Month: July 2018

Today the plan was to just hang out around Soldotna. When it was time for lunch we picked The Flats Bistro nearby. The Flats was super nice and our food was really good. After lunch we continued down the road to Kalifornsky Beach. We had hoped to access the Cook Inlet beach but it was all private property. We followed the road until it looped back to the Kasilof River Public Access Area. This is where the Kasilof River we fished meets the Cook Inlet. There was a huge number of fishermen on the beach and camping. This group is Dip Net fishing. You have to be an Alaskan Native to Dip Net and apparently they catch huge amounts of Sockeye with no limit. The fishing is simply sticking a large hoop fish net into the river and waiting for the Sockeye to swim in.
We let Maverick run the beach off-leash and he had a great time. Too good of time. Next thing we know he is rolling on something. Maverick found a dead fish and was rolling on it. Maverick was now all wet and incredibly smelly. That finished our running around for the day and we headed back to the coach. Once back it was dog wash time. Donna washed Maverick outside from the faucet. It helped tremendously but using only very cold water limited the thoroughness. He still smells a little fishy.

It rained like crazy last night and neither of us slept that great. Despite last night, today looks dry with a high just under 60 deg F. Our trip today is a half day fishing tour for King Salmon. The tour leaves at 11:30am. On the drive to the river we see a Moose with two very young calves on the side of the road. We arrived at the river, met our guide Michael, and loaded up. There was supposed to be another party of two on our tour and we waited over 30 minutes before the other party was rescheduled. The good news is that it’s just Donna and I now. Fishing for King Salmon involves using Drift Boats. A drift boat is a deep, very stable, row boat. The river is a wide, and very fast moving. The guide uses oars to steer us down the river until you get to a good fishing spot and then drop anchor.
Our guide seems somewhat pessimistic on catching one King Salmon. At any one time we can usually see 5 to 10 other drift boats. Michael says there are probably 50 boats on our route. A little way into the trip we see a Bald Eagle soaring above the river and a short time later we saw a pair of Bald Eagles in a nearby tree. About 50 minutes into the trip, a boat next to us got a bite but it got away. Ten minutes later Donna gets a hard hit. After quite a fight she lands a 12lb King Salmon. We are ecstatic and the guide seems genuinely excited and surprised. This is the first time ever Donna has attempted fishing and lands a big King Salmon on her first try. To us, the fish seems huge. Based on everything we hear we are VERY lucky to get a King Salmon and it seems unlikely we will get another. Donna has used her Stamp so now she can set the rod but can’t touch it if a fish takes the bait. We all figure our luck is used up. We settle in to enjoy the rest of our cruise on the water. About 3 hours in, I fall asleep in the warm sunlight. Suddenly Michael yells and I start grabbing for my rod and reel. Michael is beyond excited and yelling about how hard the fish just hit the bait. I’ve got a big fish on the line! The fish puts up quite a fight and I follow Michael’s instructions to tire the fish and maneuver the line. Finally Michael snags the fish in the net. We are all amazed, I just landed a 30lb King Salmon. Donna and I are thrilled and Michael seems just as excited as we are. Despite 3 hours on the water near many boats we haven’t seen anyone else catch a fish. I credit both luck and the skill of our young, 25 year old, guide. Once the fish is subdued and pictures are taken, our tour is done. We have caught our limit. We head down river to the boat recovery ramp. I feel somewhat guilty knowing there are so many fisher men and women who long to catch anything while the two old non-fishers take the day. Once the boat is recovered Michael gives us an expert demonstration of how to fillet King Salmon. Donna’s is a male and mine is a female filled with eggs. Michael is thrilled because those eggs are one of the main baits they use on these trips. By the way, Michael shared AFTER I caught my fish that it typically takes a tourist 36 hours of fishing to catch any kind of Salmon when with a guide and 40 hours of fishing without a guide. We caught our two fish limit in 3 hours. Maybe we should play the lottery.
We head back to the coach to rescue Maverick from his isolation and allow him a much needed bathroom break. Boy is Maverick excited by the bag full of Salmon I bring in. I cut off a 1lb piece of Salmon because Donna has offered to attempt Salmon cooking tonight. I jump in the Jeep and take the rest of the bag to the nearby fish processing store. They measure our fish meat at 19lbs. This is ONLY the fillet meat and none of the waste already discarded. What a haul. It will cost about $30 to have it vacuum packed and flash frozen in about 1lbs packages. It will take one or two days before the fish is ready for pick-up.
When I return from the store Donna has completed cooking our Salmon. I should point out that neither of us have a clue how to prepare Salmon. Based on advice from friends and our guide the results were excellent. We each had a tasty Salmon steak. Maverick was extremely pleased with tonight’s meal and thoroughly enjoyed small samples of raw and cooked salmon. What a day. We had great fun in great weather.

