Latest News from Fairbanks Paddlers
Paddling Safety and Skills Course Scholarships
During the 2026 paddling season, Fairbanks Paddlers will be offering ten stipends for up to $150 to club members who enroll in and complete courses to develop or improve paddling or river safety skills. To be eligible, individuals must be current Fairbanks Paddlers club members, live in interior Alaska, complete this application form before taking the course, and have the course provider notify the board of successful completion of the course. The board will then issue either an electronic payment or mail a check to reimburse $150 the applicant for course expenses. ( If the full cost of the course is less than $150, the reimbursement will be for the actual cost.)
To apply, please complete the 2026 Paddling Skills and Safety Scholarship Application Form
Chena River Cleanup – June 13, 2026
For dozens of years the Fairbanks Paddlers have gotten together and helped clean up our local waterway, the Chena River. Our “adopted” section traditionally is the popular stretch from Graehl Landing to Pioneer Park.
Once again in 2026, we are one of the sponsors of the larger effort that includes: the Fairbanks North Star Borough, City of Fairbanks, North Pole, University of Alaska, Lions International, Tanana Valley Watershed Association, Alaska Department of Transportation, Alaska Dream Adventures, Stantec, and Shannon & Wilson, Inc.
As a club we are primary users and stewards of the Chena River, and this is an excellent opportunity to show and act on our love for water. We definitely have the skills, and a Saturday morning is not much to dedicate to our home river. Take a look at the attached flyer, and plan on joining the effort on June 13. There are lots of goodies (work gloves, trash bags, bug dope, work gloves) and a Free Lunch! Be safe, look good while doing good, and eat well. Bring a friend, bring the whole family.
Boat Swap at Beaver Sports – May 2, 2026
Find a great deal on used boats or paddling gear, or sell the boats you haven’t paddled for a while!
Fairbanks Paddlers will be working with Beaver Sports to host a Boat Swap on Saturday, May 2, 2026 under the awning outside the Beaver Sports Boat Shop on 3480 College Road.
- 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. – Bring your non-motorized boats and paddling gear to sell
- 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Find bargains on “new to you” boats and paddlesports gear
- 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. – Find out if your gear sold and pick up your unsold items.
15% of sales will be donated to Fairbanks Paddlers. Please price your items accordingly.
If you are a Fairbanks Paddlers member and would like to volunteer to help, please contact John Schauer at (907) 460-6290
Other questions? Please contact Fairbanks Paddlers at info@fairbankspaddlers.org
Delta Clearwater Day Trip – May 3, 2026
Fairbanks Paddlers annually celebrate the arrival of spring with a trip on the Delta-Clearwater River near Delta Junction. This area has some of the first water to open up in the Interior each spring, so if our timing is right we may have an excellent opportunity to see many species of waterfowl (including swans) up close. I suspect that we are a couple of weeks late for that this year. The day trip will be on May 3, 2026 (Sunday) coordinated by Alan Batten. Interested paddlers should contact the coordinator, who will send out details day or two before by email. Interested paddlers should contact the coordinator’s assistant, Gail Davidson, as Alan is currently unavailable.
Contact info: Gail Davidson, akmtngrl@gmail.com, H: 907-479-7127, C: 907-460-1983
Contact info: Alan Batten, alanbatten@acsalaska.net, H: 907-488-3205, C: 907-378-6384.
Membership and Waivers
Please note that all participants must be current members of Fairbanks Paddlers. Memberships can be renewed at https://www.fairbankspaddlers.org/join/ or at the put-in. Liability insurance for our trips is arranged through the American Canoe Association (ACA). This takes a big worry off the minds of those of us who volunteer to coordinate trips, and we hope it will lead to having more volunteers step forward. However, this does add another level of bureaucracy to our trips, so we hope you will all be patient with that. All participants will need to fill out an online ACA insurance waiver. There will be a fee ($10) charged by the ACA to non-ACA members to cover the insurance. If you would like to join ACA it is $40 per year.
Parking at the put-in requires either a $5 parking fee to Alaska State Parks, or a State Parks parking sticker on your car’s windshield. These cost $60 and can be ordered online at https://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/passes, or purchased at the Alaska Public Lands Information Center in the Morris Thompson Center or at the DNR Information Center in the woods off of University Avenue and Airport Way. State Parks are in serious financial trouble these days (especially the Delta Junction-area State Parks) and need our support. We don’t need a boat launching sticker–those are for boats on trailers.
