By Joseph Robertia
Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Sarah Riley, of Kenai, paddles across tranquil Skilak Lake on Saturday, taking in the snow-swept mountains to the east. The kayaking trip, attended by 19 people, was part of an outdoor excursion planned by the Kenai Peninsula Outdoor Club.
Redoubt Reporter
The deep, blue water of Skilak Lake was nearly as still as if it were still iced up, but the surface’s mirrorlike reflection of the few wispy cloud formations overhead was a telltale sign winter was over.
So, too, were the ripples that trailed behind two thick-necked loons, whose crisp, black-and-white plumage was a stark contrast to their almost entirely blue surrounding. The larger-bodied male swimming in front of his female partner briefly dove underwater before slicing back to the surface with a wriggling fish in his bill.
As he gulped down the meal, just a few yards away onshore lake-goers of a different sort were arriving. Vehicles were beginning to pull into the parking lot of the lake’s lower boat launch off of Skilak Lake Road. The loons moved away, but not before yodeling a low, “hooo-we-ooo” to the newcomers.
Saturday was a rare, sunny and calm day on Skilak Lake, and the 19 people who showed up to kayak from Skilak down the Kenai River 12 miles to Bing’s Landing knew it the minute they hit the water that morning.
“What a day!” said Todd Stone, a member of the Kenai Peninsula Outdoor Club, the group that organized the excursion. “When you plan these things, you hope you hit it this well.”
The outdoor club puts this kayak trip on its schedule every season, but the wind and weather can occasionally turn Skilak Lake into a dangerous chop of boat-flipping rollers, according to Steve Ford.
“We’ve been here before when it’s blowing,” he said. “We’ve had to wait until eight at night before it died down enough to put in.”
Saturday’s weather was more than amiable, though, which speeded along the put-in process. Club members, joined by a few newcomers, quickly unloaded and packed their colorful kayaks. They rubbed on coconut-scented suntan lotion and donned life vests.
Since the experience level of the group ranged from experienced kayakers to newcomers, the group listened to Ford give a brief lecture on the ways to stick together and stay safe while navigating the middle Kenai River. Little did anyone know the knowledge would come in handy just a few miles downriver.
With the exception of complaints from the displaced loons, the start at Skilak Lake went well. Before long the whole flotilla moved off the large lake and into the smaller confines of the Kenai, made narrower by low water this time of year. It is a stretch of river that displays the essence of Alaska scenery and wildlife.
Tracie Howard, of Kenai, listens to Steve Ford before packing her kayak for the day’s adventure. Life jackets were must-have items for everyone who went on the float trip.
“The first half is like being in a national park,” Ford said. “It’s a real wilderness experience.”
The river is flanked by a lush riparian habitat. Closest to the water is wetlands where tracks of moose and bear can be prolific. Farther up the bank stands of cottonwood, birch and white spruce dominate the landscape, and many of these trees hold the massive nests of bald eagles.
“I’ve never seen so many eagles,” Ford said. “We even saw one tree with a duplex of one nest up high and one down lower. Occasionally we’d see white heads pop up as we floated by.”
Birds were by far the most common species encountered on Saturday’s trip, according to Sarah Riley, an avid kayaker from Kenai.
“Birders would have quite an experience,” she said. “There was a bird on every corner and you could come right up on them. It was pretty surreal.”
The kayakers saw a diversity of avian life, from sandhill cranes barely flapping their rust-colored wings as they rode thermals high in the sky above, to the small, slender white terns whose snappy wings kept them hovering at eye level before they plunged headfirst into the water for a meal.
“We got a kick out of the terns,” Ford said. “They were with us the whole day, and would occasionally dive right next to us.”
Hundreds of thousands of salmon and trout spawn annually in the wide, meandering channels and shallow-watered gravel flats just below Skilak Lake, and the flotilla occasionally saw the water swirl and churn with undetermined species.
“I don’t know what they were, but a school of fish came under us at one point,” Riley said. “The water was just churning. It was really impressive. One massive fish was right next to my kayak.”
Those who gathered to take part in the kayak trip first got a safety lesson from outdoor club member Steve Ford, before putting in at the lower boat launch of Skilak Lake.
While getting off the beaten path was breathtaking, Riley said that floating the middle river was also enjoyable because of the company provided by the outdoor club.
“I’m not an official outdoor club member, but it was worth joining them for this trip,” she said. “We all stayed together going down the river and there was a lot of camaraderie.”
As the river winds closer to the halfway point between Skilak Lake and the pullout at Bing’s Landing, civilization again begins to show itself at Kenai Keys in the form of small cabins and fish camps.
It was toward the end of the trip that the only close call of the day occurred.
The river braids turn into wide channels, and to avoid choppy water from an afternoon wind that kicked up, the group took a detour from the usual route. Along this side slough the group encountered a narrow stretch of minor rapids with a dual obstacle of a rocky turn and low-hanging, half-submerged branches, known in kayaking circles as “sweepers.”
Novice kayaker Priscilla Tapangco of Soldotna waited for the experienced kayakers to go ahead. They then shouted instructions back to the newcomers. She began to paddle through the swift water, but didn’t quite dig in deep enough or give herself enough room from another kayaker.
“I was watching the person in front of me instead of watching the sweeper,” she said. “The branches were coming at me, and I should have laid back and floated under them, but I reached up and grabbed one with my hand.”
The kayak began to tip a bit, which normally wouldn’t be a problem because of the kayak’s spray skirt, but after the last shore break to stretch her legs, Tapangco didn’t put her skirt back on.
“I should have used the equipment, because without it, water came in and I flipped over,” she said.
James Witt of Soldotna digs in deep while paddling the middle Kenai River on Saturday.
In accordance with both state law and the outdoor club’s own rule for water excursions, Tapangco had a life jacket on, quickly popped to the surface and went to shore.
In planning the trip, all participants were encouraged to bring a change of clothes in a dry bag, so Tapangco was able to slip into something warm and dry. She said her mishap didn’t put a damper on her day.
“It was a great lesson learned,” she said. “It made me a better kayaker and gave me a lot more respect for the river.”
Riley witnessed the dunking and said both the outdoor club members and Tapangco handled the situation well.
“They were right there whenever anyone got in trouble,” she said. “I don’t think anyone could have handled it better.”
Ford said teaching novices about recreating safely in the outdoors is one of the purposes of the club’s regular excursions. Like Tapangco, he didn’t see her learning experience as anything negative.
“It was one of the best trips downriver we’ve ever had,” he said. “The only negative to the day is there was so much glare off the water from the beautiful weather, a few people got sunburned.”
