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Wild water: A trip down an Alaska river will leave rafters cheering

By SONYA SENKOWSKY
Daily News correspondent

Published: April 21st, 2005
Last Modified: November 8th, 2005 at 07:54 AM

On your first Alaska river rafting adventure? There's more than one way to get your white water. River guide Bill Overington, a co-owner of Denali Outdoor Center in Denali National Park, explained the basic options:

"Paddle rafting" is a team effort. In a small inflatable raft, helmeted passengers help direct the boat in response to the commands yelled out by a guide in back -- "often at the top of their lungs, screaming over the roar of the rapids."

This, Overington said, "tends to be a more aggressive approach," with the helmets passengers are issued more likely to protect from a paddle-whacking than from any submerged danger. Military guys are among those who seem to really get into it.

"It's yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go, go!" Overington said.

Then there's the somewhat more sedate sport of "oar rafting," where the guide, equipped with oars in oarlocks, is in charge of the boat. A popular choice for families or mixed-age groups, all passengers need do is enjoy the ride, though some tours go through more exciting rapids than others.

"In an oar raft, people sit and relax and converse, and the guide has more of an opportunity to narrate what's going on," Overington said. "It's more of an interpretive type experience."

Day tours, a good choice for the beginner, range in length from two to eight hours, depending on the outfitter and location, for paddle and oar options. Denali Outdoor Center prices start around $70 ($55 for children) for a two-hour adventure.

Rafting is more than just a thrill ride in Alaska. To this day, it remains a legitimate means of transportation in a state where much land is not reachable by road, said Bob Nanney, member and former president of the nonprofit boating safety group, Knik Canoers and Kayakers. "People use rafts to take them to places that are inaccessible for fishing," said Nanney, a former river guide. "Some people just take rafts because they can avoid the bank battles."

As for white water, Nanney said, "it takes you to the same places," but with a kick: "If you like roller coasters, you like white water." Now that he's 70, he said, he doesn't get into it as much as when he was younger, but he doesn't shy away from it either.

"White water is a tremendous rush," he said. The range of white-water intensity on a given river is measured by a scale from I (easy) to VI (extreme).

Even experienced boaters will find benefits in seeking out a guide, at least the first time they face Alaska's frigid, challenging waters, said George Heim, owner of Alaska River Adventures and a 27-year Alaska river guiding veteran.

"I always go out with a guide when I go someplace new," Heim said. "And I look for a guide who's been there a long time. I look for people who of course are insured and all that and have lots of good equipment.

"If you've got a week and you're going to go out in the wilderness, then you're looking for a different sort of guide than for a three-hour wild ride down the Nenana," Heim said. "Figure out what's a good trip for you. Keep your own goals in mind."

In addition to days-long "wilderness tours," Alaska River Adventures offers a three-hour scenic float of the Upper Kenai River for $49 as well as a day-long "paddle-saddle" tour involving gold panning and a ride on horseback at $159 per person.

Be aware that even the shortest, calmest river trip holds potential for danger, particularly in Alaska's glacier-fed rivers. In recognition of the dangers of hypothermia, many Alaska guides swear by special dry suits, worn over layers of clothing, rather than the raincoats or more casual attire favored in warmer locales.

"The thing that most people don't really click in on is being safe up here is so different from being safe in California," Heim said. "Up here, the water's cold, and if Murphy's law kicks in and it's a nasty day, you've got trouble and you've got it in a hurry. If you flip your boat or lose your boat, you're not walking out to the road, and you can have hypothermia problems in a big hurry. And there are other things people aren't used to dealing with up here in terms of wildlife."

Among the cautions Heim takes are an extra fanny-pack emergency kit and a hand-held radio like those that pilots carry, with all the frequencies of surrounding airports on hand. "I've never had to use that," he said, but he did once need to tend to a badly cut hand two days from the end of a multiday raft trip.

On any trip into the wild, there are no guarantees of safety. But devotees say the experience of being on the river is worth a measured risk.

"You will experience that area in a very different way from any other experience you might have," Overington said. "You will see things you otherwise would not see -- and you just get a sense of being a part of the place.

"Rivers take you places you otherwise wouldn't go."

Freelance writer Sonya Senkowsky lives in Anchorage.