Tazlina River Raft Trip

This past week I went on an 80 mile raft trip down the Little Nelchina and Tazlina rivers with one of my good friends, Paul.  This is a trip I have been wanting to do for quite some time, and it didn't disappoint.  The action started off really fast from the put in on the Little Nelchina.  This river traditionally is consided a slow, easy, and sometimes draggy little river that must be floated down to get to the larger tributaries of the Tazlina.  This was NOT the case when we floated it!  Due to heavy rains and snow melt, the river was at action flood stage, several feet above normal flows.  As you can see in the picture below, water was flowing over the bank and through the bushes in places.  This made the start of the trip quite exciting and created a number of Class -III holes and waves in the first three mile.

 After floating down the Little Nelchina for five miles, we entered the Nelchina river.  The Nelchina is quite a bit larger and absorbed all the extra flow the Little Nel and things settled down significantly.  The views were great and every sand bar we stopped on had bear, wolf, or coyote tracks.

Near the end of the first day we started to get close to Tazlina Lake and its surrounding mountains in the distance.  All throughout the trip there were large bluffs along the river that made it an interesting float.  We saw many raptors (hawks and falcons) along our trip and they were often flying along the upper bluffs.

 Once we reached the river we pulled out our 9.9 hp motor we brought with us and attached it to the motor mount we had borrowed.  The lake was the color of Kenai Lake and didn't seem to become very tainted by the massive amount of silt flowing in from the Nelchina.  Although it was quite breezy, the views were stellar and it was fun to be seeing a new place. 

To finish up a long day, we motored a few miles down the lake and set up camp near a large stream.  We found a place to get out of the wind and enjoyed having a good meal.  The sun came out and made it a very nice evening.  We caught several trout in the creek, called for predators and had a hawk dive bomb us, and then hit the sack.  It was a long day, considering we drove up from Anchorage and floated about 28 miles down the river!

Leaving the lake and starting to float down the Tazlina the next morning.  At the exit of the lake there is a rapid classified as III, but it seemed a little tame as we floated through it.

Shortly after leaving the lake we stopped at another creek flowing into the Tazlina and fished for reds.  Were able to catch several and kept one for dinner that night.  Near the fishing spot there was a multitude of wild chives growing and we picked a bunch that we latter used that night to garnish our stuffing and salmon.

Floating down lower in the Tazlina.

 Campsite the second night.

The take out at the Richardson Highway, 80 river/lake miles from where we started three days earlier.