Trip Description
This is a flat-water trip that moves from the crystal clear Delta-Clearwater River onto a slough of the Tanana, then a short paddle up a creek to Clearwater Lake and across the lake to the take-out. From the Clearwater State Recreation Site to Clearwater Lake is about 12 miles and takes 4-8 hours depending on the wind direction and water conditions. Occasionally, depending on water level, the initial turn up the creek requires some strategy but there will be many of us there to help if this area turns out to be a problem. In recent years the current was strong enough here that most of us had to drag our canoes for a few hundred feet. You pretty much have to get into the water (calf deep or knee deep) to do this. If you are lucky you can find gravel in the streambed to walk on, but where the gravel stops there is thick organic muck so be psychologically prepared. A map and further river information is available at the State Parks web site (http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/aspunits/northern/pdfs/clearwaterfloatguide.pdf). The Clearwater River itself has a gentle current and no serious obstacles. The slough of the Tanana has a strong current that must be respected, but no serious obstacles other than an occasional sweeper that must be avoided. The Clearwater Lake outflow has a sluggish current that is not too hard to paddle against, except sometimes at the mouth as noted above. Paddlers should have basic boating skills, be able to avoid sweepers and be able to paddle in a straight line well enough to make progress upstream. The water is extremely cold so plan accordingly. Rain gear and extra clothes in a dry bag are a must. If one paddles straight through the trip can be done in 4 hours or a little more. We’ll stop for an hour for lunch and will probably lolligag a bit beyond that, so I would estimate something like 6 hours for the trip.
What to bring
Canoes and hard-shell kayaks are the most common boats on this trip; going up the creek with a packraft or raft could be quite challenging and even IK’s have to struggle. All participants must bring and wear a personal flotation device (life jacket). Migrating ducks, geese and swans commonly make the lake their first stop in the interior, so bring your binoculars. Bring a dry change of clothes in a water proof bag and a variety of layers so you are prepared for temperature changes. The Delta Junction area can be distinctly cooler or warmer than Fairbanks. River boots or waterproof knee boots could be useful if we have to drag the boats a ways. It could rain so bring a raincoat. There may be a few mosquitoes out. Also bring lunch and drinks. We will stop for lunch on a gravel bar.
Paddling Film Festival – April 24, 2026
The 2026 Paddling Film Festival World Tour comes to Fairbanks on Friday, April 24, at 6:30 p.m. The event will be held at the Centennial Center Theater in Pioneer Park (AKA Alaskaland), 2300 Airport Way, Fairbanks, Alaska. Doors open at 5:30 pm.
Online Ticket Sales ended at 2 p.m.
Tickets go on sale at the door for $20 at 5:30 p.m.
HooDoo Brewing will be selling beer and other beverages at the event to those of legal age with proper identification.
Drawings will be held for door prizes, and the Alaska Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers will be raffling off chances to win an Alpacka packraft.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. (Children 10 and under admitted for free when accompanied by an adult with a ticket.)
In addition to online ticket sales at https://fairbankspaddlers.org/tickets, in-person ticket sales will be available at Beaver Sports until 3 pm on April 24. At several past festivals, all tickets were sold out before the day of the event.
The Paddling Film Festival World Tour brings award-winning films to communities around the globe. Fairbanks Paddlers and sponsors select a full program of inspiring paddling films from the 22 films shortlisted for the 21st Annual World Tour. These feature wild whitewater action, sea kayaking, wilderness expeditions, canoeing, rafting, environmental documentaries, fly fishing, and short films capturing the paddling lifestyle.
Fairbanks Paddlers is co-hosting the 2026 Paddling Film Festival with the Folk School Fairbanks
The following local sponsors are supporting the Film Festival showing in Fairbanks:
- Alaska Chapter Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
- Alaska Dream Adventures
- Arctic Alaska Packrafting Instruction
- Beaver Sports
- Canoe Alaska
- Epic Kayak Ultimate
- HooDoo Brewing
- University of Alaska Outdoor Adventures
Online Ticket Sales ended at 2 p.m.
Tickets go on sale at the door for $20 at 5:30 p.m.
