Salcha River Boating

Having heard that searching from rivers for bear is a good way to see one, Jared decided that he wanted to try driving up the Salcha River a way, for a good adventure and to see if he could find some bears, and I tagged around.


We rented a 100hp flat-bottomed boat for the trip. Here's Jared behind the wheel.


It was a pretty powerful little boat, with a 2 or 3 inch draft, which was sweet. We only managed to run into up onto gravel bars once a piece.


Me behind the wheel. We started out with the cover on the boat, but as it was a beautiful day we eventually peeled it back.


After running into a bit of a log jam, we decided to start heading back. On the way out, we explored a little side creek, and Jared brought his fishing pole along. The creek ended up being a gold mine--Jared caught 7 grayling, and I caught 4. Here's Jared with one of his.


One of my fish. We only held on to one, and threw the rest back.


Our initial thought for cooking the fish was to roast it over the fire. It started out alright, but the fire burned so hot that it burned up our spit.


We resorted to baking the fish on rocks by the fire, which turned out quite well.


Me chowing down on the grayling. It was pretty tasty, even without additional flavoring. They say grayling doesn't taste great if you don't eat it fresh. We got it about as fresh as you can.


My hair starting to get out of control. I didn't have high expectations for a trip powered by internal combustion, but it ended up being a pretty fun trip.