Sandbars and Twisting Rivers

Summer is officially here!!! It seemed like such a long time coming. This school year kicked my ass. Actually, it isn’t even entirely over. I still have to finish an online course that I need to stay employed next year, so it’s kind of important. But at least I can do that on my own time schedule and not have to wake up at 8am for it. So for now, I have no time constraints except those I’ve chosen to take upon myself. It’s a nice feeling.

One thing I’ve been wanting to do since the river ice broke up is get out on the river on someone’s boat. I don’t own one yet, that is an expense I might split with my roommate next summer. That means if I want to be out on the river I have to ask my friends who own a boat to take me out. On Monday, my friend Andrew had some free time so we decided to take his boat up river for the day. We didn’t have much of a plan; in fact we didn’t have any fishing gear so we could even catch something. Basically, I just wanted to be on the river so it was more exploratory than anything.

(Andrew on the till)

The trip started off a little rough. When we got to the boat harbor, we couldn’t find the boat. For a number of reasons, there are about 3 models of boats that most people use in Bethel. We didn’t know where his brother, who had last used it, parked it along the shoreline. That meant we had look for his flat-bottomed aluminum boat among all the others that look very much like his. Finally we found it and could begin our journey upriver.

(Barge travelling upriver somewhere)

(Fishcamps along Steamboat Slough)

(Fish racks for hanging salmon to dry)

We took off with his 30hp jet motor in search of an interesting stream or river to cruise. The nice thing about jet motors, the type used by jet-skies, is that they have a very shallow draft. His boat only needed 4-5 inches of water to travel so we could go up some pretty small channels. Right outside of town we took a shortcut through Steamboat slough. This slough is lined with old boats that have been abandoned, although there is one that still looks operational (last one in the video).

(The trusty jet motor with Kuskokwim River in background)

(Travelling on Steamboat Slough)

We decided to head up the Gweek River since the further up you go the more drastic the landscape changes, turning from willow line riverbanks to pines and birch trees. Eventually we passed where I had gone on my snowmachine so from then on it was an all new experience for me. Also, the main Kuskokwim river, while wide, is very shallow and so are all of its tributaries. It is extremely easy to hit shallow mud flats that often are exposed during low tide but are hidden under very shallow water during high tide. On the Gweek and other smaller rivers, it is necessary to drive your boat closer to the cut bank side of the river, particularly on curves, because on the other side is where sand bars form. Basically, you are trying to follow the deepest part of the river channel.

Pretty early on Andrew and I hit one of those sandbars. We were pretty surprised since his boat has such a shallow draft but when we looked over the side we were sitting in maybe 3 inches of water. We hopped out and tugged the boat off the sandbar. Unfortunately, when we started the motor up it wasn’t drawing water into the engine to cool it down. Somewhere along the water intake was clogged with mud. This was a major problem because that meant we could not run our motor at all. If we did the engine wouldn’t be cool enough and so we could blow a piston. We quickly drove to a solid river bank and began to figure out how to unclog the line. When we looked for some tools, the ones we needed were not in the boat so we had no way of really working on the thing. Eventually an older native couple from Akiachak drove by and stopped to help us. They whole family chuckled at two white boys who hit a sand bar and didn’t know how to unclog their own motor. Even the old woman knew exactly what to do. They showed us how to remove the mud clog, shared some of their wild rhubarb with us, and left us on our way.

We continued onward, this time being cautious to follow the river channel and not cut corners. Later we saw a beaver slink down into the river’s edge and then a female moose eating at the riverbank. When we approached a Y in the river, we decided to take the right fork. This it turned out was not the Gweek River anymore and, now having looked at the Topo map of the area, I realize now it actually doesn’t have a name. Perhaps the locals have a name for it but the U.S.G.S. does not. This river quickly reduced in width to a large stream. This made driving through it very fun because of all the tight quick turns. It was a blast just flying through such a narrow waterway. Since we were further upriver, that also meant there were actual trees so there were also obstacles to be avoided. Trees hung low over the water or had fallen in and were barely submerged. At one point, we came around a corner and spooked a snowy owl. It took off in flight and stayed right next to our heads for about 5 seconds before turning in toward the trees. It was crazy, I’ve never been that close to an owl before. I feel like I could have reached out and grabbed it.

(Offshoot of the Gweek River)

(Beaver dam under construction)

Eventually we turned around and headed back toward Bethel. On the way it started raining so that made it pretty cold. It still isn’t that warm up here so you cool down pretty fast when wet, plus rain stings when you’re going 30mph. However, one really cool thing came from being in a rainstorm. For the first time since I’ve lived in Bethel, I saw lightening. Two lightening bolts at that! I’m not sure why but Bethel never gets really hard rainstorms. It must all fall on the mountains before it reaches us, or something, I dunno. We seem to only get precipitation when there is a southernly wind. In any case, I was excited.

(Rainstorm in the distance)

That pretty much concludes the trip. We made it back to Bethel and had enjoyed ourselves for the day. Hopefully next time I'll be able to do some fishing and bring home king salmon.