Upper Chatanika River SRA

Day 43  Wednesday July 27, 2016        Steese Highway, mile 29, Upper Chatanika  River SRA, site 22

43 miles towing              10.6 mpg

We needed a new adventure and we wanted to get away from Fairbanks and go try something new.  One area I investigated during the original planning phase was the Steese Highway, north of Fairbanks.  It is about 150 miles long and ends in Circle, AK.  We were interested in the Upper Chatanika River SRA at mile 29 of the Steese Highway.  Further up there were three BLM campgrounds all on rivers or creeks.  We wanted to check them out too.

We took our time with a morning fire and coffee.  Wasn’t a long driving day.  Left the campsite at Chena River at 09:30.  Stopped at the Fred Meyer on the north side of town to get some odds and ends and two bundles of Alaska’s cheapest firewood.  By 10:00 we were out of there.

Nice ride up the Steese.  Went over a pass and arrived at the campground immediately after crossing the Chatanika River.  

The bridge over the Chatanika River as seen from our campsite.

View along the Steese Highway.

Sign at the campground entrance.

We drove around the whole campground and fell in love with site 22.  It was large, open, on the river and finally, when we got there, sunny.  Marsha loved it.  I wanted to fish the river for grayling so bad and this site was ideal.  When we first got there, we had or doubts, the sites were swampy, very mosquito infested, and looked overgrown as though no one ever stays there.  But when you get to the one’s along the river, it’s a different story.

Our campsite one site 22.

Shortly after setting up, the only other camper there, walked by all dressed up in waders and fly fishing paraphernalia.  He was native born Alaskan and hadn’t fished that river in 40 years.  He told me about others up at the BLM sites.  We had planned on checking them out.  He took off down the river fishing and I never heard from him again.

The fly fisherman and his dog fishing down from

our campsite.  Never found out how he did.

I suited up and went up above the bridge to try fishing away from the campground. 

Checking out my fishing stuff.

All suited up, ready to go.

Here's the water I fished, up from the bridge.

I immediately caught what looked like a brown trout, but I don’t think they have brown trout in Alaska, so it may have been a Dolly Varden, an Alaskan species I am not familiar with.  I expected Grayling as that is pretty common on the mountain streams that are non-glacial.  After that, I got nothing.  Tried every type of fly, wet, dry, streamer, nothing worked.  No takes on anything.  I turned over rocks in the stream to look for nymphs and larva.  Found none.  It’s like the stream is sterile.  I wonder about its capacity to support fish.  Maybe I was fishing in fishless water.  (I’ve never had to use that excuse before).  It was discouraging because it was such a beautiful river to spend the afternoon fishing.

It was sunny since we arrived and I put the solar panel out.

I made some ½ lb burgers with some Angus beef I bough at Fred Meyer earlier today.  It was the best burger of the trip.  Red Robin might want the recipe.

In the afternoon a big fifth wheel pulled up in an open area between sites 23 and 24 which is right on the river.  It was not a campsite.  They stayed there all day and when evening came, they left.  I thought they were trying free camping which is not uncommon, but they left after being here for about 8 hours.  I have no idea where they went that late.  Remember, though, the sun doesn’t set until 11:00 PM here and even then, it doesn’t really get dark.  Haven’t seen stars since we entered Canada 5 weeks ago.

Later a class C showed up and then a VW camper van showed up. 

Looking forward to another day here.