Retrieved flooded moose camp today (Pics)

Great adventure. River still at flood stage. Trees & log jams all over the place.
Boat is pretty fast with just me & gas.
Camp had about 12" of water over the fire pit & about 16"in our tents.
Needless to say they may need cleaned & dried out before storing for the winter.
Had to drain them first, then bag them up.
Canoe was just above the flood so I got lucky.
Had to use a different boat launch. 15 mile one way run on the river, dodging trees & logs.
Success though. Only scared myself a couple times.

My kinda adventure for sure!

Worst part was, some of the fire wood floated away.
I managed to retrieve some of it.
The high & heavier stacks didn't float off
Before :


Now:

Yeah, that's my kind of partay. Love those wild adventures! Glad you faired out, OK. As for the camp, it didn't do so good! At least you didn't lose your tents, but the firewood loss brings a tear to my eye........

I don't need to tell you but be very careful man. The downed trees are what can get you in trouble, if you find a spot you are unsure of. Walk the boat around, not worth it.

One of the crazy things I was seeing some huge neatly stacked log jams 10 - 12 foot high.
Wanted to get a picture & share them but was smart enough to keep my concentration on what's in front of the boat.
Also thought, man if I could get out here & cut wood, I'd be set for life.

Some google earth pics of Susitna river not in flood stage.
Over a mile wide & many channels, log jams & gravel bars
Several log jams:

Section here is over a mile wide, camp is on the West side :

Ain't it the truth. We have a good sized "creek" that runs through a golf course I help out from time to time. It floods after heavy rains if the area is already saturated. Last year was crazy, this year, no flood. We usually can count on at least one major flood in the spring after the snowmelt.

There are four bridges that span this creek (about 50-60 ft wide), one carries a major irrigation line across. I've been in a boat cutting 20"+ trees that log-jammed the bridge piers (post Hurricane Irene/Lee) in order to save the bridges. Not fun. Extremely dangerous and I do not recommend anyone try this just for the heck of it.

What type of boat do you have Dave . . . jet boat or regular prop?

Been there, done that...except I didn't have a boat as much it was a raft. Be careful...things can go very wrong very quick.

Owner of the course doesn't remember my name but calls me "the crazy SOB with the saw". Very funny when spoken with a taiwanese accent.

You mean your chainsaw isn't wearing an approved flotation device? Don't let the DNR catch you.

Prop. 35hp Mudbuddy surface prop. A old 18' flat bottom river boat.
I started running the Susitna river in the late 70s with regular prop 35 HP Johnson. I learned the hard way how to read the river & follow the deep channels.

Most run jets. But when the water is high, lots of logs, bark sticks. The suction screen gets plugged pretty fast & they loose power.
Jets use more fuel, a 60 HP engine is about a 40 HP effective at the jet unit.

I went from a regular prop to the Mudbuddy 3 years ago. Air cooled, very tough, heavy duty SS prop & more versatile.
I can grind thru mud, weeds, & the junk in the water has no effect on the air cooled "lawn mower" engine.
I can jump logs & low beaver dams & keep going. Don't need to be in water to run it.
Most rivers here are muddy/silty & wear out the water pumps on outboards pretty fast.

Cool mud running video: http://www.mudbuddy.com/Videos Amazing Mud.html



Last year:
Set up:

Cool . . . you obviously knew where I was going with the question . . . I was wondering about the extra silt and debris in the water . . . cool video on the Mud Buggy -- first I've seen of this since it's almost exclusively props up this way with deeper waterways.

That's some crazy boating there! Cool setup. I little different from my Hudson River down here in NY.

Probably shouldn't stir the bottom of that one up.

If my prop is hitting the bottom of the Hudson, something bad has happened.

The river channels & gravel/sand bars are moving all the time.
Every time I go out, the river has changed.
With the flood, there were lots of changes. It cleared out allot of snags, (trees) & I had to find the new channel into the slough where camp is.
River can go from 10' deep to a shallow gravel bar fast. Got to be paying attention 100% of the time.

1986 was the last big flood this bad, so I'm hoping to be able to use camp next year.
A tough place to get into, but that's what makes it a good moose camp.
I put some effort into getting firewood there & what's camping with out a good fire

I almost got stranded on the Denali Hwy about a week and half ago due to rising waters. Luckily I have Tracks on my grizzly and was able to make it through stuff I wouldnt of been able to otherwise. Took about 6 trips to ferry everyone back and fourth. Will be headed back this week to retrieve the neighbors wheeler and a meat trailer we were unable to bring out due to rapid rising water! Was some scary stuff for sure. Read in ADN there is something like 60 + hunting parties that got stranded. Luckily we had a Wx radio and were smart enough to listen to their warnings instead of trying to wait it out, no caribou is worth a human life!

Bazar year .
New a few hunters got stranded in Peters Creek area when the bridge washed out.
Next year will be better