Upper Chena River Paddle

At the Fairbanks Fairgrounds Campground, we met a couple of new paddling friends, Rudy & Teresa H, and also ran into our Model T friends from the Yukon, what a surprise!
As we got closer to the Chena, Kim was amused by this road sign, unique to Alaska!

Rudy & Teresa had us join them at the Upper Chena River Campground for an adventure on the River the next day.

Shortly after setting up our tent, I heard Kim screaming for us all to "come quick". She was pointing to a white object in the tree behind the tent proclaiming "it's a Snowy Owl".
Now this was truly a great "lifer" bird for us. On closer inspection, we found she was absolutely correct....the lifelike creature was certainly a Snowy!

Up early the next morning, we hit the beautiful River. As we floated leisurely along, Kim & I were remeinded of our many floats in southern Mississippi and central Florida. The waters here seemed so familiar.

Rudy & Teresa were zipping along in their long tandem, watching for me to snag the first fish (of course I had my rod!). It wasn't long before a frisky Artic Grayling jumped on the lure and was in the boat. The Chena is a "catch & release only" river, so this one along with some thirty others were quickly returned to play sport with another angler some other day.

A few spots reminded me of some of the fishing camps we'd see along the backwoods bayous of south Louisiana.

Other sites told the story of just how high & swift the waters can get on this narrow stream.....

All in all, a great day spent flaoting about 12 miles of the beautiful Upper Chena, another of Alaska's remote treasures.