Who Knew You Needed a Map to Kayak?

Today has been just plain awesome. When we woke at 5:45 am, I was surprised at how dark it was. We actually saw our first sunrise in Alaska.

On our morning walk, just one campsite over, we heard a rustle and saw a big, brown butt. We recognized it immediately as a moose. I backed up with Iris (moose aren’t fond of dogs). Mike sneaked forward and saw it was a sow with a calf. We detoured to a different path and continued our walk. On the way, back, we saw that the moose had moved and were breakfasting on the fireweed growing on the hill across from our Casita. Cool.

We decided to go kayaking and drove to the canoe trail on Swan Lake Rd. This is one of the places we had planned to visit even before arriving in Alaska. It is a series of lakes connected by short portage routes and with campsites at each lake. It’s supposed to be spectacular lake paddling, and it held up to its reputation. Before our trip, we decided not to backcountry camp because of Iris and we would need more gear. We slightly regretted that decision today. The weather was perfect, not just great, but perfect. There was no one else on the lakes with us. Even Iris seemed to enjoy the paddling adventure.

We met a guy at the canoe trailhead who planned to paddle in 4 lakes and camp by himself. He was from Anchorage and had been on the canoe trail about 50 times. He told us where the first portage area between lakes was located. He also asked if we had a map. We said “Yes”, because we had a diagram of the area in a book. I think a real map might have been helpful. Anyway, we explored the first lake and stopped at a place that ended up being a campsite. Then, we reoriented using our slightly-helpful diagram and found the trail to the next lake. The guy had told us there would be a water portage because the water level was high. We basically paddled our 12′ and 15′ kayaks through a flooded hiking trail. It was so awesome!! We grabbed trees and brush to help us navigate through it. We made it to the second lake, which was equally as beautiful. Again, we had the lake to ourselves. We found the portage trail to the next lake and stopped to let Iris swim. She went wild. She swam and ran around the area and had a great time. We decided not to continue to the third lake because it was a land portage that required hiking over maybe a quarter mile and our kayaks are heavy. We had a fantastic day.