5 Day Float Trip Through Alaska's Wilderness ¦ Remote Camping & Fishing

For the next five days we'll be floating a remote river through Alaska's Copper River Valley. With everything we need packed into a raft we'll make our way downstream. Camping along the river, cooking over the fire, and fishing some of these cold wild Alaskan waters. There's white water ahead, miles of wilderness, and a whole lot of river between here and the takeout. So with the raft loaded and the dogs along for the ride it's time to push off and see what we find. Look at the size of that thing. Oh my gosh. Our shuttle has just dropped us off and we are officially on our own. It looks like we have a good headwind to start this trip off and we're going to have about four miles to paddle across this lake until we begin our journey down the rivers. So it might be a bit of a challenge. I see some good whitecaps out there but we're just going to hug the shoreline and make it to our river baby. This is a good puzzle right here. We're trying to strap down all of our gear so when we go through rapids nothing bumps out of the boat. So we're learning. We're learning the program here. There you go. Here we go. The wind has been relentless but we just crossed our first bay. It feels like we're paddling against a brick wall at some points. We're rounding our third bay and we'll see what's around the next corner. It's been brutal so far. I'm pretty sure you could run this raft down the Grand Canyon. It's an absolute tank and sometimes I haven't even been able to move it into this wind but we have crossed about four out of the six bays that we need to go through until we reach the outlet and we're just slowly making our way. I see the river mouth. Well we just entered the river here. I saw a few fish jump. I'm not sure what they were but I think they were salmon. So the first step is is I'm going to rig up an anchor system then I'm going to get my rods ready and we'll start casting. We have to find the right rock here for an anchor. I think that's our one right there. We've got an anchor. That should work for now. Oh I just had one hit it. We got a fish on baby. Oh he's jumping baby. Whether or not it comes to the boat we're going down to set up camp but I want to land it. Oh there we go. We got him buddy. This fish has been in the river system for probably a couple weeks so it's a little bit older and we're not going to harvest this fish to eat but it's absolutely beautiful and I'm going to show you really quick. Beautiful sockeye salmon. What a way to start the trip. We're going to send him home. Oh there he goes. Oh nice jump. Today was a challenging day crossing that lake but we were at the top of a river stretch and we're going to have some big days ahead of us and really we've had a lot of big days coming into this trip. We've been going non-stop and tonight we're just going to have a simple dinner. We're just going to enjoy the scenery, take a breath and get ready for some big days on the river here. We had a nice meal. It's been a beautiful afternoon. We're going to get some sleep now and we'll see you first thing in the morning. It's the 2026 Great Northern Mosquito Hunt. Chickens of the sky. I got guts on my hat. Oh look at the clump of blood up there. Well it is a beautiful morning to start day two here. We had a great night's sleep last night. I think we slept like 12 or 13 hours which is pretty much a new record for both of us at this point in our life so we were very happy about that. The raft's loaded and we're set off for the day. So far this first stretch of river here has been very bony. I can tell that the water is extremely low right now and I'm not sure how that will affect the rapids as we move downstream. I've been having to dodge a lot of big boulders that are exposed and we've been bumping off a lot of rocks coming down but we are making our way and I just spotted a nice pot of salmon upstream from us here and I'm going to go try to fish them. It looked like mostly they were big red sockeye like the one that I caught last night but I'm going to see if there's some fresher ones around and maybe some rainbow trout sitting behind them eating their eggs. That was fun. Well I had some fun with those sockeye for a bit but it didn't look like there were any around that would be fresh with a high quality of meat so we're going to keep heading down river. Fish on. There you go. Oh yeah it feels nice. What a beauty. Oh nice one. She's on the board with a beautiful grayling. It's an honor to catch this fish. It's going to be great for dinner tonight. I want to show you their fin. Look at how beautiful that is. The river's braided off in a bunch of different directions here so I'm not sure if I'm taking the right channel but we're going to find out. We're back connected with the main channel now. That was a pretty rough and rocky ride through there. We're going to pull off and cast the dry fly a few times. Oh oh my gosh. Girl the fish came out of the water for it. That was so cool and it's a beautiful grayling. Look at that guy. The girl is up. Yeah. That'll work. Oh yeah. Oh yeah you got one. You got one. Oh and he's in the net baby. Nice. I'm loving fly fishing. What a beautiful fish. We're finally starting to get some more water in the main river system here. We've passed by several different tributaries that have been connecting but the first part of today has been pretty tough and I'm hoping that we'll have some fun rapids to run even though the water levels are low. I can really tell that the water is pretty bone dry right now so we're just gonna have to see what's in store but so far it's been a beautiful float. The fishing's been fantastic and we're gonna have a nice fish dinner tonight. That's a nice one baby. Nice. Now that we have enough grayling for dinner I'm gonna do some float fishing with beads and see if I can find some nice rainbow trout. I think I just stuck a nice rainbow on the drive by. Not a monster but it's a nice rainbow. Our first rainbow trout of the trip. Beautiful rainbow trout. There's a nice open spot here so we're gonna set our camp up. We're going for a camp fish. Fish on. Oh I think it's