Bears

One day Don and I were biking on the Coastal Trail.  We stopped to rest at Westchester Lagoon and were approached by a young woman doing a university project on bear encounters.  She said most press is about bad encounters, and they wanted to know how people actually felt.  We were asked to count the number of bears we had seen in our life and to describe one encounter, how we felt, where we were etc.

At first I thought I had seen about a dozen bears and as we spoke to her I realized I have seen many more than that.  The funny thing was that I forgot to count the times I had actually gone out of my way to see them!

The following is my memory of bears in Alaska.   I also saw a bear running across a road in New Hampshire once.

1. Two sets of  grizzly sows with two cubs in Denali.
2. Two black bears alone while fishing on the Russian River with the BOW program.
3. Grizzly sow and two cubs at the military base fishing with Jan and Cindy.
4. Bear seen at Alyska from the tram.
5. Grizzly seen while fishing with Karen and Jim and Don at Big River Lake.
6. Five bears at Brooks Lodge.
7. Smelled a bear at Princess Lodge Cooper's Landing.

Halibut Fishing in Homer

 

Our day began quite early as we were to meet our captain at 6 am.  We motored out for an hour to a depth of about eighty feet deep.  Our captain had  been in the business about three decades and is going to retire at the end of the month.  We each caught two halibut and an additional two for the captain.   Each halibut was about twenty pounds.  To fish, one simply drops the weighted line with a dead mackerel and weights for a tug on the line.  Then reel in.  It is fairly heavy to reel in, but halibut don't give much of a fight.

A crew came and took our fish from the boat to filet them and send them for processing, packaging.  We kept one filet for dinner that night.  Yum.

Halibut Cove and dining at The Saltry

Riding across Halibut Cove on the Danny J

Dining at The Saltry by the fire pit.  Notice the hats and layers!

August 4, 2012

We drove to Homer and visited the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center. It was nicely done with exhibits and movies.  Our lodging was the Almost Home Accomodations which was a two bedroom apartment about 4 miles up a steep hill from town with lovely views of the water and mountains.

For dinner, we took the Danny J across the bay to Halibut Cove.  It was quite windy and a bit of a drizzle so we put on rain ponchos to keep us warm.  I got to steer the boat for a bit.  The cove area was very quaint.  The ride took about a half hour.  We dined at The Saltry  which is  the only restaurant in town!  We sat outside next to the fire pit, and the food was very good.  After dinner we walked along the boardwalk and saw some cute art boutiques.  We took the ferry back about 9 p.m. and we were tired after a full day.

Big River Lake near Soldotna, Ak

Float plane

Getting ready to fly out.

Silver Salmon

Grizzly on search for his salmon dinner

our

Grizzly swimming about 75 feet from us.

The drive down was nice and the clouds were clearing.  I had packed a picnic lunch and we stopped at a remote state recreation area.  Quite to our surprise we ran into our friends, Connie and Winston Shero there!

Karen and Jim came to visit us.  This day we took a float plane out of Soldotna to Wolverine Creek and Big River Lake.  The plane flew over the Kenai area where we dipnet, and then across the Cook Inlet to an area near Lake Clark.  It was gorgeous scenery seeing glaciers,  Redoubt Volcano (inactive) and Illiamna.  We were fishing for silver salmon and hoping to see bears.  Altogether we caught three salmon and one white fish. I had the worst bite to land ratio.  The rod was quite heavy with a fish on and I was not fast enough at setting the hook, so  many of my bites got away.  The legal limit is three salmon per person per day.  

Midway through our day a grizzly came across a field and swam right by us.  Our guide, Skip, said a different outfitter was fileting salmon nearby and the bear was after the carcass.  Sure enough the bear swam about 75 feet away from our boat. I was amazed to watch it, but not really scared because bears don't attack boats.  He swam over to get his dinner and then swam back and walked across the same field.  Very cool.  The outfitter was not supposed to filet in a lake.  It is okay to filet in a river because the carcass will float down stream with the current.

