Copper River Expedition, Alaska, 5th-9th September 2013

Andrej Matyas & Zuzana Becarova

I was always dreaming about running one of the rivers through Coastal Ranges in Alaska or BC. We have chosen the majestic Copper River with the put-in at Chitina, AK and take-out at the river delta near Cordova, AK. We were aiming for Copper because of relatively easy logistics, wilderness travel and easy grade of WW sections. The amount of information was very limited compared to other rivers that are run in more populated areas and we knew that the following factors will make this trip a real expedition:

·        -  large volume river

·         - ice cold glacial water

·         - one of the biggest salmon runs in world with heavy concentration of large brown bears

·         - no access to trails or roads

·         - unstable rainy coastal weather, heavy rains and winds in the area

·         - 1 kayak with 1 beginner kayaker and  1 experienced kayaker onboard, all gear in dry bags

·         - Approximately 160 km of paddling through Alaskan mountains

I fully understand that this trip is nothing like running the Stikine River (class V multiday trip) or climbing peaks in Himalayas.  However, with the combination of factors described above this trip became a real expedition. I have to admit I was never worried about the kayaking part as I am capable of running class IV water in hard boat. The major part I was still thinking about is that this is the real wilderness trip and there is no room for failure. You lose boat, you’re in deep trouble!

Day 1 – Windy and huge Copper River: Put in at Chitina, AK and we see first large tracks after brown bears. The river was at high level approximately at the spring/summer snowmelt  run-off with the decreasing trend and variable weather forecast for upcoming days. We saw salmon in water. Heavy winds hit instantly after put-in and we start to realize the size of the river after the confluence with Chitina River. Wood Canyon was very scenic and there was a fairly obvious line to avoid all eddie lines and whirpools. River is still enough wide and I would give it big volume WW2 at the water level we had. You just need to paddle well ahead when you decide to turn as the current is fast. First Brown Bear was having fun on left shore couple km after canyon and run away when he saw us. We camped just before dark on the beach on river left with a lot of bear tracks and a perfect animal trail in the forest/beach. Big mountains are all around and river is about 1km wide in front of us. Rain starts in the morning.

  

 Day 2 – Wet & Cold: Coastal weather hits with heavy rain and wind for the whole morning and the day we paddled. River widens to many channels and it is sometimes tricky to find the right way to avoid shallow parts. Cold and wet we are pitching the tent on the sandy beach well above the last high water mark from last days. Bear tracks in sand. 

 

We dig a hole all around tent to avoid the flooding under the floor, build a roof from tarp in the bush and quickly eat in the wet kayaking gear. Cold! Smaller tributary rivers and creeks were running crazy today. Brown or black water was rushing down the waterfalls. We expect river to rise but still think about the reserve the river should have because of the month of September and lower average levels. Water was rising continuously during the night, we had to move the gear and tent to higher ground at 1:00am at the night. We collected clear rain water to drink.

Day 3 – No Rain & Nervous Bear: Woke up to fairly good weather without rain, river dropped by morning. We see first seals that follow the salmon 100km inland. They were playing around our beach when we slept. You surely will think about Grizzly walking in the water – I bet you. We enjoyed relaxing float around the Bremner sand dunes area and were planning for a short day. I still felt we should run further as we had energy, good weather and enough day-light.  

We decided to run the river for only two more kilometers but the beach we wanted to camp on was occupied by very nervous bear. He was walking back and forth, scratching his back on ground with his feet up in the air. Zuzka did not feel like running the hardest part of the river after paddling for couple of hours. We ferried to the other side of river, watched the bear with binoculars for a bit and camped on a little grassy hill (1,5m high). The river is well under the mark from the last high water stage when we take out. The Baird canyon rapids are downstream and they sound like a jet aircraft. We pitched the tent and the water started to rise, heavy rain hits at night. I am starting to think that the river is gonna get higher again.

Day 4 - Waiting & Downtime: Rain calmed down and we woke up to see that the river went up rapidly, flooding the grassy and bushy parts of the shore. Rapids sound louder. We have planned the trip for 5 days as a back-up. We are deciding to stay until afternoon and run canyon and Abercrombie rapids with camp at the Miles Lake. However this never happened because water level was still rising and we hoped it would drop during the night. We watched the barometer every 30 minutes with positive thinking. The pressure was constantly rising which was good news. We both knew the river is running to us from hundreds of kilometers from Wrangell Mountains, maybe picking up the heavy rain. We were hoping the storm had a more local character. At night, we heard steps in water or the salmon splashing water around the tent in shallow water. I went out to check if it is a grizzly but I could see nothing. Zuzka stayed up for an hour and she listened to the sounds of nature being a little bit nervous about bears this night. I tried to think it is just salmon and really trying to have a sleep before Day 5 on the Copper.

Day 5 – Flood & Ice: We woke up to the highest flood stage of Copper River of the last 5 years (possibly even longer as I was only able to retrieve the data for the past 5 years) with our tent being on a little island. I had to walk in the water to take our bear resistant containers and take food in dry bag from the tree. With water rising for more than 24 hours and not stopping we are deciding to run the Baird Canyon &Abercrombie Rapids as we are technically on easy river with no hard WW sections.

