Customer Reviews

The Alaska River Guide: Canoeing, Kayaking, and Rafting in the Last Frontier (Alaska River Guide: Canoeing, Kayaking, & Rafting in the Last Fronti)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Great book on numerous trips on both slow and fast water. This combination makes the book a worthwhile purchase. Living in AK for five years and doing a number of the trips makes this a great way for me to stir up a few memories. Put-ins and take outs are accurately marked. Overall excellent book.

The hallmark of a good guidebook is how accurate it is. Unfortunately, this book contains more than its share of errors - some are merely nuisances, but others are more serious.

I bought this book because I wanted to expand my knowledge of Alaska's river systems. I live in Alaska, and enjoy exploring new waters; I try to get in at least one major trip each year. This book offers a brief survey of over 100 rivers, with an effort to cover systems in each of the major regions of Alaska.

Most of the river descriptions are 2 to 3 pages; the information usually contains a map showing the most common put-in and take-out spots, then a brief description of the overall character of the stream with some of its standout features. A few paragraphs of historical notes are often added. Following the description of the river is a section of useful data: appropriate USGS topo maps; the best seasons for floating; specific safety issues; prominent fish and wildlife likely to be seen; and a list of the government land management agencies who oversee the river and adjacent territory.

The book also contains some nice sections at the beginning on trip planning, with sections on appropriate gear for a river trip, trip safety, and ethical camping practices.

The structure of the book means it probably shouldn't be looked at as a detailed trip planner for any specific river system in Alaska; instead, the book represents more of an encyclopedic listing of float trips, with some background advice common to all river trips. It's a nice book to have when you're facing a question like: "I want to do a trip, but which river should I choose?" It's also a nice book to keep by your favorite chair, to browse through and to dream about the dozens of quality excursions in Alaska.

The river maps are a definite plus and are helpful. Consisting of black and white sketches, they usually cover one column in the two-column page layout of the book, so the maps are oriented longitudally. For orientation, a north-arrow pointer is placed on the map. This means that rivers which run in a mostly-east or west direction are shown with the easterly direction oriented toward the bottom of the map. That's fine I guess, but it would have been nicer if the maps were printed in a more standard fashion: for rivers running predominately east or west, the maps could have been printed so they spanned the width of the page across both columns; for north or south-flowing rivers, the maps could be oriented in the standard longitudal fashion. In either case, the maps would then be oriented with north at the top, east to the right, etc.

This leads to one aspect of the book's maps that is a mystery to me: some of the maps for rivers that run in a north or south direction are oriented with north at the bottom (down) of the page. What purpose does this achieve? Why can't the map be flipped around, to be printed the standard way, with the northerly direction at the top? I don't get it...

But apart from the map issues, it's the number of errors in the text of the book that presents the most serious deficiency. I have no way of knowing how many mistakes the book contains because my first-hand knowledge - and consequent ability to catch mistakes - is limited only to a fraction of all the waters covered. Nevertheless, when I concentrate on the places well known to me, too many blunders begin to jump out.

Some of the faults are very minor, like the description of the Situk River fish where distinct runs of both "steelhead" and "rainbow trout" are mentioned (there are no runs of rainbow trout in the Situk, and the population is very small. All the trout that ascend, or "run" in the river are steelhead).

And then are other errors - again relatively minor - that are merely annoying, like places where the text is mistakenly repeated (e.g. page 275) or where a river is misnamed in the middle of the description (page 163), or places where the text is worded in a way that you wonder if some of the author's stream-of-consciousness notes somehow made it into print (page 277).

But the most serious mistakes I found involve specific descriptions of some of the rivers. The location of rapids is sometimes misplaced, roads are occasionally misnamed, geographic features are goofed up, and sections of text appear under the wrong heading. Again, I found these mistakes in the small number of rivers that I am familiar with. I am left to assume that the rate of inaccuracy is equally high among the other rivers where I don't have first-hand experience. This begs the question: what good is a reference book when the data is fraught with errors?

I checked with the publishers and their web site now offers substitute pages that help correct some of the mistakes. People who already own this book will want to download the pages. Be advised, however, that the substitute pages only cover a portion of the book's faults.

To sum up, I think this book might have value to those of us who want to use it as a "dream book" - a sort of a listing of "what's where" and the possibilities for wilderness trips in Alaska. But I urge caution to anyone who needs to rely on the book for cold facts. I would hope that subsequent editions of this book (if it someday gets printed again) will be more carefully researched and edited.

I love this book, and wish the author would write a sequel, describing more rivers. I have used the Alaska River Guide for several years to plan trips all over Alaska. The maps are great, the trip descriptions fascinating, and the pre-trip preparation information essential, especially for people new to Alaska.

I have read many river guides and find this one to be little help in any whitewater decents. I would instead try to find the out-of-print book "Fast and Cold" for information that contains valuable whitewater information. The Alaska River Guide is a book for someone who needs general directions and an incredibly broad overview of the larger picture. Details and maps are incredibly vague to the point one wonders if the author actually ran the rivers described.

This book enticed us to take three fantastic trips: on the Noatak, the Selawik and the Kantishna rivers. Jettmar's book provided absolutely essential information about the river, maps, and travel arrangements. The information was accurate and succinct. Great guide for Alaska rivers! We hope she'll write another about more of the rivers.

The book has some serious errors such as a whole section under the Gulkana River that belongs under the Eagle River section. If I wasn't familiar with these rivers, I could be in trouble if I was depending on this book to plan a rafting trip. I have the third edition of this book. You would think they would have corrected all the errors by now! It's good for a general review of each river, but check other resources when planning your trip.

I bought this book expecting to get a comprehensive guide to Alaska's rivers and found that it was a large let down. I am a life long Alaskan and the book is missing several rivers that are well known to boaters and easily accessible from the road system which is very important when choosing rivers to raft in Alaska since there isn't a large road system. The river descriptions are poor along with the directions on how to get to the put in's and take out's, several of the rivers in this book are missing put in's and take out's that are well known to anyone that has run these rivers.

Not many books are written on this subject, so it was more information than what I could find elsewhere. Although far from perfect, I read through it and at least could identify the rivers I wanted to explore. I didn't expect perfection and found if I needed updated material I could turn to the internet where there's plenty of personal testimonials. I rate this a "four" and a definite buy if you want a good Alaska river resource. Whitewater ho!

This river guide has been charged with stealing artifacts (tusks) from one of her guided trips in our glorious state. She should have read her own words, a zealot for keeping the pristine, pristine....must be so she can steal it herself. Article in Alaska Daily News "newsreader" River Guide Charged With Theft.

In addition to all of the more than 90 rivers and runs from the previous edition, the 3rd edition of the Alaska River Guide includes new detailed descriptions of the runs of the Nenana Gorge, Upper Alatna, Tlikakila, Eagle, and Upper Chena, and other rivers. It also includes 13 new runs:

Delta Clearwater River
Kantishna River and Moose Creek
Chulitna River
Gulkana River and Middle Fork Gulkana River
Little Nelchina River, Nelchina River, and Tazlina River
Matanuska River
Willow Creek and Little Willow Creek
Stikine River

The 3rd edition also includes information on the application process for a Tatshenshini River permit. The entire book has been updated with websites and contact info, updated Leave No Trace info, detailed information on wildlife and fish species found on each river, and more history and archeology for some rivers.

P.S. Sorry for the self-serving rating, but I couldn't post the review without completing a rating!