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ATVs... BOATS... SKI-DOO SLEDS... ALL PRODUCTS... INFORMATION...
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Assault on the river... a family tradition Memorial Day weekend, 1972. That’s when Bob Compeau Jr. and the shop crew from Compeau’s decided to see how far they could take their Evinrude outboard powered jetboats up the Salcha River. 34 years earlier, in 1938, Bob’s father, Bob Compeau Sr. had first come to Alaska from Washington state, where he worked as a machinist. An avid fisherman and hunter, the senior Compeau had a passion for running as far up Alaskan rivers as he could get in an attempt to take a moose back to feed his family for the long Fairbanks winters. Bob Sr. was instrumental in the design and development of the spring-loaded outboard motor lift, a contraption that was bolted to the boat's transom and lifted the outboard higher when the driver leaned on the lift handle, allowing the prop to skim over shallow sand and gravel bars. So on that sunny day in 1972, the crew loaded up the flat bottom, riveted And succeed they did - after thumping and pounding the flimsy, riveted, hulls 120 miles up the river - with moose and caribou witnessing their incredible adventure. A story of the banner hanging trip appeared in the July 1972 issue of DOCK LINES magazine, a publication by Evinrude about unique boating trips from Evinrude dealers from all over the country. Fast forward 20 years... and now Bob’s son Craig (yet another Compeau river rat), decided to continue the tradition. Craig moved the challenge to the Goodpaster river near Delta Junction, where the family had a small cabin 45 miles up the river to be used as a base camp. The challenge - to reach the highest point upriver by jetboat - became an exciting annual event for the younger Compeau, who used the adventure to constantly test and improve the shallow water riverboats sold at Compeau's. Tunnel hulls, stomp grates, wheel kits, and most recently UHMW (plastic) bottoms are just a few of the innovations that have made finding the upper reaches of an interior Alaskan river less damaging to the boat and much easier on the operator. In 2004, Compeau and his crew made another charge up the Goodpaster, this time with folks from River Jet Magazine along for the ride, to see if they could surpass the previous record - from just three years prior. With a lot of blood, sweat, and beers (cracked open, of course, only after they set up camp), Compeau’s adventurers proudly hung their new sign, between two trees high on the riverbank, as if the crew had just stepped off the lunar module. After all, this assault on the river is what Compeau and crew seem to live for. This time around, the shop crew was pretty sure no other jetboat would be able to navigate as far up river and so the challenge in 2004 became official; a $500 cash reward would be offered for any other brand of jetboat that could make it past the hanging sign (the use of helicopter to lift the jetboat there prohibited). Over the next six years, the sign remained. Several local hardcore boatnicks and some of Compeau’s competitors in Fairbanks attempted to retrieve the now infamous sign, collect the $500 - and more importantly - the bragging rights. In the end, the only thing damaged more than the challenger's boat bottoms would be their egos. The water level in the “Goody” was about average, meaning that the boulders that lined the river about an hour above Pogo Mine would make the challenge exciting and a bit dangerous. Compeau decided to bring along a film crew for the event, Grizzly Media, who was working on a promo project for Wild TV, a global outdoor television network that specialized in unique, non typical outdoor and hunting adventures. This trip seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Since it was caribou hunting season, the new goal was to not only move the sign further up the headwaters, but to bring back a caribou on the same trip. Furthermore, the network requested an Alaskan gal to be part of the river challenge, perhaps due to the success of the Sarah Palin TV series that had been featured on another network earlier that year. The addition of a tough Alaskan gal on the trip seemed a natural pre-requisite, as the 1972 Salcha river challenge that Craig’s father organized, included the wives of three of the employees that were part of that initial adventure. Not to be outdone, the 2011 team was fired up and ready for the challenge on Thursday, August 25. The players were Craig Compeau, his sales manager and hunting The boats departed from the Tanana River at the Delta pipeline crossing, and within 20 minutes were headed up the Goodpaster river. The lower 45 miles of the river is relatively tame and easy to navigate, even for someone with minimal jet boat experience. At 48 miles up, the river splits into the North and South forks, where it gets a bit more technical and challenging, especially when the water is low. Taking the North fork, the crew made their new base camp at 75 mile, where they planned to stay the night, and get an early start on the push to the headwaters and toward the Fortymile caribou herd country the next day. Friday the weather was perfect, about 65 degrees and clear, which is exactly what you want for good visibility to make the run up. Compeau knew that perfect conditions like this going upstream were far from perfect conditions coming back down. The severe sun glare on the river in the later afternoons make navigation treacherous, with “sleepers” (large VW beetle sized boulders) just at or below the waters surface littering the river for miles through what the group