Fall Fun

Since the end of the tour season, we've been lucky enough to have mostly fantastic Indian summer weather - sunny with clear, blue skies and warm temperatures - perfect weather for doing all of those activities we'd talked about doing all summer long.

We spent several days doing some work around the house for our landlady. Mostly, this involved splitting wood (with a magnificent machine that does the splitting for you with a big chisel) and, of course, stacking the split wood.

We also learned how to drive the 4-wheeler and had some fun driving it around the neighborhood.


Once we finished our duties at home, we did some wonderful hiking and really enjoyed the reds of the alpine tundra, the golds of the aspens and devil's club plants and the deep greens of the evergreens.




We were invited by one of Michiel's many employers to join him fishing. Jason owns and operates Angle 45 , a local fishing guide company. He took us out in a row boat to go driftboat fishing on the Kenai River. As we are both pretty sick of eating salmon (imagine that!), we were thrilled to discover that we would be fishing for Dolly Varden and Rainbow Trout. With Jason's expert guidance and excellent gear, Michiel got a trout within 2 minutes of leaving the boat put-in. Unfortunately, the trout was actually too large to keep (to Michiel's surprise and dismay). Jason released it and we spent the rest of the gorgeous day catching our limit of Dollys (1 per person) and trout (also one per person) and trying our hand at catching silver salmon (no luck). The day ended with a great boat run past a large brown bear doing his own fishing and swimming in the river. Many thanks, Jason, for a super day!

Michiel cooked up the fish beautifully that night and we had a truly gourmet meal of freshly grilled fish with sauteed green beans and basmati rice. YUM!

This month also featured an extremely high tide in the Turnagain Arm so a group of us did some canoe and kayak paddling from the Seaview Bar parking lot at sunset. We certainly surprised many of the locals, who'd never seen paddlers in the Arm - as it is known to have very dangerously strong currents and quicksand-like mudflats.

Dipnetting for Reds

One of the privileges of being an Alaska resident is being able to dipnet for salmon. With the appropriate permit, dipnetters use their own home-made nets to "dip" for salmon as they swim upstream to spawn and then die. Dipnetting at the mouth of the river in which the salmon are swimming allows the dipnetter to catch salmon at their prime - before they start the decaying and mutating process that accompanies the hard slog upstream. The type of salmon we were hoping to catch were the red or sockeye variety that are known as the tastiest of all Alaskan salmon.

We joined some other Hope residents for a couple of days on the Kenai River to try our hand at this uniquely Alaskan activity. We had the mistaken impression that we would put on our chest waders (waterproof overalls), lower the giant nets in the water and we'd immediately pull in dozens of salmon. We thought we'd reach our limit (25 fish for the head of the household and 10 additional for each family member) in a day or two.

We couldn't have been farther from the truth. We spent hours in the freezing cold water watching the line of fishermen and women to our left and right. We gauged when we got back into the water after a break by watching for when others pulled fish out. We'd stand patiently and I'd try not to let the incoming tide flow over the top of my chest waders until we felt a jerk in the net. The real trick was then to flip the net over and drag it over the sand until you got to shore. Most people lost their fish by looking in the net to check out the fish while they were dragging it in to shore.

Once on shore, you had to "bonk" the fish with a small bat to kill it and then untangle it from the net. Here I am with my one and only after getting lessons from a friend on how to "bonk" it and carry it. (Note the very feminine gloves.)










Sadly, the run was no where as strong as it should have been for that time of year and Michiel and I ended up catching only 3 fish between us (2 for him - he'll be sure I added this detail).

It was just as well, really, as each fish yields 6 fillets - more than enough fish to satisfy us for the rest of our summer in Alaska - and we had a great time camping out on the beach and spending time with our neighbors and friends.

The gulls had a great time, too. When fish were being caught and filleted on the spot, the gulls had plenty of opportunity to eat the discarded heads and guts.



Fortunately, we received some lovely recipe tips from Marie-Birgitte in the comments of the post "Getting Ready for the Ice" so we will enjoy our salmon in gourmet fashion. Thanks, M-B!

Breath of Life / Lost Lake Run

16 miles (26 kilometers) of cross-country running through beautiful peaks (highest point on the trail is 2100 ft (640 meters) and valleys of the Lost Lake area near Seward. 16 miles of running in a slow drizzle on a very, very muddy (it had been raining for days) and slippery trail.

August 26 was the day of Breath of Life / Lost Lakes Run. This is a run that donates all of its proceeds to the CF foundation (Cystic Fybrosis). This year was probably the last year of its existence as the 2 main organizers are calling it quits after 16 years of hard work. They went from raising $1,200 in their first year to $ 44,000 (if I remember correctly) this year.

Running a race is always fun because there are so many people running together; running in beautiful surroundings is even better ; knowing that your entry money goes to a good cause makes the enjoyment complete.



I didn't bring my camera so this picture isn't my own, but comes from their website http://www.lostlakerun.org














Dirty and tired, but satisfied and on my way to hamburgers and beer. My finishing time was 2:47.

















Brad "Chugach" ; I ran with you in mind. I hope you are doing well.

Getting Ready for the Ice

Summer is winding down here in Alaska - in fact the record-setting rains, early views of the northern lights and snow levels low on the mountains - tell us that autumn is upon us already.

I finished my last tour last night after a brutal stretch of nearly two and a half weeks with road washouts, rain, injury (not mine) and some exceptionally difficult personalities (also not mine). I am glad to be done and now look forward to spending some time with Michiel in Hope and eating the rest of the salmon we caught or were given over the summer.

We are also preparing ourselves for the upcoming Antarctic season. As we've written previously, Michiel will be acting as one of a group of System Administrators and I will be supervising the passenger logisitics department (I will have 4 representatives working under me).

If you also want to get "in the mood" to read more about Antarctica, please check out our friend, Antz Powell's time lapse footage of a year in Antarctica at: http://www.fugufish.org/frog/?p=56

Ice climbing! (is cool)

Last week we went ice climbing on the Matanuska glacier. Sheri's colleague at Adventure Alaska Tours, Joe, whom I finally got to meet was kind enough to take us and infect us with his enthusiasm. We made use of the camp spot overlooking the glacier to stay the night and thus had ample time for the actual climbing. Donned with warm clothing, boots, crampons, helmet, climbing harness, ropes, screws and ice axes we went on our way.






















The access to the glacier is really near to the carpark, so we only had to walk a short while until we had to put on our crampons. After reaching a suitable wall, we got a crash course in tying knots and roping up (and all the lingo that goes with it) and we were on our way to climb the wall. Kicking the points of the crampons in the wall and using the ice axes to hook into the ice; it is amazing how these tiny points of contact can bear your weight. Of course once in a while it doesn't (user error) at which point it is good to know that you are roped to the top of the ice wall and someone is belaying you to stop the fall. The equipment gave me such a confidence that I wasn't bothered by any fear of height and it felt good to go higher and higher. It does require quite some coordination and strength, so we were rather tired when we came back to our camp site. After climbing for a couple more hours the next day we were beginning to feel our muscles protest, but we had a wonderful time.








If the pictures aren't enough, you can watch a short movie at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dkpE2CQ4v0



Tremendous big thanks to Joe for all his patience and willingness to teach us and being a fun companion.