Alaska 2008: 6. The Copper River

Route of flight: PAOR-TSG-PAGK , PAGK-CKU

June 10, 2008

From Northway we headed towards Gulkana. This route wound up through Mentasta Pass between the east end of the Alaska Range and the north end of the Wrangell Mountains. Throughout the day cumulonimbus clouds had been building and as evening wore on they were starting to mature into storm cells busting loose all around us. The FSS had pilot reports of low visibility and scattered storm cells in some areas of the pass, but clearing on the other side. All we had to do was get there.

We were pretty happy with following the road – sure made navigation easy – and planned to head north to Tok and then turn south west into the pass. Unfortunately there was a big cell just dumping out over Tok and we had to divert around to the north. The cell was slow moving (actually it was pretty much stationary) and it appeared to be blocking our path to the pass, so we put down in Tanacross to consider our options.

Our options were limited. We had just enough fuel to get to Gulkana, and that was cutting into our reserve. The airport fuel pump was broken in Northway and we weren’t set up to strain fuel out of 5-gallon jugs. That storm cell parked over Tok wasn’t letting us in anytime soon. We decided to take the time on the ground to let our fuel pumps crank every last drop of fuel from our tip tanks to our mains. We took a walk around the airport in the drizzle and checked out what appeared to be the base for firefighting operations. As we thought and rethought our options, the skies gradually lightened in the pass and we got a favorable pilot’s report of the
conditions there. We decided to go to Gulkana.

Mentasta Pass

In the air, we caught up with the cub guys – they’d taken a shortcut to the south of that cell at Tok, cutting across Tetlin Lake and beat us into the pass while we were on the ground at Tanacross. We climbed and wound our way into the pass – the Alaskan and Wrangell ranges unfolding on both sides and climbing into the clouds. Storm cells continued to break out here and there leaving rainbows in their wake. The pass widened into a wide plain dominated by Mt. Wrangell to the south east. The headwaters of the Copper River were out there somewhere and we followed the road until it intercepted the river.

Mt. Wrangel towers above the Copper River

It was a mildly puckery flight, given our low fuel, the low clouds and the windy pass, so even though it was stunningly beautiful we didn't really have the wherewithal to take photos to share. We made it to Gulkana with 6 gallons of fuel remaining – less than 30 minutes, and well below our usual reserve.

After fueling up, we tried to figure out where to camp for the night and thought we’d head down the Copper towards Chitina. Cordova was on our list of places to see, so we thought we’d head in that direction.

Chitina airstrip on the Copper River

From the air it looked like fog was forming along the river. It wasn't until we were descending that we realized that it wasn't fog, it was dust that was clouding the air. The wind was howling 40mph up river carrying silt from the river, lowering visibility, creating turbulence and generally making for an interesting landing at Chitina. It was around 9:00pm when we pulled off the gravel strip. We had a snack and looked around and finally determined that this was not going to be a good night’s sleep for anyone. So, despite the hour we headed back to Gulkana and pitched tents by the tarmac for the night.

It was 11:00pm when we got back – though none of us had any idea it had gotten so late – it looked barely evening in the sky. I stayed awake just long enough to eat some dinner, but the guys were up until the wee hours seemingly not needing to sleep.

dinner at 11:00 pm - not dark yet

The Copper River

The next morning we headed down the Copper River through the Chugach range to Cordova. Cordova was 240 miles and no fuel stops along the way.

The weather sounded stable where we were; high overcast with cumulus clouds developing throughout the afternoon. It sounded like coastal conditions might be a bit wetter – lower ceilings and some rain showers.

We topped off the tanks and headed down river. The Copper River has carved a canyon about 200’ deep through the soft soil. It’s fed from the glaciers in the Wrangell, St. Elias and Chugach ranges and is one of the siltiest rivers on earth.

Copper River cuts between the Chugach and St. Elias Ranges

This river is one of the best marketed wild salmon fisheries in Alaska. Every year folks shell out serious cash for fillets from the first run of Copper River King Salmon. Looking at the river, I couldn’t figure out how fish could even swim up that thing – much less taste as good as they do. Seriously, those fish have to swim up river in water you can’t see your own toes in.

glacial silt clouds the Copper River

Periodically, they have to rest in clearwater tributaries in order to clean the gunk from their gills. They continue on upstream repeating the process again and again for hundreds of miles.

As the Copper River turned into the Chugach, the last of the dirt roads came to an end. At this point the terrain became too steep for a road as the mountains just dropped into the river.

Chugach range

The ceiling started to fill in above us too as we started to make our way towards the coast. In the middle of the mountain range, we came to the confluence of the Copper, the Tasnuna and Bremner rivers, and the whole world seemed to open up below us. Here was a great valley of braided rivers, filled with sand bars, and fed by a dozen glaciers falling down out of the mountains.

Confluence of Copper, Tasnuna and Bremner rivers

Had we not been flying the sight would have stopped us dead in our tracks. Where moments before we’d been winding through a tight river valley, now the land spread out for miles in every direction corralled by mountains on every side.

The water became sea green reflecting light bouncing off of the icebergs. If we’d had endless fuel, we could have circled for hours. If we’d had endless time, we could have landed and camped, hiked and fished for days.

Allen Glacier

icebergs from the Allen Glacier

As it was, we had neither of those things and so we continued on to the coast. We passed the Million Dollar Bridge and the Childs Glacier as we exited the mountains and entered the river delta.

Million Dollar Bridge and Childs Glacier

A marine layer stretched from the Gulf of Alaska lowering the skies over the river delta. We were pushed down to around 1500' AGL and the visibility deteriorated to 5 miles amidst rain and mist.

Low ceilings at the Copper River delta

Tidal plains at the Gulf of Alaska

We’d originally planned to find the road from the million-dollar bridge and follow it into Cordova. The road disappeared into rain-induced fog. So that idea was out. Sure, we could have maybe found our way there through 3-mile visibility using those fancy GPS displays, but we wouldn’t have enjoyed doing it.

We picked our way across the delta, looking for options. Toward the open water the visibility improved. We quickly came up with a couple back up plans. We could see Montague Island and we knew there were three landing strips there – so that was our first backup. We decided to fly out along the coastline and see if we could work our way up into Prince William Sound along the shoreline. If that worked, we might be able to land at the little strip in town at Cordova. There may or may not be fuel there, but at least we could have lunch and figure out our next move.

Here’s Cordova and the little gravel strip next to the lake that was such a welcome sight.