High water this summer changes travel on Noatak River

Observation by Jeffrey Luther:

In the photo, the arrow represents where a breakthrough channel (which is now the main channel we use) happened last year (which you can see in Paul's posts). It got deeper this year. Before last year, a portion of that channel used to dry up from low water levels, and we were able to ride our ATVs where the channel is. I noticed boats using that channel late last year, people are still using it today. We weren't able to use that channel since the late 90s or early 2000s, the main channel used to be about 1/4 mile from town (other than during high water times we weren't able to use that channel). Before the main channel move back in front of town we would have to travel a mile or 2 downriver to get to the main channel(deepest) to go upriver, and most of the boats weren't able to make it to AVEC and park(where all boats are parking this year), we would park at the gravel pit (which is downstream from town), which, even that was difficult to get to.

This year we had a lot more rain than other years, we used to be able to get on our ATVs and travel 10-12 miles upriver, last year I went 8.8 miles up, those who explored more went 12 miles upriver. But because of the rain, we weren't and still aren't able to get to the well island that's right in front of town. I haven't seen or heard of anyone using ATVs to travel upriver this year. I think the breakthrough channel has a lot to do with us not being able to travel on ATVs, I'm hoping later this fall we will see the water drop to where we will be able to get on our ATVs and travel, ALTHOUGH, from boating this year, I see a lot of my favorite ATV fishing spots washed away from the highwater we had this year, beaches where we would park our ATVs and cast are no longer there, instead there's straight cut banks up to the willows we would avoid going through, I am so happy I got a boat & motor early this spring, otherwise I would've missed traveling the river. But, I wasn't able to fish for dollies, due to the water being high and dirty, which I finally see is going back to the crystal clear form we are used to seeing our river be.