AK Fishing Blowout 2015

I'd put some leave on the calendar to do a halibut charter.  When the Copper River fish numbers started looking good, we decided to make a week of it, heading down to Chitina for salmon dipnetting before the charter.


The Chitina crew.  Fishing started to slow down while we were out there, but we still managed to get 90 salmon between 6 of us.  The weather was hot, too, 80 degrees all day.


After getting back and processing fish until 2 in the morning, we headed down to the Kenai Peninsula.  We stopped for dinner at a friend's parents' house, then were at the beach for a 7am launch from Ninilchik.  The weather was great there, too.

 
We headed across the inlet to the Alaska Peninsula for some clamming, with stellar views of Iliamna and Redoubt in the background.


The clams were plentiful and huge.


We had success on the halibut charter as well.  All told, in a week Jess and I came home with 30 salmon, 70 clams, and about 35 pounds of halibut.  More than enough to be eating fish for the rest of the year.  Alaska's a generous place.

Susitna Float, or, Riding Alaska's Train

Somehow Jess and I have both managed to live in Alaska and, more specifically, Anchorage, for several years without figuring out the Alaska Railroad whistlestop train.  After hearing about it from a couple of people in a row, we decided to get some experience with it first-hand.

 
We had a truly incredible few weeks of weather.  There are many outdoorsy things that won't get Alaskans excited (moose, for example).  Great views of Denali always will, though.


The Hurricane Gulch whistlestop train runs out of Talkeetna up to Hurricane Gulch.  Less than $25 gets you a ride on the train, and you can hop off where ever you want.  If your adventure requires you take a ride on the train back, you can also flag the train down where ever you want.  Pretty sweet deal.


We got off at Gold Creek for a float back to Talkeetna on the Susitna River.  We were delayed a couple of hours on the train (turns out the Princess trains carrying the tourists bring in more money for the railroad and thus get priority on the track), so we floated for a couple of hours the first night, then set up camp on a gravel bar.


Blue skies, few bugs, and a soft gravel bar to camp on.  Doesn't get much better than that.


Jess gets artsy with the camera.


Jess on the float out.  It was another five hours or so on the river before we hit Talkeetna, all in weather like in the photo.  Pretty awesome.

Near-Town Goodness

With a recovery week on tap for Jess and the weather looking pretty good, we decided to get out on a short backpacking excursion to the Williwaw Lakes area.  Turns out a 16-mile round trip counts as rest for some people.



The Williwaw Lakes trail takes you back to the north side of the O'Malley Ridge, then as you progress further to the base of several of the 5,000-footers in the front range.  You quickly transition from city view to imposing mountains surrounding you.


Though the weather was coolish and cloudy, we were still out in awesome terrain, sleepy next to a running creek on cush tundra with mountains all around, which is pretty good livin.


Jess agrees.  I'd skied one of the chutes in the background of this photo a couple of days prior.  My camera's batteries were dead that day, honest.


We didn't take a dip into any of the lakes we passed hiking in or out, but I imagine they were cold.


Sadly, the clouds started to clear as we were walking out of the mountains.  Still a sweet, short little trip, though.


And, Anchorage just ahead.  I get repetitive, but it's still crazy to be able to get in such great terrain so quickly.

Alaskan Outdoors

Catching up on a bunch of weekends.  The end of winter, beginning of spring brought a few weekend and one-day trips.  After a winter of not much snow, spring gave us at least a little to work with, and though there wasn't time for any long trips, there's always something to be doing in the Alaskan out of doors.



Jess' Ironman training has modified our outdoors schedule a bit, but it's still something that can be worked around.  We headed out towards Knoya Peak in the Chugach Front Range one weekend for a quick day hike.


At our turnaround point.  The weather was cloudy, but otherwise good.


Looking down towards Anchorage.  Every trip in the Front Range is a reminder of how close awesome mountains are to town.


Work does a decent job of getting me out, too.  This photo was taken after we got dropped off by helicopter for a couple of hours of hiking out in the northern Alaska Range.


This photo's also from work - in between pulling boat party for water work, we got to tool around Prince William Sound.  It wasn't awful.


We did take advantage of one long weekend to do an extended trip.  It started in the Summit Lake area, with a stay at the Manitoba Huts.  We hadn't been there before, but they've got a couple of awesome yurts set right at the base of Manitoba Mountain.


You can head from the yurts right up Manitoba, which is a mellow backcountry skiing spot.  This was the view from the top.


The ski down was mostly breakable sun crust gnar, but there were a couple of sweet turns to be had as well.


We went from Manitoba down to Homer for a couple of relaxing days.  I'd never spent much time down there, and don't know if I'll catch better weather than we did while we were there.  The view from our room at the end of the spit.


On the way back, we busted out the bikes for a ride down towards Hope and back, in keeping with the Ironwoman's schedule.  The weather was pretty good looking across the arm as well.

I've been in Alaska off and on for getting close to seven years now, and on these couple of trips still managed to do or see two or three spots I'd never gotten to before, even though they're fairly close to Anchorage.  As I'm often reminded, there just aren't enough lifetimes to hit everything in the state.