PLAYING IT SAFE IN CANOES
Fred Dyson – Dyson's Starboard View – Messing About in Boats
Rivers are graded by difficulty, and you should check a river's rating before you push off into it.
In simple terms, a Class I river is a float trip; you can just float along and your life and property won't be threatened. A Class II river requires some maneuvering to stay out of trouble. A Class III river requires very effective maneuvers to avoid obstacles and negotiate rough stretches of the river. Class IV rivers require decked canoes and expert white water canoeists or participants whose hat size exceeds their IQ. Class V and above are beyond my kind and are equivalent to a rock garden with a lawn sprinkler running in the vicinity.
Most of the rivers in Southcentral Alaska have published guides that will tell you all you need to know about the trip you want to take. If you don't have a guide, then talk to some people who have made the trip.
United States Geological Survey topographical maps are helpful. Pay particular attention to the gradient, or steepness, of the river or stream. If the river crosses elevation lines that are close together, watch out. Also, when a fat stream gets skinny it generally gets fast. In addition, think about what seasonal water flow rates do to a waterway. Docile streams become raging torrents during the spring run-off and some streams nearly dry up in the fall.
You should try to learn to read a river, and be able to get an idea of what is coming. All Alaskan rivers and streams are ambitious meanderers. They are continually cutting away at their banks on the outside of the comers. This erosion process causes trees on the bank to fall into the river. These become universally dreaded "sweepers." River runners are constantly fighting to get their boats to the inside of comers of the river to avoid the sweepers hanging from the outside bank.
Which reminds me of the day Koala Bear skipped across the water.
Several years ago, a wild and crazy friend of mine from Berkeley, named Koala Bear, came to Alaska for a visit. He announced that he wanted to "get in touch with the wild." I had a couple of good friends who were about to go on a long canoe trip on the Gulkana River, and I persuaded them to take Koala Bear along. That was a mistake.
My friends were overmatched by the river in its spring rampage, and the three adventurers ended up hanging on to their swamped canoes as they were pounded over miles of rocks and rapids. They lost much of their gear and food. They spent hours trying to dry out their clothes and sleeping bags over campfires in the rain. They went without food, mosquito dope, and hope for days on end. My Alaskan friends laughed about it. Koala Bear was not amused.
This desperate debacle reached the apex of its absurdity when they were swept into sweepers on the outside of a bend in the river. The bow paddler, who is now a prominent Anchorage physician, was able to bend low and duck under the protruding branches of the sweeper. Alas, Koala Bear's still-generous belly precluded his using a similar strategy. As he ducked down, a branch of the sweeper went under his life jacket at the back of his neck.
Koala Bear felt the irresistible grasp of the sweeper and clung to the gunnels of the canoe with a strength born of a great fear. The river's pull was powerful. The sweeper bent under the combined inertia of the weighty Koala Bear and the loaded canoe. When Koala Bear finally could hold on no longer, the tremendous leverage of the bent sweeper threw him upstream. My doctor friend is a man of honor and he steadfastly maintains that Koala Bear skipped three times on his brief airborne flight. Regardless of the number of skips, the good doctor laughed so hard that he fell out of the canoe.
Again Koala Bear was not amused. He did not speak to his companions during the rest of the trip. When they arrived in Anchorage, he went immediately to the airport and boarded the first flight south in his still dripping clothes. I never heard from him again.
Be ye fairly warned: sweepers can be dangerous to your health and dignity.
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