Blood in the Mud and Bear Scat

Wow ,  what a week we've had!

On Monday, we volunteered for the afternoon at the Wynn Nature Center and Tim, Anna, Colton & Ethan spent 5+ hours moving firewood, hauling a truck load of lumber 300 yards from the parking lot and re-stacking it at the Center's cabin, and then demolishing the old boardwalk in preparation for it's replacement. The Center is replacing it's 800 feet of boardwalk (making the facility handicapped accessible) over the course of the summer using mostly volunteer help.

On Tuesday, we headed out on a two night camping trip up to the central Kenai Peninsula area to check out the area around Skilak lake. Our goals were to do some fishing, camping and hiking. We started off the trip with a stop at the Anchor River. This is a famous salmon river in Anchor Point, about 20 minutes from Homer. We had heard that it can be combat fishing during the King Salmon runs as it is only open to fishing on Sundays Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays  for four weeks in May & June, until it opens for the season on August 1st.

We arrived around 0830 and were lucky enough to find a spot in the "Slidehole" where all four of us could fish from the shore. I knew it was going to be a good spot as I saw 2 huge blood spots in the mud of the riverbank, a good sign that some fish were taken from this area very recently.  We had not been fishing 20 minutes when Colton got his first bite. Now, the King Salmon on the Anchor are nothing like the Kings in the lagoon where we normally fish- these fish put up a fight!! After fighting it for almost 10 minutes it took off down stream like a bullet at which point Colton had to hand the rod over to Tim, as the fish almost bumped into a fishman downstream.  The fish finally won the battle and broke the fishing line - Darn- but man, was that fun and exciting! Colton wasn't too upset about the loss and once his arms recovered he tossed out another line. Then, moments later Ethan got a bite! He played that fish very well - right up to the point where he had it 1-2 feet from shore. Then Tim's Curse of the King Salmon set in; he made the mistake of grabbing Ethan's line while reaching for the fish, which resulted in the fish breaking the line and getting away. Tim had left our net at the lagoon a few days earlier so we were bringing them in Alaskan style, with no net. Needless to say Ethan was a bit upset. It's funny how history repeats itself. Tim was reminiscing about the time he had a big Bluefish on his line while fishing from a boat in Maine when he was a kid, and how after reeling the fish to the side of the boat, his Dad clubbed it - right off the line and back into the ocean.  Maybe it's a Schaal right of passage to have your dad contribute to you loosing a big fish?  Tim, feeling terrible, encouraged Ethan to keep on fishing and promised to never let that happen again.

A few minutes later Colton had another bite - but lost it after just a minute. Then another bite - and this one stuck! He had to fight that fish up and down the river. I had never seen anything like it.

No - he is not snagged - he's hanging on to a KING!!

 After 19 minutes we finally got it on shore, all 19 pounds of it. As Colton got the fish to shore, Tim jumped in the water, bear hugged it and tossed it into the bushes. He was NOT about to let another one get away! Yes!!! We landed a King Salmon on the Anchor River!! Amazing!!

That's right coach Porter- the Minicanes sweatshirt is now deemed the "lucky sweatshirt"

Getting your boat in and out of the ocean in Anchor Point

We took the fish to a fish cleaning station (table with water) which was on the ocean. We thought you might enjoy seeing how fishing boats get launched in a small Alaskan town with no dock or boat launching ramp.  Notice all the eagles on the beach, they are snacking on Colton's fish carcass .

From here we travelled north and stopped to fish at Johnson Lake. It was a beautiful campground and lake and Tim caught a couple of small rainbows. We then worked out way over to the Kasilof river and tried our luck - but had none - not even a bite. We then went into Soldotna where we purchased a new fishing net and a few new flies as we had seen a Red (Sockeye) Salmon, get caught at the Kasilof.  The Red Salmon run is starting!

We finally made it to our destination which was the Lower Skilak Lake campground. This is a State run campground that had no fee.  Go figure - free camping on a picturesque lake in the middle of nowhere, Alaska.  It was amazing; although I (Anna) was a bit freaked out about the bear potential as it was very remote and we were 1 of only 2 camping parties. Alas, no bear sightings, but Tim did awaken when a moose and her calf almost tripped on the tent wires as then meandered through our campsite at 3 AM.  I guess I should have been more concerned with moose than bears.


