Here are some photos from a trip to the Naknek River in June, 1999. The Naknek is a big Alaskan river at the mouth of one of the world's most productive salmon spawning drainages. June is when juvenile sockeye salmon smolt migrate out to sea by the millions. Large rainbow trout try to get larger, by feeding on the smolt as they swim down river.
Gary and I peered from the rim of a remote Canyon in British Columbia. The Canyon was pristine, mysterious, and seductive. We had arrived there on a whim, picking the blankest-looking spot on the map. We had little information about the river, no hope of a shuttle, and not nearly enough time to float the 30 or so miles. (Gary had to be back in Missoula for a meeting in three days.) We thought it through repeatedly, each time reaching the same logical conclusion: That floating the river on this trip was was out of the question, at best a good dream for a future trip. But, like the sculpted rock of the river banks our logic was being slowly eroded by the flow of the river-water drawing into this unexplored wilderness. As a cut-bank must eventually collapse, logic eventually caved in and we knew what we had to do. Float the river. Now. We would find a way to make it work. Hiding among the walls and shadows of that mysterious gorge, the flowing water had an irresistible pull that left us no choice.
Here are Gary's story and photos of the trip.
We also floated the Elk River.