refers to as the “Boulder Garden”. After going past Pogo Mine at 88 mile, almost the only sign of civilization on the river past the splits, the crew continued upriver and took a lunch break at Rock Creek cabin, and old trappers cabin built in the 1930’s or 1940’s. After a quick lunch of kippered king salmon and Ritz crackers, the crew pushed on, dodging more boulders, and gaining elevation rapidly. As the SJX boats continued up the river, the steady climb of the river dumping out of the foothills felt completely different than the lazy, slow moving water of the lower river. According to the GPS from the previous sign location in 2004, the elevation gain from the point of departure at the Delta bridge to where the sign hung is almost ¼ mile. At this point of the trip, you can actually see 6 to 12 foot rises in elevation, from one bend in the river to the next. Finally, after a couple more hours of boulder thumping, sweeper dodging, gravel bar skimming, and beaver dam jumping, the excited and now frazzled crew made it to the old sign location from 2004. The wind and weather had taken a toll on the old plastic sign, but the rocks in that stretch were still scarred up with aluminum from seven years earlier. For this crew, it was suddenly comforting to know that no other boats had been to this point in the river since the Riverjet gang hung it there in 04, two years before Sarah Palin was even elected the Mayor of Wasilla! At this point in the trip, an executive decision has to be made. And with the new UHMW bottoms and other new innovative skinny water add ons, the decision is an easy one. “Gentlemen , start your engines. Let’s keep going!” said Compeau. 180 degree switchbacks, constantly braiding river channels, fallen trees completely across the river, and shoals of nothing but wet rocks make pushing further a real challenge going upriver. These same obstacles coming downriver, with the racing current, and a blinding sun off the water make the return more than just memorable. It’s what shallow water river addicts refer to as the “pucker factor.” Smacking a few boulders on the return is not just a possibility, it’s a probability. Fortunately, for the crew, these new SJX have solid welded - not skip welded - stringers and gussets, giving the boats incredible strength, and the ability to take a pounding without causing the hull to split or the welds to crack.
The durable, thick, slippery bottoms are far more forgiving than raw aluminum, and it is almost impossible to puncture a hole in the boat bottom with the UHMW protection. The amazing material is the same thing that bullet proof vests are made of. In fact, Compeau has used the term “bullet proof” in his sales pitch for the boat bottom, and it’s more fact that just sales hype. But with new, never seen river in front of them, the excited gang of five kept charging. Within just a couple miles, they encountered a very tight and technical stretch of river. What little water remained split into three narrow braids. The only chance to get past it being an eight-foot wide strip of water hugging the right bank, with trees hanging over the riverbanks as virtual “keep out signs”, and a steep, gradual incline of water spilling over the semi exposed rocks as it entered the corner. Steve made the first attempt at this “damp floor” and, amazingly, the boat chugged its way through, up and over the wet rock shelf, and on around the corner to where the three braids of water came back as one river. As the boats continued on, downed trees became a regular part of the river, but with no jet components hanging at or below the bottom of the boat, and the Mercury jet unit elevated on the boats unique tunnel hull, sliding over trees - even those with 14” and larger diameter - became a non issue. The most potentially dangerous obstacle, and something that can always make these river adventurers go from an adrenaline rush to a hypothermic nightmare, are sweepers. And there is no shortage of sweepers in this area. Sweepers are low hanging trees and root systems than protrude from the side of the riverbank, almost daring you to get near them. A boat floating without power into these sweepers will almost always get swamped, sending the passengers, guns, and gear into the water faster than you can say, $%*&%! Sweepers are the very reason that Compeau designed for the SJX a helm-mounted jet clean out lever. In a typical jetboat, when you get rocks or sticks in the intake, you have little or now power to maneuver away from danger. And danger tends to creep into the boat very fast. With the advancement of the foot lever mounted stomp grate lever in the early 1990’s, the driver or one of the passengers could go run to the stern of the boat and push down on the spring loaded cleanout lever to clear the jet intake of debris. On this stretch of the river, there is simply no reaction time for that. And for that very reason, every SJX jetboat is now equipped with a simple and convenient cleanout lever, mounted right where the driver can grab it and clean out debris from the pump in less than 2 seconds. Another 30 minutes of tight, twisty river running and we knew we were getting close. At this point, not only were we looking for enough water to safely come off plane, we are also looking for a high bank with a pair of strong trees to have the honor of holding up our sign for at least another season. And there they were... as we pulled the boat to the bank with the turbulent water trying to shove us back into the current, we tied up the boat, and proudly hung our new eight-foot vinyl sign. This year, the sign reads, “If you can Read this... You must be in an SJX Jetboat from Compeau’s!"