 

Last night it really rained a lot. Maverick was up most of the night though we couldn’t figure out why. Today Donna read there was a Magnitude 2.5 earthquake at 2:50AM so that may have been what disturbed Maverick last night. We departed about 10AM and headed 2 hours East to Soldotna and the Diamond M Ranch RV Park. The RV park is by far the most expensive we have stayed at since leaving the lower 48 states at $95 per night. The parks around Soldotna are quite full and hard to get reservations. This is a nice park with full hook-ups. When I checked in at the park I asked about a local fishing tour. Neither Donna nor I really fish but this is THE reason so many people flock to this area. It seems a crime not to participate in such an important part of the area. We ate lunch at the St Elias Brewery. The brewery specializes in Pizza (and beer) and is the number one place to go in the area. The pizza was awesome. I received our confirmation for the tour for tomorrow. It reminded us that we needed a fishing license and King Salmon stamp. It cost $40 each to get a ONE DAY fishing license and King Salmon Stamp. The stamp allows each person to keep one King Salmon. Customers in the store where we got the licenses and stamps said there were not many Salmon, either King or Sockeye. Well, at least we will have a nice float trip.

This morning we took our time getting the coach ready to leave. It was less than 2 hours to our destination. I had made reservations at the Portage Cabins and RV Park and we didn’t want to arrive too early. We had a leisurely breakfast at McDonalds, with lots of Diet Coke of course. We dumped tanks, topped off propane, and filled up with diesel on the way out. The drive is very urban until you get through Anchorage. Between Anchorage and Portage the drive is beautiful next to the bay and with the mountains dropping steeply down to the bay. The RV park is another gravel parking lot with electric and water but no sewer. The park is set in a beautiful mountain and forest setting. It started raining as we got close to Portage and much colder. It is about 55 deg F with crazy wind and intermittent rain.
After a quick setup we headed to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC). The AWCC has Moose, Elk, Reindeer, Black Tail Deer, Bison, Musk Ox, Black Bear, Brown Bears, Fox, and Lynx, Wolves, and a shy porcupine. I’m sure I’m leaving someone out. It costs $15 per person and most of the park is accessible from your car, which is good considering the rain. First thing we saw were three large bull Moose right next to the fence. They were magnificent. We didn’t see the Black Bear but two fantastic Brown Bear were pacing next to the fence providing very close-up views. There was a baby Elk born while we were there. We saw the baby at about 10 minutes old. By the way, there are some Elk in Alaska but they are not native. Most of the wildlife provided very close viewing. We really enjoyed our time there.
After the AWCC we drove to Girdwood/Aleyska which is a ski resort area. Very pretty, but not much going on. After Girdwood we drove to the Portage Glacier visitor center. It was interesting and even had some large ice glacier chunks in the lake up against the shore at the visitor center. The wind and rain were awful. After the glacier we were ready for dinner and retired to the coach.

