two hours through the braided waterways and across the expanse of the Kuskokwim. The speed of the jet boat faster than anything we had been on all week. It was a surreal experience flying over water we had been powering ourselves over at a quiet glide. We were met at the boat launch by civilization, cargo ships, and our local ride back to the lodge.

Anchorage & Unpacking

Our flight back to Bethel was later that night, and it gave us the chance to get showered at the lodge, re-pack our gear for a plane ride, and get some food. We were dropped off at the Bethel airport early, and hung out with Bella outside the terminal before our flight home. By the time we did make it back into Anchorage, it was well after dark and we didn’t do much except go to bed. The next day we spent in the sunshine doing laundry, sharing pictures, and drying out from our last couple days in the rain on a trip of a lifetime.