So I'm hiking 5 miles in to run Jarvis Creek in the Alaska Range this weekend. I'm pretty stoked, it has been about 6 years since I've done the run. It is pretty much Fairbanks' version of Six Mile. Thinking about it, they should probably swap the names. Six mile would make more sense on Jarvis creek with the hike in. What does Six Mile refer to anyways?
Well I was looking for a good way to rig my kayak for the hike in. I think I've found it. I rigged the whole thing with the shoulder straps from my Gregory Denali Pro pack and an old hip belt I had from the last time I went into Jarvis Creek. I went to AMH and bought 5' of 2" webbing, 5' of 1" webbing, two dual locking buckles, two 2" sliders, and two 1" sliders to rig the shoulder straps with. I'm not sure what the whole set up weighs but it seems to carry fairly well (but what does a few straps matter when you are already carrying 44+lbs of kayak and gear?). So far running around my place with it on, it feels more comfortable than the set up I had going into Disappointment Creek. I'll have to let you know how it works after the weekend. Here's a little video I made with the set up.
Here is one of the last runs done on Jarvis Creek. (It doesn't get done all that often due to the level of boaters in the area, accessibility, and knowledge of the run).
Really quick. After lots of questions regrading pictures of the Grand, here they are. I have a lot more, and I still need to do some edits and or geo taging. Here is a rough sample of some of the best. I'll let you know when the best of the best are ready for viewing. Its hard being an active perfectionist.
Ship Creek, an amazing class IV creek, has been deemed illegal to run by the military. People have been sent to court and fined for running this gem of a whitewater run. Please help open up this amazing run by signing the petition at Life More Natural. Allan, the founder of Life More Natural (a non-profit organization to help promote a sustainable lifestyle), has put together a petition to save Ship Creek. Once again, please help save Ship Creek.
Also, Timmy J has a court hearing coming up in mid December for a Federal Trespassing charge he received this summer for kayaking on Ship Creek. Many of us have run into the MP's trying to get on or getting off of the run and have had no such charges, but rather polite run ins. Timmy would greatly appreciate a brief letter stating your encounter with the MP's. Your letters will be left anonymous, and it will not be tied back to you. You can reach Tim at kayaker35@hotmail.com. I'm sure he would greatly appreciate any donation you feel acceptable to help pay for court and lawyer costs. It is a small community of kayakers up here, lets help a friend in need.
As the back country season is getting under way remember to brush up on your avalanche safety and first aid skills. Nothing could ruin an awesome powder day than better than watching your best friend get swept away and not know how to handle it, or getting buried yourself. Get out there with your friends and practice using your equipment. Unfortunately, I missed out on some good ol' beacon practice being stuck in Petersburg last weekend. I'll just have to organize one myself. Anyone game?
I have always been nervous and anxious in the back country. I never really went up unless I went with someone that knows more than I do or I went to places that I knew really well, under conditions that I understood. Nothing really drove home the safety concern as watching someone get buried. Thankfully I didn't have to do this first hand; someone posted a helmet-cam video of themselves getting buried and dug up. It is a very powerful video, and is definitively worth watching if you are even considering going out in avalanche country.
Since watching the video I have been reading as much as I can on snow science and avalanche safety. I couldn't imagine getting buried. It seems like one of the scariest things ever. Please, stay safe, be careful and have fun out there.
For avalanche conditions in Turnagain Pass check out the Friends of the Chugach website. They have web cams, weather stations, accident reports, and (as the season gets underway) seven day a week avalanche advisories. A friend of mine told me that his Dad sat him down and hand him read all of the avalanche accident reports before heading out in the back country. Recently, as I have found this information, I have been reading them and learning a lot. Take the time and check them out yourself. It is nice to learn what conditions and judgment calls led to the accident; learn from other people's mistakes and try not to let the same thing happen to you.
If you need to refresh on your avalanche safety, or learn up on it, you can visit the Alaska Avalanche School. They have classes and courses throughout the winter.
Packrafts are real boats, as Roman likes to say. It finally occurred to me this fall that not only are they real boats, but they are also really fun.
This fall Roman finally got me out and in a packraft. (Roman Dial is a packraft extraordinaire, and perpetual innovator in the sport). I had been dieing all summer to get out on Montana Creek near Palmer. The water was up early in the season, but it was EARLY. There was still a good possibility that some of the canyon could still have ice bridges. I had been into Ingram Creek as soon as the water levels got high enough, which was in May sometime. It was ridiculously early for Ingram, and there was still ice in there. So I figured it wouldn't be a good ideal to get into some of the canyons in higher elevations or further north, such as Bird Creek, Peters Creek, and Montana Creek. Well with the fall rains the water levels at Montana Creek finally creeped towards the runnable level and I made a few calls. I knew that Roman really wanted to get in there, and that the run could potentially be a packraft classic. So, naturally I gave him a call. I knew that if anyone could run it in a packraft that he could do it, as he ran some of the meatier drops in Ingram Creek last summer. Well, when it came down to the wire the water level wasn't high enough to run it in a kayak. But Roman had told me that if I was still willing to go in there I could borrow a packraft. Since the run is such a gem, I couldn't turn down the invitation, although I was supper nervous.
Montana Creek is a solid class IV creek with a drop or two that is pushing class V. It isn't anyrun to be taken lightly. The first time I went in there we had to walkout due to very high water and two bad swims. Since then I have been in there two other times and had a blast. I would say it is as dificult as Six Mile (the standard for comparing runs against in AK, a solid class IV Alaskan river that gets up to class V at high water), but has more of a creeking feel. In otherwords it is a really fun run, but has the potential to make your day really bad if you don't give the river the respect it deserves. So naturally I was a bit anxious about getting on the run in a small, stubby little boat that if you screw up dump trucks you into the river. Thankfully that anxiety was over run by the demanding need to become one with this creek, tap into its power, and breifly join the millions of water molecules on their exodus to the sea. Corny, sure. Addicted, yes.
