Intimate Susitna

     

Corey photo bombing me on the Su

Some things can't wait. I decided to take the family on a float trip that would descend 35 miles of the Susitna River.  Snow machining and jet boating this section before just wasn’t enough.  Floating a river versus running it in a powerboat is akin to walking versus driving in a vehicle.  “A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles.”  Edward Abbey, outspoken environmentalist and National Parks champion knew what was up.

    “Have a good trip!” She said waving to us from the bank at the end of the Talkeetna Village airstrip.  My wonderful mother-in-law Pam Rannals had happily volunteered to not only drop us off and pick us up a few days later  but she was also watching our two dogs. A good time was had by them in our absence apparently when they both discovered an unguarded bag of dog food.   Rosemary, our new golden retriever puppy submerged her entire head into it chomping and feasting furiously with her tail wagging.

      We would have to settle up on that one later.  We were floating down the Susitna River and it commanded our full attention.

     The water was high.  The flowing silty waters dispersed themselves into a myriad of channels.  The entire watershed itself was littered with scads of uprooted trees, roots, and drift.   The upper end of the channel's braids were stacked with drift wood in the form of sticks, logs, and whole trees making route decisions imperative.  We did not want to be the next log in the stack.  The gentle hiss of the sandy silt swirling against the bottom of the boat serenaded us as we made our way down river.

    I pulled on the oars correcting our line as needed.  “Michael rowed the boat ashore.....guys?” Nothing.  “Guys, help me out here with the next line.”

    “What?”  said Corey.  I quickly realize that it might be a long trip but this is the stuff of good family camping isn’t it?  I’ve seen enough of the National Lampoon’s Vacation series to know that these were memories in the making and I must persevere. Clark W. Grizwold doesn't have shit on me.

    “Hallelujah.” I said. "Michael rowed the boat ashore Hallelujah."

    “Gazunteight.”  said Corey.  Okay. Just then we heard a thunderous crack. As we turned to look, an enormous birch tree, succumbing to the eroding bank fell and snapped as it toppled backwards onto the shore exposing it's upturned foundation. "Whoa." said Tamra.

      Slowly we floated our way downriver with Hazelee in the bow, Corey in the stern and Tamra and I were holding steadfast a midships.

    After my last float I couldn’t help but think that inadvertently, we were tracing the route of the old stern wheelers that plowed their way upriver over a hundred years ago.  I wondered how different the river was for them back then.  I wondered how their progress would have been in times of high water such as we were experiencing now.  How did they deal with giant cottonwood trees drifting at them downriver?  How were they able to negotiate the swift, shallow channels? Their boats were long and heavy.  As a person that is intimately aware of the forces involved in running the Susitna River I can’t even imagine how they could have done it with those lunky behemoth's. I’ve seen the pictures so it must be true.

     Nowadays the river is not a major freighting route for miners and trappers like it was back then.  The construction of rail and road put an end to all that.  Today the river is utilized mainly recreationally to access areas near salmon streams.  By-and-large cabins and lodges up and down the Susitna (and Yentna) Rivers are situated as closely as possible to salmon producing tributaries.  A quick search of remote property sales tell the tale.  Properties located closest to salmon streams fetch the highest dollar.  These are the areas that see the most boat traffic too.   It seems that the salmon have had quite an effect on human activity and development along the mighty Susitna.

     We made our way towards one of these salmon streams called Birch Creek which would be our first camp spot.  “Hey there’s a good spot.” I said and we pulled over on the sandbar staking our claim to Harrison camp-spot number one.

    As far as camp spots go this one was exemplary.  Essentially an island, this sandy, gravely beach was be speckled with lot’s of driftwood and even some beach coal.  Before long we were roasting hot dogs, playing bocce ball and carrying on as only we can do.   Hazelee quickly lost all of her clothing and was happy to be a stark naked child of the earth.  Tamra and I got a solid start on a bottle of Fireball next to the fire.

        The next morning a modest river boat zoomed by us on the far side of the river and it was quite later-on that a super cub dove and swooped over us.  These were the only others we saw on the river since leaving Talkeetna.

        It was cool to be checking out this section of river up-close.  The lion share of my Susitna River time has been spent on the lower river commuting to and from our fish camp on Ivan River.  It’s interesting to note the boating traffic on all the different stretches of river.  By far the busiest section of the river is the four mile stretch of river from Deshka Landing to the Deshka river.  Day trippers routinely zip down to the Deshka to sport fish for salmon.  This traffic has been booming in recent years due to the proliferation of the Deshka River salmon returns.

    The stretch of the Susitna from the mouth of the Deshka down to the mouth of the Yentna sees the next heaviest traffic.  These folks are accessing cabins and lodges up the Yentna drainage. We have cabins up the Yentna and are part of that traffic. 

