The talk of this summer is the continuously cold weather, overcast and rain. The few days when the sun breaks through the clouds and pours onto the pale skin of scattering ants, people flood the parks, the trails, the water ways, and highways. After a long winter of an average 5 degrees and 2 feet of snow, the thick overcast, as far as I am concerned, is greeted just as warmly as any other summer day would be in Tennessee (maybe even more so without the extreme humidity and unbearable waves of heat). After I have done my time in the [View Full Entry]

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In Search of the Midnight Sun - Chapter 6 The Kenai August 12, 2008 - Prince of Wales Sound We headed south out of Anchorage about 8 AM intending to drive to the Kenai River area. Larry usually checks the weather in the morning and he said it is supposed to be a nice day - somewhat overcast and about 60F but that the rest of the week said 60% chance of showers. So, as navigator, I knew Whittier was only 60 miles away and that’s where we planned to do a glacier cruise on our way back out of the [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in Homer is a spectacular sight to behold and no picture can do it justice. The land mass that projects 5 miles into the Kachemak Bay is called the “Spit,” and Homer is known as “the end of the road.” It is also known as the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World, although there are also a variety of salmon and other fish. Again, we were not in the right place at the time the Chinook and the reds were running. However, we did have success catching Halibut from a charter. We caught 6 fish together and could keep 2 [View Full Entry]

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This weekend we went to visit Pete and Pats older brother and his familie in Soldotna. One thing was obvious, we were going FISHING, woohoo, fishing heaven down there. When we went to get our licenses something funny happened, when my sister had filled out her papers and wanted to pay the lady just said "it's on the house and thank you for your service" because she is married to an army dude. :p was a really nice gesture. Living with an american family was quite funny to experience, and too see how things are. We went to see what Homer [View Full Entry]

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We were happy to leave Anchorage and the flu bug that got me down there. UGH! Too bad we can't leave behind the yucky stuff when we're on "vacation." I did feel sorry for myself that I was so far away from home and sick. I guess I was "homesick." The highway to Seward began along Turnagain Arm and was an estuary for all kinds of interesting birds. Then the scenery changed to rugged snow-capped mountains. Another WOW! Seward is the only town along the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsula. We dry camped in a city lot along the water, [View Full Entry]

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Anchorage is a bowl surrounded by mountains, except for the water of Cook Inlet. It is a beautiful city, the largest in Alaska. In the morning we were greeted in the campground by Arnold and Peggy, the couple from Saskatchewan who we haven’t seen since Whitehorse. When we left the campsite, we checked out some fishermen in Ship Creek, very near our campsite as we heard there were salmon running there. We also drove out to Earthquake Park which commemorates the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake which measured 9.2 on the Richter Scale. It devastated a large area of the coast from [View Full Entry]

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When we awoke, Rob and Estrella were out for a canoe ride. It had rained during the night, but was a beautiful morning. When they got back, Danielle and I paddled around a bit and said good morning to some loons (an adult pair and 2 juveniles). We paddled to the car and got the sleeping bag that I had left behind. After we paddled back, we fixed up a lunch and got ready to hike the seven lakes trail. The girls were off and running along the trail with Carina and we had to remind them that we could easily [View Full Entry]

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We’re off to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge! My friend and co-worker Rob and his family invited us to join them at the Engineer Lake Cabin, which is a fairly remote public use cabin on the refuge. We got directions and planned to meet them there. We stopped on the way to hike the Skyline Trail. The guidebook and trail sign said that it was a one mile trail. The trail started steep and the girls enjoyed the rock scrambling and counting steps. Well, it may have been one mile to some landmark, but the trail kept going and so did [View Full Entry]

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Kenai Peninsula July 23-Aug 8 This blog is posted out of order. Bird Creek We stayed at a state park on the Turnagain Arm of the Cook inlet. We could walk up to Bird Creek and watch the people fishing for salmon. That was interesting to watch, but less tightly packed than we had thought combat fishing would be. My fascination with the tides continues and here there are mud flats that can be deadly. When the tide is low it exposes large expanses of silty mud that appears to be an interesting place to walk. Unfortunately it is a dangerous [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday August 8, 2007 Early in the morning we walked along the Russian River to the Kenai River. (the path is part of the park and you can fish anywhere along it).to see the fishermen. It was cool and the air was fresh. The river sparkled with the sun. It was a beautiful area. During the height of the salmon season and fishermen are lined up shoulder to shoulder at the junction of the rivers. It’s called “combat fishing”. But, this morning there weren’t that many fishermen and they didn’t seem to be catching anything. One man we talked with said [View Full Entry]

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