Today it is a little rainy today and quite a bit cooler. We headed first to the Iditarod Headquarters. The “headquarters” is a gift shop, a sled team, and best of all, sled dog puppies. When we arrived there was a bus just unloading and we thought about leaving and coming back. We decided to stay and immediately headed for the puppies. They were great, as puppies always are. Next to the puppies was a sled dog team with a wheeled cart where you could get rides for $10 per person. We’ve had plenty of sled dog adventures so we decided to pass. Next was the actual headquarters. The headquarters was half gift shop and half theater. As leaving, two more buses arrived so it would have been bad if we had waited for later. The theater continuously showed a movie on the history of the Iditarod. We didn’t care to watch the movie.
We had lunch at the Last Frontier Brewery. This didn’t seem much like a brew pub and more just a restaurant. It was OK but not great and kind of pricey. After lunch Donna took me by Sports Clips to get my hair cut. After that, we dropped by a movie theater and bought tickets for Jurassic Park, then went back to the coach for a while waiting for the movie to start. When we arrived for the movie we found the theater was VERY crowded. The movie was nearly sold out so it was good we had tickets. The movie was good. Afterwards we headed to Starbucks because I wanted some fast download time. I was disappointed, the place was crowded and the internet jammed up. After failing to get my downloads we just headed back to the coach.

Lake Hood is home to both  float planes and  bush planes. 9000 planes in all.

When we arrived in Wasillla we heard that Anchorage has a farmers market every Saturday. We took off this morning to check out the market and explore a little of Anchorage.  This market was similar to Palmer’s market but quite a bit larger.  The market was a really nice way to spend time downtown in beautiful weather but we didn’t buy anything. We were hungry leaving the market and I had already spied the 49th State Brewery Company. The brewery was a very nice brew pub with nice views of the bay. After lunch we wound our way over to Lake Hood. Lake Hood is home to a float base and bush plane land runway with 9000 airplanes. We wandered around the float plane base and the airplane parking areas enjoying the planes. Eventually we arrived at the Alaska Aviation Museum. We had come here 5 years ago and really enjoyed it. Back then it had the coolest aviation gift store we had seen. The museum was ok and this time the gift store was nothing special so it was kind of a let down. The museum contains aircraft that relate to the Alaska flying and also contains some really cool exhibits on the WW-2 Japanese invasion of, and expulsion from the Aleutian Islands. On returning to Wasilla we had the oil changed in the Jeep. I wish it was that easy for the coach. Technically the coach oil change was due in May but it will have to wait until I get home in September.

 

This morning we ran a few more errands and again had fast food for lunch. After a little while we decided to head up the road to Thunder Bird Falls. The trail to the falls is just a little ways off of highway AK-1. The trail to the falls is 1 mile with a gorge overview at ½ mile. The trail was very popular with both locals and tourists like us. It is pet friendly so Maverick drug us up the trail. The trail is pretty straight, nicely forested, and pretty steep in sections. The gorge overlook is pretty nice and the falls are pretty but not spectacular. We have become very spoiled by the many great falls we’ve seen in the last 6 months. There were also many mosquitoes and we forgot to apply any repellent before leaving the car. After the falls we felt like exploring so we took the nearby road into Palmer. Palmer is a small community not far from Wasilla. We discovered a local Farmers Market in progress so checked it out. It was small but nice. If it had been meal time we would have eaten there because one of the food trucks smelled amazing.

Today’s drive was pretty short at a little over 1 hour. This park is OK but the only reservations I could get were for a site without sewer. We are staying 4 nights. They have a dump station and 4 nights is just about the max before requiring a tank dump so it should work out. We got here early and our site wasn’t available so we headed back a little over a mile to the local Walmart Supercenter. We needed to stock up so we ate some fast food and did our “big” shopping. While in the store the campground called to tell us our site was ready. The park is a little further out of Anchorage than we would like, but the few parks in or near the city had pretty poor reviews. We were hungry for a good steak and knew that Anchorage had an Outback Steakhouse. After getting our shopping done, groceries put up, and the coach setup we headed into the biggest city in Alaska. The Outback was under renovation on the outside so it looked a little rough but our meal was good. After dinner Donna dropped me by Starbucks so I could use fast internet for some computer maintenance while she took Maverick to a dog park and got the car washed.  Sorry, no pictures for today.

