Alaska Trips...anyone done one and give recommendations

I plan on hanging up my Reserve Uniform, After 31 years some of the younger can step up, this old chief is ready to hang his hat. GF and I have talked about this and do somehting I have always wanted to do, take a trip Alaska.  Before everyone chimes in and says go see Howard McKim (which I am tryiong to work in there).  My better half will becoming with me.  I like thought of trying to take a smaller boat and cruise the inner channel in one of those old converted trawlers for a mother ship/ sea kayak, hiking, wildlife adventure...oh and some fishing and crabbing of course (I am open to almost anything so a boat tripis not exclusive).  I have  checked a couple of them out and they are steep, but it is a once in a lifetime thing.  Big cruise ship, doesn't really interest me, unless Princess has discovered how to troll for Salmon with that floating hotel.  So my questions are:

Has anyone done it,
if so with whom
Where did you fly into and out of?
Hotel's you would recommend or not recommend?
Guides good or bad?
Anything that made your trip great or made it suck royally?
Timne of the year you went?
What special things were going on at that time?
Would you do it again?
Anything else you would add?

Thanks for your comments up front!

Kevin

I've done something kind of similar: a two week self-guided sea kayak tour out of Sitka with a buddy. I relied a lot on a book callled "Sea Kayak Touring Southeast Alaska", or something similar. This would have a lot of relevance to a couple that flew into one of the bigger SE towns, rented a skiff, and took off. As you really don't want to be taking on nasty conditions in a rental skiff, and have limited cargo room.

Sitka was chosen because of the amount of average rainfall during the time period I'd chosen for the tour.  Ketchikan, if I recall correctly, had almost double the amount. And let me tell you, after a weeks constant drizzle/rain while kayaking and touring, there's no way I'd have wanted double what we had. Of course, with a skiff and using some of the Forest Service rental cabins along the water in SE, rainfall is not as much of an issue.

Research appropriate clothing. Goretex does not cut it day after day after day, if it can't get fully dried out. Helly Hansen Impertech is highly thought of.

There are big (*&%!!  bears up there. And if you're cruising around somewhat quietly, you will see them. Ditto for while you're camping. Nothing like a pile of bear turd about a foot in diameter, with the turds themselves about 2" in diameter to let you know there are some BIG critters about. Some folks recommend pepper spray, but the 80 year old granny, when she heard we were packing firearms instead said, and I quote "Oh, that's good". Then there were the 5 surfers we passed going the other direction while hiking one day. The three guys had the big loads, the two women had smaller backpacks and riot guns.

Then there are the waters themselves. If you're staying inside, and the weather isn't blowing down a channel, then the seas aren't too bad. PAY ATTENTION to narrows during tide changes. Some of those have currents running darn near 10 knots. Pay attention to tides as well, You really don't want to anchor your skiff at high tide, then have it 200 yards from water when you want to leave. Ditto anchoring it at low tide, and having it 200 yards from shore when you want to leave. There are anchoring solutions to the tide issue, know those.

Back to the FS cabins. We booked one for two days, and a second one for a single day. Best damned $35 a night I've ever spent. Be prepared to bring your own #1 fuel oil for these.  Here's a link to the cabin website:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/activity/tongass/recreation/camping-cabins/?recid=78613&actid=101


Southeast is by far the most amazing combination of earth and water I've ever been exposed to. And I've been to Australia, Kauai, New Zealand, the Virgin Islands.  I'm going to make my dang kids paddle me around there one more time, if I can't do it myself. I'll leave the wife at home if needed. Words.  Just.  Fail.  Kodiak fishes better, but SE has a lock on beauty.

Read, ask questions of locals, come up with a sketch of an itinerary and gear list, run that by locals, then modify as needed. Then GO!!!

Scott

8 of us (4 couples) did a 14 nite land based trip this August.  Sounds like our trip was somewhat different than you have in mind.  We plan to go back for sure.

