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Alaska - Copper River Rafting (Cont'd) |
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Casapagina |
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Day 4 - Copper River - Wood Canyon to the Penninsula |
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After a soggy, sandy night on the banks of the Copper we continued through Wood Canyon and down the Copper. Though the river was no longer a technical challenge, the scenery on this day was spectacular. |
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Givin' the thumbs up for the sun! |
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We also switched it up at this point, Bruce jumping in to pilot Fat Wad with Mike and me talking over Orca BV. |
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I think Bruce may have got the better deal. |
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"Those are some freakin' Glaciers!" |
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We switched it up even more later, that's Mike steering Fat Wad down the fearsome Copper (the boat and Bruce).
He said after he could tell when they were in trouble as Bruce would start paddling furiously in the front. |
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After a long wet 5th day we finally found a place to camp at the Penninsula having seen too much bear sign at the first few we stopped at we finally decided on a sandy island in the stream and had a brief but luminous fire (that's Bruce & Mike enjoying it's embers) |
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Day 5 - Copper River - Penninsula to Miles Lake |
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We woke in the morning to find this large Brown Bear wandering the shore of the river, we were thankful we picked an island as he didn't get too close. |
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After 5 nights in the wilderness everyone was starting to go a little bit nuts.
Left: Bruce sporting a garbage bag skirt to keep the interminable rains from soaking through to his thighs.
Right: Michael is sporting the "Alaskan Crab Fisherman Jack" look, very popular with the longhore fisherman set. (Actually, due to a bear spray malfunction, Mike was somewhat forced wardrobe malfunction). |
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Despite our fashion crimes we successfully navigated the lower Copper to Miles Lake where we were greated by Miles Glacier and many icebergs...
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...So of course we played Bumper Berg! The Alaskan edition!
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I finally decided it was time to bath...that's the glacier in the background...it was cold. |
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Day 6 - Copper River - Childs Glacier to Cordova |
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The next day we got up late and floated under the million dollar bridge (which apparently cost $1.5 Million) to the famous Childs Glacier.
It's being undercut by the Copper River and therefore Calves enormous chunks of ice into the river which then float out to the Gulf of Alaska. |
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We moored the rafts and had a cold one while we waited and watched..."it's pretty big...I guess".
(Note the Bear Spray hanging well off the stern of the raft). |
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Back underway, Fat Wad's Mascot took a chunk out of Bruce. |
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After countless attempts we finally got a nice artsy nature shot. This is a bald eagle just below the glacier. |
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We also passed huge pods of seals after the glacier who come up from the gulf to eat the plentiful Salmon running up the Copper. Bruce took this of Mike and I, all those balck dots are seals. There were literally hundreds bobbing around in the rapids as we floated down. |
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We finally made it to our destination, the Flag Point Bridge. Well, actually, we missed the channel by about 4 miles but we found another span and set up our mascot to alert our pick up to our presence at the bridge. |
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And sure enough, he found us...."I'M SCOTT JOHNSON!..." |
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I'm Cold, Take Me Back to the Kennicott! |
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Sign the guestbook |
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