We still had a few more places to tick off on the Kenai peninsula, the next one was Hope or more precisely 'Six mile Creek' to experience possibly the most extreme 'commercial' white water rafting in North America. Back in Clearwater BC I reached a new high going from class 3 rapids to class 4, but there was actually only one class 4 rapid. Six mile creek has five class 5 rapids!!! To raft the class 5 you have to pay to raft 3 canyons. Donna had decided to sit this one out, class 3 back in Chile was exciting enough for her. There were a family of 3 and 3 young ladies from the US army and me. After being cocooned in dry suits we all had to prove we could swim. One by one we dived into a fast running river to swim towards the other bank whilst being dragged downstream. We were given the signal when we far enough across then we could let the river take us whilst floating on our backs. Anyone who didn't make it far enough across were in danger of crashing into logs accumulated on a sweeping bend - here stood a guy with a big padded pole ready to push you back into the flow to avoid injury if necessary. After a few minutes of drifting in the cold turbulent water we had to swim ashore to the rafts that were waiting for us. Both of the swims came as a bit of a shock, you had to swim like hell to make any progress and all the time you were being swept downstream with water swirling tempestuously all around you, and this was just fast-moving water not rapids. Most days someone falls out of a raft in the rapids, one had already done so this morning. I really didn't want to be ejected during a class 3 let alone a class 5, this is serious stuff! Meanwhile back at Tilly, Donna was cleaning the windows, painting her nails and reading a book. I had to choose between the raft with the family or the 3 young ladies! Easy decision, the ladies had go-pro cameras and had promised me a copy of the footage. First canyon, just warming up, all class 3 rapids, great fun. Second canyon, several class 3 and three class 4 rapids. Plenty of screaming, exciting stuff. The rapids involved navigating between huge rocks that we only just fitted through. Take the wrong line in, hit a rock and the raft could flip - it does happen, not today though. Whilst drifting down stream after the second canyon I found out that the ladies had only paid to raft the first two. This means the raft pulls in and their trip is over. The problem is the guide will not take the raft down with just him and me. If the ladies didn't change their minds to raft all three canyons (and pay the extra after) then I would miss out on the class 5 and get a partial refund. One of the ladies (Liz) wanted to do it, whilst Jessie and Amanda were apprehensive. The guide and I worked on persuading them, but it was Liz that succeeded 'this guy has come all the way from England to raft class 5, this is the most extreme rafting we can do, we should do it' - the die was cast, they all agreed. We pulled into where the families rafting trip had ended and we changed from our yellow raft to their purple raft. Our guide made us practice all the different paddle strokes again and again. If we wanted to avoid a flip or ejection in the 3rd canyon we would have to paddle as commanded immediately and correctly, changing from one stroke to another in an instant. The first of five class 5 rapids - oh my god how can I describe it. The raft squeezed through the narrowest of gaps with inches to spare and the river just seemed to drop away before us. Two of us on the right got thrown into the middle of the raft, it was like being inside a giant washing machine going from rinse to spin. The second class 5 we were instructed to paddle hard we did and my oar bounced of a rock out of my right hand and smashed into Liz's neck. I could see by the expression on her face that she felt it, but we were still being thrown pillar to post and I was still supposed to be paddling. In calmer waters I apologised and Liz said she was fine. Now class 5 rapids are not to be taken lightly. Before we entered each one our guide (Gumbo) explained the rapid, how we would approach, paddle through and exit and most importantly if we ended up in the water which bank to swim to for safety. Earlier on one of the ladies asked Gumbo about spotting bears along the river, to which his response was 'one of the other guides says he has seen bears on the bank but I don't believe him I never have'. Before reaching no.3 of the class fives there was a black bear and two cubs walking along the river bank and the current was taking us closer to them. 'Back Paddle' Gumbo shouted and we frantically tried to manouvere the raft to the opposite bank. If the bear thought we were a threat to her cubs she would be in the water to attack us - bears are good swimmers. Confrontation avoided and Gumbo declared 'yes, he has seen bears along the river'. The last three class 5's didn't fail to thrill, excite (and frighten a little). I thanked the 3 ladies for rafting the last canyon, without them I would have missed out and they thanked me for helping to talk them into it. What a great day, I will now stop nagging Donna to raft. I haven't had my fill but I'm going to struggle to top 'Six Mile Creek'. We continued down the road to Hope where we had already secured one of the last RV pitches - it's Friday and the weekenders are coming in their masses from Anchorage to fish for pink salmon that is running up Resurrection Creek. Saturday we put on our boots and hiked up Hope point at 3700 feet. A great 9 mile walk with most of it above the treeline, views of Anchorage in the distance, Turnagain Arm (like Barmouth estuary!) and the Chugach mountains. American hikers seem to fall into two categories, at one extreme they carry handguns not bear spray and at the other they ignore all the bear advise we have read - no bells, no bear spray, walking alone, walking in silence, letting their dogs walk off the lead wandering far ahead to possibly surprise a bear who may then attack them. We took a drive through the tiny settlement of Hope which had sprung up because of yet another gold rush. Visited the Hope museum and would have tried our luck at some more Gold panning but we had just missed the start of the panning lesson. Back at the RV park office / Motel / Laundrette / general store a woman walked in looking like Annie Oakley with a 6 shooter hanging of her waist - it's a different world here. Not going to talk to her about politics or religion. More speed showering here as we shared a 4 Dollar 10 minute shower token. Our side trip down the dead end Hope Highway was well worth it and plenty of folk fishing seemed happy as they had hooked several salmon suppers.