 I knew that once we hit the current to the canyon we will have to react very fast to avoid possible harder rapids and that there is no chance to stop anywhere. The water was massive and I was trying to motivate Zuzka so she is not scared of big waves and white water. The current speeds were pretty dramatic but we ran the canyon smoothly with avoiding most of the WW and dangerous sections. Since I woke up I kept reminding myself that “We are running flood-stage river far away and this day needs my full concentration, skills and experience I gained during the past years in backcountry”. 

When approaching the Abercrombie rapids the sound was very powerful. One of the river guides I read said the right side of the river where we needed to scout the rapid is often occupied by 10 and more bears fishing for salmon in shallow water. We were lucky there was no bear and we were able to eddie out on the river right with water reaching the trees. I saw the Skookomchuck narrows in BC and what I see now in front of me is not really different. Millions of gallons of water are running about 30-40kmh and creating a huge wave train on the river left with continuous current for about 500m. The scouting is hard as we have to pass thick bush and flooded ground. 

There were 3 possible easy to run lines. One with center right punching through one pulsing wave in main current with the risk of screwing up the initial eddie-out and ferry to the current. In case of failure this would send us to big WW waves and hole on river right. Second option is the river right close to boulders and shore with avoiding the hole by precise line in medium water flows. The risk is hidden rocks and possible screw up of running the rapid. We are still talking about easy WW2-3 rapids but with the huge consequences of wilderness travel and big water swims in glacial water. I have decided to eliminate risks and we run the right side “creeky” style section between boulders with one section where we had to take off and slide kayak through one rock we were not able to pass. A small WW section opened our way to slower current on river right. 

When we arrived to the point about 350m from the rapid entry I could not believe what I saw. The whole river is in massive circuit and there is no way to cross the eddie current that was easily reaching 15kmh sending all water back to huge boils and whirpools by main current. The only way out of this trap is to paddle upstream for about 200m, ferry through main current and hopefully find a way to eddie out left without scary eddie lines. The amount of water was incredibly large and the boils, eddie lines and whirpools can be super powerful and unpredictable. The pictures from running such deep and high volume water are not as impressive as a kayaker hitting a 15footer somewhere on steep creek but the danger is sometimes much higher. There are no swims allowed while ferry across this fast, wide and deep current. We did well with couple of big waves hitting Zuzka in the front of the kayak. We successfully eddied out to Miles Lake on left of the main current which I realized was the biggest amount of moving water I have ever run in my life.

The entry to rapid on the side of 100m tall Childs Glacier wall touching the river is impressive as there are icebergs from Miles Lake in size of the smaller family houses being carried in the water. We stayed out of all this mess of ice and debris and paddled on river left being amazed by the glacier. Important thing was to paddle fast to reduce the risk of tsunami wave from calving glacier. The river got shallower and the silt in water carried at the river bottom was so loud that we thought our inflatable kayak just got puncture and we are losing air from the floor. We stopped to check after we passed highly eroded river bank with the dirt constantly falling to the river.  

The river is now entering the Copper River Delta and getting wider and shallower what is creating decent size waves, however with predictable rapids that are much safer than deep water eddie lines at Abercrombie and Baird Canyon. The icebergs are sometimes stuck on ground creating eddies like regular boulders, we are floating down the open wide river navigating between ice chunks. Our take out is on closed and damaged bridge 339 and the last tricky part is to hit the right channel. It would not be fun to miss the take out at Copper River HGW and being flushed to Gulf of Alaska. This is almost impossible as you have to cross one of the bridges, but talking theoretically you would be in real trouble. Tides here are a couple of meters high and the ocean tidal mud flats are dangerous place to stuck in. The last thing we needed to achieve was to take out on bridge 339 or west of it. When I saw the bridge I finally relaxed my mind because this was a hard day on the river. We were very happy to take out and had just enough of the rain and cold.

Later I found out that we ran the river at flows between 300000-350000 cfs which is more than three times the Niagara River at Niagara Falls or high stage of the famous Zambezi river in Africa. We are one of the few people on planet Earth running the Copper River at this water level. Alone. On the kayak.

Thank you Zuzka for being there with me! You are the best!

Thank you Juraj and Jardo for pick-up and place to sleep in Cordova!

Thank you Alaska for being up there, stay wild.

SAFETY REMINDER:

It is recommended not to push your limits when on wilderness trip. Always have a reserve in your WW&backcountry skills while being on multi-day trips. Our situation on flood-stage river could easily send in-experienced paddlers and backcountry travelers to life threatening situation.

 (for our safety on river, we carried PLB transceiver, GPS for navigating to bridge 339, bear spray, bear resistant containers, first aid kit, water filter, emergency aluminum  blanket, extra food, map, liquid fire starter, kayak repair kit, spare paddle, duct tape, extra batteries etc)