After we got back to Anchorage from our first trip, rick and I saw Jim, Cheryl and Rich off on their trip back to California. Rick and I stayed in Anchorage for two nights. We purchased a few more supplies, and flew back to Kulik Lodge.
From Kulik, we boarded a float plane to start another two week trip down the Alagnak River. This time the pilot landed right in the river next to our first camp. This was a good thing, as we did not have to hurry up and assemble and load our rafts to float to the headwaters.
Since there was only two of us, we had a lot less weight in the raft. This enabled us to float down smaller braids(channels) that we had on the previous trip. The Alagnak splits and recombines many many times, and can become confusing, especially if you take the wrong braid and have to drag the raft back up the braid because it is blocked (by beavers etc.). I would never have floated Lake Creek with the raft as heavily loaded as it was on our first trip down the Alagnak.
I probably will never do a one month two float trip again. We were exhausted after these two trips. It is just to hard on an old man. Spending that long exposed to the elements is tough.
On this trip the weather turned on us a little. It probably rained 10 inches and turned cold.
I don't mind the rain or cold, but we had a mini diaster. A wind storm destroyed our cook shack. It is amazing how that shack protects you from the elements, it is like haveing a house to get in out of the weather.
We didn't take many pictures on this trip. Since there was only two of us, we usually packed our guns instead of a camera. It is much easier to set up camp etc. when there are more people.Plus, it is just plain safer haveing more eyes to look for danger and to make noise.
Here are a couple of pictures of the float plane that dropped us off.
The people in the raft were Moose hunters from Montana. The only people we saw were two groups of Moose hunters.
This is a picture of camp. We were on the opposite side of the river from where we camped on the first trip.
This is me with a "jack" King Salmon. 'Jacks" are immature Kings that are 1or 2 years old instead being mature 3-5 year olds. All "Jacks" are males, and are fun on light tackle.
This is small, but mature King.
This is one of Rick's Chum Salmon.
Here are three of Rick's Pink Salmon.
Notice the gaudy fly in the mouth of the Chum and Pink.
Here are a couple of fat little Rainbows that Rick caught.
Here are A couple of Silvers that Rick caught. Notice the blood in the water in the first picture. We probably should have kept this one. Even though in a one month period, we caught several thousand fish, we never kept or ate one fish.
This is a momma bear and her cubs. Notice that one of the cubs is eating a Sockeye Salmon.
This is a picture of our loaded raft. With a load like this I thought I was rowing a sports car!We were at least 500 lbs. lighter than the first trip.
This is after our little diaster. We were up river about a mile or so in beautiful sunny weather. A wind storm came up and destroyed out cook shack. Our tents survived, but all the poles and fabric were done for.
We just stacked the gear for a wind break. We were in the open, so building a tarp tent would have been futile with the wind. Of course the Temperature dropped below freezing for a couple of days, just what we needed.
This is our camp at the takeout. As you can see it is a lot wetter than it was a couple of weeks ago. The canvas bags hold the tubes to my cat. The boards leaning against the ice chests are part of the floor to the cat.
A couple of pictures of Rick hovering over the camp stove while waiting for the plane.
The float plane arrived at daylight, right on time.We are getting ready to load up the plane. We thought he might not make it because the weather was so bad. Kudos to Katmai Air.
