I drive my jet boat on the agulawok and agulapak river all the time up to this lakes. Not a big deal when you know the channel.
Exactly...but I doubt you have a whole lot of company once you get passed the top of the Agulowak.. It's been a few years for me but I doubt that's changed a lot. There are a few more guide services than there use to be and whatever traffic GCI's people create.....
I ran that river pretty much daily....year round.
Other than guiding there, I was building some of the structures at first lake lodge back in the early 90s before GCI bought it.
The lodge crew would leave at the end of season and I stayed there for 8 months alone until they'd return the following summer doing interior finish work and building furniture.
I had the whole lodge to myself and I kept a boat in the water all winter.
If I ran it every day, it seemed to help keep from freezing the water pump. After there would be enough light to see, I'd fire up the outboard and run to the bottom of the river, and back up to the lodge every day.
The true channel became well defined as the water level dropped through the winter months. It'd get so skinny in some spots you'd literally have a two to three foot wide channel that would be deep enough to accommodate the jet shoe and you'd better be onstep to keep the hull up outta the water.
Due to those low water level runs everyday of the winter, I deemed myself the "River Master", nobody knew that channel as well as I did...or at least I though...
It was about 1 in the morning in the late fall, I heard a boat coming down the lake.
A week prior, some locals I knew came rippin passed heading up the lakes camping, it was them coming back down, I recognized the sound of their boat, it was V8 inboard jet.
I figured they were going to stop, they must have a problem or something, no way they were going to run that river in the dark.
They shot right by full tilt and headed down the river. It bruised my ego, I'd never considered a night run.
I wasn't set up with the lights you'd need but neither were they.
It'd been a full moon, that must be it.....I let it grind on me, next full moon I'd be prepared and go run it.
A full cycle of the moon went by and I was ready, I headed into Dillingham later in the day than usual and bought some odds and ends then went back to Aleknagik and partied a little with some folks.
Long about midnight I fired up the boat and headed back up the lake, it's a 12-15 mile run to the bottom of the river.
The moon was up up pretty high and I could see a bit on the lake, at least enough to keep from hitting an island or anything.
The shore line was just flat black, no definition at all, just black.
I kept my eye on the ridge, I knew where the mountains sloped down would be the where the river spilled into the lake.
It wasn't as easy as I'd thought it'd be to just find the mouth of the river but I made my way and headed up.
The first couple of turns were easy, the moon lit things up fairly well out close to the lake and it was familiar to me anyway.
It didn't take long until it wasn't so cool..the moon was in the southern sky and so were the mountains next to me.
It started going from the moon creating a blinding silver streak up the middle of the river which was like a magnet wanting you to follow it, which sure as hell wasn't the channel, to rounding a corner to find it completely black dark due to the terrain blocking the moonlight.
My eyes couldn't adjust fast enough going from blinding bright to total black dark in just a flash like that.
It was starting to really suck, I had to keep my eyes squinted to avoid too much light and I was doing everything I could just to keep up with a close idea of exactly where I was at.
Having a "close idea" really isn't good enough when it comes to running that river, there were parts that were completely azz puckering..
I chilled and pretty much just followed the map in my head and made my way to the top of the river...without hitting...
I WOULD NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!
I was really butt hurt over the whole entire event, how was it those guys ran that river in the dark and I struggled so hard?
Next trip to town I went and saw the guy that owned the boat and ask him how they'd done it., He started laughing hard and told me "man we were so drunk that night I like to tore the bottom out of the boat a few times", said he couldn't even count the amount of times they'd hit....
My ego felt better but now I just felt stupid.......