Pick up off the Little Delta/Tanana

[Atdymoke2]

My wife and I are float hunting down the Little Delta this fall (she drew the DM772 tag) and I'm needing transport from the Little Delta across the Tanana at the end of our trip. I tried Blue Moose rafting but they're already booked up at that time. Anyone have any other ideas? I've heard the Tanana would be tough, if not impossible, to get across in an inflatable canoe loaded down with gear and moose.

Thanks in advance!

[DannerAK]

In my opinion the little Delta will be more difficult to navigate in a loaded down inflatable canoe than crossing the Tanana. I've done a float on a little Delta in an inflatable canoe with two people and lots of gear. The Tanana is easy once you get over the intimidating size of the river. We floated down to a pull off along the highway probably 3 to 4 miles below the mouth of the little Delta.

[swmn]

I hacve only scouted this at 55mph on the highway with my GPS running. Basically the Little Delta lets out opposite a fair sized ridge on the north side of the Tanana. The highway goes around the north side of the ridge, away from the river.

At the east end of the ridge is Shaw Creek boat launch. At the west end of the ridge there is a fairly flat area between the road and the Tanana. I have seen vehicles, mostly 4x4s parked off the right of way out in the grass between the river and the road, a few of them for more than three days. Don't know if it's legal.

You might try cold calling Delta businesses like Delta meats, or taxidermists or gun shops and so on. I would think you ought to be able to find someone who would drive out of delta and take you back to Shaw Creek for a small fee. Then you bring the truck and trailer back to where your wife is waiting with the boat... maybe.

[Atdymoke2]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the thoughts. We're planning on a trip to Fairbanks in July so we'll take a look at the river then, but I was talking to some folks that live in Delta and they seemed to think the current to cross the river was too much, we'd get caught up and float off the map. If I can get across the river to a pull out then my only issue will be getting back to the truck in Delta, worse case scenario I guess we have our pilot pick us up somewhere along the way off the little delta ..... that could get expensive real quick with a moose or two in a super cub.

[DannerAK]

You won't be able to ferry directly across river from the lil delta, but you can certainly navigate a loaded down inflatable canoe across the tanana river.

[jnjgaudette]

My buddy and I also drew this hunt as well. We were trying to figure the best way into the hunting area, 4 wheeler, fly, boat. We have the 4wheeler option kind of narrowed down, fly in is out and we also have a boat option as well. we have a 16ft john boat with a 40HP jet. Will we be able to put in across from the mouth of the little delta and make it across the Tanana and then up stream on the little delta or are we shooting for the moon here? Not really sure what that river looks like, especially if we get a lot of rain. I know we are trying to do a scouting trip in July.

[Larry Bartlett]

Alpenglow Shuttles might do it from Fairbanks. 479-2277 (Valerie I believe). Reliable shuttles for trip like that.

larry

[jnjgaudette]

Anyone know who might shuttle some wheelers across the river and back?

[pipercub]

What a zoo....

[Birdstrike]

Did any body float this? We canceled after our air taxi informed us that a group a few days prior had changed from a float hunt to a drop camp after seeing a mile long logjam on the flight in. I'm aware of the major jam/river re-route years prior, but the river was back in the main channel and open as of last year according to another air taxi I had spoken with. This is a new jam from sometime this summer.

[jnjgaudette]

I just came back from hunting the little delta river. You could float it but would have to get out at a lot of areas and portage around log jams. We didn't go all the way up the river, only about 10 miles up. The river is low right now so you would have to know the channels well.