Explorer Creek, Chugach National Forest Alaska

[lowangle al]

I did a day trip to Explorer Creek on Tuesday. Funny thing is, I never even heard of Explorer Creek until I looked at a more detailed map a day later on Wednesday. This was a trip that didn't go down as planned. My plan was to take the scenic drive to the Portage Valley and put in on one of the ponds there to do some fishing, have lunch and take some pictures.

My plan went off the rails pretty quickly, as I ate my lunch on the drive down. After turning onto the Portage valley road I pulled in at the first pond I came to. I may have never been to this pond before because I was surprised to find that it was glacial water. I'm not fond of fishing glacial water so I decided not to rig up and do some exploring instead. I paddled up the valley until I found the inlet to the pond and followed it until the water spread out and turned into a grassy flat. I took that as far as I could easily go without getting out of the boat and dragging and turned around after about 3/4 of a mile to see what was downstream.I went downstream as far as I could and ran out of navigable water. There was a large volume of water in the creek and I was determined to find out where it went. I searched to the right and then to the left but didn't find an outlet. I did find some high ground at this point and got out to see if I could find the flow again by going overland. After a short bushwhack portage I found water deep enough to float my boat and found the channel shortly after that.I followed this channel for a few hundred yards until it got too narrow and fast and appeared to be choked with trees. At this point I was only about a half mile from tidewater and could see it in the distance. I was surprised to see on my gps map that the channel didn't go straight towards the highway and under the bridge with the sign on it naming it Portage Creek #2, the creek I assumed I was on. Instead, according to my map, the channel turned south and joined Skookum Creek, which then joined the Placer River before entering salt water in a totally different drainage. Someday I may go back and continue on when I have some wading shoes.All in all it was a great trip. It had good potential for silver salmon fishing in season and a nice spot that could be a comfortable campsite, although it showed no signs of previous use.

 

[Halpc]

Sounds like a fun exploration in a beautiful area. Nice photos. The mountains are a little different scale than the Poconos! Does glacial water just have different types of fish? Or are you comparing it to salt water?

 

[Gamma1214]

Thanks for taking the time & writing it up. Great pics too. (especially like the last one)

I'd wondered about the glacial water too... different fish?

 

[ppine]

Nice photos Al. I worked on the Tongass NF for parts of two years. I have traveled around Alaska and fallen in love with rivers several times a week. But I have never fished there or run any rivers. I was mostly working all the time.

 

[Mason]

Nice snooping around! Looks like you're having good weather--friends are on the Copper from Chitina to Cordova. I wanted to do that trip when I lived up there (flew it a lot), but I had unreliable partners. Gorgeous area.

 

[tketcham]

My plan was to take the scenic drive to the Portage Valley and put in on one of the ponds there to do some fishing, have lunch and take some pictures...
All in all it was a great trip. It had good potential for silver salmon fishing in season and a nice spot that could be a comfortable campsite, although it showed no signs of previous use.

Boy, your post brings back memories. I worked out of Girdwood one year and the Forest Service would let our crew use the Portage Glacier visitor center to take a shower once a week or two. A few times we took the train to Whittier for work out in Prince William Sound.

While I was there I wished I'd had a canoe to explore the ponds and streams in the Portage Valley but never got the chance and never went back. Your post lets me live the wish vicariously. We didn't catch any salmon in the streams around Girdwood but did catch some tasty Humpy (Pink) salmon out of Resurrection Creek when we were stationed in Hope.

 

[lowangle al]

I never really thought of the Portage Valley as a canoe destination but it would make a good first stop for someone on an Alaskan "canoe" vacation. You can leave the East Coast in the afternoon and be on the water by noon the following day. You fly all night, get a rental car at the airport, do your grocery shopping and pick up a canoe at REI by 10 AM. It's a short and scenic drive to Portage and it's close enough to Girdwood for dinner or some nightlife with some local flavor. You are still close enough to Anchorage to go back if you forgot anything, or just to do some sightseeing.

As far as the fishing goes, there are probably the same fish in the glacial water as in the non glacial water in that area, which are just rainbow trout and Dolly Varden and salmon in season. The fishing in the glacial water of Explorer Creek may have been good that day for all I know. My past experience is that it is not productive so I didn't rig up.

I went back down there yesterday expecting to do some more exploring. My first choice was to paddle up the Placer River. Second choice was to go back to Explorer creek to check it out upstream from where I was the other day, possibly go right to its start at the Explorer Glacier.

When I got to the Placer River, it looked too fast to try paddling up and I didn't have a pole. I also decided not to go back to Explorer Creek because it was raining in Portage valley. Rain is a problem in the valley because of its' proximity to Prince William Sound. When it is cloudy in south central Ak there is a good chance it will be raining in the valley, and the further up the valley you go the harder it will be raining.

I ended up driving another half hour or so to Lower Summit Lake. I've driven past this lake many times but never stopped. I started out exploring up the inlet creek which would have led me to Summit Lake in a mile and a half, but it was tough going with no pole so I decided to do some fishing. I expected to find grayling and lake trout like in the upper Summit Lake but when I casted to some rising fish was surprised to get a Dolly Varden and then a rainbow. I had non stop action catching lots of fish and keeping two for dinner. I missed one big rainbow trout that snapped a five lb. test leader. It was the most aggressive strike I ever had on a small dry fly and the fish took off so fast that the line couldn't come off the reel fast enough.

All in all it was another great day, but I much prefer a good day of exploring/paddling to one of fishing.Here are a few pictures.
seen on the ride down.

The Dolly is the larger of the two.
Inlet creek

 

[tketcham]

I never really thought of the Portage Valley as a canoe destination...

Me either really, but my crew and I didn't have much to do while we were stationed in Girdwood at the time so doing some local canoeing would have been a great diversion from hanging out at the local bar.

Nice rainbow and Dolly.