Floating and Bloating

Last weekend, we got invited on a spur of the moment rafting trip down the Chulitna river. We had quite a large group of Ethan's coworkers and friends, so we took 5 rafts. The scenery was beautiful and the company was interesting and hilarious.

The Chulitna is a pretty calm river that flows from the Alaska range into the Susitna, which then flows into the Cook Inlet. The water was pretty high, so it wasn't really a white water trip -- more of what Ethan calls a "float and bloat".

Here are some pictures from the trip.

This is our first night campsite. That blue thing in the front, my friends, is a portable hot tub. These guys travel in style!

This is a picture of my drunken husband in the hot tub. Later, he jumped in the ice cold river and nearly floated away. Fortunately, he's a strong swimmer. When I said the company was hilarious, I meant mostly him.

We floated on Sam's boat most of the way. The Chulitna can be tricky because it is glacially fed, so the water is grey and it is very difficult to tell where the shallow parts are. However, Sam was an awesome rafter and we only had to push the boat once or twice.

Another picture of the railroad trestle crossing Hurricane Gorge. If you look in the foreground, you can see where the clear waters of the creek mixing with the muddy grey Chulitna River.


Our campsite on the second night was a little more sparse.

However, it had an awesome view of Denali (aka Mt McKinley)!

This is the sight we woke up to the next morning.

The weather (and views) only improved. Behind us, you can see Denali, with Mt. Foraker and another peak in the background on the left. I'm not sure of the names of the non-snow-covered peaks in the foreground.

We made it back late Sunday evening, hot and tired. It was a blast. We ate too much, drank too much, and got way too much sun. Always a worthy way to spend a weekend!