The Eek River with Papa Bear Adventures

Quality intel is pretty scarce on the Eek River. However, it is rumored to be lacking in Rainbow Trout. When I say “lacking,” I mean none. I’ve spoke with Alaska Fish and Game; Fish and wildlife; and of course locals here in Bethel and no-one seems to know much. Through a mutual friend, we received a fishing report from a resident in the village of Eek, that they had in fact, caught Rainbows up the Eek River. It was this and of course the fact that no one knew anything about the Eek River that really peaked my curiosity. It was a big question mark that needed an answer. This intrigued me greatly and knew I just had to float the Eek, really just to settle my own curiosity. Maybe we’re sitting on a gold mine and don’t even know it! This river had been untouched for years. Maybe the Bows made a come back? So, it was settled. Seth, our hardworking dock hand, and I would embark on our adventure of knowledge, insight, and the rebirth of the mighty Eek River…..so we thought. Two knuckle heads looking to take the bull by the horns. Ready to prove the naysayers wrong and that Rainbow Trout do, in-fact, exist on the Eek River and in large numbers.

Oddly enough, the year of the “RONA” turned out to be the perfect time to float a remote river in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. 90 miles from nowhere and no one. No phones, no email, no internet, no social media, no news, you get the point. So, the plans were made and we were officially booked on the Eek for early July.

In true procrastination style, trip planning began a whopping 2 days prior to our departure. Breakfast burritos were pre-made, one for every morning, individually wrapped, and frozen solid. We loaded up on snacks from the AC. I promise you that nothing even remotely close to healthy was in that cart, but what the heck, vacation baby! Hunger was not gona to be an issue on this trip, that was for sure. The check-out price however, was less than desirable. Seth just had to have his milk. At 10 dollars a gallon, milk is probably the AC’s most extravagant splurge. Spirits where high with the thought of the unknown and our desire to succeed and prove that we had the skills and knowledge to find the sneaky little Rainbows that had been able to evade all those prior. We were pumped and carried that energy well into the trip.

The drop: The Eek River drop is a small postage stamp lake nestled at the base of the Sawtooth Mountains just prior to entering the Eek Valley from the West. As the pond is small, it is a “land heavy, take off light” lake. Our pilot, Arthur, dropped us off in spectacular fashion with a “smooth as silk” landing. As we were only two guys, our gear load was light and offloading only took a few minutes with 3 people, especially since Aaron and Seth had already taken a few loads to the slough earlier that day. We had the luxury of a generator and electric pump (one of the benefits of owning your own outfitting operation) so no hand pumping for these guys! Although we got a break on the raft, we still had the portage, or should I say “portages.” The first was from the drop pond to the beaver slough. It was roughly 400 feet. Not to bad, but just prior to the beaver slough, there was a very steep embankment that made carrying the larger heavier items rather difficult. After all the gear was portaged to the slough and the raft was inflated, we loaded all the gear in the middle of the raft and pushed the raft through the slough to the beaver dam. Here’s where the plural portion of “portages” comes to play. We had to unload the raft and portage all the gear about 20 feet, and reload the raft. We then pushed the raft another 200 feet to another dam that was located just adjacent to the river. It was only a 10 foot portage, but none the less, a pain in the butt as it was another “wax on, wax off” moment. It was at this time that I noticed that I was dripping sweat. The weather was high 50’s, light rain showers with about 2000 foot broken ceilings. We took a short break to catch our breath, hydrated up, then proceeded to load up the raft. We had fished the drop about a week prior, so we had planned to just “book it” as soon as we were loaded to get to a good camp spot and some new fishing areas to find them Rainbows baby! In true ADD fashion, we just couldn’t resist the temptation to throw in a few casts, so we decided to fish for a bit. I had just thrown my 3rd cast and looked up to see Seth struggling to say something while slowly stumbling backwards. My eyes looked to where he was pointing as he finally got out the words “WOLF!” There, not 20 feet in-front of Seth was a black wolf. The wolf spun around, ran 20 feet and turned around to do a double take at Seth, most likely sizing us up. He couldn’t figure out what the heck we were, but after a few seconds, he decided he wasn’t going to stick around to find out. A short time later, we found a small gravel bar that was a perfect spot for camp, so we quickly unloaded the raft and got set up. We were testing a new tent made by a company called Gazelle. It is a pop-up tent of surprisingly sturdy construction, especially when staked to the ground. It has two living compartments, both the same size. One is screened in, the other is sleeping quarters. It has a removeable floor that utilizes Velcro to secure it to the bottom of the tent. I was extremely impressed by the quality, and most importantly, ease of set up. It took Seth and I probably all of 45 seconds to pop up the tent, and another 4 minutes and 15 seconds to put the rain fly up and stake down the tent. I absolutely loved the tent, however, it has a one blaring issue that is unforgiveable. The rain fly is just to small and in the event of a serious Alaskan rain and blow, the living quarters would be a sea of mist and water droplets. Luckily the weather held, plus we brought a large tarp in the event of a storm. For this matter, I just could not recommend this tent for a hardcore Alaskan adventure. If Gazelle fixes that rain fly, that will be one heck of a tent for a float trip. Anyways, after we got camp set up, it was time for dinner. Our stomachs and impatience decided on something easy and tasty for dinner, jambalaya! It had been a long day up till that point as Seth and I had put in a days work, so sleep came easy and it was an early night. Rest was important since we were going to be catching so many Rainbows the next day…….

