Kenai

I've never had my orange packraft be camouflage before, but with all these salmon around in their 11th hour, it fit right in. Paddled down to Skilak Lake and stayed at Doroshin Cabin, then took out at the end of the Hidden Creek Trail. Hiked back up to Skilak Lake Rd then hitched back to Cooper's Landing. Watch out for bears on the trail back!

4-16-2011 Kenai River (Kenai Lake Boat Launch to Jim's Landing)
Boat: Liquid Logic XP Remix 10 and NRS Otter
We did our first float of the year today. The river was flowing at 390 (cfs) and 38 (deg F). We launched just below Kenai Lake in Cooper's Landing. The river was slow going until the first rapid set near the Kenai Princess Lodge. This rapid was a short solid II. We encountered sets of smaller rapids throughout the trip and all were easily negotiated. Medium sized boils were present in deeper pools. Recommend this float for a begginer however there were several areas that the river dragged and we walked to Russian River Ferry pullout from a 1000 yards up river. There was also several good edding oppurtunities for begginers but not a lot of ferrying due to the low water levels. The ice had receded several feet back past the bank from Cooper's to Russian River Ferry making portage possible is necessary. However the ice still lined the banks in some areas from Russian to Jim's but portage was still possible if necessary.

If floating the river in early to mid April please check NOAA.gov and refer to the Search River Notes section for information concerning ice on river. We were advised not to run through the canyon below Jim's landing due to the presence of ice. Skilak Lake is also frozen at this time