a rainbow bait. Oh look at that jumper. Oh it's a jumper. Oh my gosh. Oh and he came off. Oh my gosh. Oh oh oh my god. Ollie stay back. Ollie Ollie Ollie stay back. Oh he's jumping behind me. Ollie no buddy. This fish is so beautiful. Oh my gosh. Look at how beautiful it is and he's gone. That was a beautiful fish. This is how I'm doing it. We're going rice first then salt and pepper and then our fish on top of our rice. That right there is gonna be a feast and I'm excited about it. Everything I had hoped for. Would you like to go outside? Oh what a beautiful morning. My arms are pure lumps. The bugs have been annihilating us but it's hot out so I'm t-shirting it. The raft's loaded down. Let's get day three underway. It's been a very slow go so far today. A lot of flat water. I hate to say it but I don't think we hit conditions right for this one. We're really hoping to have some fun white water to paddle through and all the research that we did indicated that this was a nice class two to four white water river but when the water conditions are like this it's very tough, very slow. The rapids that we have gone through have been bony and we've been bumping off a lot of rocks but that's the way it goes and we're just going to make the best of it so we'll keep paddling on. Well finally we're back into some swift water again and we have a spot on our map that shows that there's a canyon up ahead with class three to four white water so we're going to get out and scout it out first before we try to run it. It looks like we'll have a pretty good rapid in this canyon but I'm just hoping it won't be too bony and we'll be able to run it. There's a couple areas I'm concerned about one of which is right here. We have three big boulders sticking out and with a fully loaded boat I'm just not sure I'll be able to make those tight turns so I think what we'll do is probably have Nicole and the dogs walk down to the end of the canyon and I'll run the boat down through. I wish the water was higher because it'd be a lot of fun and it'd be a piece of cake but right now with it being as low as it is it might be a little challenging. Big boulders, big boulders coming through here. Gonna just pick my way through them babes. Here we go, gonna bump off the rock wall it's okay. Come on big boat, come on big boat. We made it through the picket bench now we have a waterfall. We just came back to get the rest of our gear and I have to say that was quite fun but I am very glad we didn't try to run that with a full boat. Even being trimmed out like I was, I was bumping off a lot of rocks and I got pinned along that rock wall for a minute but I was able to wiggle my way out and we made it down through and look at this we have a mega campsite for tonight. Just beautiful right on the river you really can't beat it. Well camp is all set up as you can see we have another beautiful campsite and somebody was just doing some work on the portage trails so there were some big cut logs. I brought a nice stack of them down so we're gonna have a nice bonfire tonight and I think now it's time to go get washed up in the river because I'm feeling pretty sweaty. I just grabbed my float rod, I have my net and Ollie and I are going to take a walk up into the canyon for an hour or two and do a little fishing. For tonight we're making brinner which is breakfast for dinner and on the menu is farmer's omelets. We've got to run away. Top of the canyon first cast that's about oh my gosh that's a big fish oh my gosh it's jumping around oh my gosh oh my gosh he's on the bank it just jumped on the bank the fish just jumped on the bank come on now it is going berserk and we're going down in the canyon baby biggest fish yet by far he's going down in the white water right now we're duking it out in the white water this is intense oh my gosh he's jumping down there we're going down baby it is a standoff right now he's coming back upstream I gotta get down a little bit more I might be able to get him in here if I can stay Ollie stay stay out oh my gosh oh my gosh look at in the bald eagle flying through the canyon baby that is incredible incredible that's what we're looking for what a beautiful fish we're gonna get him right back whoa he's in the water there he goes back to his home venetian meats pork sausage oh this looks great I'm just finishing frying up that sausage I am going to saute some onions and peppers and then we're going to be ready to put these omelets together I don't have words for this an amazing day followed by an amazing meal no words could describe how good this tastes well good morning and welcome back to this crisp chilly morning the fog's just rising off the river right now it's about 5 30 and I'm gonna get up and go do some fishing but first we're gonna make a coffee and warm up by the fire it's only about 40 degrees right now so the coffee and fire is gonna feel good this morning we have mocha marshmallow coffee this morning we have a hot coffee time to go get in the canyon that coffee sure tastes good this morning we've arrived at the top of the canyon the sun's just starting to poke out and I'm gonna start working my way back down to camp now and we have a beautiful bald eagle get the net first cast there's a fish there's a fish on that's a fish oh a nice rainbow baby that's a beauty that's a beauty nice first one of the day nice beautiful fish beautiful fish to start the day I think that deserves a toast the fishing was pretty slow this morning I caught that one nice rainbow caught a few grayling but there wasn't a whole lot going on so I think we're gonna warm up some of our leftover dinner from last night have some omelet action and then hit the river we're all packed up and ready to set off judging by the notes we have on our map we should be going through a long stretch of rapids today so hopefully it'll be some fun paddling but we're gonna start heading down river it's some fun rowing today so far it's been very fun paddling today a lot of low water though and we've been just crawling through some rock gardens but we've been making our way downstream oh oh nice sockeye we're looking for groceries there's one fish on baby