Town of Glenallen/River of Gulkana

As I stir, completely unaware of what time it is, I'm greeted with reluctant begrudging muscles. Sore in new and unique places, I'm reminded just how physical the past two days have been. All things considered, the workout on top of the sun exposure yesterday has surely drained me, but I made a respectable number of miles of progress towards Glenallen before calling it a night. I'm within 100 miles of my destination. For Alaska, and the distances I've grown used to covering, that's not bad at all. And The morning view of a not too distant glacier in the valley below me is a welcome sight to wake to.

At this point I don't have real solidified plans with Carson, as the original ones were loose to begin with and upturned by my delayed return from Clear creek. Looking at my watch, it still early. With the sunlight as an unreliable guide for time, my sleep and wake cycles have been all over. Feeling its a bit too early to bug my friend, I head a bit south of his town to a big visitor center for the huge local park, the Wrangell-St Elias. I'm hoping for a bit of information from the rangers there about local rivers as well as potential hikes. It turns out to be a more valuable source of sun soaked asphalt. Their large, empty parking lot that appears to cater mostly to giant tour buses. serves as a perfect space to lay out all my gear and get it all properly dried out.

Once dry and inside, it quickly becomes clear that the ranger there isn’t a boater herself, she’s got a little information, but no maps. She strongly cautions me against getting on the water here, as it is dangerously high due to the heatwave causing increased melt. I take the printouts she’s got and head back to the van to make some lunch. Its here that Carson and I make a solid plan to float the Gulkana river with a couple of his buddies. We meet at the central crossroads of Glenallen and our three vehicles convoy up the road a bit to pick up a raft he is renting for the day’s adventure. Just at the pull in for the rentals, we come upon a roadside accident on the left. A mini cooper has rear ended a trailer, completely mangling the trailer into a tangled metal mess. The mini is surprisingly little damaged and everyone appears OK. Turns out, that trailer belonged to the raft rental guy and was now utterly destroyed and the owner is just sorting out the aftermath. That was the trailer he was going to run our shuttle with... Hmm.

Carson and I pick up right where it seems we left off at the old college outdoor program's rafting trips and, with the permission of the owner, toss the raft up on top of my van and strap it down while grabbing a few paddles and pfd’s. Its muscle memory for the two of us, and it feels good to be back in our old rhythm so easily.

The trip is really a casual float, and the Gulkana is low. It’s also strangely warm, but that makes it wonderful to swim in, which we do often. Although not an adrenaline soaked run, any day on the water is a good day to me, and it was good to catch up with Carson, his wife Amanda and their friends. They cook up some tasty caribou burgers for dinner and we swap some stories of our lives the past decade or so. I’m immediately made to feel at home in their little Alaskan homestead. It is exactly the relaxation I needed after so many miles on the road and a somewhat harrowing past couple days. We make plans to run some bigger water tomorrow and retire to bed. I even got to take a real shower! Talk about luxury.