Pile Bay Road, Iliamna Lake, and the Kvichak River
This bridge on the Pile Bay Road is just wide enough for a gillnetter.
Vessels up to the size of a 32 foot by 12 foot shallow draft gillnetter can save 700 nm open ocean miles by skipping the trip around the Alaska Peninsula to Bristol Bay and taking a ride on the Pile Bay Road from Iliamna Bay to Pile Bay on upper Lake Iliamna. This service operates only June–October. From Pile Bay they motor down the lake to Igiugig and from there down the Kvichak River to Naknek. Williamsport, on the north branch of Iliamna Bay, is little more than a parking pad with some fuel storage tanks and a small shack providing temporary shelter from the weather. Boats can load or unload at +17 feet of tide or higher. It’s essential to make an appointment in advance with the Iliamna Transportation Company to have a truck-trailer rig waiting. During early and late summer months when Bristol Bay gillnetters are transiting, several boats may be anchored in the shallows south of Williamsport, waiting to be called by radio for loading. Iliamna Transportation has stuck a row of brightly colored vertical markers in the bottom off the loading ramp to guide vessels to the pickup point. It is important not to deviate from the designated and marked route because the channel through the reefs is narrow.
Gillnetters wait at Williamsport for a truck trailer rig to carry them across the Aleutian Range on the Pile Bay Road.
Ray Williams or his son Chet drives the truck about 15 miles from Williamsport on a single-lane gravel road over a scenic mountain pass. The route crosses the spine of the Aleutian Range, separating watersheds that empty into the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. At Pile Bay, where the Williams family has their seasonal home, a ramp allows launching into the lake. From Pile Bay it is a pretty straight shot 70 miles down the lake to Igiugig, but the lake can be unpleasant and even dangerous if the wind comes up. One rocky reef lies almost directly in the route to Igiugig and though prominent it could be obscured in bad weather. Lake level fluctuates with weather and snowpack, and in some years vessels have been stranded in the lake due to inadequate river depth. Ray Williams recommends calling a week or two ahead to check on river water levels, and says only vessels drawing 36 inches or less should plan on using the route. The Coast Pilot considers the controlling depth of the Kvichak River to be two feet.
A piece of fishing industry history lies on the banks of the Kvichak River.
The approach to the Kvichak is shallow but normally is adequate for any vessel that can come over the road by truck. Iliamna Lake is about 50 feet higher than Kvichak Bay, so that much elevation is lost in the 65 miles of river. Current in the upper river averages about 6 knots and the river is shallow and rocky, with many bends. The water is fairly clear, which can be a help or a distraction to navigation. No nautical chart covers the river and topographic maps are unreliable for navigation. A few miles below Igiugig the river splits into several shallow channels, an area known as Kaskanak Flats but commonly called the Braids. Lacking detailed courses entered into their plotters, most transiting boaters choose to group up and hire a local guide in a skiff to lead them through the Braids.
It’s easy to get stuck on the flats at the mouth of the Kvichak River on a falling tide, but easy to float free on the flood.
Even with a guide, during low water seasons shallow draft vessels may ground out on the bottom and need to employ creative use of anchors, winches, and prop blasts to gouge a path through the shallows. Once cleared of that area the current is slower.
A fish camp on the east side of Kvichak Bay.
The lower third of the river is tidal and silty. The tidal range in Kvichak Bay (Chart 16323) can be as much as 30 feet. The village of Levelok lies on the north bank but has no dock or float and offers minimal services or supplies, so vessels continue on to Naknek. The broad mouth of the Alagnak (also known as Branch) River appears below Levelok and numerous bars and shallow flats lie in the Kvichak River off its mouth. The Kvichak Bay bottom contour changes periodically so the chart is not entirely accurate, but there is a channel with minimum depths of 3 to 10 fathoms and more that zigzags down the lower river, mainly on the outside of the bends. It is prudent to transit the lower river/upper Kvichak Bay on the flood tide. Commonly vessels get stuck on a falling tide and have to wait for the next high water.
A fish plant pier in Naknek.
On the east side of the bay, about 8 nm south of the point where the river widens to become clearly a bay, the Naknek River enters from the east and the town of Naknek sits on high ground overlooking the north bank. Directly across the river is the smaller village of South Naknek. The Naknek River, too, is tidal and most of the town’s waterfront is inaccessible by boat for about half of each tide. This doesn’t prevent hundreds of gillnetters from rafting up at each of the fish processing plants’ floats, and even along the beach in some places, sitting in the mud. The cannery tie-ups are for the gillnetters and tenders and not for general public use. About two miles upstream from the river entrance the channel swings to the north (town) side of the river and boats anchor there, allowing crews to skiff to the beach. Naknek offers fuel, groceries, marine supplies, and repair services, and air and barge transportation in addition to some amusements, but in June and July all facilities are busy serving the fishing fleet. A 15 mile paved road leads to the airport at King Salmon, which accommodates jet passenger and cargo service.