Your trip sounds like a great trip in a beautiful area. My wife and I spent three summers exploring WRT SP in a double Klepper in the 90s; we circumnavigated all the lakes except Aleknagik and did quite a bit of hiking, especially in the western ends of the lakes. Our last summer we spent three weeks in Upnuk, then were flown to Chikuminuk where we spent four weeks. In that seven weeks, the only person we saw was our pilot. Our approach was to set up a camp from which we hiked, fished, and paddled for a few days, then we would paddle on to a new spot and repeat the process. We know someone who floated out of Upnuk, then portaged from the Tikchik River to Chikuminuk, the reverse of your route. Although they had heard that might be a portage trail, they were unable to locate one. It was a brutal up and down tussocky adventure, so I doubt that they could have given you much useful information on that portion of your trip.
Our trips were pre-bear spray, so we carried a Mossberg 12 gauge pump shotgun with 1 oz slugs. Today, we carry bear spray, but would still bring the shotgun for worst-case bear scenarios.
We floated the Tikchik River in the Klepper which was substantially more challenging than using an inflatable. We broke a strut when we hit a snag in the river and put a small hole in the bottom in a short, shallow rapid section. Good ole duct tape fixed both problems.
Reading your account, you’ve got me hankering to get back there. The fly fishing is absolutely incredible everywhere. It’s so good, we were able to eat fish every day and cut down on the food we brought considerably.
Thanks for such a detailed description of your trip and gear.
BTW, I am an Alaskan who has embraced the UL philosophy; however, because many of my trips involve remote wilderness such as this one, one needs to carry enough gear to provide a margin of error in relation to weather, unexpected terrain, etc.
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