A perfect spot!

Our great campsite



The next day we did a great hike called  Hideout. It was only a few miles but it had significant elevation which provided us with a beautiful view of the Skilak Lake area, the Kenai River and it's valley and the Kenai Mountains. It was lovely with the lupine in bloom and yellow Indian Paintbrush, which we had never seen before. We did see 2 different piles of fresh bear scat - but again, no bear sitings- whew!

The top of Hideout hike

After our hike we found a spot to fish on the Kenai River, another very famous salmon river. It is not uncommon for king salmon that get taken out of the Kenai to be in the 50-60 pound range. We found an amazing spot on a gravel bar and enjoyed the rushing river for a few hours - but no catches. We were amazed by the number of fish carcasses on the river bank. These are the carcasses of all the salmon from the previous year who come up stream to spawn and then die and wash up on shore. There were tonnes of them!

Fish carcass on the Kenai river bank

  After this it was back to the campsite for one more night. In the morning we packed up and headed back home, but not without a stop first at the Kasilof again.  No luck, but good fun. Ethan was using herring for bait and he enjoyed teasing (or feeding) the seagulls with it.

Since Anna had a King  Salmon stamp that was good until Saturday morning, we decided to stop at the lagoon after having dinner on the Homer Spit. We were only there for an hour - but Colton got ANOTHER King Salmon. This brings our total up to 4 Kings, which means we have enough to jusitfy sending some home!

Carleton, Susie, Justin, Karol, Ethan, Tim, Colton and Anna at the trail head

Saturday was an EPIC Alaska day. It was National Trails Day and we signed up to go across the bay to Katchemak Bay State Park and do some volunteer trail maintenance. It ususally costs $70-$80 per person to get accross the bay, but for this event it was only $20.00 dollars per person which we thought was a great deal. We met at 0730 in the morning on the Homer Spit. It was cold, windy and raining. Our group was supposed to have 17 people in it, but only 7 of us showed up. The bad weather probably was responsible. Well, we had the best day!! After a 30 minute water taxi across the bay we arrived at the trailhead, with the sun shining. We had a guide, Justin, who is a Forestry student at the University of Illinois, working for Alaska State Parks for the summer. Turns out the trail we were doing was actually already picked up, so we didn't have any work to do and just had a guided hike! We hiked up to a tram that crossed the Grewingk River.

Ethan taking a little break

Of course the boys had to try it out, so while I tried to calm my palpating heart, the boys went across a glacier fed river in a tram. They LOVED it! I loved it when they returned and got off! We then made our way down to Grewingk Lake which had some huge icebergs in it. The photos say more than I can. It was utterly beautiful and something we will never forget. The boys had fun trying to break off some of the ice closer to shore. They were amazed at how dense and cold it was.



After the lake we made our way around to the Saddle Trail which would lead us out to Saddle Beach where we were being picked up. Along the way we came across a very friendly gentleman, Paul Lutus. We continue to be amazed by the intersting characters we meet in Alaska. Come to find out he sails a boat from Washington State to Alaska every year for about 6 months where he hikes and photographs bears. Another interesting thing about Paul is that he wrote one of Apple's first word processing programs, at which time he retired at age 35. He is now 66. You can check out his photos and stories at  http://arachnoid.com/.


Paul rowing out to his boat the 'Teacup" that he lives on 6 months a year.



Our water taxi

Along our hike we saw numerous piles of bear scat - some of it very fresh looking - but again, no bear sitings.  At 3:30 our water taxi came to pick us up and bring us back to Homer.

After our 7+ miles of hiking, we enjoyed a potluck dinner at the Wynn Nature Center where we got the chance to socialize more with many of the folks we met & worked with on Monday and meet many more people.  The evening wrapped up with a trio playing guitar a singing some bluegrass tunes they've written.  Our favorite was the one about the ptarmigan (arctic cousin to the partridge) that got run over in the road by a pick-up truck.  Only in Alaska.....

This week we're  heading further north again, all the way to Denali and Fairbanks. We're told we're sure to see a bear on the trip. We'll let you know.

Cheers! 

Teamwork!

TACE