In the summer of 2008, after countless hours of hard work gathering gear, buying firearms and organizing logistics; the Talkeetna canyon trip finally became a reality! Myself and four of my now closest friends ventured into the wilderness via float plane into the unknown. The Talkeentna River is sometimes called the most continuous class IV whitewater in North America...the BEARS along the first stretch are famous throughout Alaska for their popularity along the banks. Needless to say, we were excited about the next four days.
(above: Tom, myself, Patrick, Dave, and Sunnie)
The plane ride to "Murder Lake"
Excitement as the plane
flys away...
More excitement (Tom starts to look nervous)
Gearing up
Geared up!
From Murder lake we float down Prairie creek, which eventually joins the Talkeetna River after around 8 miles or so. We had two log jam portages, and saw only one bear, who fled the scene quickly.
Thats Dave Wernet on bear patrol...
We Finally reach the confluence as the clear waters from Prairie creek join with the almost erie cloudy green water of the Talkeetna. The water seems to glow around us as we celebrate the end of our first day.
Our first camp on a cozy gravel bar, tomorrow we paddle the sluice box canyon...
Drinking red bulls and getting pumped for the whitewater ahead. A comment was jokingly made that this could be our last group photo...
Sunnie and I on our way into the Canyon
Behold Entrance Exam, the first rapid. Thanks to Tom for catching the scout. We find a powerful
river wide hole that leads into toilet bowl (class IV). The cliffs near by give us a perfect view of the rivers toughest rapid.
The four of us scout our line through entrance exam..
Tom, our
safety boater, a young
kayaker with
mysterious fish-like skills, scouts his line as well.
We made the move and thanks to Patrick
didn't flip on the second rock trough toilet bowl.
17 miles later of
adrenalin pumping whitewater with countless blind corners we reach the gates... We're out of the canyon alive, with 2 days left of beautiful weather,
slackline, a redneck
independence day and non stop celebration as we float back into the town of
Talkeetna.
This is what we found when we beached in
Talkeenta...along with a case of Miller High Life, and 4 people I love. What else could you ask for?
Thanks to all the people that helped us to make this trip happen.
On the way back up to Oregon after the ski season we had to stop by San Fran.
Also Lassen National Volcano Park
Ice fishing in Wasilla. More like cold, wind blown beer drinking