    Across from the mouth of the Yentna is the old Susitna Station town site.  There are still a few ramshackle buildings left but it is but a shadow of its former self that once saw over 700 residents in the early nineteen hundreds.  Currently there are two cabins down river a half mile or so from this site, below that there is nothing and we are the only boat traffic from there there down to the mouth.

    Point of consideration: Behold such a great river so very near the main populous of Alaska and yet still so wild. Development along its banks are but a side note to the river itself.  The Susitna River remains a wild and free flowing river!

        In the morning the sun woke us from the tent.  A thousand mosquitoes had found refuge between the tent and rain fly over the course of the night.  When we detached the fly from the tent they quietly dispersed away from the sunlight like the little vampires they are.  Today would be a hot one.  We packed up camp and pushed off into the current.  Midday we passed under the Parks Highway bridge.  We stopped to fish for a bit at the mouth of Rabideax creek but couldn’t really stand it.  Like many of the mouths of fishing streams accessible along the Parks Highway, this one has fallen victim to the anything goes clause.  Without a monitored campground with rules and facilities this place was trashed.  People like to bitch about over regulation and government over-stepping their bounds but where is the balance?  

     With fishing poles in hand Corey and I walked past the abandoned fire pit littered with a Marlboro Light box and some charred beer cans.  A series of four wheeler tracks disappeared into the creek itself along with some old fishing line.  Just then a large man with a scowl on his face putted by us on a kiddy four wheeler. “I think that guy is ready to trade up.”  I pointed out as we piled back into the raft and pushed back off into the wilderness.  

      We floated another four hours until we became so hot we started to become bothered also.  The GPS on my phone told me that we were close to the mouth of Goose Creek.  We had to drag the raft upriver a little ways to make it over there but it turned out to be a great spot to camp.  We dragged the raft up a couple of bends to get out of the sun.  Tamra and I began to set up camp as the kids swam and floated in the cool waters.

     A couple of dudes working for ADF&G showed up and set some fish traps near the mouth.  They caught a few juvenile salmon over the course of the hour that they were there.  Their findings along with many others would be passed on to the scientists working on the Susitna Watana Hydro project.

    I didn’t realize until just recently that all the millions of dollars of science being conducted on the dam project so far isn’t to decide whether or not the dam should be built.  It’s already been decided despite ample public outcry.  As long as there is enough political will in the legislature in upcoming years it will be built.  My understanding now is that the science is being conducted mainly because it’s required as part of the regulatory commission’s licensing process and also to possibly figure out the extent of the mitigation efforts to restore all the salmon it kills.

     Salmon restoration and mitigation efforts are already being planned and budgeted for.  How much isn’t quite clear.  Wayne Dyok, project manager for the dam couldn’t be pinned down in an interview by KTNA’s Phillip Manning recently.  Dyok who comes across as a nice guy on-air, admitted that mitigation efforts on the Columbia River in Washington have been extremely expensive.

   When the Susitna Watana dam proposal came about just a few years ago, I assumed that the science would be used to find a way to preserve the wild salmon and if it wasn’t possible then the dam wouldn’t be built.  But after I took off my rose-colored glasses I realized that wasn’t the case and that saving wild salmon stocks hasn’t worked on any other dam and there is no reason to believe it will work here.

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It's hard to be humble when you
are too cool for school.

        “Haze, wouldn’t it be cool to have a house in a river?”  She was perched up in the bow tucked among the mounds of gear.  “That way you could go swimming right out your front door!" Haze loves to swim. " Corey what do you think wouldn’t it be cool to fish right outside your bedroom window?”  Corey loves to fish.

     Finally as we floated around the corner it all made sense.  There in the river was a large cabin....in the river.  I had checked it out this winter and wondered if it was still there.  Apparently someone learned the hard way the reason main reason why you should never build on a cut bank of a river.  This 24 by 16 foot cabin had fallen victim to the will and power of the mighty Susitna. It was biding its time among the drift. 

     I wondered if there was any kind of fine or punishment handed down to said property owner.  During the spring time it was frozen into the river solid and I was able to snow machine up to it.  That would have been a good time for the owner to remove any trash and other environmentally hazardous building materials.   It is a fully insulated and wired building and all of it will be in the river soon.   

I would have been glad to help.

Lately I guess I've become sensitive to the issues of the river. A river that I've taken for granted my whole life is now in jeopardy and I feel more connected to it than ever.

We floated past the sunken house, around the corner and down to our pullout at Susitna Landing where Pam met us there with the truck and a friendly smile.

Sunken cabin this spring