Day Five

Here are a few photos from the morning after we recovered in the Alpine Creek Lodge. After returning to the site of my raft flip to take a closer look at the cross-current and search thoroughly for the remaining meat, we drove back to Fairbanks via Cantwell.

We learned many lessons on this trip from what was done right, and what went wrong or could have:

• Don't trust topo maps in steep places.
  
• Be very careful of strong cross-currents.
  
• Run straps through loops in everything.
  
• Keep dry clothes in a very secure drybag. They're worth the weight.
  
• Wear a good foam life vest (my inflatable one never inflated) with survival gear in zippered pockets.
  
• Float the river without a round in the chamber. (I did this, and was glad.)
  

This trip could have had an ugly end if disaster hadn't chosen such a convenient place to strike.