By Bill Wagner
Most folks don’t give a
second thought to where their Stikine River salmon comes from. They should.
Flowing more than 400 miles
from its headwaters in British Columbia in Canada, the Stikine is the
birthplace of millions of salmon each year.
All five salmon species of
salmon — king, sockeye, Coho, humpback/pink and chum — call the river home.
“It’s a significant wild
river in North America,” said Brenda Schwartz-Yeager, who, along with her
husband John, operates Alaska Charters and Adventures (www.alaskaupclose.com), who shows
tourists a river that is close to her heart. She’s one of several captains that
offer tours. They also ferry in kayakers, backpackers and trout fishermen.
“The Stikine is one of the
few navigable wild rivers that don’t have dams, bridges or cities. It doesn’t
have a lot of human impact on it.”
And that’s what makes it
special.
She grew up on the river,
often traveling with her dad, Skip, who was a wildlife biologist. For the past
26 years she’s been sharing her love of the pristine wilderness.
Most recently she’s been
using a custom designed and built jet boat that skims across the often shallow
spots as the river gets ready to dump into the waters of the Zomovia Strait off
the island of Wrangell in southwest Alaska.
Actually on this trip, I not
only got to see the river from the jet boat but also took a closer look thanks
to Earl Benitz and his aluminum skiff.
Earl and his wife, Mary, live
year-round on Farm Island, which is about seven miles north of Wrangell. That’s
seven miles on a map, but probably 14 miles or so by the time boaters make
their way around the sandbars of the Stikine’s huge delta.
Farm Island was homesteaded
decades ago and now those homesteads have been broken up into smaller parcels.
Four months out of the year, Earl and Mary are iced in.
The low-lying delta is
littered with the stripped and bleached remnants of one-proud 100-foot spruce
tree along with hemlock and cottonwoods. Some have traveled hundreds of miles
before beaching themselves on the sandbars.
Cruising the river and its
many tributaries and offshoots, the banks are lined with trees dangling at differing
angles, waiting to be claimed as the rushing waters eat away at the banks.
While much of the river is
silt-covered, there are creeks that are crystal clear.
The scenery is spectacular.
The sky is blue, the trees a brilliant green. Pristine. Stunning. Spectacular.
When the boat motor is off,
one has to wonder if Simon & Garfunkel had the Stikine in mind when they
collaborated on “Sounds of Silence.”
While we see coyote, moose
and bear tracks, we don’t run into any wildlife.
Interestingly, while the
river is loaded with fish, not much fishing goes on — at least folks with
poles. Upriver some fly fishermen go after trout.
Most fish taken from the
river itself fall victim to gill nets of subsistence fishermen. The Stikine is
in an area designated for local residents to use the nets.
While most fishermen go after
the salmon in saltwater, the migrating fish in the Stikine are still mighty
tasty.
“The salmon have been
genetically altered to adapt to the long journey home,” Schwartz-Yeager
said. They are loaded with the right
kind of oils that makes them tastier, she added.
The river is lined with
snow-capped peaks of the Coastal Range. Unlike the Rockies, which are sheer
granite, these mountains are mostly covered with green trees. Only the very
tops exposed thanks to the gale force winds that blow in the winter months.
If it’s Alaska, there’s bound
to be a glacier nearby. For this part of the Stikine its Shakes Glacier, which
creates Shakes Lake.
The Shakes Glacier melts off
to create Shakes Lake which in turn empties into the Stikine. There’s plenty of
ice in the lake from the calving glacier. On of the few good days in September,
boats can get closer to the glacier than we did in mid-July.
Between
the glacier and the Stikine delta, hot water from Chief
Shakes Hot Springs bubbles to the surface. The U.S. Forest captures the
steaming water in a couple of wooden hot tubs — one inside a screened hut with
the other in the open. It might not be much of a treat in summer, but in the
winter snowmobilers and those with hovercraft can drop in for a relaxing
afternoon or evening.
In
April, the river comes alive with eagles swooping down to feast on hooligan run.
Like salmon, the tiny hooligan return to where they hatched.
For more information on other companies offering
tours, hotels in Wrangell and the Stikine and Wrangell itself, visit www.wrangell.com
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