Even at 14 nites we just touched the tip of the iceberg.  We flew into Anchorage picked up the RV's (4 couples, 4 RVs)and headed north to Denali. Spent only 2 nites there and did a bus tour into the park on one of the days. Awesome scenery, moose, caribou, grizzly, Dall Sheep(no fish there)  turned around and headed back south and spent a nite in Talketna and woke up to spectacular views of the river and Mt Mckinley. Continued south back thru Anchorage and ended up spending the nite in the Williwaw campground in the Chugach Nat Forest, beautiful place with glaciers hanging above the campground and salmon actively spawning 100 yds from camp. From there we headed onto the Kenai Penninsila thru Soldotna, and on to the town of Kenai, spent some time there looking for Beluga whales, not much doing there so we headed to Homer, spent 3 days and 2 nites in Homer. Went out on a half day halibut charter, caught small halis (called chickens about 16-20#) caught fish non-stop till I got tired and just started watching others and taking pics.

Headed back north and stopped in Soldotna and fished the Kenai river a little but no good run of salmon was there so all we caught were pinks (humpys), there were a few silvers but we didn't catch any.  Continued north, east then south to Seward and finally sayed put for 3 nights, took the all day Kenai Fijords Tour boat, (AWESOME). (continued) to eat halibut every nite after Homer, then gifted it around camp til someone gifted silver salmon back, (best ever).

Back north outta Seward and stayed another nite at Williwaw campground, with even more spawners in the creek, fished in the open sections of the local river but couldn't get any takers. Back to Anchorage and home.

Best trip in my life.

Our next trip will probably be land based as well but we'll do Fairbanks, Tok, Valdez, Prince William Sound tour.

With all that said I think the trip I just described is different than you had in mind.  Our trip was nowhere near the south western Alaska zone up against Canada like I think you're talking about.  But no matter where you go be ready for the most mind blowing scenery you can imagine. It just cannot be described.

We didn't use any guides,
Anchorage isn't a place to stay unless you like creepy cities.
Homer is a cool town with an awesome bakery.
We drove 14 days on Alaskan hiways in a 4 RV caravan and NOT ONCE did we run into a driver I'd consider unfriendly.

In the part of the state we were in the peak season ends Aug 15, our trip ran Aug 18 to Sept 1. This allowed us with early (by dec 15) reservations to get the RVs at half price.  The weather was great, but if you're in Alaska you're gonna get rained on often.  But for us it never got cold.  Mid 60s daytime 40s at night.

One word GO,

Now that's interesting, I didn't read Scott's post til after I put mine up and yet we still ended with the same word........

A few years ago iIflew in to Anchorage and rented a car. we drove down the Kenai peninsula. we fished 2 days out on the spit for big Halibut out of ninilchik. At that time they had an all female crewed boat called the ninilchicks, but us on some good size 'butts.  We rented a cabin and fished most of the peninsula. Homer is a cool little town too.

I've been to Alaska many times  and all over.  I even did a 5 week trip in which we drove up.  There is so much to see and it is easy to get sucked into trying to do it all.  Focus on 1 or 2 areas, base out of them, and explore.  You'll get a lot more out of it than shotgunning.  One trip I like doing with a sig other is somewhere in the Kenai then up to Denali.  A few years back we took a sea kayaking trip out of Seward with Chris Mautino at Liquid Adventures.  We did this with another couple.  Kayaking with killer whales, dodging black bears, and pin balling through ice flows was amazing.  The woman really really really liked it.  Then we went up to Denali to experience the interior.  I've been to Denali 4 times now.  I can't get enough of it.

If you're really adventurous, there are options to get dropped off at remote cabins with a couple of kayaks.  You, your woman, and nature ... nothing more.    The trip is not for everyone, but if this is the sort of thing you dig, then you got to do it!

Got plenty of info to share, if you can narrow it down a bit.

-Allen

Guys, thanks for the great tips.  I am thinking for this trip, stay in agiven area and try to explore as much of it as possible.  the Tsongass NP sounds interesting ot both of us.  I am thinking June or July time frame to get to see those long nights.  I can see the need for multiple Go pro batteries on this trip!

Guys, thanks for the great tips.  I am thinking for this trip, stay in agiven area and try to explore as much of it as possible.  the Tsongass NP sounds interesting ot both of us.  I am thinking June or July time frame to get to see those long nights.  I can see the need for multiple Go pro batteries on this trip!

