5 days: 3.5 days walking, 1.5 days rafting
Erin, Garth, Tanner and I drove to McCarthy and then flew to Skolai in the afternoon. The Beaver 90Y pulled up, which I worked with for ten years at Talkeetna Air Taxi. It had a new paint job but I recognized it right away. Turns out they had the owner of it come up from Cordova to fill in. It was a nice surprise, and the flight in was beautiful. When we got to Skolai we walked around 4 miles to the bench overlooking the valley and camped here. We walked in the direction of Chitistone Peak, on some mapping there is a "Goat Trail Trailhead" labeled. I believe this is one of the most popular trails in the park, if not the most popular. During this section there is a trail on the right along the rocks and side of the hill. Sometimes the first part of the walk is a little boggy. Afterwards, there is a social trail up to the bench. It's nice to find the social trail, since it's already there, in order to not kill all of the tundra someday (opinion). There is a nice water source and you can get a little shelter from the wind by dipping down the other side. On another trip I camped at this bench and did not have adequate shelter from the wind as a note.
The next morning we cruised over meadows, crossed a few creeks, and hiked across the goat trail part of the route. This part of the route I have heard gets packed into a better trail as the summer goes on. Some of the rock can have loose footing, and if you fell in some spots it would long. I don't have a great picture of the more exposed parts. At the end of the goat trail there is a nice plateau that we rested on and enjoyed the views. We then continued on following the goat trail for a little longer before camping with a beautiful view, and some later thunderstorms. Overall I had residual foot and lung problems from the Aniakchak trip, which were prolonged by going straight into guiding, so I was a little apprehensive about jumping right into this trip. However, due to how light I kept my pack, the great weather, and pleasant schedule I came out of this trip feeling rejuvenated.
The next morning we turned off from the goal trail and went up a pass, dropping into doubtful creek area. The travel remained nice on the down, but it seemed as if our camping options were dwindling. We stopped and hung out for the afternoon, making camp early.
The next day we swung over to the left to pick our way down the rock glacier. The rocks were much more unstable than other boulder fields I've been in. Eventually we followed some greenery into the creek bed, crossing the river back and forth. If the water would have been higher, the crossings could have been tricky in places. At the end of the day Garth tried to cross a swamp that looked shallow but it wasn't. We then arrived and camped at the side of Nizina Lake. A friend told me they were camped close to the lake when there was a surge of water into their tents one night.
The next morning we took our time paddling to where the Nizina River lets out from the lake. We tried a couple routes but found we were boxed in with ice. We could have taken out and walked along the shore, but this would have been cumbersome. We scurried across a couple ice formations. My boat didn't have a spray skirt so Erin and I portaged across the little land jut out while Garth and Tanner paddled the first 1/4 mile. We met up near the end of the 2+ and continued on from here. I potentially dumped my boat once, but overall no spray skirt was groovy. The river was very dynamic. We could hear large boulder and sediment moving under us in the water. Some places were shallow and some places with very deep, but glacial river principles applied. We rafted for 2 hours and decided to make camp because we were traveling so fast, maybe 6-11mph.
The next morning we rafted for a couple hours and pulled out at my friend's cabin beside the river. The river remained class II, with avoidable features, although kept you on your feet with its dynamic nature. There are so many trips variations you can do in this area. You can hike Skoali to Wolverine if you're okay spending more money for planes on both sides. Continuing further on the goat trail and dropping into the Chitisone River before the Nizina is also an option, if you're a better paddler or willing to portage further down. I've heard at times the initial crossing of hte Chitisone River could be iffy. You could walk Chisana to Skoali and get picked up there. Or you could take the glacier route from Skolai over Frederika Glacier and over. I've heard that getting off the glacier to near Nizina Lake is becoming increasingly hard with climate change (I've taken many pictures from overhead and different times to sus this out).
The next morning we cruised over meadows, crossed a few creeks, and hiked across the goat trail part of the route. This part of the route I have heard gets packed into a better trail as the summer goes on. Some of the rock can have loose footing, and if you fell in some spots it would long. I don't have a great picture of the more exposed parts. At the end of the goat trail there is a nice plateau that we rested on and enjoyed the views. We then continued on following the goat trail for a little longer before camping with a beautiful view, and some later thunderstorms. Overall I had residual foot and lung problems from the Aniakchak trip, which were prolonged by going straight into guiding, so I was a little apprehensive about jumping right into this trip. However, due to how light I kept my pack, the great weather, and pleasant schedule I came out of this trip feeling rejuvenated.
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