Sounding like a broken record, this morning we hung out at Talkeetna Alaska Lodge again. We just can’t get enough of the unobstructed Denali view from their deck. After getting our mountain fix we drove into downtown just before start of Talkeetna’s 4th of July parade. The road into downtown was super crowded both with visitors and with the staging of the parade. We decided to park at the edge of downtown and eat lunch at Kahiltna Bistro. We were able to sit outside with Maverick on the patio with up close views of the parade. The food was quite good and this had location and easy on its side.

Maverick wants everyone to know he doesn’t like loud noises. These noises include, fire engine and ambulance sirens, truck horns, train horns, load truck exhaust, loud motorcycle exhaust, or fireworks. Of course we had lots of these noise where we sat during the parade. Poor Maverick was pretty miserable during the parade. The parade itself was pretty typical of a very small town. Lots of locals in their cars, on their bicycles, and on their 4-wheelers, a few classic cars, and a handful of local businesses. Of course the parade was ended by the volunteer fire department pump truck, ambulances, and emergency vehicles all honking and using their sirens.
After the parade we drove to Benko lake. Based on the signs we expected public access but it only had a small boat ramp and signs saying no parking. We did get out a little but it wasn’t the best location for us. We did get invited by a local couple to join them in the lake as they inflated multiple super sized lake floats that looked big enough to support the entire local population. They were nice but we politely declined.

Since we left Benko not truly satisfied, we headed to nearby Tigger Lake. Here we found actual parking, trails, and nice small lake. Maverick was in heaven on the trail off-leash and we took the short trail to the lake. We somewhat interrupted a young couple who we thought would probably rather be alone. Maverick did get some time to play in the water with their Golden Retriever and Australian Shepherd for a little before we left. About 4 or 5 cars arrived in the parking area as we left, so that couple wasn’t going to get any privacy after all.

 

Today is a big day for us. We have booked a Denali Flightseeing tour. We did this 5 years ago and it was the highlight of the trip. This time we are taking a longer flight that also lands on a glacier. We can’t wait. There are two major tour providers, Talkeetna Air Taxi and K2. We chose Talkeetna Air Taxi again this time though both offer essentially the same tours for the same prices. This isn’t cheap at about $400 per person but it is well worth it.

First thing today we hung out at Talkeetna Alaska Lodge again. This morning the mountain views are amazing. The weather is totally clear and about 75F for the high today. Perfect for our tour. We ate lunch again at the West Rib. This time we split a burger because it looked better than our Fish and Chips we had yesterday. It was awesome. After lunch we walked the river with Maverick again and just bummed around until it was time to be at the airport for our tour.

We had booked a 3pm tour (several days ago) and needed to arrive at about 2:15. We checked in and weighed in then got our GoreTex snow boots that fit over your street shoes/boots. These snow boots make it easier to walk on the glacier snow and keep the snow from getting in your shoes. Our flight consisted of 10 people. The pilot asked if anyone wanted to sit in the co-pilot seat and I immediately raised my hand. I knew from before that the co-pilot seat was by-far the best seat in the house. I wasn’t disappointed. The flight was absolutely spectacular and landing on the glacier was crazy cool. I highly recommend taking this tour if you visit this area. There are about 4 tours available both with and without the glacier landing. This tour was the 2nd longest “Grand Denali” tour that circles the mountain and includes the glacier landing. 5 years ago we tried to conserve money and took the shorter tour without the landing. It is very much worth the price difference to go with the longer tour and glacier landing. All of the tours take you VERY close to the mountain, through many passes fairly narrow clearances, and over the many glaciers flowing down the mountain. Pictures do not do it justice, nor do they show just how close to the mountains you get. I could continue raving on for a long time but I think you get the idea. After the tour we took Maverick to some trails to burn off some steam and then ate at the Mountain High Pizza Pie.