From West Montague Island to Chena Hot Springs

It’s been a busy past few weeks. On the 28th of June Heidi and I drove to Moose Pass to camp at Trail River Camp ground in Chugach National Forest. It seemed like a quiet place to sleep close to Seward, where we had a charter the next day. Later in the evening Joe and Karen joined us in the camp site next to ours. It was quiet and still, a nice place to camp; but I was a bit disappointed to find the feds had increased their camp fees by Seven $ over last year. Eighteen dollars a night seems like a lot given the increase in gas prices to go camping. Needless to say, I slept way better than I would have in Seward. The Halibut trip was a bit of a debacle. I still don’t know if it was miss communication between Alan and the Captain of Silverado charters, or the Captain Silverado was trying to screw us. From what people have told me he’s an honest guy but I just don’t know. For a time we thought that the trip might not happen, as Alan called to get the slip number for the boat on Friday only to be told that our trip was canceled because the captain was in Seattle picking up a new boat. Alan tried to call him several times only to be told by the Captain that he was busy or not near his books and would call back in a few hours. Unfortunately, he would not call back and Alan would have to hunt him down. So here it was, Saturday we had a fishing trip for Sunday only no boat and no money. Heidi and I were plumb broke, as I had a root canal that ended up costing several thousand dollars the day before. If this Captain doesn’t pull through we wouldn’t be on a boat. In the mean time Alan and Tami found a room at a bed and breakfast in Seward. Apparently the secretary there had a second job scheduling fishing trips for charter boats in Seward. After he called to make the reservations the secretary of the B&B got a call from Captain Silverado asking her to find a charter boat for a client that happened to have the same name as Alan. She called Alan back to tell him she found a boat for us. Now we had a boat, unfortunately we still had no $$. Luckily Saturday evening Alan got a hold of Captain Silverado and talked him into paying for our new charter and calling it even. Unfortunately since we did not make the new charter reservation early we each had to pay one hundred more dollars. I think Captain Silverado should have paid that also as his business practices were completely unprofessional. Well the good news is that we got on a boat Sunday just like planned. The captain’s name was Meridey (Mare-i-dee) on the Jillian Dawn. She did a great job. She had a new deck hand that was a bit nervous but did her best. She took us out of the bay to Montague Island. The seas were as good as could be and the weather was overcast without any rain. Heidi did great. At the end of the day she was glad she went. With the help of ginger and Dramamine she actually stayed on the boat the whole day and did not throw up. Several years ago she went out on Jim’s boat but after a short time she turned as green as a person can get, then spent the rest of the day in Thumbs Cove. She was leery of getting on a boat but she did it for me. It was funny to watch her and Karen work together to reel in Halibut. She actually caught the biggest fish of the trip. Unfortunately it was a big Skate. The fish were all small in the thirty’s. I think Alan, Joe and I must have reeled in 15 each before we kept our limits. We also caught a few Pinks and some Rock fish. While we were out fishing Barbara drove down with Diane and Aunt Betty, Patience, Jonathan and Gay took the train. We met them at the dock after the fishing trip and they went to Exit Glacier with Heidi while I ate dinner with my brothers and their wives. (Heidi ate with her mom while I took care of the fish) The next day Barbara, Betty, Diane and Jonathan took the all day glacier trip with the park service. Heidi, Patience and I took some hikes around the camp ground, played some games shot the bee-bee gun and relaxed. It was a nice day to be out and not at work. On Thursday we drove to Chena Hot Springs. If you go I found the gas was 15 cents a gallon cheaper at Keith’s gas station in Healey than at Chevron. It was scorching hot up there. We slept with the windows open in the camper. We stayed at Granite Tors campground. I was surprised at how quiet it was being the fourth. On Friday Heidi, Brittany and I hiked to the tors, while everyone else went to lay in the hot springs. We had a great hike although it was a bit hot. The girls walked slowly but they made it all the way up and back to the camper. It was a 16 mile hike half of which is up hill. Brittney was starting to wonder why she decided to go. She doesn’t hike much and seven and a half miles up hill in 85 degree weather with no shade beat her down like a small dog. But she persevered and when she made it to the tors at the top she was happy she made the hike. Heidi did not complain at all she wasn’t fast but she kept her own pace. Her shoulders look like scorched earth and she won’t let me rub her sun burn. Last year she and Diane walked up the second half of the trail but did not cover the first part of the trail so she was happy to complete the circuit this year. The next day we went to the Hot Spring. That chlorine and hot water really cooks sun burns and is not too comfortable on all the scraps you get while hiking. Heidi got dizzy while sitting in the hot water. I think that it might have been due to her body being exhausted from the hike. She chose to do the eco tour of the resort which has a trip through the green house where they explain how it works. It’s 30 miles from the resort to the closest end of a power line; they power the whole resort with the water from the hot springs and well water. They also grow their own vegetables in the green house year around. On Sunday we slowly got out of bed and readied the camper for the trip back. After we were through it started to rain. We had a safe trip back to Anchorage.

