Nel/Taz - Page 2

About a mile east, along the north side of the lake, Mendeltna Creek flows in. On the first trip this looked to be a good sheltered camping area, and we saw plenty of salmon in the creek. We just pulled over for a nice lunch break then, but on the second trip we wisely chose to camp here. In fact we did a layover day there. It’s a nice place, and an extra day of camping was most pleasant. Continuing on to end of the lake takes about two more hours with the little outboards. I suspect sailing would have taken an hour or two longer, but with more prep time required as well. I didn’t see anything that looked like another good camping area until nearly the end of the lake. However there is a cabin just east of the creek. You can also catch a short plane ride to the lake if you just want to float the Tazlina River. Since the lake is only a few miles from flight services along the highway, this should not be expensive.

The lake and upper part of the Tazlina River were blue-green much like Kenai Lake, but with a little more fine silt added in. Later in the year when the glaciers get more active, I suspect there would be considerably more silt in the lake and river. As it was, the river picked up additional silt as we went along as this is all a glacier morain area.

The lake gradually narrows, and at its end there is a lagoon on the left side with a good place to take another short break before moving on. You could camp here as well, and it was clear that others had. This has long been a traditional fishing area for the local natives, but I did not see or read of any restrictions on camping anywhere on these rivers. Just below the start of the river there is the first real whitewater. It’s just a wave train on the left side of the river, and you can see it from the lagoon. At the low water levels we experienced, the wave train was fun to run even in loaded boats. I have read reports that there is a huge and powerful eddy in here to avoid at high water.

The river calms off for a short while before picking up speed again. It continues from here to the end as a class I–II river with one class III area about half way down the Tazlina. It’s easy rowing for the most part but you do have to pay attention. The current moves fast and there are plenty of small rapids and rocks to dodge along the way. Interestingly, the current averaged 4.5 mph for the first 20 miles then gradually picked up to about a 6 mph average near the end.

On both trips we floated about seven miles from the lake and set up camp for the night. The camping areas along here are plentiful enough, and spacious. The spots where we camped would have been available even in high to moderately high water.

Before embarking the first time, I was told, “When you see the house size rock, stay left.” I wasn’t told where this would be, or any other thing about it. I had also been told about a class III section on the Tazlina, and suspected that they were the same place. About 27 miles down the Tazlina, the river started getting narrow and dropping faster and I could see what looked like a marked drop in elevation around a rather abrupt right hand bend. Sure enough there was the rock. It wasn’t just house sized, it was house shaped too, complete with a 3:12 pitched roof. Well, you may have to close one eye and use a little imagination to see it, but not that much imagination. I was in the lead boat and headed left as soon as I spotted it. Some others in our group didn’t start early enough, or just weren’t paying attention and were forced to run the middle or right sides. Fortunately at this low water, there was nothing in here that is likely to flip a boat if you are paying any attention at all. Even passing on the right side of the rock proved to be safe. I had a nice run, but I think the right side would have been more fun at this level. At higher flows, I understand this can be quite a violent spot.

One of our smaller boats nosed onto a rock somewhere right of river center, just above the House Rock, and proceeded to get stuck in an eddy. Right about then a cataraft came down the hill (Literally down the hill, as it was quite steep right there.), and ran into the smaller boat. The momentum pushed both across the eddy line and safely down stream. There were a few nervous paddlers, but there were no other problems. I think most of the nervousness was coming from this being unknown to all of us. The water wasn’t all that difficult. On our second trip most of us had been here before and while we all stayed left, we could hardly remember what the fuss had been about.

On the first trip we camped for our last, night just below here on river left after a big sweeping left turn. One good thing about camping with 20 of your favorite friends is that you have the manpower to do things. We hoisted a large driftwood log and carried it to our campfire. By duct taping a stick to a Jiffy Pop, I was able to make some pretty good popcorn to celebrate with. The sun was shining for most of the day, and provided us with a beautiful campsite at sundown. On the second trip we continued on for a few more miles and were rewarded with an even better camp site with amazing views of Mt Drum and Sanford.