The next day: Surprise surprise, no Rainbows. “It’s ok, they’re not up this high.” “They’re on the lower section of the river.” “ We’ll run into them any day now.” This is what we kept telling ourselves to stay motivated. It was Seth’s row day, so I fished all day as he rowed. Seth powered through 5 hours of steady rowing. The fishing was great, if all you like to catch is Grayling. The river was quite small and technical from the drop to this point. Skinny river, sweepers, and lots of back rowing. We came to a split in the river and decided to go river left, which seemed to have a majority of the water and flow. As we continued, the river split two more times. As you can imagine, our concern increased with each split. Slowly moving around a bend, I looked to our right and noticed that there was a lot of water in the alder bushes and thought that was odd. Distracted by the odd water flow, I gazed forward and all I could see was log jam on all sides. I hollered for Seth to pull over which he promptly did so we could access what ever pickle we had gotten ourselves in. It was evident that the log jam was forcing the rest of the water into the alders to get to the braid on the other side. It looked as though we were going to be portaging…. again. Lucky for us, we found an open braid just wide enough to push the raft through and slowly guide it to the other braid. Success! Seth did a great job despite non-stop rowing. He is a drift boat guide back home, so his technical rowing skills are far superior to my style of “bumper boat” down the river. This was a stressful day full of un-knowns, but we made it through and called it an early day at camp two. It was a small spot located between the main river and an off channel. It was a beautiful spot with a great view. Mountains all around us, and the calming sound of running water. You couldn’t ask for a better spot. Camp was set up in record time and dinner was lamb chops, rice, and some veggies. We slept hard. Morning was a drag but was quickly forgotten with some hot breakfast and coffee. Camp was packed and loaded in double time as we were anxious to get moving. The river was still very technical and skinny at this point with lots of new channels and braids, which was nerve wracking as we didn’t want to go down the wrong channel and run out of water, especially after what happened earlier. There were so many turns and obstacles that I couldn’t even fish. That was day 3. However, our best camp spot of the entire trip was our reward, plus we finally made it out of all that technical water. Camp was right at the base of the hills, just prior to the flats. Good fishing ( of course, Grayling only) and hiking here and, as a reward for our hard work, 2 days of relaxing camping! From that point on the river was straight forward. The Grayling were being caught in such numbers that they began to get annoying. The Kings were very few, and when I say a few, I’m not kidding. A total of maybe 25 Kings were seen the whole trip. As we neared the pick up point, the river became slow and meandering. Pretty standard for most rivers in this area. Approaching the confluence of the main fork and the middle fork (locals call it the south fork) we immediately smelled a pungent fishy smell. It smelled like we should have floated the middle fork! After our pick up, we spoke to our local contact, and sure enough, all the good fishing, including Rainbows were up the MIDDLE FORK! A bit of information that might have been useful BEFORE the trip!! Oh well. It was still a great time with a great friend and now I have to float the middle fork. Yehaw!!