North to Alaska (updated 8-17 with grizzly pic)

Alaska is one of those places that I've always wanted to check out but never got around to visiting. We decided that Bec's visit was the perfect opportunity to finally do it. We flew into Anchorage, rented a car and headed down the Kenai peninsula.

On the way down to Seward we stopped off at the wildlife sanctuary to make sure we got a close look at all of the animals Alaska has to offer as there is no guarantee you will actually see them in the wild. Needless to say that's were the adjacent closeup of Mr. Grizzly came from. Further down the road we stopped at Portage Glacier. Even though the visitor center is called Portage Glacier it turns out, thanks to global warming, that you actually can't see Portage as it has receded out of sight around a bend in the mountains. So what you actually see is Burns Glacier. Not all the animals were behind bars, and it wasn't long before we saw some Dall sheep along side the road. A bit later we arrived in Seward and staked out a camp site in the city campground overlooking Resolution Bay. Next day we hiked down to the harbor and caught a cruise out into Kenai Fjords National Park for a closer look at the glaciers. I was a bit apprehensive about this trip thinking it was a bit touristy but it actually wasn't bad. With real park rangers on board, we got a lot of real natural history information, and a lot of actual identification of the different species of animals, and geology that we were viewing. There was a lot to see and this included seals, sea otters, whales, sea lions, eagles, puffins and a lot of other things I have probably forgotten already. Ultimately we saw a couple of glaciers, as well, including the Bear Glacier, and got a pretty good meal out of the deal too. The following day we pulled stakes and headed off to Homer. On the way we did a quick stop at Exit Glacier and did a short hike up to the actual edge of the ice. Once again, thanks to global warming, this bit of ice is receding at a fairly fast rate. Also saw a moose on the way in to the trail head. Believe it or not moose are the number one cause of tourist fatalities in Alaska, not bears. Moose are pretty temperamental and can kick the daylights out of you if you get too close. Bears look bad so I expect most people tend to steer clear of close encounters, but moose look docile and I suspect this lures the unsuspecting rhubarb into a false sense of security. Don't mess with this "moose" either...I hear it can be a bit temperamental too (just kidding :-) ).

No visit to Homer is complete without a visit to the Salty Dawg Saloon. Near the end of the Homer spit, it is truly an institution that cannot be passed up. Known as the only saloon on a nautical map it has been there for a long time as the log cabin exterior illustrates. The girls went for a horseback ride one day while I watched some fishing at the "Fishing Hole". The following day we all went sea kayaking off Elephant Island. Not much to report here except an awesome sea otter sighting.

Towards the end of our week we headed back up the peninsula to Cooper Landing. We were in fishing country now and it was time for me to try my hand at landing a few sockeye salmon. July is prime time for the salmon run on the Kenai. We had been hearing that the fishing was a little slow but when you're there you have to go for it. From the time I left Colorado to the time I got to Cooper Landing I had gotten so much mixed information on how to fish (salmon) that I finally gave up an booked a guided trip. Good thinking. Turns out it's a bit different and given what I'd been told I probably wouldn't have caught anything on my own. At 4:30 AM I loaded into an aluminum dory and floated down the upper Kenai with 3 other clients and a guide. By 7:30 I had my limit and came home with about 10 pounds of fillets. Can't say the same for everyone on the boat. Other than one other guy I was the only one to land a sockeye, and the only one to limit (3 over 20"). Chad, our guide, did a pretty good job of instructing us on the techniques of landing a salmon and although several of the other guys hooked up they didn't get anything in the net. I also caught a really nice Dolly Varden, and one of the other guys got a 24" rainbow in the net but these were catch and release fish. While the fishing was pretty cool the other bonus was the bears stalking the bank behind us. The black bears were coming within about 20 meters but I guess they don't "fish" and according to Chad they don't come in the water. Sure enough, they were pretty content to stay on the bank and browse through the willows. Later in the morning we had a grizzly swimming in the river across from us. He swam across and soon he was cruising behind us as well. As predicted, he wasn't that interested in hang'n too close to the humans and contented himself with checking out the water up stream of us.

Finally we ended the trip with a white water rafting trip down Six Mile Creek near Hope. I have done a fair amount of rafting in my day but never been vetted like
we were on this trip. The river was running about a balmy 48 degrees F and the rafting company required dry suits for all clients to avoid hypothermia. Not only that, prior to getting in the raft we were required to do a trial swim across the river to get to the rafts. Once on the other side you are given another chance to bail out of the trip at no expense. Everyone completed the swim and, despite freezing our respective bums, no one choose to give up. That said, the intrepid aquanauts braved the freezing waters for the next couple of hours without incident.

Well that about covers it. Another night in a riverside cabin gave us time to clean up a bit after 6 days of camping. After that is was off to Anchorage with a few fond memories and a red-eye flight back to reality.