TravelStream™ news feed for member bethnicholson on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/bethnicholson en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:18:01 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethnicholson/1/1215187200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethnicholson/1/1215187200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bethnicholson/1/1215187200/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:18:01 -0400 Alaska-a month's worth of adventure in a week

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Anchorage, Alaska, United States

Friday, July 4, 2008
We slept in this morning because we knew it would be a while until we saw a bed again. We packed, stopped in Homer for a big breakfast, picked up our fish (two big boxes) and began the 5 hour drive to Anchorage to begin our flight home. Flying first class really paid off! First class passengers are allowed 3 pieces of luggage each so we didn't even have to pay extra to tranport the fish. Our plane left at 7 pm and arrived at 6 am. I really hate those all night flights, but it was non-stop, direct and the only flight to Atlanta so... At about 1 am Alaska time I started to get sleepy, but that's 5 am Georgia time and we were starting our descent by then so I never did sleep. One thing about such an early arrival on a Saturday morning, there were no delays getting to the arrival gate -- the runways were clear, the taxiways were clear. I think it's the only time I've ever arrived in Atlanta on time. Mom picked us up at the airport - she gets a medal for that one! Our fish arrived frozen as bricks so we shoved it in the freezer. We finally went to bed about 9 am and it took us 2-3 days to feel normal. But it was a terrific vacation.

We've talked about what was best about the trip and neither of us can honestly say. The fish story is such an amazing tale that it may seem that was the best. But the kayaking trip and bear viewing were at least equal. And then our "rest" day at the Sealife Center and hiking to Exit Glacier was a great day. And the drive to Homer seeing the changing countryside and combat fishing was full of things we'd never seen before. So we take away an unforgetable, magical vacation.
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Kachemak Bay, AK, Alaska, United States

July 3, 2008
Do we ever have a fish tale!!! We got up at 5:30 am and were on the boat at 6:30 am. There were 4 customers, Captain Pete and deck hand, Troy, on the boat, once again I was the only female. When we took off it was gloomy and cool. The ride out of the bay and into the ocean took 1 ½ hours. One of the customers was a 91 year old Polish man who couldn't speak a word of English and at 6:30 in the morning he was drunk and drinking beer as fast as he could down them. The other customer was also Polish but spoke good English, in his 50s but he was a chain smoker. We saw several groups of seals on the way. So we got to the fishing spot at the mouth of Kachemak Bay, rocking and rolling, thank God for Bonine or else I definitely would have been seasick. It started pouring rain. We had brought our Gortex rain suits but it got colder and miserable. To fish for Halibut the pole is baited with dead fish and a 2 pound weight and you drop the line over the side till you feel it hit the bottom about 150 down. Then you basically leave it on the bottom bouncing it every once in a while. When you feel a bite you start winding. The first time I thought I felt something I wound and wound, thinking I was going to die--and it turned out I was only winding the 2 lb weight and bait, no fish! That was a taste of things to come. I proceeded to catch about 5 Pacific Cod and they all started calling me the Cod lady. They're good fish, plenty edible but they're not the quality of Halibut and we were Halibut fishing. Scott caught mostly Halibut but most of them were pretty small. He caught one keeper that was 20 lbs. By this time I was freezing, soaked and getting frustrated. Just standing was difficult with the boat bucking constantly. I threw out my line and thought I had something, I reeled a little, then it took off, dragging the line. That scared me because I didn't know what was happening, it makes a fast clicking noise. But Capt Pete knew what was going on and came running. After it stopped pulling line out I was able to get a couple of winds of reeling and then nothing, it was going nowhere. The captain was pretty excited by now and asked me carefully, "are you sure you want to reel this one in?" I'm no dummy, I knew what that meant and I practically threw the rod at Scott who was right beside me, trading my rod for his. He started reeling and reeling and it was really hard reeling. It was a 200 pound Halilbut! They have this contest and if you buy a ticket (we didn't) and have the biggest Halibut in the month of July then you win $25000. The captain said our fish would have probably won 3rd place, winning about $750! But we didn't buy a ticket so it can't win and we figure if we had bought a ticket we wouldn't have caught the big fish. It was the biggest fish our captain had caught on his boat this year!
They actually had to shoot it in the head to get it in the boat. It was 6 feet long! Everyone on the boat was completely excited. We could have kept 4 fish but with a 200 pounder, we didn't need anymore and couldn't have gotten more home. So they filleted it on the boat after we took pictures and when we got back to the dock a fish processor came to the dock and picked it up.
We went up to the processor and they cut it into 1 pound pieces, vacuum seal it, flash freeze it and box it on ice for us to take home on the plane tomorrow. With the cold, rain and initial frustration our fishing trip had the potential to be a big bust but that one 200 lb fish made it a fish tale we'll tell many times. On the 1 ½ hour boat ride back to dock, we saw a whale breeching (jumping way out of the water). It was icing on the cake. That night, we went to dinner at a nice restaurant away from town and they had heard of us! The waitress innocently asked if we had a good day and I said yes that we'd caught a 200 lb Halibut and she said that she had heard about it and was glad to meet the people who had caught such a large fish. We're famous!
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Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, United States

