There is a short portage of gear to the river. If there seems to be enough water to float rather than drag the upper river, there is a lake in the upper valley where a floatplane can drop you. There are the two main options for starting your trip here. The Trip Nigu Headwaters to Etivluk Confluence: 45 or 70 miles To float further, to the oil town of Umiat would take an additional week. This is perhaps one of the most interesting sections of the Colville. One could also float another 70 miles of the Colville River to the interesting Killik Bend region where a gravel strip is found at the confluence with the Killik River at N 69 degrees and 01 minutes by W 153 degrees and 55.4 minutes making for a 140 mile trip. Take out can be from the gravel bars of the lower Etivluk near the Colville confluence, or by floatplane from the Colville River where the river is suitable. Water levels could determine where your pilot says to go. There is another lake 70 miles up the Nigu where you could start, if there is enough water to float the upper river. One about 3 miles above Otirgon Creek gives a 45 mile run to the Etivluk and is best for low water. At the Etivluk headwaters is Nigtun Lake near Howard Pass and on the Nigu are several lakes that are close to the river. From either place you can arrange for a chartered flight in a floatplane that will land you on one of many lakes in the areas. Put Inįor the put in you will need to get to Fairbanks, Alaska where you can take a commercial flight to Bettles, or you can drive the Dalton Highway to Coldfoot, Alaska. With low riverbanks, the views are great and there is fishing for Arctic Grayling and Lake Trout all along the way. There are several archeological sites in this river valley. If you start on the Etivluk you will have 65-mile run to the Colville confluence.
If you start on the Nigu there is a 70- or 100-mile run to the confluence with the Colville River. The river is mostly a gentle Class I and II with numerous boulder gardens to weave through and shallow riffles to drag over. However with a little effort, a small raft can be drug through the shallows and paddled into the headwinds for the first few days of low water.
Both rivers carry small volumes of water at most times, and therefore are more suited to inflatable kayaks or folding canoes rather than rafts. Beginning in the mountains, the rivers flow north from the Brooks Range, out of the eastern edge of the DeLong Mountains into the Arctic foothills through rolling hills and tundra. The Nigu and Etivluk Rivers, beginning in Gates of the Arctic National Park, are seldom-visited river valleys in the high arctic at above 68 degrees north latitude and flow north out of the Brooks Range to join the Colville River.
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