A longer version of this route was sent to me on accident. This turned out to be the most dynamically changing place I’ve been in! (it seemed, unfortunately my geology knowledge will be forever lacking). Which peaked interest, as well as driving past Kluane on the way up to Alaska and wondering what was out there. There was also still quite a bit of snow higher up in our area. Erin, Helen, Patrick and I drove from Anchorage to where our Donjek pull out would be, and then hitch hiked to Bock's Creek. We got picked up by a semi truck with six Shin Tzu's in it, most who were born on the back seat we were sitting on. Total they had fifteen, but the others were at home. Patrick was a great sport holding the Shin Tzu that was blind, even though he's allergic to dogs. Our drivers were very kind overall.
We hiked up the right side of Bock's Creek, initially on a road and then along the river bed. At one point it looked like we would have to cross to the other side of the creek, but there was a trail going up into the bushes. We then headed right up a drainage up to the lake. It was beautiful up there, and it was Canada Day weekend so we saw quite a few groups camped out. After this night, we didn’t see anyone else during the trip.
The next morning we headed up the pass with straight forward walking. When we got to the pass, there was a thin trail over to the left heading down. It was nice travel down the creek to the Duke River. We dropped down to the river bed for the end of it, climbing up structures along the river and walking along the gravel bars. Overall it was 6 miles from Bock's to Duke this day. When we got to the Duke it was raining and we decided to hang out and wait to transition until the next day.
The following day we rafted the Duke River. The first stretch was shallow, and we took turns high topping on sediment. These parts were dynamic but very class II. Near the end of our rafting there were some larger wave trains and water dynamics going on. We pulled out on the left side of the river after around 8 miles. I'm not sure what is down river of here, but the water was getting spicier and up ahead looked more canyon-y. So might be worth keeping an eye out and pulling out on time since I'm not sure what is downstream.
We cut across towards Atlas Creek and the bushes were easy to navigate. Atlas Creek was straight forward to walk up, and we were able to rock hop without submerging our feet. We headed up the left side onto a ridge, and then up over Expectation pass. There was no snow along our path. We ended up camping on the other side of the pass in a grassy plateau to the right. There wasn't great camping from mid Atlas Creek until you got up and over the pass. It ended up being 13miles between the float and walk.
The next morning we headed down and then side hilled along the right side and up our last elevation gain. We dropped down a drainage until it got narrow and ditched out the right side. There were some faint game trails but overall walking through the bushes. The bushes were really nice walking for bush whacking. We worked our way towards the Donjek slowly for views and then continued towards the toe of Donjek Glacier. All the creeks were dried up for the last few miles before the glacier. There was a creek at the toe, but very silty for filter longevity. We were able to find a pond where the silt had been filtered out, but water is something to keep in mind. This was a beautiful camping spot and we were able to walk down to the river closer to the glacier. We thought about going towards the glacier, but crossing the river right at the toe look gnarly. We opted not to go back up river and cross to moraine parts to get near. If you brought microspikes it might be worth crossing upstream on the Donjek to get closer. Around expectation pass to toe of the Donjek ended up being around 9mi.
The next morning we walked downstream and took our time looking at cool features. There was a pool we swam in, ice calving into the river, cool mud formations, and overall varied terrains. Overall the whole area felt very dynamic. We headed over towards the old waterfall and checked out this cool feature as well. We then cut through the bushes which was not as cruisier as prior. We headed towards where a trail was marked on the map, and there was indeed a trail. It was overgrown but much faster. We cut down to the river where the marked "Donjek Route" cuts to the river bed. There was a stream bed down that we hiked down and along the sides of. When we got to the river we decided to set up camp and discuss our options for the next day. Our meandering ended up being around 8mi, but you could take a more direct route.
We decided the river was moving too fast for comfort (it was cooking, maybe 15mph, who knows?), with little eddies. The riverbed cut towards the bank so it wouldn't be easy to walk along the riverside. We went back up the dry streambed to see if that trail continued. Turns out it did, and it was pretty cruiser to Hoge Creek. I think this was much faster than the published route on Gaia and on some maps down on the riverbed. With the current river there would have been many crossings. We put into Hoge Creek with class II water. The water was dynamic and fast and we mostly had to look for harsh water eddy lines. The closer to a 90degree meet of two channels and the larger the difference in currents, the harsher the line to paddle hard through. I hadn't experienced these harsh of lines on glacial rivers like the Chulitna and Nizina, so this was good learning for me. Around 5-6 miles in there was a pinch point that had the spiciest water of our raft escapade. We got out and scouted then portaged one section. We paddled through the middle part and stuck to the insides, then pulled out and camped on the inside of a bend around 8mi in. There were definitely some big waves and features to avoid in this area. I'm not a grading expert but seemed above class II+ features to me depending on where you were in the river. Our top speed during rafting this day was 11mph.
The next morning we paddled across to a smaller channel to exit the pinch point, because the water looked intense and less avoidable around the next bend. After this the water was solid class II. The water is more right than maps show now, cutting through lots of trees near the end (more dynamic-ness!). We did the first 10 miles in an hour and a half, average speed 6.5mph and top 11.7mph. The next 17miles we did in three hours, average speed 5.8mph and top 10.5mph.
Overall we had great weather and the terrain was pretty and manageable. After Bock's Creek we didn't see any other people.
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