Trains, Icebergs and Rivers
This has to be one of the most fun packraft trips ever. You start by throwing your backpack/packraft into a cargo railcar on the Alaska Railroad and then climbing into a passenger car. You take the train to the Spencer Glacier “whistle stop”. Not a train station or even a ramp, the train stops and you get out on the tracks, then hike a mile or two to the beautiful Spencer Lake complete with floating icebergs.
Generally you are not supposed to paddle too close to icebergs as they can roll over and take you down with them. The icebergs experience uneven melting between the top part above the water and the part under the water – and gradually it’ll get unhappily lopsided until it flips over and is happy again.
Fortunately many of the larger icebergs in Spencer Lake are grounded so are far less likely to flip over. Unfortunately I don’t know how to tell if they are grounded or not. My strategy was this: If it looked like a good photo opportunity I would ask Lynn to paddle like mad over to the glacier and after I got a couple of images he would paddle back. Me? I was smart enough not to get close to those things.
After having some fun floating around with the icebergs we headed down the outlet on the Placer River for 12 miles. The river starts off Class II with some occasionally hard paddling to miss some big holes (easy to miss) and then flattens out to a fast Class I river. There is a Class II+ rapid rated with a “+” because there is metal debris from an old bridge sticking out of the water. I’ve done this trip twice and each time I was a little anxious about seeing the debris in time and each time it was very easy to see and very easy to miss.
The last six miles is a little boring but fortunately the water is pretty fast moving. You stop at a bridge over the main highway that leads back to the train station. The first time I did this trip we stashed a mountain bike there. This time we were fortunate enough to have Betsy and Melody pick us up right at the take out.
This was a very fun trip to do and is a good introduction to pack rafting. There are a couple of outfitters in Anchorage that rent all the gear and one of them even has a “Spencer Glacier” packrafting kit.
What to wear? If you are a novice you should be in a dry suit (they rent them). The water, having come from a lake full of icebergs, is a little chilly. So it could be a life or death thing. This time Lynn wore my dry suit and I went without since I have quite a bit of experience and was willing to take the risk.
West Coast Flying Adventures 