2008 Tatshenshini Trip

[milkman]

I've been way slow on putting this video together, partly because one of the group created a great hour-plus long narrated video of the trip. But I've been wanting to get something up on YouTube that showed more the canoe side of the trip. "Video" is a bit overstating this effort--it's mostly pictures, but there are some cool shots of the first day in the canyon where the serious whitewater is. This was an amazing trip because we really lucked out on the weather as the video will show and got to really see the country up there. I only show three of the bears we saw, but the official count was 21.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T6z8A3PP9Y

[kabuki_blaze]

That looks like an amazing trip, thanks for sharing.

What time of the year did you go?

[milkman]

First two weeks of August. Flow was 2600 cfs at the put-in. When the Alsek River joins the Tat, you're paddling 80,000 cfs.

[kabuki_blaze]

First two weeks of August. Flow was 2600 cfs at the put-in. When the Alsek River joins the Tat, you're paddling 80,000 cfs.

Thanks! Again, what a awesome trip, I am dying to get out west on wilderness multi-week canoe run. I tried to get permits for several areas last year, but failed.

Do you have any good resources or a detailed trip report for this trip?

Thanks, I am very inspired...

[milkman]

For the Tat, hunt down this book: The Complete Guide to the Tatshenshini River: Including the Upper Alsek River (The book is by some very experienced raft guides and they tell you not to paddle the Tat in canoes. If you're a solid Class 3+ paddler you can. The difficult thing is getting a canoe to the put-in and then out of the take-out (you can only fly out--we rented a great big plane so we could fly out the canoes and rafts at the cost of about $5500 split between 14 people.).

Also Laurel Archer has a chapter on the Tat that is quite detailed in her new book. See: http://rmbooks.com/book_details.php?isb ... 1926855042 I helped proof it. She paddled it in folding canoes (pakboats).

The difficult thing is getting a permit. I was lucky and a good friend (the guy in the IK) got one and invited me and several other canoeists along.

[cadster]

This isn’t a good trip for a hard boat.

Speed or maneuverability aren't needed to enjoy the river. The expense of flying a boat that need lots of space makes using an inflatable much more desirable.

[milkman]

All the canoeists on this trip would disagree with you. There were lots of fun sections where the manueverability of canoes made it more fun. The canyon on the first day is class 4 whitewater and a real kick. When it got windy, I was glad I was in a canoe and not a raft. What's more, when the river channelized, being in a canoe made it easier to make moves to the draining channels. Even the last day had some big class 3 rapids that were fun to run in a canoe.

No matter what, you're going to have to fly out. For a group of 14 that meant 3 small planes or the one big plane that we rented. Cost was about the same.

There was one risk we took. Small planes could land in weather the big plane couldn't. We had agreed that if we were socked in three days, the canoeists would abandon their canoes and just fly out. Fortunately that didn't happen.

[cadster]

The current is consistently fast except for the few miles across Alsek Lake. It has to average 5 to 6 mph.

The whitewater experience on the Tat/Alsek isn't comparable to an y of the Idaho multiday trips.

Here's our inflatable:

[Paddle Power]

One look at the video and I want to be in a CANOE!

[jscottl67]

Very nice!