Aniakchak

We originally came up with the idea of an Aniakchak-Meshik loop that could be done as a packraft trip and attempted it in 2009. An intense storm foiled that first attempt, so we returned in 2010 and successfully completed the loop. At first, I had considered flying into the caldera and getting picked up at the river’s mouth, but by doing the trip as a loop starting and ending at Port Heiden, we could complete the journey without chartering any planes.

We flew into Port Heiden on the morning flight of July 15 and arrived around noon. We caught a ride from a local to the end of the road and were hiking by 2 p.m., with camp set by 8 p.m. on the vegetated lower slopes of the volcano. On July 16, we had a big push under beautiful weather, leaving camp around 8 a.m. and reaching the rim of the caldera around 2:30 p.m. Camp was set at Surprise Lake by 10 p.m. We spent the next three days—July 17, 18, and 19—fully exploring the caldera.

On July 20, we inflated our packrafts and spent two days descending the Aniakchak River, spending the first night on the river. Around 1 p.m. on July 21, we reached the point we had identified to hike over to the Meshik headwaters, where we camped on a lake at the river’s start.

We spent July 22 at the headwaters of the Meshik and began paddling downstream that afternoon. After two nights on the Meshik, we reached a cabin near the mouth on the evening of July 24, where we had planned to begin hiking north. The morning of July 25 included some paddling to reach the shortest hiking route, and we packed up the boats that afternoon. We continued hiking through July 26 and 27 across tundra, eventually reaching a road and the end of our journey in the late afternoon.

In total, the trip included two days hiking into the caldera, three days exploring the caldera, two days paddling the Aniakchak River, three days paddling the Meshik River, and three days hiking back across the tundra to complete the loop.