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
We didn't get bear bitten! We got on a float plane about 9 am with 8 others and took a 1 ½ hour gorgeous flight down the bay and across snowy, rugged mountains into a green flat area. We landed on a lake in Katmai National Park. After a 2 mile hike we arrived at Brooks Falls a spot on Brooks River where there's a 4 foot waterfall. Scott says this place is famous on fishing shows. The Red Salmon have started running, which means they are making their way from the ocean where they've been growing for 2-4 years and they are making their way back up the rivers to where they were born to lay their eggs. Grizzly bears love salmon. The salmon jump up from below to try to go upriver and the bears catch them as they leap...well, some bears use this method, but we saw a lot of different fishing techniques by the bears.
The national park service has built platforms for people to use so we can watch without being in danger. We saw about 7 bears throughout the day. When we got there there were two bears - one huge, old one that looked like he was in a hot tub even though the water is 42 degrees. He just sat there in the middle of the river, every once in a while a fish would bump up against him and he'd swipe at it with his long claws and dip his head in to chomp down on it. It was the lazy way to fish and he was actually pretty successful. So much so that after a while he'd just eat certain parts of the fish and leave the rest. After he'd catch a fish he'd carry it in his mouth to land and devour it leaving very little.But there were about 12 Seagulls ready for whatever he left. They'd swarm up and grab his leavings as soon as he left. But the time he left nearly the whole fish they couldn't handle that much and pecked at it a while. The other bear was smaller, younger and not nearly as good a fisherman, he'd spend all kinds of energy pouncing. He'd see a fish and jump, miss, and do it again and again. When the big bear left the almost whole fish, he got and ate it. Another time a different medium size bear used a combination of the watch, wait and pounce method and caught a fish every time he pounced. And yet another bear worked for hours using every method we'd seen and never did get a fish. It was really fascinating. We took lots of pictures.

After seeing the bears tear through those salmon the 1 ½ mile hike back to the float plane was a little unnerving. We had no food with us and tried to make noise, but there were bear tracks and scat everywhere. We got on the float plane to come home at about 4 pm and got back to our cabin about 6 pm. I know I said we'd never forget the kayak day and we won't but today is another one. It was an absolutely incredible day. The flight alone would have been a fabulous adventure, but together with seeing bears, literally 8 feet away (below the platform) and seeing them doing what they do, in the wild, well, it was something else. I don't know how I'm going to gain the energy to go halibut fishing tomorrow but I can say it will be an early evening tonight. Hopefully halibut fishing will not involve walking because I'm just about walked out! It's gotten cloudy today but no rain. It was really cold beside Brooks River. I put on all the clothes I brought and wished I had more. On days like today when we're so focused on one activity we've found that it's do the activity, get dinner, go to bed.

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Homer, Alaska, United States

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Today, we drove from Seward to Homer, which was a beautiful 3 hour drive. We had heard that about an hour into the drive near Cooper's Landing we should stop to observe and possibly do a little combat fishing. Of course we had to stop. Apparently the Kenai River is the most popular place to catch Red Salmon and right now is the height of the spawn. So along this river, men, women and children line up about 15-20 feet apart and fish--long lines of people casting and reeling in. It was mostly men, and most had waders on and were standing in the swift moving river. It was a pretty funny sight. Scott half wanted to jump right in and half scorned the whole operation. As we drove further we got away from the rugged mountain peaks we had grown used to and got in much flatter country. Then we came upon the ocean on the right--more a really wide bay because there were huge snow-covered peaks on the other side. In Homer we found the cabin we're renting. It's a little old one-bedroom affair with a terrific view of the rugged mountains across the bay.
We went down to the Homer spit which is a strip of land in the bay just a bit wider than a two lane highway and about 2 miles long. On either side of the spit, except where there were wall to wall RVs, it looks like Gatlinburg, TN, full of tourist-type businesses. We checked in to get the final details with the bear guide service we're going with tomorrow. We will be taking a float plane across those rugged snow-capped mountains about 1 ½ hours away. Then Scott talked me into scheduling a halibut fishing trip for Thursday. I guess we're going to squeeze every bit of fun out of this trip. By then it was dinner time so we stopped at a place that said Mexican and pizza! It was ok--you just have to figure anyone who spreads themselves that far over the ethnic food scale can't do really well on either one and that's true. It's been a beautiful day today. It was about 68 degrees inland and the temp dropped about 15 degrees to about 53 degrees on Homer Spit -- they said because the wind coming off the glaciers on the other side of Kachemak bay. The swelling is down on my face and now I'm just red.
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Seward, Alaska, United States

