previous trip to Talkeetna.">

Talkeetna, Mahay's Jetboat Safari

We stopped in Talkeetna to try a jetboat safari. We wanted to see what kind of wildlife we could spot along the Talkeetna River. We didn't see much wildlife, but were impressed with the other half of the tour - the description of his life as a fur trapper.

We took an incredible galcier flightseeing tour on our previous trip to Talkeetna.


On the road to Talkeetna you'll pass this beautiful lake that houses a couple of seaplanes. There's also a land airport in the town itself. Seaplanes are available for charter from everything from fishing, bear watching, glacier sightseeing, and Mt McKinnley expeditions.

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This isn't a seaplane. It's a skiplane. Its wheels are equipped with skis for landing on snow. This plane could be a glacier tourplane or a Mt McKinnely expedition plane.

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We took Mahay's Jetbat tour along the Talkeetna River. Not much wildlife to see this day except for this eagles nest. From a bouncy boat, it looked like the nest was empty to us, however, check out the next picture to see it zoomed in and cropped...

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This is a 100% crop of the previous blad eagle nest image. Doing this was the only way we could tell (after the fact, mind you) that there was an eagle in there. Her head peeks out on the left just above the lip. Eagles nests can weigh hundreds, even over 1000 pounds, and they can span 20 feet.

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Beavers did a number on this former tree. Notice all the uniformly-sized woodchips surrounding the stump.

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Another tree doomed to succumb to beavers.

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This is one of Mahay's jetboats. The tour spends some time on the water looking for wildlife, and then drops you off into a completely uninhabited area for a fur-trapping "lesson."

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This is a replica of a shelter described in historical documents from the native people who inhabited this area hundreds of years ago.

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Steve Mahay describes his life as a trapper in the 1970s. He and his wife came to Alaska and took advantage of free government land. They bought a wood-burning stove from Sears and built a small log cabin around it. He lived in the cabin for 5 years making his living trapping animals and selling their fur. Here he holds up a fox as an example.

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This wasn't Steve's original log cabin. He built it for the tour. But inside it contains his original wood-burning stove and furniture. It was barely tall enough to stand up in the center where the roof was highest. Outside you can see more examples of his fur trapping including a black bear on the right. He said the meat of the black bear tasted very good, but grizzly tasted terrible.

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A former naturalist employee tales over for Steve when he had to attend to boat repairs. Here she demonstrates around a black bear hide. The hide looked so small as if to be a cub.

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Fiddleneck ferns grow everywhere around Talkeetna. Apparently it tastes like asparagus if you cook it. And if you pick them when they are just budding out of the ground you can eat them raw.

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The Alaska Railroad blows through town after we disembark the Mahay jetboat. It's pulling passenger cars from the Princess Cruise Line on its trip to Denali.

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