Rafting the Matanuska
Yesterday we rose early to make the drive to the mouth of the Matanuska River in Alaska for some whitewater rafting! The Matanuska is a glacier-fed river and our rafting outfit, Nova, was about a 2.5 hour drive from Anchorage. We rode up some beautiful, twisty mountain roads to get there, passing a pair of moose standing in the ditch on the way. It was our first moose sighting in Alaska!
We arrived around 10:30 to the rafting office, a nice but remote cabin by the river. After using the pit toilets and checking in, we were given rain gear to wear and spent some time adjusting our GoPro camera before taking the short bus ride to the edge of the Matanuska glacier.
The put-in point near the glacier is private property and the rafting staff (Colin, our guide; Riley, our other guide; and Marsha, our bus driver) paid a hefty fee at the entrance for us to visit. On the way to the launch site, we stopped momentarily at a picnic spot overlooking the glacier: a massive, brilliantly-glowing sheet of blue ice. It was stunning to see! We took lots of pictures and witnessed the trickles of meltwater from this ice combine to form the ice-cold, silt-loaded Matanuska River. We would be rafting on water that was only hours earlier part of a glacier. That was incredible to think about.
Marsha expertly backed the bus to the water’s edge and we donned our life vests and got our safety briefing. Then we piled into our inflatable rafts and shoved off into the class 2 and 3 waters. Marsha (our driver) and her older male friend were riding as guests of the rafting company. They joined us in the back of our raft. I gleefully announced the presence of another moose, this one a bull moose who was wandering around across the river from us. Colin told us this was good luck as it had been weeks since the rafting crew had seen a moose.
Colin expertly steered our raft using two paddles as we floated down the river. Due to the silt (and the young water), there are no fish in the water. The rapids offered only a spot of water that was actually white where the waves curled up, with most of it the grey color of concrete. Softball-sized, smooth rocks littered the banks. The clear skies we enjoyed on the way up had turned overcast and a slight breeze had kicked up. I was glad I was wearing double shirts and my fleece jacket under my rain coat and vest.
We quizzed Colin on local issues, like where we should visit, what he did when he wasn’t steering rafts, and whether Bigfoot and UFOs are a problem here. Colin counts himself among Bigfoot believers, knowing a friend who stood 50 feet away from a 10-foot tall creature that wasn’t a bear. I chuckled at this but nervously looked over my shoulder the rest of the day!
We bumped and twirled down the river, dodging some of the trickier holes as we went. Several splashes came over the bow but only a little spray got in our faces. I stayed drier than I had expected but that was just fine with me. The stunning scenery of towering cliffs carved out from glacial activity was captivating. It was great to just be in the moment.
After about an hour’s float, we were guided to the landing point right outside the office again, where we clambered out and returned our foul-weather gear. Hot chocolate and apple cider packets awaited on the picnic table outside the office. We said goodbye to our guides and our fellow rafters (a young family from Iowa) and returned to our car. We weren’t quite ready to return to Anchorage, though, as Colin had also steered us towards a worthy detour: Independence Mine at Hatcher Pass which was north of Palmer.
We set the GPS and were off for our second adventure of the day (stay tuned)!