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 The Ketchikan to Wrangell leg is surely one of the more challenging and interesting legs on Erin and Hig's Journey on the Wild Coast mega-transect. Bob met with Erin and Hig in Ketckikan to plan the details of this section of their trip and to join them on as much of the trek as he could handle.
This leg begins in Ketchikan with a paddle south out of town and east into Carrol Inlet. Once into the heart of Revilla island, the plan is to walk across the island to the NE into Misty Fjords National Monument. Another saltwater paddle will be involved in crossing the Behm Canal and getting into the head of Walker Inlet. From the head of Walker inlet the trekkers will walk over a small ridge into the Chickamin River valley. As soon as is reasonable they will board their packrafts to descend the south fork of the Chickamin River to the confluence with the Leduc River. Next there is a 20 mile section of gravel bar hopping up the Leduc River to a pass that connects to a small tributary of the Unuk River called Lake Creek. The route will probably stay in the upper elevations of this pass until reaching a point up the Unuk watershed that is close to where the Blue Lava flow comes into the valley from the NW. The plan is to at least explore a portion of the Blue Lava valley before heading further up the Unuk valley to a long and surprisingly low open ridge that will drop the trekkers into the Iskut River valley in Canada. It is in this area of the leg that Erin and Hig are particularly interested in the recent increase in mineral exploration activitiies. They are hoping to get an on the ground impression of the mining work in this area so that they might better participate in informed discussions of the conservation issues associated with such activiites.
The rest of the route is fairly straight forward in terms of picking a route because the plan is to simply float down the Iskut river to the Stikine and float down the Stikine to Wrangell. Though the route is straight forward, the actual experience will remain challenging as the Iskut has a reputation for complicated braids and abundant sweepers. Click on the thumbnail above to see a large version of the route for this leg of the trip or click here to use a KML file to view the route in google earth.
What about Bob?
 As mentioned above, Bob joined Erin and Hig in Ketchikan to help with route planning and logistics and then left town with the couple via packraft. After finishing the food shopping and a dockside interview with the Ketchikan Daily news the trio were late in leaving town and so ended up camping their first night near the outskirts at a location called Mountain Point.
 The next day involved a long paddle up Carrol Inlet to Marble Creek. From their the trio packed up and loaded their rafts and then bushwacked up the Marble Creek valley into the logging road system for a dusk hike up to their second camp.
By the middle of the third day it became apparent to Bob that he could not keep up the pace that Erin and Hig were setting and he opted to bow out in what he hopes was a graceful manner. Given that the crew only had 14 days of food on their backs and there were no resupply points available it was too much to ask for a slower pace to accomodate Bob's acclimation to the fitness level of the trekkers. Although he had been training for a couple weeks prior to the meeting in Ketchikan it is clear that it was overly-ambitious to expect to keep up with Erin and Hig on such a difficult leg after they had 2 months of trekking under their (much tighter) belts.
As sad as it was for Bob to part with Erin and Hig in the upper Marble Creek valley he felt it was well worth the effort to get even a few days with these amazing folks. We are all excited to continue to track their progress as they make their way to Unimak Island!
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