2.5 days
June always feels like summer, but up high there's always the reminder of residual snow. Other trips were off the table but Kachemak was largely melted out. Rowan and I got dropped off at Humpy Creek, which for a wet exit was really easy. We only had to wade up to mid-shin, but it sounds like the majority of the time the water is much higher. We walked up the beach where the tide had come out and met up with the humpy creek trail. The trail was in good condition over to Grewingk glacier. An alternate would be to go to Emerald Lake, but the trail from Emerald down to Grewingk may not be maintained. We dropped our packs and did an out and back up Alpine Ridge trail. Beautiful views, we didn't see a lot of water but if there was still snow you could melt for a camp spot. We headed back down and paddled out to the peninsula to meet Tommy and his sister Mattie to camp for the night. The breeze kept the bugs away and it was really pretty.
The next day we paddled back across, walked to the saddle trailhead and then paddled across Halibut Cove. The tide was coming in while we were in the pinch point and we moved pretty fast. If the tide was not in your favor it would be pretty impossible in a pack raft to get anywhere. As a back-up if your tide timing isn't right, there used to be a trail around the side, but it might be pretty overgrown. Then we followed the China Poot Lake trail until we were walking along the lakes. Near the end of the bigger lake, China Poot Lake, we went slightly up the Poot peak trail and then turned right. This trail is not maintained but overall fast travel. Some downed trees and devils clubs walking, but fast compared to bush-whacking. The bugs were pretty prevalent. In May you might be able to skip the bugs and as much brush on this part of the trail. It took us about 2 hours to pop out at Wosnesenski River where we spent the night.
The next day the river was class II, braided with some wood. We didn't have to get fully out of our boats, but if you rafted the river at lower flows you would. We pulled out at the old road to cut across the Haystack rock. We were much faster than we thought, and made it there by 11a. We did some texting with friends and were on the boat back to homer shortly after. You could add on many variations to this trip, including out and back up Poot peak, continuing to Seldovia, or adding trail mileage along the way. Really cool to combine some river rafting, ocean rafting, walking and the such.
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