Joey and I finished our voyage down the Kwethluk River on Aug 10. We had to work hard to keep our trip alive. It was hard to find someone to accompany us o this trip due to current economic conditions. Joey and I considered making the trip alone but in the end Frank Rodriguez offered to join our party. I?m sure glad Frank came along because it would have been real tough with just the two of us. We all left Sac town at 10:00 am on July 28 and all the connecting flights went off without a hitch. We arrived in Bethel around 8pm after we gained an extra hour. Steve and Robin Powers were waiting for us at the airport with 3 pickup trucks as a large group arrived to float the Kisaralik. The lodge is starting to feel like a home away from home. We scrambled till dark converting our suit cases into dry bags. Hit the sac around 0030 -0100. The Kisaralik group was flying out first so we had a little extra time to resort our equipment. Papa Bears has 2 planes now so things move very smoothly and quickly. The Kisaralik group ran into bad weather and was dealing with 70mph winds. The weather in Bethel seemed fine at the time. They were not able to land at Kisaralik Lake and the young members on the planes made a decision to land on a boundary lake with a ?+ mile portage. This did not make the old guys at the lodge very happy. In the end I heard it turned well.
We were told our plane was 30 mins out so we had to scramble and get wadered up for the flight. Your adrenaline starts pumping at this point. We loaded up the pickup and drove to the Kuskokwim River to meet the plane. The wind was blowing more than we realized and there was a significant chop on the water. The plane landed and we had our hands full positioning the plane with the winds and waves. We loaded the plane and we were off in no time. Take off was not as bad as it looked but we were dealing with 27mph winds. We could see white caps on the lakes below. Boris was up front with us and that there chance we may not be able to land at our lake but he would take us to a pike lake to fish for the day if that was the case. This was my bumpiest ride so far in the beaver and we were all feeling a little car sick. Joey sat up front with Boris and decided to ask what the pedals on the floor do, so Boris took a move from Karl Powers and showed us by pushing them to the floor. We told Joey no more questions as that did not help with the ride. Boris lined up the beaver with the boundary lake and we dropped in with no issues. We waved good bye and started our own 200 yd portage up one side and down the other. I should mention that the trail was slippery as snot and when had to walk in the bushes for traction.
It took us an hour or so to get all our stuff to the river. Frank had opted to bring his personal raft which utilized 15ft pontoons. Frank and I worked on the Frame and Joey pumped up the pontoons. Frank and I were engulfed with the raft when we encountered our first of 5 brown bears. A bear decided to cross the river about 20 yards upstream and upwind of us. Joey heard the bear enter the water but we did not and Joey was kind of nice enough to let us know he was there. We made some noise and he continued on his way crossing and scampered off. Why is it that the gun is never loaded when you encounter your first bear. We finished packing the raft and were off heading down the Kwethluk with a nice wind to push us down.
Joey and Boris with the 1959 beaver.
Papa Bear?s second plane
Our ride leaving us at the boundary lake
The wind was not warm it felt like an Arctic blast but it sure was helping us make good time down the river. We stopped once about 2 miles in at location that was supposed to be good fishing. We ate some lunch and readjusted the load on the raft till we liked it. It was so winding casting was very difficult. The river was off color and had a chalky bluish/green tinge to it with poor visibility. Sure looked nice but fishing sucked. It did not take us long to come up on a group of 8 who decided to spend an extra night to wait the storm out. They were very nice and offered us drink and food. They were from Anchorage and have been doing trips like these for years. We asked if they had any luck fishing and they said no. We talked for a few minutes and we continued on to get a little distance between us. At this point Joey was shivering across from me in the raft and I began to have second thoughts about bringing him. I ran into to real bad weather in 2005 on the Arolik and started to wonder what I got myself into this time. We floated for several more hours and found a nice gravel bar to set up camp. Made a quick dinner and went to bed. The next morning we could see new snow on the very distant mountain peaks. Armed Joey with several more layers of fleece and off we raced to Crooked Creek where the fishing was supposed to get better and it did.
Shot of river above Cr Creek and you can see some of the color to it.
We put in a long day and made it to Crooked Creek which was about the size of the Kwethluk but crystal clear. You could see the color on one side and clear side for several miles from the confluence. We decided to test the waters and had Joey throw a streamer on a tail out seam. He hooked and landed an awesome bow and from that point the fishing just kept getting better.
Joey?s first fish of the trip took a streamer
Our second camp was below crooked creek on a bar with access to many braids. It was still cold and raining from light to heavy so we had to take advantage of small weather break to set up and take down camp. We were lucky and never had to put up or take down our tents in the rain but came very close few times. Joey started fishing the seam below our camp site and got his first grayling. We all ended up getting a few grayling but decided to pack up the next morning keep moving after a little fishing.
Joey?s first Grayling
