Weird, Wild Yentna
Yentna River Report 1/11/15
Roger Phillips- Deshka Landing trail Report (Facebook) Jan. 11th. - Got home (a few miles above Northwoods Lodge) about 11:00 last night. WHAT TRAIL........Yentna river was pretty good all the way to about 2 miles below Lake Creek. THEN Overflow, Overflow and More Overflow. Flowing Water over Ice.. I am done hauling I believe, for a while.
For some strange reason I seemed to have developed a sudden interested in hydrology.
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| Heading towards the Yentna fog. |
As we pulled onto the Yentna River the fog was winning the battle with the sunrise and it was a spectacular sight to behold. It was time to go home. We were all packed up and ready to head back up river to the McDougal trail. From there we would be dry-landers and the remaining forty miles would be a breeze. On Friday, a few days prior, the five mile ride down the Yentna to the cabin had been solid. The trail was essentially hard-packed snow and ice; not particularly fun, but safe.
We were leaving now and there had been no fog at the cabin that morning. It appeared that the fog was contained to the Yentna basin and we would soon see why. The river-fog was making visibility poor but this didn’t turn out to be our main concern as we motored out of the mouth of Indian Creek onto the Yentna itself. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that the Yentna had risen overnight..six inches or more was my guess! What?
All the low places had filled up with water as far as the eye could see. There was standing water, grey slushy water (typical of Yentna overflow) and there was even water running over the top of the ice where the day before there had been none.
How could the river rise so much overnight? I thought. It’s not like there was a major weather event like a rainstorm or a heavy dump of snow. a big dump of snow could press down on the river-ice making cracks and pushing up water from below. The low 30’s temperatures with no precipitation whatsoever seemed like a recipe for stability to me.
These were all afterthoughts by the way. What I was really thinking about was; “how the hell are we going to get over all this shit?”
If we couldn't make it to McDougal then we would have to retreat back to the cabin.
“You’ve got to keep your speed up!” Bryan was the water skipping coach. As it turned out we had to blast over four different wet places. Our up-river progress looked like this; I would ride out front and stop to inspect the watery section of the trail. I would blast across and find the best place to cross. Bryan, bringing up the rear was the skip coach and would line everyone up for a straight-line blast across the water. “THIS HAS TO SAY 25 AT LEAST.” Bryan’s finger was tapping on mom’s speedometer. He was shouting over the sound of the motor idling and I could hear him from the other side.
Keep in mind that solid ice was confirmed underneath all of these splashy crossings. Snowmachine tracks were visible under the water at two of these places and solid ice under the rest. The worst-case scenario was that I would get to use my new winch!
As luck would have it, we made it unscathed. We scooted over the last of the overflow taking us safely to Mcdougal.
“At least we don’t have to worry about our snowmachines getting dirty.” I quipped. We had splashed our way to cleanliness and now we would head down the trail crossing swamps and creeks and following seismic lines all the way back to Amber Lake where the truck was waiting for us. Observation of note: several of the other drainages we crossed had risen in water level too. This baffled me. I knew that I needed more information.
Scotland shares (roughly) the same latitude as us. As it turns out the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), conducted an extensive hydrological survey of their creeks and rivers spanning from 1961 to 2008. The Scots have undoubtedly discovered what we have; the earth is warming. In their study they have looked at such factors as snowfall (depth), winter temperatures, and hydrology (flow rate) of their major rivers and creeks.
“Snow can play an important part in the dynamics of river flows in catchments which extend to high elevations. Precipitation falling as snow is stored within a catchment and generally released more slowly than run-off resulting from rain. A reduction in snowfall is likely to increase the number and magnitude of flood peaks in rivers where snow has historically been a significant water store. A combination of increased winter rainfall and higher temperatures (as forecasted
in most climate change scenarios) is likely to result in increased flood risk in some catchments.”
Does the Yentna extend to higher catchments? Yes, I know this to be true; both the East and West fork of the Yentna flow from the snowy crags of the Alaska Range. If my non-scientific observations over the last twenty four years of traveling the Yentna in the winter have any merit, it seems that the Yentna has historically been a significant source of snow-based water storage. Usually the snow is super deep. The last two years specifically, have seen the lowest snowfall accumulation that I’ve ever seen. In addition, temperatures have been warmer and rainfall has become almost as regular as snow.
Apparently all of these factors can cause the water level to rise greatly overnight without a major weather event, essentially without warning. Weird.
After years of traveling the frozen Yentna I was counting on a certain level of predictability gained through experience but from what transpired this weekend all bets are off. |
| Bryan, celebrating the last of the watery crossings, takes to the air spreading his wings on his Dad's 600 switchback. |
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| Corey relentlessly attacking a defenseless beer can at the site of our Iditarod camp. |
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| Once again, we did not starve. |
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| Yours truly displaying a nice moose shed, and my newly mounted winch on the back of the superwide. |
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| Thanks Matt Clark for capturing us at the base of a giant erratic boulder on the way home. |
You don't see this every day. The tier 2 moose hunt was in full
swing on this weekend. Matt Clark said it best: "Why wouldn't
you bring a sled?" We were able to salvage a small amount of
meat off of the kill-site from a different moose.
Matt Clark extraordinaire.
