Tincan Creek

Tincan is one of the most amazing canyons. Deep, secluded and packed with amazing whitewater and waterfalls


We started out to do Tincan a little later than we hoped, leaving Carrs-Huffman at one to start the hour drive to the put in. We reached the pullout with high hopes and visions of awesomeness, geared up, checked the guide book, then set off into the unknown. A hour and a half hike up the side of a mountain, through a wall of brush and devils club, some back tracking, then a hundred foot rappel put us at the put in. I rapped down first to receive boats while Mark and Tyler lowered them. We made it, a trip we've all been waiting for and to fire us up, the first rapid was a twenty foot waterfall. The Throne Room comprises of four waterfalls in a row with nice deep recovery pools in between, a twenty footer, a fifteen footer, a two footer then a slidey twenty footer. I shoved off first under the impression we were all meeting in the eddy at the lip, I got out and looked over the edge, clean. Next came Tyler, who missed the eddy, but stomped it clean. Next was Mark, same deal, so I signaled the line and he went for it, stomped. I shimmied into my boat and shoved off. The feeling of the perfect boof can't be matched. I stomped all the falls and came around the corner to two four foot ledges. Mark was stuck sideways in the first, I paddled hard right to avoid him, but it was inevitable, I landed on his bow and caught a paddle blade straight to the nose. Blood blasted both barrels and some how I managed to make it to the eddy with Tyler. Mark ended up swimming out of the drop, but he and his gear were recovered quickly. Several manky boulder gardens down stream I flipped,got drug across the bottom and had my skirt popped from my boat. Shit. I managed to paddle the next hundred yards with a boat full of water, the thought of going over the falls I knew loomed ahead racing through my mind. Finally, I was able to beach myself. After draining my boat we set of to paddle several more ugly boulder gardens, taking everything Tincan had to offer until finally coming to the last class V drop, Royal Flush. After some careful scouting Mark and Tyler decided to walk it. I was dead set on running the thing. It looked easy and straight forward enough, the water looked a little to low, but doable if the line was stuck. As I sat there staring, waiting for safety to be set I got an uneasy feeling, after everything that happened so far and the marginalness of the line, I decided to cut my losses and go ahead and walk it as well. The last major rapid we came to was Jamaican Bobsled, a straight forward class IV that we all ran with no problems. Another ten minutes of easy paddling to the take out and to the end of one of the most amazing creeks in Alaska.

Jamaican Bobsled