Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Kenai Penninsula

Kristen won a Halibut charter for two out of Homer so we packed up the car and hit the road to explore the west end of the kenai which we haven't been to before. This side of the Kenai is known as Alaska's playground because of it's sandy beaches and world class salmon runs, halibut, razor clams, shrimp, beluga whales, sea otters and so much other wildlife! I like to think of it as the California of Alaska, but with glaciers and without 20 million people.
Looking across the turnagain arm to a glacier on the kenai.
Near Soldotna looking across Cook Inlet at the Aleutian Range.
Soaking in that rare beautiful sunshine.
We camped on Kasiloff beach near the mouth of the Kasiloff river and tried to catch king salmon. King salmon have been heavily restricted this year to only certain sections of certain rivers on certain days and that day was the very last day allowed.

By the time we got out there the tide had come in making the river muddy and wide. Not very good fishing and we left empty handed.
A hitchcockian scene out of the birds, we had seagulls swarming and dive bombing us. Then we realized why haha.
Clam gulch, when you time the tides right razor clams can be dug in the mud flats.
A cool view of the iliamna volcano, an active volcano in the aleutian range.
People fishing on the homer spit. They were catching flounder and cod right off the beach.
The Salty Dawg saloon on the spit. A must see when you're in Homer.
Most of the undergarments have been removed from the ceiling but a few remain. Kristen refused to leave hers.
The boardwalk is a neat scene. Gift shops, native arts, sport fishing shops, fish n chips. Most of the buildings have a room up top you can stay the night in too.
A view of Katchemak Bay
Our view at Land's End at the end of the spit.
Alaskan beer, alaskan shrimp, alaskan halibut and alaskan king crab for dinner. This place is great!
Sea otters just hanging out. We headed out early with the Halibut charter. A little rainy but calm seas.
Nate catches the first fish of the day. A 10 lb cod. In the lower 48 that's good eatin, but here it's bait for bigger fish!
Kristen catches the next one, it's a big one she says. Takes her 15 minutes to reel it in. Too bad its a skate(devil fish). Not good eatin so he gets thrown back. With that we move to another fishing hole because the Skate will stick around and eat your bait.
The belts are very neccesary when you get a big one.
It's hard work bringing them big fish up from the bottom. 300 feet down 1000 feet up.
Octopus! The captain said it was pretty rare to pull up one.
Kristen's catch, and finally a Halibut! 2nd biggest of the day.
The two biggest of the day.
The 12 biggest of our catch. Everyone is allowed two and there were 11 of us on the boat. The gamble is once you decide to keep one you can't throw it back if you get a bigger one. We threw back probably 100 or so as a boat. all of them easily 15-20 pounds. I've never been excited about fishing but it was a blast.
Not only was it a great experience but you come home with 20 lbs of boneless, fresh halibut. Easily 300 dollars worth of fish if bought from a store.
We camped by the Kenai river on our way home. Can't keep kings and it's a little too early for the red, pink, and silver salmon but there's massive rainbow trout and dolly varden in there. It's fair to say we have fish fever.
 A few Alltons Johnsons and Duncans will be up this next week, Woohoo. Can't wait to show them a good alaskan time!





Saturday, June 9, 2012


Well we've been on summer break for two weeks, and while the weather hasn't exactly been summer-like, we've made the most of it. Several things of note have been different. We're used to summer starting in may, in fort collins, end of may would have been 80-90 degrees easily. Here it's June 8th and we still haven't broke 70. It's been deceiving because we had 40 straight days of sun in march and april and yet the large amounts of snow resist the change of seasons. The landscape is beginning to turn green and alaska is turning into a big playground for adults. We bought a subaru outback with 180,000 miles on it and intend to put another 180,000 miles on it.  Here is a recap of our recent outings.
 
Thunderbird falls hike with our buddy Rob and his family from New York.
Dinner with some true great alaskans.
We were invited by Rob and his family to camp out on the Deshka River for their annual Memorial Day party.  When we arrived at camp it looked like a tent city. 

Some of Rob's family owns a crabbing company in southeast. Fresh Dungeonous feast!
20lbs of soft shell dungy went quick.
That's our 90,000 dollar red drift boat... not, had ya...
Lucy's exictement yawn
Fishing for that 50lb king salmon on the deshka.

  Rainbow trout, let him go cause our expectations are so high... but shoulda kept him in hindsight.
When we get bored we head up the hills to hatcher's pass and look for gold. Always find some flakes!
More fun than facebook.
Had enough of hanging around so we headed out for Eklutna Valley. We canoed out with all our gear in hopes of spending a few nights amongst the glaciers.
Beautiful Alaskan weather!
We reach the end of the 7 mile lake and are in the middle of the Chugach wilderness.
I think that's a size 9....
Bear tracks be damned its a good spot.

Proper food hanging
A fire swept through the area 2 years ago.
That made it nice and open contrary to normal alaskan hiking.

Took a hike back to try and reach the glacier. As always it's much futher than back than we expect.
 
 Still got to see some cool falls.
Made it to Tulchina Falls. I think we were the first one's back there this year judging by the number of downed trees we had to manuever around on the trail. 


Mount Bashful unabashed. Tallest mountain in the Chugach range at 8,005 ft. from sea level.

Clouds breaking for some rare sunshine!
Size nine came by while we were gone. Luckily he's wasn't interested in our camp.
Dishwasher extraordinaire!
Camp at Eklutna
A goose ball
This is how we found her in the desesrt in Utah. She knows how to incite pity!
Heading home, can't stay in the wilderness forever...
See ya'll soon!