We ran our fleet of SOARs down the Kieralik in SW Alaska. This is a premier rainbow trout fishing river, but before the fishing gets good it is a gorgeous small volume river with lots of fun class II boulder dodging and Class 3 ledge drops, one of which has two drops and is normally portaged. We have photos for you. Although some of our clients were skeptics, everyone was glad we took the SOARs. They are definitely crowd pleasers.
As an outfitter, I had my first ever SOAR – flip on this trip. We had a couple guys go into some sweepers a little wide and a little too hot. The branches grabbed the gear pile and stern paddler and over they went. Every thing went OK . They righted the boat with all the gear on board and no gear was lost. The lower river is land mined with huge logjams and numerous sweepers which makes it more difficult or at least more dangerous than the upper river, but the SOAR were perfect for this river.
Thanks.
Macgill Adams
Wilderness Alaska
