Second Day in Aniak

It was 70 degrees and sunny as we traversed the rivers and hills surrounding Aniak on the 2nd of July.

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I received a tour of the area via boat and a bit of hiking. We headed up the Kuskokwim River to an abandoned house on the side of a hill. From there, we hiked up the side of a small ridge. “This is the start of the tundra,” one of my guides said. The ground beneath us turned squishy and we sunk in as we stepped. Aniak is in a good location. It has trees, mountains, hills, grass, and water. Just to the west of town, the landscape flattens out onto the delta. We picked some tea leaves and headed back down to the boat.

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Traversing further upriver, we joined a large group of friends celebrating the Fourth of July weekend on a small, sandy island in the middle of the river. It was a good time. We sat and cooked around the fire, drank beer, hit golf balls far downriver, swam, and engaged in good conversation.

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“What made you come to Alaska? There are usually three reasons people come to the Alaskan bush: 1.) Seeking adventure; 2.) Escaping or running from something, and 3.) They don’t know they are in the bush.”

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“The first one,” I replied.

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I was very excited for water skiing but we had a slight problem. We had a ski rope but there was not a handle on the end of it. Accordingly, through some wonderful Alaskan ingenuity, we rigged up a piece of driftwood, made some tight knots around it, and clamped it on to the ski rope.

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A couple white, rolling clouds with blue sky behind, the deep blue water, the greenness of the trees, and the looming Russian Mountains in the background of all of this made it the most scenic setting I have water skied.

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