YAAHOO!!!, Part 2 (Fun with jet boats in Alaska!)
January 7, 2008
Okay, so finding and posting that picture last night of my jet boat guiding days on small creeks in Southwest Alaska got me all hot & bothered and I had to root around in the archives for more pix. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of film from those days, but I found a few lost pictures. Good times!
The overhanging trees weren’t much of a problem…just something to aim at to give the clients a bit of a rush. It was the fallen ones that were 4/5ths of the way across the creek that created some navigational issues.
There’s nothing like being on step in 2 inches of water and blazing full throttle downstream around a blind corner only to find something furry and brown and as big as a Toyota Tacoma standing in the middle of the creek! Fortunately, all the moose I came cross ran out of our path just in the nick of time, though I had to come off plane in basically no water once to avoid a collision. The big cow just stood there like a, well, moose in the headlights.
A lot of the creeks were so skinny that I literally couldn’t even blink while running for fear of wiping out deep in the heart of brown bear country. Ah yes, what a great sensation…a little compressed water underfoot and the feeling of the wind (and streamside vegetation) in your face!
Of course, we had to share the river with the four-legged local anglers.
And there were plenty of them — there were tracks, some as big as catcher’s mitts, on every sand bar we stopped at.
The creeks were too small to fish from the boat (plus the little sled was too tiny anyway), so we’d hop out and bank it.
Some days were so warm and bug free, I would take a swim while the boys fished.
Once, I got to the top of a 5-foot deep hole and swam through a big pod of bright red kings. Too cool!
By Alaskan standards, the rainbows didn’t get very big, but they were incredibly beautiful…
And there were plenty of grayling around as well. At first glance, these “sailfish of the north” aren’t all that remarkable. Closer inspection, however, reveals that they are actually pretty cool-looking.
Looks like fun!
Those flat-bottom jon boats can take a pounding.