Wrapping up Our Trip

The Great Alaskan Cinnamon Roll Contest

Since arrival the crew has been tasting (devouring) as many different kinds of cinnamon rolls as we can. The idea is to vote for the best. There are three contenders - Safeway, The Moose is Loose, and Sals. Saturday morning found us having a side by side comparison. Voting will take place before we leave the peninsula.

Chuit River Friday August 8th

Today was another in a long row of very exciting days. Grandpa, Ron, and Randy woke at 3:45 AM and rode with Mark about 20 miles to the Kasilof River where we floated in a "drift boat", a modified row boat, down the river while fishing for silver salmon. We caught 2 silvers, several trout and dolly varden. The fishing highlight was when Randy hooked into about a 30 pound King salmon. It fought real well and at one point flew two feet out of the water scaring a little boy in the next boat over. King season is over so we had to release the fish. The river was beautiful and peaceful. There were no motors on any of the boats. At 9:00 AM we called to wish Jayme a happy 39th birthday.

At 6:30 Tyler and Ronnie checked in at High Adventure Air for another fly-in fishing trip. They flew across Cook Inlet to a remote native village where a native woman named Debby then transported them 15 miles to the Chuit River for real outback Alaska fishing. The boys caught two dozen silver salmon and had a blast. Ron even went for a swim.

We picked the boys up at 4:30 and came back to Orca Lodge for a supper of pork tenderloin, broccoli slaw, grilled sweet potatoes, and fresh French bread. The evening finished up with kicking practice at Soldotna High and three trips up the famous hill (see picture).

Middle River - Bing's Landing

Tyler and his dolly varden.

Grandpa and Ronnie with Tyler's silver salmon.

Really, I didn't eat any licorice!

This morning we got up at 4:20 and drove to Bing's landing on the middle section of the Kenai River. The outside air temperature was 37 F which wasn't so bad, but by the end of the 20 minute boat ride we were all pretty chilled. The scenery was gorgeous - casting in a river with the mountains in the background. Tyler was the fisherman of the day. He caught a "grand slam" of rainbow trout, dolly varden, sockeye salmon, and silver salmon. We brought home 5 nice sockeye and one silver. The only catastrophe was somehow Randy was so engrossed in fishing, he missed out on the whole bag of licorice.

We were home by noon for lunch and nap. The day was finished off by Coach Ron running Tyler and Ron through an extensive conditioning workout, a trip through South Soldotna, and we went for kicking practice while Randy and Grandpa went shopping. Supper was another fantastic salad along with grilled corn on the cob and grilled Reindeer Brats.

Tomorrow the boys are flying in to a native river for silvers and the old men are going in a float boat down a different river.

Lower Kenai

Today (August 6th) we woke at 4:00 AM - not any easy thing for the majority of this crew. We met our guide, Mark, at 5:00 at a place called Pillars landing. For the next five hours we caught a ton of pink salmon also known as "humpies" due to the hump the males grow near the end of their life and we caught 11 silver salmon of which we kept 8. The weather was great - it has been around 50 F and sunny. We arrived back at Orca Lodge around noon and promptly set in for a 3 hour nap. Now that is more like it for Grandpa and his boys! After nap Ron, Ron, Ron, and Tyler headed to the gym for a weight workout and Randy did some emails and went for a long walk. Supper was grilled steak, vermicelli with asparagus and salmon, and a leafy lettuce with strawberries, blue cheese crumbles, and glazed pecan salad home cooked by the older men while the younger men set the table and did the dishes. Tomorrow is another day on the Kenai with Mark. We get to sleep in an extra half hour!!

Big River Lake - August 5th

This was a most fantastic day! We flew on a small plane chartered through High Adventure Air across Cook Inlet to Big River Lake. Upon landing we, along with Dave our guide, headed out to fish silver salmon (coho). In under an hour we had caught our limit of 15 fish. It was amazing, we couldn't keep our lines in the water the fish were biting so often. After we caught the fish, we landed the boat and Dave cleaned the fish. Now the fun began! We rode about 20 minutes to a place called Wolverine Creek and that is where we saw all of these bears. These are wild grizzlies (and one black bear). They were fishing, fighting, playing, and hunting. Mama bear caught a fish and then chased away the others when they tried to come near. We took over 500 pics of the bears (making Mama Bear Angie proud). It was the neatest thing. The bears, while looking for fish got to within 10 feet of our boat. After bear viewing we headed back to catch our plane and then saw a big bull moose from the air on the way out. The evening was spent eating supper and then Randy and Grandpa went to help package fish while the rest of us hit the football field for practice.

Our plane.

The boys catching fish.

A picture of Grandpa just for Drea!

Hey Mom! Look at me!!

This picture is not cropped!

The fish the bears were trying to catch.

If Mama bear ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!