chugach ress: Russian River Ride-n-Raft

So some friends of ours had enough foresight to reserve the Upper Russian and Aspen Flats cabins on a late June weekend and invited us to join them. These cabins are hard to come by in the summer, we had never been in that area, and with the frequency that mountain biking it popped up in Dante's blog this season it was a no-brainer. We packed up Friday evening after work and headed down to the Snug-Harbor road TH with the plan to bike into Upper Russian Lake for the first night, about 9 miles.
The weather was perfect and we were soon enjoying the beautiful ride in. We made good time on the trail and were soon at the cabin. It was surprisingly ride-able considering we had 2 nights and 2 days-worth of gear/food with us. It wasn't so technical that we couldn't take in the scenery which included a variety of forest and vegetation, high-mountain valley/pass views, low/wetland areas, and the interspersed lakes. The cabin looked brand new and had a row-boat, fishing poles, nice chairs on the deck, and a small creek running right next to it allowed for convenient water access. I also appreciate the cabin info folder with a log and maps for reading material, some people's entries are interesting to read about.

Upper Russian Summer Sunset

We tried our hand at fishing, successfully catching a trout from the boat and then we rowed to the mouth of the Russian River where salmon were jumping and swimming up into the lake: so many this far up. It was incredible to see. Then we cashed for the night. The next morning we tried fishing again, unsuccessfully, packed up and made the easy ~3-mile jaunt to Aspen Flats cabin. It was another perfect weather day. This was the most over-grown section but was still ride-able. After fishing some more at the new cabin I headed back to the Upper Russian on foot with my packraft. I paddled around the lake a bit and at the mouth, watching the salmon, taking in the vistas, enjoying the solitude, before pointing it down-stream.
It was a nice float, absolutely gorgeous, scenic, mellow, and relaxing. I was concerned about bears but we saw little signage of them and I figured they would all be at the lower falls where the salmon were fresher (some salmon already had white spots at upper Russian). The greenery and wild flowers were full on, the river was fast enough to not require paddling to move. I came across 2 strainers and one log jam, all easily seen and portaged. Salmon were shooting upstream beneath me, eagles flying over me, and waterfowl floating around me. The water was crystal clear and I may have butt-dragged once. This float made my day. It took about 90 minutes. I hope to return and paddle the remainder some day minus the falls, when it's not salmon season of course.

Floating Russian River from Upper lake to Aspen Flats

The next morning we biked out to the Lower Russian TH, and on the way Lucy-dog decided to play with a porcupine. She got quilled pretty bad, fortunately they were all smaller quills and not in vital areas. 3 to the chin, 3 to the upper leg, and 8-10 all around her front left paw. When she came limping up on 3 legs I was not thrilled: we were 8 miles from the TH and there was only one solution. Fortunately we had a pliers and were able to pull all but one out that the vet found later. She hobbled her way out to the TH, which was hard to watch, and we took her to the vet once back in Anchorage. She is almost 100% recovered with some antibiotics, pain meds, and some rest. I hope she learned.