Floating "The Nush" in Alaska

That sounds awesome (except for the clouds of bugs, of course).

Sure, thanks for asking. I'll get ahold of some of my brother's greatest hits. He took real camera equipment and is a good photog. I'm a capture-the-moment-with-my-iPhone guy. Here's a quick TR:

We flew from Anchorage to Iliamna on a 10-seater. That flight was worth the trip right there. Flew over the Cook Inlet where we saw a pack of Beluga whales hunting salmon. They are so white you can easily spot them breaching. We flew over many glaciers, and right up a glacial valley that was spectacular.
The float plane airport is on a little lake near Lake Iliamna -- the largest lake in AK -- and a short hop from the main air strip there. I say "main" because they also, evidently, land planes on one of the dirt roads in town. There are warning signs for drivers to watch for landing planes.
We packed all of our gear, including 3 15' NRS rafts, into 3 float planes. There were six of us, 2 per boat. My brother and I have done a lot of float fishing throughout the western US. The 4 other guys had various experience levels with rowing rivers, but lots of backcountry experience. Two of the guys had floated rivers in this region before and new the outfitter who got us in and out of there and provided our core gear, including tents and kitchen set up. But we were self guided. This river is Class 1 only, even at high water. I liked it because I could row my brother more than usual and he could fish more -- paybacks for years of him having to take the oars of his boat to navigate challenging water while I caught all the fish.
We were flown into the upper river just below the only guide camp on the river. They guide on this river (lightly) with metal, flat-bottomed air boats so they can move around and follow the salmon migrating on the river. Mostly day trips from the big lodges. They fly clients in on float planes for a day of fishing. We saw a handful of them over the 10 days. We saw no private parties, and no other rafters.
After setting up the boats and loading them, we floated for 10 days, 75 miles, 8 camps. We camped on large gravel bars. There were almost always fresh bear tracks -- and usually moose as well -- everywhere we stopped.
Our goal was to fish. We fished all day. And those days are LONG! I was not particularly interested in targeting the salmon, but the other guys caught plenty of them. We caught lots of sockeye -- our preferred dinner -- and also kings and chum. We had heard that large rainbow trout follow the salmon, but we had trouble finding numbers of them. I had tied a bunch of mice up, hoping to catch the bows on my Tenkara rods. I did, but not many. I did, however, catch tons of Grayling on the mouse and that was fun. They would just explode on it.
Watching the red sockeye behave was really interesting. When we got to a section of the river in which they were present, the energy of the entire place changed. More fish were present, more wildlife (especially bears!), a whole other vibe. It really made me aware of how central they are to the whole system. I "knew" that, but seeing it and feeling it was really inspiring.
By communicating to the pilots via Garmin and satellite phone, we arranged a pick-up waypoint and time, and they swooped down to where we were, we packed up the planes in less than an hour, and after an hour flight back to "civilization" in Iliamna were were out. The closest road to the upper Nush is 100 miles. It is the headwater of the Nush where the proposed -- now dead, we hope -- Pebble Mine was planned. Hard to imagine that was going to be a wise move....
Sighting list: 5 bears (pics to come), several moose (including a cow swimming the river), caribou, belugas, river otters, lots of sea birds, bald eagles, osprey. And of course the state bird of Alaska in the millions.