Paddling Community Presentations at Silver Gulch – March 24, 2026
The third and final event in the Fairbanks Paddlers Slideshow/Movie Night winter/spring series will be held Tuesday, March 24 at Silver Gulch Brewing and Bottling Company in Fox, Alaska. Our first two events in the series were a huge successes, with over 80 people attending each show.
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Silver Gulch is now open 7 days per week, and they have graciously offered us the use of their upstairs West Banquet Room for presentations. The banquet room will be available for seating at 5:30 pm. Food and drink service for our group will end when the presentation starts at 6:45 p.m. Come early and enjoy good food, beverages and meet up with old friends and new ones from the paddling community. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Silver Gulch is located at 2195 Old Steese Highway North in Fox, Alaska.
Presentations from the Paddling Community
This event will feature four short presentations from members of the Interior Alaska paddling community.
Canoeing the Yukon
In August and September 2025, two brothers, Henry and John Parker, and Henry’s golden retriever puppy, Scotia, canoed the Yukon River from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Circle, Alaska. They will be offering stories and images from their journey.
Paddling the Tanana to Manley
Anthony Graves-McCleary will share his 2023 canoe trip from Fairbanks to Manley on the Tanana River. He and Meredith LaValley embarked from the Boatel and spent five days in the wilderness. Along the way they encountered high water levels, beautiful Interior scenery, and an endangered roadhouse.
Packrafting the Matthews River and West Fork of the Atigun
Riley Steele and Andy Doughty packrafted in the Brooks Range during a high-water event in June 2025. They’ll share stories, beta, and photos from 3 days on the Matthews River and 2 days on the West Fork of the Atigun River.
Packrafting and Bushwhacking Patagonia
In January 2026, Brian Accola traveled to Puerto Rio Tranquilo, Chile. From there, he embarked on a seven-day packrafting trip on the Rio Baker, Rio Engano, and the glacial fjords and whitewater of coastal Patagonia. He’ll be sharing the similarities and differences between this trip and packrafting in Alaska.
Paddling Trip Presentations at Silver Gulch – February 17, 2026
The second event in the Fairbanks Paddlers Slideshow/Movie Night winter/spring series will be held Tuesday, February 17 at Silver Gulch Brewing and Bottling Company in Fox, Alaska. Our first event in the series was a huge success, with over 80 people attending.
Silver Gulch is now open 7 days per week, and they have graciously offered us the use of their upstairs West Banquet Room for presentations. The banquet room will be available for seating at 5:30 pm. Food and drink service for our group will end when the presentation starts at 7 p.m. Come early and enjoy good food, beverages and meet up with old friends and new ones from the paddling community. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Silver Gulch is located at 2195 Old Steese Highway North in Fox, Alaska.
Paddling Trip Presentations – Double Feature
Cross Admiralty Island Canoe Route
In May of 2025, Gail Davidson and Alan Batten spent six adventure-filled days on the Cross Admiralty Canoe Route in Southeast Alaska. This inaptly named 80 mile traverse does indeed cross Admiralty Island, but it must have been pioneered by canoe-bearing superhumans. The long and difficult portages were made somewhat easier by using packrafts.
Firth River
Janet Jorgenson will talk and show photos of her June 2009 trip on the Firth River in the northern Yukon Territory. For 11 days they rafted from the Alaska/Canada border to the Beaufort Sea, about 90 miles from a broad tundra valley into a long dramatic canyon and onward across the coastal plain to the coast. They experienced great scenery, significant rapids, ancient caribou fences and the migrating Porcupine Caribou Herd crossing the river, plus the other furry animals that prey on them.
Upcoming presentation – Share your paddling trips!
We have our third Slide Show/Movie night scheduled at Silver Gulch for March 24. We plan to have an evening of “Community Shorts”, with paddlers sharing brief accounts of their river trips. We have several folks who have offered to share their trips so far. We have to fit all presentations including question into a 90 minute time slot (from 7 pm to 8:30 pm), in order to be out of Silver Gulch by the time they close at 9 pm. Please contact us at info@fairbankspaddlers.org if you would like to share your experiences with the local paddling community, without having to preparie a long presentation.
Interior Alaska River Trip Presentations at Silver Gulch – January 20, 2026
Fairbanks Paddlers Slideshow/Movie Night winter/spring series returns to Silver Gulch Brewing and Bottling Company in Fox, Alaska. Silver Gulch is now open 7 days per week; however they have graciously offered us the use of their upstairs West Banquet Room for presentations. The first of these will be Tuesday, January 20, 2026. The banquet room will be available for seating at 5:30 pm. Food and drink service for our group will end when the presentation starts at 7 p.m. Come early and enjoy good food, beverages and meet up with old friends and new ones from the paddling community. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Silver Gulch is located at 2195 Old Steese Highway North in Fox, Alaska.