We stayed at the site, took pictures, and had a celebratory beverage, before heading back down through what we knew would be a white knuckle adventure. Rodney used his Spot, and emergency locater device, to text his girlfriend our location, letting her know all was well. These devices show the recipient of the text the exact location of the person sending the message, both with the actual coordinates, and on a map. When we returned to cell phone range that following Sunday, Rodney anxiously asked her if she had received the text with the coordinates. She replied that she had, but asked why we had hiked into the foothills of the mountains to send the text. She was shocked to learn that Rodney was actually sitting in one of the boats when he sent the Spot text. We laughed when she told Rodney it appeared that we were sheep hunting! Amazingly, these boats navigated back down with very little problem, unlike our return trips in the past. We collectively gave the credit for this to the Black Ice bottoms, our name for the UHMW full coverage option that both of these boats had been upgraded to. Several times we got hung up on a shallow gravel bar, and amazingly, were able to just tap the throttle and power out way back into deeper water, thanks to the combination of the elevated tunnel hull and the Black Ice bottom. In years past, it would take at least four people lifting and grunting on the boat to break it free from where it was high centered. As we are not getting any younger, Steve mentioned to Craig that this technology has saved us a fair amount of money by not having to stock up on Advil and Ben Gay!
After about two hours into the downstream run, we came around a wide sweeping left hand corner, where we spotted a beautiful bull caribou staring at us about 80 yards away. Perfect! The second goal of our river challenge was hopefully about to be met. Steve chopped the throttle, killed the engine, and began drifting as the curious 'bou finally decided it was a good time to vacate the area. Jennifer was the designated shooter, but just when she got the large bull in her sites and reached for the trigger, the boat tapped a boulder, and she was forced to reposition herself, unable to get a clean shot off. As the caribou headed into the brush, Rodney, our back up sniper, connected with a perfect shot, courtesy of a .375 Ultra mag slug, sending the towering caribou "lips first” into the sand. Game over. As we still had a long way to go to get back to our base camp, we chose to gut the caribou, and hoist the entire animal onto the front deck of the boat, and continue downriver where we could relax and take our time field dressing it at camp. It dawned on us that up to this point, the most physical effort any of us had spent so far on that entire trip, was not getting our 1,800 lb SJX jetboats off of a gravel bar, it was hoisting the 350 lb caribou into the nose of the boat!
Somehow, we all knew how hard it was going to be, to wait until next year when we try to outdo ourselves with another assault on the river.
Link to Fairbanks Daily News-Miner article
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aluminum Oachita riverboats with food, tents, tools and of course, a few extra impellers and jet feet, knowing full well about the boulder gardens that added some extra challenges to finding the upper headwaters of the Salcha river. This is where they were hoping to hang their shiny new EVINRUDE COUNTRY sign many hours after leaving the boat launch.
In August 2011, Compeau and company decided if anyone was to move the now faded, seven-year-old sign further up the river, it would have to be the Compeau crew themselves. After all, the new and improved SJX jet boats now had the added advantage of a full 3/8’s thick UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) plastic bottom - cleverly named Black Ice - giving incredible impact protection, and making the bottom many times less abrasion resistant than aluminum. 
sharpshooter Rodney Vesper, Steve Stajkowski, the owner of SJX jetboats in Orofino, Idaho, Chris Dailey of Grizzly Media, and Jennifer Yuhas, who has been heavily involved in outdoor and NRA issues and is a tireless advocate for Alaskans hunting rights. Yuhas, an avid hunter and adventure seeker herself, quickly accepted the offer to join the crew on the river challenge/hunting trip. 
The logs we had jumped over on the way upriver were now slightly lower in the river, and wet, making the downstream run over them effortless. 
After the caribou was put into game bags and hung on our meat pole back at camp, we sat around the campfire, had a cold beer, and reflected on everything that had happened that amazing day. 
