Main trail near Sam Charley Island

Open water and dangerous ice area that Knut Kielland suddenly came upon when traveling near Sam Charley Island on the Tanana River by dog team. Knut has spent over 15 years traveling the river and has never seen these conditions at this spot. This time, however, the ice was eroded with spots of water bubbling up. The area in the upper right of the photo was "really dicey and scary" with a lot of open water and eroded ice. Once beyond that spot the ice was solid. As seen in this picture two days later, everything was refrozen and safer for traveling. Knut saw no evidence of why it became open water. He speculates that the presence of a sand bar could be a factor, but found no evidence of a bar. He has seen something like this at a spot near the Bonzana Creek Landing at the west end of Seven Mile Island.