The story of a long weekend in Alaska. Should be enough to whet your appetite but not quite enough to obviate your own research before embarking on it. The Tangle Lakes - Delta River, a National Wild and Scenic River, is one the classic interior canoe routes in Alaska. It's got a bit of everything, as you shall see, can be paddled in a long weekend, is suitable for relative beginners, but at their own peril, as you shall also see.
The drive from Anchorage, to the BLM campground at the put in, disgorging gear then running the shuttle takes a full day.
We stopped and checked out the old Paxson Road House where the Denalli Highway peels west off the Richardson Highway. Its for sale ..... needs some work.
I'm not a purist and was paddling my royalex Bell Wildfire seated with a double blade on this trip. It really helped with the headwinds and I am an ace kayaker so was nicely mobile in the rapids. Next time I will bring a spare single blade along just because I prefer kneeling with a single blade on the river. Oh, and I need to raise the seat up an inch or so to fit my wading boots underneath. Much of the time I paddle in heavy duty Orvis wading pants and boots. While dry suits are quite common because the water is usually ice cold, most of this trip was not on a glacial river and I was quite comfortable along the way.
The first leg is across several of the Tangle Lakes. The winds were out of the north so we faced a pretty stiff headwind, not unexpected, though the lakes are not really large enough or with enough fetch for the waves to build. It can still be a grunt. Typical mid-July mixed weather, never really know what is coming next.
The Tangle Lakes are clearwater, tannin colored, and surrounded by mountains. This is a mid-lake island I stopped on to wait for the rest of the crew to catch up. Solo with a sleek boat and a double blade I usually powered ahead.
Of course we got rained on two minutes after this photo of us eating lunch on the tundra. A pretty good squall blew through making the run down the second and third lakes even more of a grunt. This is all old glaciated terrain that has been inhabited by Natives for eons. It is rich in berries, fish, and caribou. From what I could tell the very shallow channels connecting the lakes run over ancient terminal moraines. They are pretty wide and the current is faint but as the bottom comes up you can see the grass waving slowly.
Scouting for a camp at the end of the final lake was a comedy. We were tired and just a bit raggedy but at least plenty warm. "Hey, this one isn't too bad, we can shoehorn the tents in between all these willows and alders" "Well, over here it is kind of flat amidst the hummocks, and not too muddy" all the while I kept pointing across the lake at a bush on an obvious flat gravel bench, probably another moraine or old beach terrace, 1/4 mile off and 80' above the water. "I'm going there". Nobody followed ..... until I hiked up and hollered "This is it!" I'm a big fan of floorless pyramid tents. This is my Bearpaw Wilderness Design Luna 4. Yep, you got that right, a 4 person tent and I paddle solo ..... It does have perimeter bug netting and a screen door and still only weighs about 3.5 pounds, all in, ready to pitch. Since I called it, was there first, and had my gear unshipped and humped up the bluff already, my penance was to help schlep many more loads up the hill.
Well, happy to say I called it right. The evening view from the bluff camp. You can see the Delta River as it leaves the last of the lakes and starts dropping towards its canyon.
The light, this is why I love Alaska, the light.
The drive from Anchorage, to the BLM campground at the put in, disgorging gear then running the shuttle takes a full day.
We stopped and checked out the old Paxson Road House where the Denalli Highway peels west off the Richardson Highway. Its for sale ..... needs some work.
I'm not a purist and was paddling my royalex Bell Wildfire seated with a double blade on this trip. It really helped with the headwinds and I am an ace kayaker so was nicely mobile in the rapids. Next time I will bring a spare single blade along just because I prefer kneeling with a single blade on the river. Oh, and I need to raise the seat up an inch or so to fit my wading boots underneath. Much of the time I paddle in heavy duty Orvis wading pants and boots. While dry suits are quite common because the water is usually ice cold, most of this trip was not on a glacial river and I was quite comfortable along the way.
The first leg is across several of the Tangle Lakes. The winds were out of the north so we faced a pretty stiff headwind, not unexpected, though the lakes are not really large enough or with enough fetch for the waves to build. It can still be a grunt. Typical mid-July mixed weather, never really know what is coming next.
The Tangle Lakes are clearwater, tannin colored, and surrounded by mountains. This is a mid-lake island I stopped on to wait for the rest of the crew to catch up. Solo with a sleek boat and a double blade I usually powered ahead.
Of course we got rained on two minutes after this photo of us eating lunch on the tundra. A pretty good squall blew through making the run down the second and third lakes even more of a grunt. This is all old glaciated terrain that has been inhabited by Natives for eons. It is rich in berries, fish, and caribou. From what I could tell the very shallow channels connecting the lakes run over ancient terminal moraines. They are pretty wide and the current is faint but as the bottom comes up you can see the grass waving slowly.
Scouting for a camp at the end of the final lake was a comedy. We were tired and just a bit raggedy but at least plenty warm. "Hey, this one isn't too bad, we can shoehorn the tents in between all these willows and alders" "Well, over here it is kind of flat amidst the hummocks, and not too muddy" all the while I kept pointing across the lake at a bush on an obvious flat gravel bench, probably another moraine or old beach terrace, 1/4 mile off and 80' above the water. "I'm going there". Nobody followed ..... until I hiked up and hollered "This is it!" I'm a big fan of floorless pyramid tents. This is my Bearpaw Wilderness Design Luna 4. Yep, you got that right, a 4 person tent and I paddle solo ..... It does have perimeter bug netting and a screen door and still only weighs about 3.5 pounds, all in, ready to pitch. Since I called it, was there first, and had my gear unshipped and humped up the bluff already, my penance was to help schlep many more loads up the hill.
Well, happy to say I called it right. The evening view from the bluff camp. You can see the Delta River as it leaves the last of the lakes and starts dropping towards its canyon.
The light, this is why I love Alaska, the light.
Attachments
Last edited:
