Life of My Desire

Excerpt from "Sentimental Shark", by Robert Service

Give me a cabin in the woods
Where not a human soul intrudes;
Where I can sit beside a stream
Beneath a balsam bough and deam,
And every morning see arise
The sun like bird of paradise;
Then go down to the creek and fish
A speckled trout for breakfast dish,
And fry it in an ember fire -
Ah! there's the life of my desire.
It has been another desirable week in Homer, Alaksa.

Colton wading in a glacier fed lake - brrrrr!

Colton's fire he built to warm up after
swimming with the icebergs.

On Monday , Colton started his HOWL (Homer Outdoor Wilderness Leadership) camp and had a great time.  In his words "that was the best camp I ever went to".  For the first three days they did day trips around Homer - hiking, tracking, fire starting, ect. with a heavy dose of games each day.  The week culminated on Thurs. & Fri. when they put all their skills to work across the bay on his first ever over-night back pack trip.  His pack ended up weighing 29 pounds BEFORE he had to add on his portion of the tent and food.  He didn't think it was too bad, but definately more work than doing the hike without a pack.  They slept on the beach of Grewingk Glacier Lake and stayed up until 1:30 AM - or so we are told.  We believe him, especially as he described a beautiful scene of a mamma moose and her two babes coming up to take a drink at the waters edge just as the sun was beginning to set.  Sounds lovely- but if he was up late enough to see the sun set - he was up late!  Colton learned a tonne of new games that he can't wait to share with his buddies and his gym teacher back home.

On Monday we also enjoyed the local 4th of July parade.  Since it doesn't get dark enough for fireworks, it seems that EVERYONE in the community either particiaptes in, or watches the parade!



4th of July parade - patriotic poodles make for colorful eagle poop! 



Common theme in Alaka . Anyone disagree?




View from the kayak.



Paddling around Elephant Rock. At high tide you can
paddle right through the hole.

 Anna finally made it out for a guided kayak trip across the bay with True North Kayak Adventures (http://www.truenorthkayak.com/) .
It was a half day trip, starting and ending on Yukon Island.  It was one of those perfect blue sky, sunny days and she just couldn't pass up the chance to go.  It was amazing; the serene water, the sunshine, the native history lesson the guide provided, as well as tonnes of intertidal sea life; it just happened to be low tide when she was out paddling.

Larry netting one of his fish that Ethan reeled in, because
Larry has "a bad back," or so he told Ethan.

THE PINKS ARE IN! That's right - the Pink Salmon - or "humpies",  have started to come up the Anchor River to spawn.  A few Dolly Varden are also making their way. We've had a lot of fun catching these. We have really enjoyed the low number of people on the river bank. Now it is really just mostly the more serious fishermen; all who have been very nice. We especially took to Larry, who was the first fisherman to ask if we minded if he fished just upstream of us. He loved having Ethan near by so Ethan could reel in all of his bites - which were plenty.  We watched and learned as he gave Ethan pointers on drag, line and flies.  He also gave Ethan some flies as he really wanted Ethan to catch one on his own. What a nice man.

Ethan netting Anna's first Salmon on a fly rod

Tim and the catch of the day



Mimi, Papa and the boys at the harbor as we send Cotlon off on his HOWL backpack








Mimi and Papa have made it to Alaska.  After a very LONG night (early morning, really) they made it into Homer on Thursday.  After 24 hours of travelling and only 5 hours sleep, they came just in time to see Colton off on his backpacking trip.  We told them they could rest once they get home to Vermont, so we packed them up and went to the Anchor River again. We caught a few more Pinks and came home for a delicious dinner.  As we were cooking our pinks on the soapstone, our wonderful hosts let us know that Pinks are really good for only dogfood!  Alaskan's sure are "Salmon snobs." Especially those from Kodiak! We really enjoyed eating the pinks. They taste more like the farm salmon we are used to from the grocery store as they do not have the full flavor that the kings have, but definately still very good eating; especially fresh from the river onto the open fire!  We did learn that they are not good to freeze,  as they get mushy when they are defrosted. So, sorry to our New England friends; you will have to take our word that they were good eating.  Mmmm...a life of desire. Now we have to stop catching more than we can eat in a day or two.

A jelly fish that Ethan spotted at the harbor

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Heading out

As a special treat for Papa, we had booked a "boys only" fly-out fishing trip (http://www.homerflyoutadventures.com/ ) and Saturday was the big day.  It was a once in a life time opportunity; Papa had to wait until his 60's to do it, Tim had to wait until his 40's and Colton and Ethan had to wait 2 weeks!!  Lucky boys. We sent them off on a Stationairre 6 float plane which left from Beluga lake in Homer and they flew over to McCarthy Fiord and McCarthy Lagoon, to fish for Dolly Varden and Red salmon.  After an exciting water take-off and 40 minute flight across the bay and over the glaciers and seeing a black bear from the air, they landed on a small lagoon on the East side of the Kenai Peninsula in the Kenia Fiords National Park. 

Taxi down, prepare for takeoff

Both Colton and Ethan with fish on!

They knew they were going to be into some good fishing as they could see the fish jumping on the landing approach.  It seemed like the fish were going crazy!  Fish were schooling everywere in the lagoon and jumping clear out of the water as they were queing up in the salt water to begin their migration up the rivers to spawn.

After landing and getting the plane secured, they went right into the fishing, with Colton (on his first cast) catching the largest Dolly Varden we'd seen so far.  This was the first of MANY fish they caught! 

Bear checking out the fishing activity

After fishing only about 15 minutes or so, they had their 1st and only visitor.  From across the lagoon they could see a black head swimming towards them.  As it approached their side of the lagoon, they determined it was a curious black bear coming to check things out.  It climbed up on shore about 150 yards away from them, watched them fish for a few minutes, then went on it's way.  What a deal;  bear viewing and fishing for the price of one!

They continued catching lots of fish and soon got to experience the number and persistence of the mosquitos & gnats we'd heard so much about and the boys soon donned their head-nets!  This did NOT keep them from fishing and having WAY too much fun though!


Nice catch boys!



Now this is fishing!



Ethan LOVED talking into the microphone.
The pilot finally had to turn Ethan's mic
off so he and Pete could talk flying without
input from Ethan.We're wondering if there is a way WE can
turn off Ethan?

After about 3 hours of catching fish, the pilot suggested they might want to start packing-up the fish and head for home as the weather was starting to come in.  By the time they got loaded and on the plane, the weather was in!  After scoping out the weather further in the fiord and determining it wasn't safe to fly, the pilot taxied the plane through the water and around the end of the lagoon to a nearby cabin.  There, they beached & tied-off the plane again, the pilot got out the "survival gear" and they headed to the cabin to wait it out.  The boys were all ready to camp & fish for a couple days.  Fortunately though, after an hour and a half the weather started to clear and they were able to take-off and the pilot was able to find a safe route (albeit the "long way" - darn :-) back to Homer.



What a day!!  By far the best fishing & most excitement we've had so far!
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We're looking forward to more family ( Uncle Mark, Aunt Carolyn, and Aunt Kate) arriving later this week and showing them all that Homer has to desire!