Pictures are worth a thousand words, and videos are worth a billion. All I can really say about the run is that it made me hooked on packrafting, and that I couldn't stop thinking about it for a week. Just watch the video:
Roman also has a good write up of the run on his blog. What was really nice about the run was that one of the other packrafters, Thai, is also a kayaker. When packrafting the strokes, moves and how you read the water is different than in a kayak. It was really nice to have a packraft to kayak, kayak to packraft translator.
While running Montana Creek it finally occurred to me that runs that would be really hard or really expensive to get to with a kayak are now easily accessible. Exploratory runs in packrafts are the next big thing. It wouldn't be any big deal to hike through the woods with a pack raft on your back to check out a new run. If it goes, awesome! If not, its still not a problem, you got a great hike in. Next year, when the kayaking gets bogged down with low water, I can still get out on the river. I've been missing getting in long hikes, like I used to when I was ski training. I've been opting out of doing hikes recently in order to get more paddling in. Now I can get some quality paddling done, as well as get great hikes in.
After running MT Creek I went packrafting a few more times. One evening after work I ran the few miles up to Echo Bend on Eagle River to run the rapids back there in a pack raft with Toby and Ian. I never really wanted to carry my kayak three miles back for a run I hadn't heard anything about (if it was good the people I had asked about it would have raved about it, must just said it was okay), but a 5 lb packraft, no problem. We started out from the nature center, and in 30 minutes we were to the put in. By 8:00pm we were off the water, just as the light got too dim to paddle, and by 9 or so we were back at the car after hiking out in the dark.
A couple days later Roman invited me out to "flip the bird". We walked up (note the verb usage, as it is not a hike with a packraft) to the Inner Sanctum on Bird Creek and "flipped" the run 4 times, as it is literally a walk in the park to go back up the short run for another go at it. Timmy J, another class V kayaker, joined us on that run in his Jolly Green Giant (the NRS "packraft"). We had a blast. It felt obsurd to be playing in the water in October in Alaska. We were literally playing in the water. At the water level we ran it at it wasn't a big deal to fall out of your boat and climb back in. After getting over the initail shock of the cold water we were laughing about how much fun it was. There were consiquences, but for some reason the just seamed to be out weighed by how much fun people were having and the whole obsurdity of paddling in October. Both Timmy and Roman have videos of the run, their both worth checking out.
After that day on Bird Creek, it seemed to me that packrafting really started to evolve. Now that there are quite a few packrafters that can run class IV and class V kayakers that have seen the potential in packrafts, we have a recipie for inovation. The revolution has begun.
Alright, well I've finally got some time (even if is is forced) to get caught up. I am currently stuck in Petersburg after the Alaska Airlines jet decided to skip its milk run stops on its way from Seattle to Anchorage because of horrendous winds and rain throughout Southeast AK this morning. Ironically, at the time the flight was supposed to land in Petersburg blue sky started to peak through the clouds and the winds died down. Its not that I'm complaining so much, there are a lot worse places to be stuck in. It is kind of nice to get more of a feel for these quaint little towns. The past week I've been blurring through Southeast AK (Juneau, Gustavus, Haines, Ketchikan, and now Petersburg) on a trip for work; so its nice to get to check this town out. On the downside I'm going to miss out on the party of the year, and the first ice climbing. Anyways, where was I before I abandoned my blog to the eternal catch 22 of blogging....
Last winter finished off with some more ice climbing, some ski racing, and dreams of water. When the water started flowing it started flowing fast and hard. The Lil' Su got up to the highest level its been in two years this past spring. It was really nice to get out there and run the Lil' Su as much as possible. After about a month and a half of solid boating (about three times per week on average) the water ran out. Which wasn't a bad thing, as we had a much sunnier summer than last year.
I kept more than busy the rest of the summer with all sorts of weekend trips and field work. The two highlight trips for me this summer was a road trip to Haines for the Southeast State Fair, and a backpacking trip in Hatcher's Pass over Labor Day weekend.
As summer came to a close I started packrafting, believe it or not. Roman got me out on a class V creek and I was hooked. I got out four times total this fall, and in those few short weeks the evolution of packrafting exploded. Timmy J (a fellow class V kayaker) got out there, as well, for a Bird Creek session. Timmy saw how fun it was an bought up one of Roman's packrafts. He immediatly put thighstraps in his raft and showed the world that you can roll packrafts. The next summer is going to see a major advance in packrafting. I can't wait.
After it started to become a little ridiculous to still be playing in the water, I've started to become more excited about training again. I've joined up with OIA (Only In Alaska, an active group of 20 somethings) for workouts at APU this fall and have really been enjoying rallying myself once a week doing an hour and a half of circuits. Now I'm ready to start training recreationally, and stay active. I've been trying to do something everyday. Lately I've been going on cross country ski sessions, getting over to the Rock Gym to get ready for ice season, doing yoga, doing circuit workouts with OIA, and going to the pool to kayak with Cassie.
The snow finally fell last weekend, right before I headed out to the Southeast. I'm really looking forward to getting back to Anchorage and enjoying the winter sports. As I'm writting Cassie is out ice climbing. I was hoping to get out tomorrow and go climbing with her in Hatchers, but I don't think I'll make with the current delay. I bought some new telemark boots this fall and am looking forward to using them soon. Alright, well stay tuned, as blogs should come out in a flurry as I have nothing better to do but get caught up.