We flew back and then took the fish to a processor and had dinner at the St. Elias pizza place and then to the River Raven B and B.  Don had stayed at the Raven before and it was a nice place.

Fly fishing at Tangle Lakes, AK

For the summer solstice weekend, much of Alaska has some sort of celebration event.  My two fishing buddies, Jan Schnoor  and Cindy Crawford celebrate by going to the Tangle Lakes area to fish.  I was lucky enough to be included in their group.  Don was going with a group of coworkers salmon fishing for kings on the Gulkana which was supposed to be about an hour away, so I dropped him to meet his buddies and continued on.

So the adventure begins at Glenallen with me continuing north on the Glenn highway about 200 miles north of Anchorage.  I had directions from my friend, but got somewhat confused.  She said go briefly on a gravel road over a bridge and turn left into the campground.  The gravel road went on for about 20 plus miles, I was starting to get concerned that I had missed my turnoff.  This area is very remote with no or limited cell service and no businesses to stop and ask for directions.  I was not concerned about darkness or running out of light (summer solstice ), but I didn't want to have to back track over the gravel road.  I  turned on my lights, flagged down and on coming car and asked for directions!  Traffic was so infrequent both of us could stop in the middle of the highway with no other cars in sight.  Anyway, they verified I was on the right path and then I watched the mileage to make sure I was ok.  The lodge that I was to turn on to on the Denali highway didn't even have a sign.  I made it to my friends about 9 pm.

We went out to fish after we loaded up the car with our gear.  We unloaded a canoe which could remain off for the week.  We were dressed in chest waders with long underwear and fleece under.  We fished until midnight for Artic greyling.  I caught about six the first night.  As a beginner fisher I was pretty awkward with my rod and gear when trying to unhook a fish.  I improved much throughout the weekend.  It is so pretty there and very remote.

Jan has an RV that we slept in which was another first for me. She slept over the driver's seat,  I slept on a bed that was the kitchen table area during the day.  The campground was very nice.  It had outhouses and pump water and bear proof trash cans.  There were about 50 spaces.  We knew two other fisher ladies.  On Saturday the weather was perfect and about 70 degrees.  We only wore long underwear and waders not fleece also.  We mainly fished near a creek.  We would cast into where the water was coming in and let out line.  The current would carry our fly and line out and then we would gradually strip in the line.  I caught about 12 fish that day.  I learned how to make knots to tie on the fly and add additional leader.  That evening we had a potluck with other Alaska Fly Fishers.

On Sunday, the weather had turned to colder and windy.  We paddled the canoe to the creek spot again.  The wind was about 30 knots, so it was nearly impossible to cast.  We gave up after about 15 minutes and moved to a less windy spot.  I did not catch any fish on Sunday, Jan and Cindy each caught about a dozen.

We got a call from Don that his group had finished early.  Cindy was riding home with us.  We left and had about a two hour drive until we picked up Don.  Cindy was familiar with the area and gave us insights into some of her previous adventures .

You know you are in AK when....part XIV during the winter 2011-2012

1. Almost daily you see trucks hauling snow away.

2. You cannot see the traffic on the opposite side of the highway because the snow berms are too tall.

3. Everyone is excited to break the record because we have already had so much snow. At the present 129", Anchorage is in second most snowfall since 1917.

4. You have to be careful at corners to peek out around the snow berms and see if anyone is coming.

5. Snow mountains are in parking lots everywhere and the snow lots are full.

Going for the snow record!

The first photo is of me standing in the driveway which shows how high the mounds are. They are up to my shoulders. The next is a picnic table at Westchester Lagoon during the Tour of Anchorage. About in the low 20s to upper teens. Kinda chilly for a picnic. The stop sign is in the upper hillside. Where is the pole? Under snow.

So far this season we have received 123 inches which put this year at the third snowiest season since 1917. The record is 132.8 inches. At this point we all want to break the record. There are huge snow mountains everywhere. Crazy! We are pretty certain the record will be broken by the end of the season possibly even this week or next.