I'm looking for an easy yet remote unguided river adventure in Alaska or the Yukon lasting five or six days. What I've seen on the web has been outfitter sites. My son and I have river camped each summer in a tamdem kayak. Any ideas or resources?

The Stikine River can be kayaked/canoed 160 miles from Telegraph Creek, BC to it's mouth near Wrangell, Alaska. There are hot spirngs, glaciers calving near the river, etc. You wouldn't think that you can go that distance very quickly, but the river current averages 9 knots, which helps. If you do want a shorter trip just ask the bush plane or jetboat you hire ($) to drop you at Scud Portage instead, to roughly halve the distance. It is a long, remote, flat, but fast river. It has essentially just one or two remotely worrisome areas, and both are avoided on the shorter version of the trip. Just don't run it during the spring thaw (June). In our ignorance my buddies and I did exactly that and nearly died. There were standing waves fifteen feet tall... Shudder. We aborted and spent the ten days sea-kayaking around Wrangell. In our defense, though, it was a late and sudden thaw that year. Later in the summer I'm told novices make the run all the time, with September described as particularly idyllic.

I've been considering the Colville, on the North Slope, for a future trip. It is 'easy', but LONG. About 20 days, I've heard. I've also heard that the local brown bears can get aggressive and troublesome, though.

Karen Jettmar wrote 'The Alaska River Guide', and it is very helpful. After searching Amazon I see that she put out a new edition last year -I have an older one, but just added the 2008 to my Wish List... The table of contents on this edition looks much more extensive, and it now includes the Stikine. There is a dedicated Stikine River guide called 'Stikine River-A Guide to Paddling the Great River', by Jennifer Voss, though it is nigh impossible to find.

Edited by acrosome on 11/02/2009 17:08:44 MST.

Thanks Dean, I've ordered those books.

You might also take a look at the "Alaska Paddling Guide" by Jack Mosby and David Dapkus (out of print, but available used from amazon and others), and "Fast and cold: a guide to Alaska whitewater" by Andrew Embrick. There are lots of rivers in Alaska that are in the easy (<=ClassII) that can be done in around 5 days - are you looking for anything else in particular? Remote, not remote, scenery, birding, fishing, etc.

Isn't the Mosby book actually a fishing book?

Jay and Others,

Is there any book, article, website that provides good information about packrafting/fishing the Chunila (aka Clear Crk)?

On the maps, it appears that I could travel on a whistle stop train to near its headwaters, backpack over the mountain range between it and the tracks, and then packraft/fish down to Talkeetna.

Edited by richard295 on 11/12/2009 09:46:36 MST.

There is a post that mentions Clear Creek in the alpacka forums:
http://www.alpackaraft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=663

That forum is great for getting info on pack rafting in Alaska - its pretty active and a great source of info. I suggest posting there and see what folks have to say.

Dean: Mosby might have written other books, but copy of the "Alaska Paddling Guide" I have is a river guide and only mentions fishing in passing.

Jay. My son and I are going to be driving up from Oklahoma this Summer and the only thing that's for sure right now is that we plan to hike the Chilkoot. We will probably go through Wrangall-St.Elias and the Denali areas. We paddle in a tandem Kayak with a large open cockpit. We have run whitewater in it, but it swamps easily. The main "must" for us on a river trip is some way to get us and/or the boat back to the car. Scenery, wildlife, and fishing (in that order) are the primary concerns after shuttle logistics. We are open as to location.

David,
The "getting back to the car" factor might make things a little difficult - most of the floats I do these days are pack rafting trips with hikes and car or bike shuttles on one end. If you don't mind hitch hiking then there are a fair number of road accessible rivers that you will pass on your way to denali np and or Wrangall-St.Elias. If you can do class II then the Gulkana river is quite popular, though I have never done it. Its in quite a beautiful area. Gorp appears to have a good writeup online -> http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_river/ak_gulka.htm

The Tangle Lakes area is quite nice (look in in the jetmar book for the Delta River).

Is your kayak folding? If so it would open up some fly in trips..

Since it sounds like you are planning on doing the Chilkoot trail, you might be interested in exploring some of the lakes near the headwaters of the Yukon - there are a number of smallish alpine lakes just past Fraser (thats the Canadian customs site on the Klondike highway) that offer good lake canoeing and kayaking. The scenery is quite nice and it has good lake trout fishing and grayling fishing in the fall. The blueberries are also quite good there in the fall. Its not a 5 day trip though - more of a overnight trip - i only mention it as you will be driving by it and does not require a car shuttle. I grew up in Skagway and have good memories of canoeing on those lakes. The best area is between what the locals call first and second portage. I can dig up a map if you are interested. The Klondike highway goes by a number of largish lakes between Carcross and Fraser, so you could explore some of them too - Tutshi lake would be a good one to explore. They have lake trout near their inlets and are quite scenic. It can be a bit windy at times though.