Canoeing the Gulkana

Last weekend we met up with friends Jen and Scotty from Denali Park and Sveta and Martin from Fairbanks and took 3 hardshell canoes down the Gulkana River. The Gulkana, located south of Paxson and north of Glennallen, is considered a "wild and scenic" river but can be done from highway to highway and was about a 50 mile float over 3 days of paddling. Luke and I had already floated it, but not for a few years, so the timing was right for another trip. We put in on the crystal clear (!) Paxson Lake with no headwinds (!) Friday evening and slowly paddled the 3 miles across the lake in about an hour or so. At the lake outlet the crowds of fishermen were gathered fishing for grayling and lake trout. Luke had to make a quick stop to fish also and caught several grayling and a lake trout for dinner! We camped about about mile 1 of the river and cooked up a grand fish dinner amidst hoards of mosquitos. Jen and scotty got out there little bug-proof mesh tent to sit under.

The next day the weather was awesome, with warm sun shining into our tents early, forcing us to get up or we'd be baked in the tent ovens. Luke got the Dutch Oven going again for some sweet cobbler. We had a long day of paddling and made it to right before the canyon and camped at a very nice spot overlooking the river. Luke and Scott broke out the 'pocket chainsaw' on some spruce and we enjoyed a dinner of Hasselbach potatoes in the Dutch Oven and sausages over the fire and another grayling caught earlier by Martin. Martin also got on a rainbow trout, but it is catch and release only so no eatin'.

The next day we awoke to rain......we portaged our canoes through the canyon rapids and put back into the 'ranging river', class II rapids right below the canyon for the next 8 miles. It looked worse than it really was, but it was actually quite fun, despite the slight drizzle. We all made it through with only one minor little "swimming event". Sveta got to take a little "bath" as she would say. After the rapids, we were all quite cold and those in the front were a little wet from being pounded by rapids so we stopped for lunch and warmed up and dried out in front of a fire. Then hit the river again for another 10 miles or so of paddling toward the final campspot, the Chinook Bar. This part of the river slows down and widens out, and powerboats full of fisherman were encountered. We tried some king salmon fishing, but were unsuccessful, Martin was the only one who got a nibble on his spinning rod. We had another great dinner that night at the Chinook Bar, despite the heavy boat traffic, we ate spaetzle, a german pasta with tomato sauce made by Sveta and Martin, and Luke made a sweet cornbread for desert. Next morning we awoke again to our friend the rain and paddled out of there quickly to escape the weather.