Monday, June 30,2008
I woke up today with my eyes nearly swollen shut. I knew I had gotten too much sun yesterday kayaking, but overnight my face enflamed. Who would've thought? Onward and upward. We went to breakfast but we were both still tired and sore so we went back to the room and fell asleep for a while. We had planned this to be a slow day anyway. From the hotel window we saw two Bald Eagles! In mid afternoon we went to the Alaska Sealife Center. It's a bit of an aquarium with seals, sea lions, puffins and other creatures. Having seen nearly everything that was in the Center out in the wild it wasn't nearly as stunning, but there was a lot of info to read and it was interesting; well worth doing.
Then we headed to Exit Glacier. For some reason I forgot to change out of my clogs. I really didn't think we'd walk too much. But we took a little 3 ½ mile hike, much of it uphill! The scenery was gorgeous and the weather so nice today. It was sunny with temp about 63. Near the glacier it was about 40 degrees; the glacier makes a cold wind because the temp differential. You can also hear it cracking and the drips of it melting. We got about 20 feet from the edge of it but couldn't get further because the danger of a huge piece dropping off. On the way back to town we stopped at the Salmon Bake ("cheap beer and lousy food," not) we had eaten at Sat night. I had more halibut (fish) for the third night in a row and Scott had king crab legs. Then we shared turtle cheese cake. With all the exercise we're getting we deserve a little dessert.
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Ailiak Bay and Pederson Bay, Alaska, United States

Sunday, June 29, 2008 We got up at 4:45 am to go sea kayaking today. When we woke up it was rainy and cold. We went to the Resurrection Bay beach where we boarded a boat for a 2 hour motor boat ride to Ailiak Bay where we would put in our kayaks. As we got on the motor boat a mama brown bear and her cub came out of the woods. They came about 50 yards from the boat. On the boat ride we saw 5 ot 6 humpback whales, seals, porpoises and sea lions. It was still pretty cold when we got to the kayak beach but it had stopped raining. We kayaked really far, but got right up to Pederson Glacier, avoiding huge icebergs. On the kayak trip we saw a Bald Eagle, more seals and sea lions, a black bear, and puffins. It was the most gorgeous scenery ever! The water was just above freezing so falling out of a kayak was not an option. It made it a little scary. We ended up in a group of 30 boyscouts (age 15-17), so of 35 boyscouts and guides I was the only female on the trip. The boyscouts were fine -- not good kayakers but with a lot more energy than we had. We pulled our boats up on shore near Paderson Glacier and ate our lunches. After lunch we paddled around the icebergs some more and then headed out to Ailiak Bay again and toward Ailiak Glacier. We got mostly there but by then we had paddled probably 10 miles or so and I was done. We waved at it and turned around to nap on the beach (black rocks on this beach) and wait for the boyscouts and the boats to take us back to Seward. By this time it was beautifully sunny and the warmest since we'd been here, although still fairly cool. Scott and I both fell asleep laying on those black rocks! The boyscouts showed up about 20 minutes later-they were out of steam too. So we hung there till time to go. I slept nearly the whole way boatride back to Seward. I did wake up to see two whales jumping out of the water (breeching). It was really cool. By the time we got to town it was 9:30 pm, we stopped for a dinner of Halibut, the kind of salt water fish they catch here and then back to the hotel for a hot shower and bed. Yay! It was an unbelievable day that we'll never forget but I was utterly exhausted and couldn't wait to go to bed!
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Seward, Alaska, United States

Friday and Saturday, June 27 and 28, 2008

We arrived in Alaska at about 6 pm (10 pm at home). The plane was late of course, then it took two solid hours for the luggage to come and to get our rental car but by 8 pm (midnight at home) we were going. Another three hours of grocery shopping and dinner eating and we were finally on the road (2 hour drive) to the log cabin we rented. We got there about 1:30 am (5:30 am home), unloaded the car and I hopped in the shower-cold. There was no way Scott was getting in a cold shower. We got up Saturday and they couldn't fix the hot water. It's really too bad because the cabin had a beautiful view and was very isolated -- 10 feet out our front door was a lake and on the other side snowcapped mountains. So we repacked, went into Seward and got a hotel room. The hotel was really nice, wireless, cable tv, king bed, HOT WATER but we look out on a building. If you look up there's a snowcapped mountain though.

It's gorgeous in Alaska. On the plane there were some breaks in the clouds and I got some photos. Rugged mountains with snow. Glaciers. And not a soul, road, house or animal in sight. It never got dark last night. About 1:30 am it started looking like dusk and was like that for about 3 hours. While I was waiting outside at the airport for Scott to bring the rental car I started shivering. It's cold here! I had to whip out a sweater and coat! On the two hour drive from Anchorage to Seward (I was woozy I was so tired) Scott saw a moose. He was thrilled. He did his constantly-look-out-the-window thing but I think he was too tired to see anymore wildlife. We go sea kayaking tomorrow. Leave around 5:30 am. I'm not much looking forward to the hour but the trip should be fun. Hopefully we'll get a couple of naps in today and an early bedtime tonight so we can feel good and less jet lagged. The food on the flight was fabulous (first class) chicken ravioli, salad, roll and chocolate cake. Scott and I both ate every bite. Then snacks about 7 times. Today after we got settled in the hotel, we shopped a bit in town and went to a great place for dinner, The Salmon Bake, their slogan is "cheap beer and lousy food " but don't believe it. Nothing's cheap in Alaska and the food was fabulous! We each wrote a postcard to Ginny at dinner and took them straight to the post office. I can tell we're going to have fun.
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