Swanson Lake in the kenai National Wildlife Refuge is the best rainbow trout fishing lake that I’ve found. I reestablished a campsite on it that was overgrown and appeared unused for maybe twenty years. That was more than thirty years ago and up until 2020 I hadn’t missed a year.
In 2020 I had a back injury that kept me away. In July of 2021 I attempted to do the trip with my wife but only made it half way in due to a combination of being packed too heavy during a record breaking heat wave.
This was the year I had to get back and I only had a short time this fall to get it done. The weather was terrible with heavy rain and wind with only one day in the ten day forecast that looked like it might be partly sunny.
My plan was to do it as an overnighter, leaving early on that partly sunny day. It’s a four hour drive and almost five hours portaging and paddling when I double carry. I was hoping to lighten my load enough to do a single carry which would cut traveling time almost in half.
First I would have to take a lighter boat, my Mohawk Solo13, and eliminate a lot of stuff from my kit. No hot tent, no chair, no frying pan, ax or saw among other things. I was down to a bare minimum but my pack still weighed 41 lbs. I was hoping it was more like 30 to 35 because I assumed the boat to be around 35lbs and I wanted to keep the total weight around 70-75.
Things didn't look too promising on the drive down
.
Great weather at the put in.
The first port on this trip is a half mile and starts with a long uphill. Right off the bat the load was too heavy and I was having a hard time getting a deep breath. I had some doubts if I was going to make it and had to come up with a plan. One idea was to ditch the tent and sleep under the tarp saving 6 pounds maybe making it doable. The other more sensible plan I came up with was to double carry the uphills and single carry the downhills and flats. This would still save time, just not as much. This worked well and it only took about 3 hours and 15 minutes shaving off at least an hour from my normal time.
Once I got the tump adjusted right I decided it was possible to carry a pack using a tump while carrying the boat.
First nights campsite on Swanson Lake
I had to dig out the hatchet that I have stashed here and was surprised to see all of the wood that I had left there over three years before. I was also surprised that it was still dry, even after record rain for August and a still very wet September.
The fishing was awesome, unfortunately the photos weren't
This guy was over two feet and maybe 6 or 7 pounds. I got another big one like this one and two others around 18" in only about an hour of fishing.
The weather was better than predicted so I let my wife know I was staying another day via my In Reach. I packed up, stashed the hatchet and was happy to have lots of wood for next time. This wood was cut short to fit my folding wood stove, which I will bring in the spring,
hopefully.
I used to stash some wood and the hatchet under a bench that I had built on the site. Even though it was in plain site nobody ever found or used it in all of those years. Now I have a bigger stash that holds lots of wood a little behind the site.
It wasn't easy leaving the best trout lake I know of, but paddling adventure trumps fishing so I moved on. This picture shows the only break I took on the .9 mile portage to Gene Lake. I was surprised to get it all done in a single carry.
Following are some pictures of Gene Lake, the campsite and some more bad fish photos.
This is the outlet of Gene that heads toward the main branch of the Swanson River. This is where the silver salmon hang out.
This guy grabbed my lure when I wasn't even fishing, it must have been dangling in or near the water. I didn't know what it was at first because it was small but I think it was a "jack" silver. A jack salmon is one that returns to spawn before they mature fully.
This is my second nights site. Not pretty but utilitarian.
I packed up and took off by about 10:00, caught a nice trout and then hit the portage trail. It was good to get back to this area because I haven't been there in a long time. The ports were long and hilly but the lakes are scenic and it went quick.
There were some blowdowns but non were hard to get around.
It was a great trip and I couldn't have been happier. It was the first time I have been down there since I got a gps app on my phone so now I know some of the details. Total mileage was 23.25 miles and I paddled an additional 5 miles on two side trips I took on day two. One was to the outlet for the salmon and the other was to Pepper Lake where I went to check on an old campsite I used to use, but is now grown over.
To get to my campsite on Swanson Lake was a little under 9.5 miles, then about 2.5 to get to Gene Lake. The trip out was 11.45 miles which included 1045 feet of elevation gain. Some of that gain was from double carrying the steeper sections but there were still some big hills. I also weighed my stuff this time which is a good idea to know what your limits are. I weighed the boat when I got home and with paddles it weighed 42 lbs. So now I know that the 83 lb. total is too heavy, for hills at least. The 42 lb canoe was nice by itself, so I would like to come close to that when buying a new tandem.
I always knew this was an ambitious trip but now after knowing what the actual distance is it made me really appreciate my wife, who was right there with me for most of it over the years.
