Section VI: Alternative Logistics.

This section provides additional information on logistics as supplied by Hank Hays; he sent two messages (essentially as given below) in response to

Robert's posting on Richard Munn's forum at     http://www.myccr.com (Canadian Canoe routes). I have omitted Robert's posting and his response to Hank's first message.

(a) First Email Message From Hank Hays:

I tried to get my group to do the run from the top (Happy/Tuaton Lake) down to either Wrangell or Petersburg the summer of '95 but the trip fell through. One

of the ladies going ended up pregnant about four months before the run started and it fell apart slowly after that. Glad it happened as soon as it did so

there was no money lost by anyone in deposits. I did the upper run (Happy Lake to 37 bridge) in '92, but haven't been on the stretch below Telegraph Creek at

all. I have friends who have done it, but not recently. I did extensive research for that run, but have not been there to substantiate any of it.

You need to do a car portage around the Grand Canyon of the Stikine, from the Route 37 (Cassiar) bridge to Telegraph Creek. I'd recommend hiring one of the

local outfitters to do it for you, as well as for storing your car, etc, while you are on the upper stretch, then switching your parking and support services

to the Riversong people in Telegraph Creek after you get that far. Riversong may be able to pick you up from the Bridge, also, I don't know. I was going to

work with one of the Cassiar Highway outfitters for the run down to the bridge, including the car portage around the Grand Canyon, and then use

Riversong after that.

I don't know how short of a run (timewise) you could do from T. Creek to either Petersburg or Wrangell. A friend of mine did it in three days once (in

a slalom kayak!), but you'll want to take longer than that. I'll dig out my planned itinerary for the trip if you're interested.

I was hoping to run the upper section, then maybe fly in and backpack a bit in Edziza Park nearby for maybe a week before continuing down to the ocean. Also

had plans of paddling into LeConte Bay to see the tidewater glacier there, and then using Petersburg as the end of our trip, but I'm not sure how easy that

would have been. I was planning on taking about 5 weeks for the whole run, Happy Lake to the Pacific Ocean.

Let me know what you're hoping to do and I'll try and find my plans for our run to see if I can provide any info for you. Eight years may make a difference.

Hank

(b) Second Email Message From Hank Hays:

You could still visit LeConte Bay and end up in Wrangell, but it will add a couple days to the paddle, I think. I've not been to LeConte, but friends have

(one guided sea kayaks in the area for a couple years) and their descriptions of it make it sound worth it to me. It probably wouldn't be worth more than a

day or two.

The problem that I ran across when planning the aborted trip I was working on was that, at that time, there wasn't a US customs agent in Petersburg. This

might be even more important for you as a Canadian than it would have been for me, I think, though we were going to have a couple Germans along with us.

You *have* to report to the US Customs agent within so many hours of landing ...And there isn't one in Petersburg, so at that time we had to go to Wrangell.

You might want to research this point for your own trip.

When our '95 trip plans fell through I had just started initiation of a plan trying to get permission to paddle to Petersburg and then check in with

Customs in Wrangell later, but I gave that up when the need ceased. If you do want to hit LeConte Bay, you might end up having to paddle down the South Arm

of the Stikine, hit Wrangell to check in, then paddle north to LeConte, then over to Petersburg to finish the trip? I don't know what your options allow.

We were going to be either 3 or 4 couples in 3 or 4 canoes. We were going to drive to the Iskut, BC area with our own boats and hire one of the outfitters

to stage our trip from. We'd park our cars there, get any remaining equipment necessary from them, etc. They'd arrange the flight into Tuaton (or Happy

Lake) and watch our cars for us, and then pick us up at the Cassiar bridge on the appointed take-out day.

We would drive to Telegraph Creek when we could and from there on we were in the care of Riversong. They'd watch vehicles, etc. They can also be used for

an upriver jetboat shuttle back to your vehicles if that is necessary. What we were planning on doing to keep the trip expenses down some was to have

the minimum number of people fly back with minimal gear from Petersburg or Wrangell to T. Creek to get the cars after the entire trip was done, and the

others would get themselves, the boats, and gear onto the Alaska State Ferry system heading south, hopefully from Petersburg. The flyers would get the cars

to Prince Rupert, and the others would ride the ferry to there, hopefully all meeting up at about the same time. Ferry reservations are required, but it's

not expensive as we weren't going to have any vehicles along with us. Or it wasn't too bad eleven years ago, anyway. I don't remember prices but current

ones are available on the internet. It is certainly cheaper than all flying with all gear, or even using the Riversong jetboat shuttle back upstream.

I do want to do the run again, but there are other rivers I want to do before this one again. Keep me in the loop with your plans and conversations, as I

may be able to make suggestions along the way. My info will be somewhat outdated, but some things don't change much, if at all. I'll help all I can.

I have preliminary trip itineraries and stuff all prepared if I can find any of that info. I'll look around and see what I can locate if you're interested.

Some points I can think of now:

Outfitters in the area are Red Goat Lodge (used them in '92), Tatogga Lake Lodge, Iskutine Lodge, and one I think called Bear Paw Inn (???), and maybe

others. I'd contact all you can find and see what they have to offer. I might have contact info on them, I'll dig through my stuff and see.

We flew into Tuaton Lake in a Cessna. We wanted to go into Happy Lake (just a couple miles upstream), but a Cessna cannot land or take off from that smaller

lake with high mountains around it. Just not enough power. A Beaver can do it. I understand that there are both Beavers and Cessnas around now that you can

use to get into either lake. Beavers carry more (but seemingly not quite enough) and are more expensive. You can land on Tuaton and get up to Happy

fairly easily as it turns out. I know as we did it in '92. The trip up to Happy Lake only took us about two hours, but then we didn't take all our gear

with us. Left a 'base camp' down at Tuaton and went up with minimal gear. We just spent a couple days up there. It's rainier up there, which is saying a

lot. The trip back down to Tuaton is only about an hour. You paddle much of it, but there is one short portage, maybe a quarter mile (as we did it --

other options are probably available). I can give you directions for what we did if you are interested.

We were actually supposed to do a South Macmillan River trip up in the Yukon instead of the Stikine that year, but the day before we were to leave for the

drive north, one of our party called the outfitter in Whitehorse on some little technicality and learned that the South Mac was in flood, a couple

German guys had been killed on it a day or two before (log jam situation?), and none of the outfitters were putting people on the river until the water

went down.

We found a flight into Tuaton instead and started driving. Had a great trip, one of the best I've ever been on. The Stikine is technically a harder run

than the S. Mac. The upper Stikine is a much shorter run, about half the distance than the South Mac, so we had plenty of time. We flew into Tuaton and

stayed in the upper lakes region (Happy, Tuaton, Laslui, Hotlesklwa Lakes) for nine straight days, then took nine more days running down to the takeout

bridge.  Got a lot of good hiking and sight seeing in the upper region. Let me find the story for you and pass it on.

Put something about the STIKINE in the subject line of any messages to me. I've had this same e-mail address now for about nine years and the spammers

have found me big time. I delete 150+ messages a day and its easy to miss ones like yours.

Hank

Home : Table of Contents Section I: Assorted information. Section II: Upper Stikine: day-by-day report. Section III: Lower Stikine: day-by-day report. Section IV: Distances. Section V: Declinations, etc. Section VI: Alternative logistics (email messages from Hank Hays). Section VII: Driving Out and Back.