If you're talking about the Tongass NF, that covers ALL of SE Alaska ... that's a HUGE area.

I once took the ferry down the inside passage, sleeping on the deck at night, getting off at any towns we thought my be interesting to stay a bit.  Started at Haines and worked our way down to Prince Rupert.  This was long before the days of an Alaska Cruise, but I sort of think about it as my own personal Alaska Cruise.  That was on the way home from our 5 week trip.  We were riding an old 1974 FJ40 Landcruiser with a Chevy 350 transplant.  I tell you, short wheel base, stiff suspension vehicles are not the vehicle of choice for taking the Alaska Highway.  When we got on the ferry, the started somehow got stuck spinning.  Had to disconnect it and bump start the cruiser for the rest of the trip.  Damn, those were the days.

-Allen

Guys, thanks for the great tips.  I am thinking for this trip, stay in agiven area and try to explore as much of it as possible.  the Tsongass NP sounds interesting ot both of us.  I am thinking June or July time frame to get to see those long nights.  I can see the need for multiple Go pro batteries on this trip!

If you're talking about the Tongass NF, that covers ALL of SE Alaska ... that's a HUGE area.

I once took the ferry down the inside passage, sleeping on the deck at night, getting off.  Damn, those were the days.
-Allen

that sounded dirty.

Guys, thanks for the great tips.  I am thinking for this trip, stay in agiven area and try to explore as much of it as possible.  the Tsongass NP sounds interesting ot both of us.  I am thinking June or July time frame to get to see those long nights.  I can see the need for multiple Go pro batteries on this trip!

If you're talking about the Tongass NF, that covers ALL of SE Alaska ... that's a HUGE area.

I once took the ferry down the inside passage, sleeping on the deck at night, getting off.  Damn, those were the days.
-Allen

that sounded dirty.

BTDT. Yup, it is

I did an 8-day trip up to Sitka a few years back.  A friend-of-a-friend is a part-time guide, he invited us up and we were able to use his boat, his gear, just had to buy gas/beer/bait.  We stayed in the FS cabins 3 nights, otherwise in his crappy apartment in Sitka but we didn't care, with 20 hours of daylight we practically didn't sleep the entire time anyways.  The very first day, very first drop resulted in this 'butt, and it just got better from there.  As stated above, GO!

Kevin,

First off Congrats on retirement and thanks for your service.

I have been to Alaska 4 times and am heading up there again July 2013 for 10 days. I go with Tim Berg's Alaskafishing and I must say they have the best outfit around. Great crews on the boats. The trip runs about 3K without airfare, rental car, or gratuity, but you get six days of fising and gourmet food for dinner. Here is the link. http://www.alaskanfishing.com/

How many of you brought your rods and reels with you, or just reels?  or relied on the guides equipment?  Trying to balance weight.

How many of you shipped frozen fish home, and was it worth the expense (i.e. it got lost or spoiled).

Anything any of you could recommend as the absolute must have item?  Did any of you pack heat, if so what, and how was shipping it?

Any customs you would pass on? I don't want to tick off a native caused I took a leak on the sacred tree.

If you are military also look into Military resorts.  I did the trip to Alaska awhile ago and we stayed at the one in Seward.  It was pretty cheap at the time plus they have a charter boat that runs out for guests as well.

We also utilized guides as well and some days we were on our own (2 people had gone a number of times before).   We did bring our own gear for salmon and relied on the guides gear for halibut/lings.  The RF we did was pretty shallow so utilized our salmon gear which made it fun.

I'm actually looking at planning a trip probably in 2014 but will probably go with a resort somewhere to make it easy.

Kevin,

I have brought a fly rod and a light action conventional for silver and sockeye salmon. I have a 4-wt St Croix that I used on the Kenai River for trout. A bit small but it does work. As for the conventional it is just a Shimano setup that is a little lighter than what they use on their boats. The deckhands think I'm crazy but I handle those silvers quite well on it. I also used it on "black bass" that can go almost 10 pounds. Real fun with those on such a light outfit. I also bring my own swim baits and a few iron jigs for lingcod.