In total I paddled 16 different lakes. doing 6 or 7 of them twice. There were 17 portages including the ones I did twice. The total one way distance of the portages was about 6.25 miles.
In 2020 I had a back injury that kept me away. In July of 2021 I attempted to do the trip with my wife but only made it half way in due to a combination of being packed too heavy during a record breaking heat wave.
This was the year I had to get back and I only had a short time this fall to get it done. The weather was terrible with heavy rain and wind with only one day in the ten day forecast that looked like it might be partly sunny.
My plan was to do it as an overnighter, leaving early on that partly sunny day. It’s a four hour drive and almost five hours portaging and paddling when I double carry. I was hoping to lighten my load enough to do a single carry which would cut traveling time almost in half.
First I would have to take a lighter boat, my Mohawk Solo13, and eliminate a lot of stuff from my kit. No hot tent, no chair, no frying pan, ax or saw among other things. I was down to a bare minimum but my pack still weighed 41 lbs. I was hoping it was more like 30 to 35 because I assumed the boat to be around 35lbs and I wanted to keep the total weight around 70-75.
Things didn't look too promising on the drive down
.
Great weather at the put in.
The first port on this trip is a half mile and starts with a long uphill. Right off the bat the load was too heavy and I was having a hard time getting a deep breath. I had some doubts if I was going to make it and had to come up with a plan. One idea was to ditch the tent and sleep under the tarp saving 6 pounds maybe making it doable. The other more sensible plan I came up with was to double carry the uphills and single carry the downhills and flats. This would still save time, just not as much. This worked well and it only took about 3 hours and 15 minutes shaving off at least an hour from my normal time.
Once I got the tump adjusted right I decided it was possible to carry a pack using a tump while carrying the boat.
First nights campsite on Swanson Lake
I had to dig out the hatchet that I have stashed here and was surprised to see all of the wood that I had left there over three years before. I was also surprised that it was still dry, even after record rain for August and a still very wet September.
The fishing was awesome, unfortunately the photos weren't
This guy was over two feet and maybe 6 or 7 pounds. I got another big one like this one and two others around 18" in only about an hour of fishing.
The weather was better than predicted so I let my wife know I was staying another day via my In Reach. I packed up, stashed the hatchet and was happy to have lots of wood for next time. This wood was cut short to fit my folding wood stove, which I will bring in the spring,
hopefully.I used to stash some wood and the hatchet under a bench that I had built on the site. Even though it was in plain site nobody ever found or used it in all of those years. Now I have a bigger stash that holds lots of wood a little behind the site.
It wasn't easy leaving the best trout lake I know of, but paddling adventure trumps fishing so I moved on. This picture shows the only break I took on the .9 mile portage to Gene Lake. I was surprised to get it all done in a single carry.
Following are some pictures of Gene Lake, the campsite and some more bad fish photos.
This is the outlet of Gene that heads toward the main branch of the Swanson River. This is where the silver salmon hang out.
This guy grabbed my lure when I wasn't even fishing, it must have been dangling in or near the water. I didn't know what it was at first because it was small but I think it was a "jack" silver. A jack salmon is one that returns to spawn before they mature fully.
This is my second nights site. Not pretty but utilitarian.
I packed up and took off by about 10:00, caught a nice trout and then hit the portage trail. It was good to get back to this area because I haven't been there in a long time. The ports were long and hilly but the lakes are scenic and it went quick.
There were some blowdowns but non were hard to get around.
It was a great trip and I couldn't have been happier. It was the first time I have been down there since I got a gps app on my phone so now I know some of the details. Total mileage was 23.25 miles and I paddled an additional 5 miles on two side trips I took on day two. One was to the outlet for the salmon and the other was to Pepper Lake where I went to check on an old campsite I used to use, but is now grown over.
To get to my campsite on Swanson Lake was a little under 9.5 miles, then about 2.5 to get to Gene Lake. The trip out was 11.45 miles which included 1045 feet of elevation gain. Some of that gain was from double carrying the steeper sections but there were still some big hills. I also weighed my stuff this time which is a good idea to know what your limits are. I weighed the boat when I got home and with paddles it weighed 42 lbs. So now I know that the 83 lb. total is too heavy, for hills at least. The 42 lb canoe was nice by itself, so I would like to come close to that when buying a new tandem.
I always knew this was an ambitious trip but now after knowing what the actual distance is it made me really appreciate my wife, who was right there with me for most of it over the years.
In total I paddled 16 different lakes. doing 6 or 7 of them twice. There were 17 portages including the ones I did twice. The total one way distance of the portages was about 6.25 miles.
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