Q: In about 3 weeks, three of my friends and I will be flying in from Canada to do a non-guided river tour on the Killik River. I am feeling anxious that this could be a very difficult trip. I wanted to know your opinion on that particular river: Are we crazy to do this trip without a guide? We have done backcountry backpacking, but I personally have not done a trip with the raft, so any tips would be wonderful. Thanks —Carolyn

A: Good news, Carolyn. The Killik—located on the North Slope of the central Brooks Range—is pretty tame. It never gets more than Class I or Class II water, so the rafting will not be that difficult. If you want to get details on what each whitewater class entails, read our breakdown of different Alaska whitewater classes on Alaska.org.

As for doing a trip without a guide, I can’t assess your skills. Some people would say it’s not wise to do a wilderness float like this without a guide. But my first trip to Alaska was an unguided ascent of Mt. McKinley, and they certainly would have said the same thing about that.

So I think if you have some outdoor experience and are carrying some means of protection against bears, I think you’ll be fine. Since this is a river trip, I don’t see you having any route-finding problems. Just make sure you have the following:

• A good tent in case the weather starts howling
• Enough food
• Either a satellite phone or a spot messenger in case someone gets hurt and you need a rescue (check out the Safety section on Alaska.org’s Hiking page)

But by and large, this is not a difficult river or risky proposition—it should be a beautiful float experience.

If you’re interested in a guide, let me know, and I may be able to recommend someone. A step up from that would be to hire an outfitter or guiding service to handle all the logistics for you.

You’re picking the right time of year to come. By August a lot of the bugs will be down, but it will still be summer. Have fun!