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Tail race

Just got home from Eklutna tail race. When my friend Danny and I got there a man was fighting a big king. He soon landed a fish that looked to be forty five pounds or so. We were a bit bummed when he said he had bean there since 3 AM and that was his only bite. We flogged the water for several hours. We walked a mile or so down Knick river but came up short. We were thinking of leaving but decided to walk up the tail race and give it one last try. Apparently perseverance is the key because on my third cast at the new spot bam fish on. It put up a good fight on my light weight rod but soon I had a 35 Pound king sitting on the shore. I caught it on purple Vibrix. Every one ealts was socking eggs and wasn't doing so good. There was a few fish jumping but not a lot of fish biting. Other than the one that was caught when we got there we only saw one other fish landed and it was snagged. There were some old carcases at the cleaning table but non that looked new. They are starting to show up in the rivers up in the valley but not a lot. Once a gin I forgot my camera at home.

From Homer to beyond

I was hoping to do an in depth story but I don't have the time. Took a friend from work to Homer for a halibut charter on June 14. When we got there it was raining and cold, only 45degrees. After we set up the camper we headed down to the fishing hole to try our luck at a king. We fished for a few hours, I had five on that I lost. Then I hooked a nice one on my light weight rod with 12 pound test, got it to shore to find that it was hooked just behind the mouth so I let it go. After; we headed to Lands End to catch some flounder, I caught one plus a few star fish. Then we headed back to camp to get some shut eye before the charter. The next day we lucked out with some nice weather and seas. We went out between the Kenai peninsula and Barren Island. We fished in very deep water around 600'. The current was so strong we used 3 lbs of lead, the weight would hit the bottom then skip out several hundred more feet. My fishing line was out to the backing of the backing when I would hook a fish. None the less every one on board got there limit. I was trying to release fish until I got the big one, unfortunately after you reel a fish from that depth you want to keep it. I released twelve then noticed that I was the only one left fishing so I kept the next two that I caught. They were both about 30 lbs. We went with Captain Bs C Charters. Bryan Bondioli the Skipper was a great guide, his deck hand did an excellent job, Who's name I can't recall. To sum it up, I would say I go on a charter once a year however this is the first trip I have tipped the captain and deck hand. There were several points on the trip where we were all hooked up at once they worked together as a team and had us back fishing in no time. I will definitely go with them again. When we got back to land we got a bite to eat from a restaurant then we hit the lagoon again. That's right we fished from six am until two am. I managed to hook into another king that I lost then a bit later I landed a 20 ponder. After that the fishing went dead. The next day we slept in and left at noon.

Rabbit lake

May 31 Rabbit Lake
Heidi complained that I don’t take her for enough hikes; so I said lets go. I drove her and the girls, a long with the neighbor’s granddaughter down the HWY to McHugh Creek at 3:30. We hiked down the Turnagain arm trail to the Rabbit Lake trail. The Views were breath taking, the girls did great. The wild flowers just bloomed making the mountain side a nice painting. The girls had a ball picking them along the way. We only made it half way past the two mile post. Then I thought that we should head down. It doesn’t seam far but as it was all up hill it was a good work out for all. Heidi wants to go back and hike it when we have more time.