fish on how nice day beautiful fish but we're gonna see if we can get a fresher one for dinner and there she goes well it's getting pretty late in the day here we've been trying to find a good spot to set up but every sandbar we come across lately has bear tracks all over it and they look like grizzly bear tracks so we're trying to find a spot without as much bear sign that we're oh baby baby well that was pretty awesome I was just talking about all the bear tracks we've been seeing lately then that bull moose jumped out right in front of us and crossed the river we had a beautiful view of them and it looks like we could have some more wildlife encounters down in this lower stretch so we'll have to see what's in store but we're gonna probably pull off at the next decent campsite we find because it's starting to get late now and we can't just base it off bear tracks anymore I guess we might be sleeping with the grizzlies I just spotted a whole load of sockeye a lot of red colored up ones but I did see some nice ones in there so we're gonna see if we can get a fresh one hopefully I want a salmon dinner out here tonight looks like a grizz to me look at the size of that thing oh my gosh oh that's a nice fish we finally have a fresh fish on I think if we can land them this is the one that's a pretty clean one there so we're gonna try to eat this one for dinner tonight I've been trying hard to catch a fresh sockeye today and this is the freshest one I've caught it's no chromer but I think it'll cut just fine and I really wanted to have a fresh salmon dinner on this trip so we're gonna cook them up over the campfire that meat cut just fine look at that dreams do come true I wanted a fresh salmon dinner so bad on this trip guys and what a lot of you probably don't know is that in Alaska there's two runs of sockeye salmon right now we're really in between both runs especially with the water being as low as it is we were really hoping to catch some sockeye on this trip so to have this fish tonight I'm so thankful for it I can't explain let's get it cut up here and head down and set up camp one steak two steaks I mean that meat is glowing three steaks and four steaks there we go we have a sockeye for dinner now let's go set up camp we have some big king salmon look at there's four big king salmon right there there's big king salmon all over on this gravel in here I think we've arrived at our camp for the night it's been just a beautiful sunset tonight and for our fish I'm just gonna hit it with some olive oil I have a fresh onion I'm gonna cook up we have lemon pepper salt that's all it's gonna take we're gonna get it going here it's been a big day to say the least our day started at 5 30 this morning I went and hit the canyon caught a beautiful rainbow we paddled some rapids saw a bull moose and now we get to end it with the sockeye salmon and a campfire it's everything I hoped for and imagined this cook has taken us until about 1am and I still have one more steak to put on over the fire but it's worth every minute of it and I would never miss an opportunity to cook a fresh salmon on a riverbank in Alaska I mean it's so good for breakfast this morning we're making pancakes and eggs oh they're chocolate chip pancakes I was bumming I didn't bring any chocolate chips for them but hey power cakes flapjack with chocolate chips yeah we're all packed up and ready to leave this campsite behind it's time to keep traveling down river yay one goes over one goes under they always figure it out we're actually quite a bit farther than what we thought we just passed the north branch so we only have about 10 more miles left until we reach our takeout so we're just gonna see what happens today if we find some good fishing we might camp out one more night but if not we might call it good at the end of day five we'll just see how it goes she's on the sticks today you look good so just glide there you go girl keep back Orin keep back Orin Kyle had to jump in and save us but it's my first time so I don't feel too bad about it she's doing a great job rowing a raft or a drift boat is not easy now I rode a drift boat for years when I was a fishing guide so I've been well experienced coming into this raft trip however she has never rode anything before and she's doing a fantastic job Nicole's on the sticks so I'm gonna get the boondog off the front of the boat we're just passing under the iconic trans alaska pipeline which carries oil over 800 miles starting in Prudhoe Bay Alaska which is up on the north slope all the way down to Valdez which is where we're headed next to do some ocean fishing now I fished for about four hours today as Nicole was rowing but really didn't have any success at all and we didn't see any salmon so we decided just to push through the rest of our stretch of river here as the river's changed quite drastically now with that said we just have a few miles left and then we'll be at our takeout well the truck is all loaded down and we're ready to get back on the highway thanks so much for watching everyone I hope you enjoyed this episode and now we're actually going to head further downstream in the Copper River Valley systems and we're going to see if we can find the very beginning of that next run of sockeye salmon we're putting together a full 90-day movie that started as soon as we left our home in Michigan and it's going to showcase traveling all across North America up the Alaska highway through Alaska and then back down into British Columbia before we head home in the fall we've been filming all kinds of fun roadside adventures we've been camping on mountain lakes fishing hiking and we really want to show more behind the scenes footage in this trip so I'll be really looking forward to sharing that with you when it comes out but we're also going to be posting several other episodes from adventures like we just did here so make sure to stay tuned for that and if you're not subscribed feel free to go down below and hit subscribe so you don't miss any of our upcoming episodes but without further ado we're ready for a hot shower we're ready for a good meal and we will see you in our next adventure video