Copper River 1999

Million Dollar Bridge Floating the Copper River
July 21-27, 1999

In late July, we tried a new and somewhat scary adventure, floating the Copper River 100 miles through deep wilderness from Chitina to Flag Point near Cordova. The Copper River is a huge, silty, glacial river that drains 24,000 square miles. Although it's not technically difficult, it's remote, fast, cold, and BIG. Only two of the friends we invited were brave enough to join us.

It snowed the day before we left (July 20), but the weather cleared and we floated in hot sunshine the first day, past a terrifying whirlpool. The second day we explored a peninsula covered with sand dunes. It was like the Sahara but with glaciers in the backdrop. That evening we were pitching tents when Dennis shouted, "Bear!" A large grizzly was casually ambling down the draw toward us. He seemed shocked to learn he had neighbors! He spun around and fled, too fast for a photo!

I read the history of the area as we floated. The first railroad to Alaska's interior was built along this river in 1908-1911, to the Kennicott Copper Mines. Most people said it couldn't be done, but Michael Heney, who won fame as the builder of the White Pass and Yukon Railroad from Skagway to the Klondike, said, "Give me enough snoose and dynamite and I'll build you a road to hell!" His men did the impossible. They built a bridge over the river between two enormous glaciers, hauled a steam paddleboat in pieces over a treacherous pass in midwinter, and much more. We floated under the Million Dollar Bridge (see photo) which was completed in 1910 just hours before the river ice shifted and swept away all temporary supports. The next day we continued on, floating in front of Child's Glacier under a 300-foot sheer wall of ice that regularly calves into the river.