"rw" wrote in message
ink.net...

You were staying in a lodge, right? You weren't camping out on gravel
bars, pitching your tent and storing and cooking your food virtually right
on top of bear sign, right?

Tom, one of the first things Steve at Papa Bear will tell you is not to
store your food in the rafts. If a bear gets into the food you sure don't
want it to wreck the raft. Then you would be really screwed.

Another thing to be careful about is securing your raft when you beach it.
That may seem obvious, and the raft might seem securely beached, but if
the wind comes up or the water rises overnight you could lose it. Last
year one of Steve's parties called in on the sat phone that they'd lost
both of their rafts. Steve's response was, "You mean that you lost both of
MY rafts."

In the meantime they were stranded in the wilderness. I don't know how it
played out. I'm going to ask Steve in August.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

I'll fly up on July 1st from San Jose, CA, and stay at Steve's lodge, then
fly out to the Arolik River on the 2nd.
I'm going with a person who's been there last year at this time. We'll be
on the river till the 10th.
There are many thing I'll be learning, as I plan to get educated in the
aquatics department as well
as part of the Alaska territory. I was told there are many species to fish
for. We'll try to make smart decisions and not abuse or trash the
surroundings. I'm also looking forward to just getting away from the city
life.

I guess for me I don't like to get into arguments with people, I try to
avoid it. I also like to
feel good about using this newsgroup because the people here are well
educated in fly-fishing and
have a lot of experience. I'm always game for learning, one of the few good
traits I have.
-tom