Bench Creek

6/7/25

6.25 mi
Class II+ (III)

10.3ft
(Sixmile Creek, near Hope)

A good friend, Tristan, was in town from Fairbanks for about a week, and since we have spent many days on the river guiding together, it only made sense to enjoy some water without clients around. Tristan and I worked together at St. Elias Alpine Guides, but have both retired from the isolated town McCarthy in chase of bigger population centers just like another ex-coworker, Olga. Hoping to bring the dream team from the Tonsina back together for another rodeo, we reached out to Olga and roped her into a weekend of boating (the term “roped in” is far from what convincing Olga to join on a float actually entails). We set our sights on Bench creek, looking for a good balance of hiking and floating. 

After a nice hike through light showers, we found ourselves approaching the put-in at Groundhog Creek. Unsure of what the short gorge held, we inflated our boats just beneath the canyon which ended up putting us beneath a fun drop that I was tipped off about by a friend. We agreed that since it was our first time down the creek, we could avoid starting off with a class 3 canyon and instead begin with some low consequence class 2.

• A few miles of class 2 with lots of willows and alders guarding the shores started us off
• One class 2+ stretch presented itself near the bridge with a few bends and a drop or two. Could be class 3 at higher water, or could be washed out.
• Meandering class 1-2 with lots of wood in and around the water

While the river was fun, it did not leave me itching for a return as the whitewater was so limited for the amount of effort to run it. Without a guage, it’s hard to know how high the water truly is running, but using the Sixmile gauge and following Jule’s recommendation says we should have been on it while water was high but the river felt rather scrapy and low still. I’m eager to see if this was just a fluke of a day or if there might be another answer to why this was.