Interior Alaska River Trip Presentations – Beaver Creek, Birch Creek, Charley River
Our first Slide Show / Movie Night of the season will feature three short presentations of Fairbanks Paddlers club members’ 2025 trips on Wild and Scenic Rivers in Interior Alaska: Beaver Creek, Birch Creek, and the Charley River.
Beaver Creek
Trip participants will revisit their July/August 2025 trip down the Wild & Scenic section of Beaver Creek in the White Mountains north of Fairbanks. They’ll provide tips on trip logistics, river features, places to camp, and some of the great hiking opportunities along this Interior Alaskan gem.
Birch Creek
A group of friends will talk about their June 2025 packraft trip on Birch Creek, which is also a designated Wild and Scenic River and a classic Interior Alaskan paddle. They paddled on Birch Creek after getting weathered out of their planned trip and realized it should be on everyone’s list – beautiful, accessible, low-cost, and, did I mention, beautiful!?
Charley River
Six boaters with two rafts, two inflatable kayak, and two canine companions floated the Charley River and Yukon from Three-Finger Charley to Circle in late May / early June. They will show a short video highlighting their trip, discuss logistics, and answer questions about their trip.
Upcoming presentations – Share your paddling trips!
We have two other winter/spring Slide Show/Movie nights scheduled at Silver Gulch. On February 17, Gail Davidson will share images and stories from a trip on the Cross Admiralty Island Canoe trail. We welcome having an additional presentation to make this evening a double feature.
On March 24, we plan to have an evening of “Community Shorts”. We invite paddlers to share brief accounts of their river trips (5 to 15 minutes each ) . This is a great chance to share your experiences with the local paddling community without preparing a long presentation. We hope you will contribute to this event with your images, videos, and stories. Please contact us at info@fairbankspaddlers.org if you would like to present.
Annual Meeting – Friday, November 14, 2025
The Fairbanks Paddlers 2025 Annual Meeting will be held Friday, November 14th at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4448 Pikes Landing Road (across from the Princess Hotel off Airport Way). The public is welcome to attend, and we encourage new members to join us.
Schedule
- 6:30 Doors open. Meet and greet old friends and new. Talk paddling trips. Help set out food.
- 7:00 Potluck Dinner. If your name starts with a letter between A and Z bring food! A roast turkey will be provided.
- 7:30 Short Business Meeting. We’ll review the year’s activities and elect board members.
- 7:50 Guest Presentation – Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Packrafting Adventure
Presentation:
In June 2025, Jon Miller, Shannon Busby, Mike Sterling, and Ron Yarnell, did a 23-day packraft trip down the Kongakut River and along the coast of the Arctic Refuge to Beaufort Lagoon. They spent two days backpacking with their pack rafts from the upper Sheenjek River into the very headwaters of the Kongakut.
The first week they paddled and explored the remote upper section of the Kongakut to our resupply at Drain Creek, the normal starting point for this river. They continued down the Kongakut through rapids and mountains, across coastal plain and through the icefields of the delta, to the yet-frozen Arctic Ocean. From there they continued paddling west through the lagoons of the coast and caught the entire population of Porcupine Caribou Herd on their migration back to Canada!
Come see all their adventures, including a six-hour standoff between a wolf and a grizzly, and learn how to approach a cranky old bull muskox!
Summer Social at Pioneer Park – July 9, 2025
Join the Fairbanks Paddlers for the second of three summer socials! We are having a family-friendly potluck at the Alaskaland/Pioneer Park Wilderness Pavilion on Wednesday, July 9, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. The Fairbanks Paddlers will be grilling up bratwursts and swapping boating stories and summer trip adventures!
If you are a paddler, have always wanted to be a paddler, have a wooden boat, a homemade watercraft, a Klepper, or any other special – or not-so-special – boat, come join us!
Join Fairbanks Paddlers
Memberships run from
April 1 through March 31
$10 Individual
$15 Household
$150 Business
$100 Lifetime
Upcoming Events
Nothing from August 17, 2026 to November 17, 2026.