Alaska's Innoko River - Summer 2018
by Ohiopikeman
Trip Type:
Paddling Canoe
Entry Date:
06/22/2018
Entry Point:
Other
Exit Point:
Other
Number of Days:
28
Group Size:
4
Discuss Trip:
View Discussion Thread (17 messages)
Day 28 of 28
Thursday, July 19, 2018 - Final Day of Trip – Indiana & Ohio
This was a pretty uneventful day as driving across Indiana and Ohio is not terribly exciting. We passed the time by listening to multiple episodes of “Rover’s Morning Glory” which is a local radio morning show (downloaded a bunch of episodes using Spotify).
The Expedition’s trip odometer rolls over every 1,000 miles. We rolled her 4 times on the return trip which end up at 4,472 miles. Total round trip was roughly 8,800 miles.
We dropped Chris off at his home at 4:30 PM which marked the official end of one Hell of an adventure!
**********************
My brother's take on the trip from his Facebook post a few days after returning home; it's a good read!
Wild Alaska - Innoko River - June 28-July 12
Wow. What an experience.
12 days floating a remote Alaskan river a couple hundred miles away from....anything....
No guides, ultralight gear, a tackle box, a packable canoe, and empty wilderness.
As a kid I always dreamed of experiencing waters like this...the Innoko Wildlife Refuge (250 Miles northwest of Anchorage).
There is a feeling that I can’t describe accurately - it is too evasive for words - but it has to do with immersing yourself in the world around you - that one can find so easily when that world around you fades into the stillness, power, and beauty of nature.
We had high hopes of finding untouched fishing waters - and they were better than we could have imagined. 3 of the 4 of us landed the largest northern pike of our lives. As a group we landed insane numbers of wild, strong, and huge fish. Virtually all swam free.
We saw numerous moose as we floated downriver, Bald eagles soared overhead...Beavers everywhere & a number of otters as well. We even found tracks from a Lynx on the rivers edge.
We paid acute attention to bear prevention & this paid off as we encountered no bears. Whew. Numerous and frequent tracks - but carefully selected sites, a clean camp, a wicked cool pack-able electric fence, air tight food containers, and a lot of intentional noise kept the campsites critter free. Well equipped with firepower & bear mace in case prevention didn’t work - and very thankful that the armaments went untouched.
Very proud of Joey and Chris and they handled the challenges and obstacles that this type of trip encompasses wonderfully.
My brother is a beast. He was born in the wrong century and should have running around with Daniel Boone. I couldn’t ask for a better trip partner or trip planner.
This trip was a “trip of a lifetime” to celebrate Joey and his best bud Chris graduating high school and heading off into the world.
This was also a nod to my mom, on the 25th anniversary of her passing. She helped us pack for our first wilderness adventure all those years ago & this seemed a fitting way to pay respect.
Some moments:
1. watching the float plane fly off after drop, realizing how far out you actually are & that you won’t see people outside of your group for almost two weeks
2. Endless sun - made sleeping strange and difficult to keep track of time
3. Sunburn in Alaska? Really wasn’t prepared for that....
4. Huge fish. A lot of huge fish.
5. Flying through a mountain range in a floatplane is breathtaking and gorgeous
6. Moose swimming across the Innoko river was an amazing sight as was seeing a female moose with her calf upon the banks
7. Assembling a canoe that packs into a duffle bag...
8. Lack of firm ground - we didn’t get to stand on or camp on firm ground the entire trip
9. watching a territorial sea gull bully an eagle away from a fish carcass. Didn’t know that was a thing...
10. Way too much mud - endless, nasty mud
11. Getting out of the wild and drinking clean water again!
12. 160 fish (Northern Pike) landed (as a group) in excess of 35 inches. Approximately 300-350 more under 35 inches. I’ll likely never see fishing like that anywhere else in the world.
My wife and family is awesome to encourage and support me in taking on these occasional adventures - I am blessed.
I’m looking forward to taking my kids up there (on a more tame trip) when they get older!
This was a pretty uneventful day as driving across Indiana and Ohio is not terribly exciting. We passed the time by listening to multiple episodes of “Rover’s Morning Glory” which is a local radio morning show (downloaded a bunch of episodes using Spotify).
The Expedition’s trip odometer rolls over every 1,000 miles. We rolled her 4 times on the return trip which end up at 4,472 miles. Total round trip was roughly 8,800 miles.
We dropped Chris off at his home at 4:30 PM which marked the official end of one Hell of an adventure!
**********************
**********************
My brother's take on the trip from his Facebook post a few days after returning home; it's a good read!
Wild Alaska - Innoko River - June 28-July 12
Wow. What an experience.
12 days floating a remote Alaskan river a couple hundred miles away from....anything....
No guides, ultralight gear, a tackle box, a packable canoe, and empty wilderness.
As a kid I always dreamed of experiencing waters like this...the Innoko Wildlife Refuge (250 Miles northwest of Anchorage).
There is a feeling that I can’t describe accurately - it is too evasive for words - but it has to do with immersing yourself in the world around you - that one can find so easily when that world around you fades into the stillness, power, and beauty of nature.
We had high hopes of finding untouched fishing waters - and they were better than we could have imagined. 3 of the 4 of us landed the largest northern pike of our lives. As a group we landed insane numbers of wild, strong, and huge fish. Virtually all swam free.
We saw numerous moose as we floated downriver, Bald eagles soared overhead...Beavers everywhere & a number of otters as well. We even found tracks from a Lynx on the rivers edge.
We paid acute attention to bear prevention & this paid off as we encountered no bears. Whew. Numerous and frequent tracks - but carefully selected sites, a clean camp, a wicked cool pack-able electric fence, air tight food containers, and a lot of intentional noise kept the campsites critter free. Well equipped with firepower & bear mace in case prevention didn’t work - and very thankful that the armaments went untouched.
Very proud of Joey and Chris and they handled the challenges and obstacles that this type of trip encompasses wonderfully.
My brother is a beast. He was born in the wrong century and should have running around with Daniel Boone. I couldn’t ask for a better trip partner or trip planner.
This trip was a “trip of a lifetime” to celebrate Joey and his best bud Chris graduating high school and heading off into the world.
This was also a nod to my mom, on the 25th anniversary of her passing. She helped us pack for our first wilderness adventure all those years ago & this seemed a fitting way to pay respect.
Some moments:
1. watching the float plane fly off after drop, realizing how far out you actually are & that you won’t see people outside of your group for almost two weeks
2. Endless sun - made sleeping strange and difficult to keep track of time
3. Sunburn in Alaska? Really wasn’t prepared for that....
4. Huge fish. A lot of huge fish.
5. Flying through a mountain range in a floatplane is breathtaking and gorgeous
6. Moose swimming across the Innoko river was an amazing sight as was seeing a female moose with her calf upon the banks
7. Assembling a canoe that packs into a duffle bag...
8. Lack of firm ground - we didn’t get to stand on or camp on firm ground the entire trip
9. watching a territorial sea gull bully an eagle away from a fish carcass. Didn’t know that was a thing...
10. Way too much mud - endless, nasty mud
11. Getting out of the wild and drinking clean water again!
12. 160 fish (Northern Pike) landed (as a group) in excess of 35 inches. Approximately 300-350 more under 35 inches. I’ll likely never see fishing like that anywhere else in the world.
My wife and family is awesome to encourage and support me in taking on these occasional adventures - I am blessed.
I’m looking forward to taking my kids up there (on a more tame trip) when they get older!
Donate - BWCA.com