The Chitina River, located in the heart of our nation’s largest national park - Wrangell-St. Elias National, is a wildly remote river system surrounded by glacier-capped 14-18,000’ peaks and volcanoes.  The quality of the river experience, wilderness, scenery, and wildlife make the Chitina an ideal adventure to fully enjoy God’s creation, as well as provide an environment to nurture your relationship with others and your walk with Christ.  This is an adventure of a lifetime that will challenge one to grow and leave you speechless at the awesome works of God’s creation! 

The adventure will begin in Anchorage where we will drive up the Glenn Highway along the magnificent Matanuska River on onto the town of Chitina. We will then be greeted by inarguably one of the best bush/alpine pilots in Alaska, Paul Claus, with Ultima Thule Outfitters, where he will fly us into our starting point at Ultima Thule Lodge.  The sweeping views of massive volcanoes and broad river valleys, once in the air, will humble you and leave you awe-struck at the greatness of our Alaskan landscape and a creator God who is exhuberant about His works!

The Chitina is an amazing river system in which its valley separates the mighty St. Elias Range on the west from the rugged peaks and volcanoes of the Wrangell Mountains to the east.  We will fly into Ultima Thule Lodge, 100 miles up the Chitina River, within eye’s shot of North America’s second highest peak, Mt. Logan. 

Ultima Thule Lodge, which was voted by Men's Magazine as one of the "Best Wilderness Lodges" in the world and one of the "Top 150 Best Places on Earth" by Harper's Travel in 2002, is where we will camp our first couple nights.  The grandeur will overtake you; the vastenss and solitude will make your soul sing!

On the first afternoon, we will get settled and begin to soak in the this place!  No more phones, no more distractions to keep us from the Voice of the wilderness.  Later, we can amble along the river upstream enjoying the sounds of the river and those who make this northern interior tiaga forest home.

Day two will great us with a hearty breakfast that will fuel us for our climb to the ridgeline of MacColl Ridge that looms high above the Lodge.  We will hike through the forest, up a rivine, then blast sharply up the ridgeline and into the alpine tundra.  Grande sweeping views will quickly come to our eyes as we gaze across the Chitina River Valley to the Chugach Mountains.  Below us is the 500 foot deeply cut canyon dissecting the angled, faulted sedimentary rocks of MacColl.  A 360 degree feast for our eyes is before us!

On the third day we will rise with a change of direction - the river is before us!  The rafting will begin at Ultima Thule (UTO).  From UTO, we will begin our paddle on a section of the river that is characterized as a braided, glacial system.  The river’s is braided (multi-channelled) in character which affords giant, sweeping views of MacColl Ridge that contains superb waterfalls and mountain goats and Dall sheep that cling to vertical cliffs of multicolored sedimentary rock.  Bison, wolves, grizzly and black bear, and moose can be also seen meandering along the river’s edge.  After a six hour paddle day, we will arrive at a destination on a gravel bar within the first canyon.

Day four will be spent paddling down the untamed, swift and “canyonized” waters of the Chitina passing by several large tributaries that add volume and force to the river.  The scenery is unparalleled; the beauty of God’s creation will overtake you!  Night four will be spent on a large, sandy gravel bar with a sweeping 360? view of the rugged peaks and raw wilderness.  A late afternoon hike across the large gravel bar will get the blood flowing, especially after finding fresh grizzly bear tracks!  An incredible Dutch over supper and a gravel bar campfire will sooth your soul and ignite community unity and spark incredible conversations – wilderness campfires have done this for thousands of years! 

On day five will hit the wild Chitina River again, soaking in God’s glory, rolling through wave trains on the river of life, and enjoying God’s and other’s presence!  Night five, we will camp on another gravel bar amongst 300-foot vertical bedrock walls. 

We will wake in the morning on day six and have a short paddle to the take-out at the confluence of the mighty Copper River.  We will pack the rafts and gear up and drive back to Anchorage and arrive in time (~5 PM) for supper.

Length:  6 days

Logistics:  The town of Chitina is located about a five hour drive from Anchorage.  This trip requires a fly-in and paddle out to the road system at Chitina.

What is included:  This is the wilderness rafting portion of your trip, brought to you by True North Expeditions. 

• Transportation:  We will pick all Voice of Wilderness folks up in Anchorage.  Transporation round-trip will be included. 
• Food:  All food for the trip, beginning with muffins and juice for the wonderful drive to Chitina.  Lunch on the final day will be the last meal included as we will be arriving back into Anchorage for supper.  Meals are well-balanced and healthy!  Supper most evening will be hearty cooked in Dutch ovens.  Just because we will be living with the animals doesn't mean we need to eat like them!
• Flight to Ulitma Thule Lodge: A 45 minute to 1 hour flight into Ultima Thule Lodge.
• Equipment:  TNX will provide all the rafting equipment necessary for the trip including Coast Guard certified personal floatation devices and dry bags for personal effects.  In addition, TNX will provide sleeping bags, sleeping pads, tents, and cookware.
• Guides:  TNX will supply two trained, certified (Wilderness First Responder, Whitewater Rescue Technician) and experiened guides to lead the trip.

What should you bring:  People going on this adventure will be responsible for bring their own clothing and other personal effects.  Plan on bringing a small day-pack for our day-hikes at Ultima Thule Lodge and during the rafting trip.  For a complet list of what to bring go to this link:  Personal Gear List for Multi-day Rafting Trips