You and I are small

June 11, 2013

This morn, after breakfast I cleaned the remaining trout and it looks like three or four more entrees are taken care of.  I went out to check on Dieter and the Klutina and Dieter had relocated and that river is still unfishable.  I visited instead with Jerry (Montana) and his girlfriend, Rochelle (Fairbanks, AK) who are at the Gulkana River every year for the King Salmon.  They are mid sixties and I had met them a few days prior while visiting Dieter.  Jerry and I then borrowed a cata-raft from a friend of his and will raft the Gulkana in the morning.  My job tonight was to prepare lunch for the eight hour trip.

June 12, 2013

Jerry and Rochelle picked me up at 7:50am and after a great breakfast Jerry and I pushed off from shore at the Sourdough Landing of the Gulkana River.  The float would be well over the 21 road miles we drove as this river really winds through the country.  There were witness marks along the bank that the water was over four feet higher then now and Jerry figured it was still a couple feet over average years.  This year’s ice tore at the bank, trees and permafrost.  Erosion, landslides, trees in the river and the river takes on a new path.  Seven hours later we drifted into the Richardson Bridge landing.  I can tell now that I should have used a bit of sunscreen on the face.  I did verify a disappointing report that the King Salmon catch on the Gulkana River had been closed by Emergency Order.  Well I have the Reds (Sockeye) to look forward to and I could run down and pick off some Pink Salmon in VALDEZ too.

 The Cata-Raft
Sourdough Boat Landing, Gulkana R

 Trees torn from their bank by ice and water
The undercutting of the bank

 Permafrost is exposed to the open air, it melts and the ban collapses into the river

 The light band of earth about a foot from the top is a narrow example of Permafrost.  We did see other bands in excess of five feet thick.

 Here is the exit flow of the river that had breached the river bank a quarter mile upstream…in a few years, these trees will be gone and in its place, the new path of the river.