some fishing and hiking

we didn't have a whole lot on the agenda today. we decided to sleep in a bit...8am, and try some fishing. we rented some hip waders and tried our luck at the russian river. the scenery was spectacular but the fishing wasn't so hot. we saw some big bows but couldn't entice them. we're no good without a guide.

we were also lucky enough to see a couple of orphaned cub bears wandering by the river. we got within a 100-150 ft. was cool to see close up.


after fishing we hiked to russian falls where we looked down and saw a few salmon trying to get up the series of falls. unfortunately, we didn't see too many fish so it wasn't that exciting. it was scenic and a good hike, tho. we're about to go to dinner then call it a night.

tomorrow we head back on late flights. we'll eat out for breakfast (a first) and sight see on our way to anchorage. we'll see what there is to do there and what we have time for.

then...back to work on thursday...BUT we'll have the wind rivers back packing trip coming up in a few weeks which i'm looking forward to. i'm trying to talk my dad into going on that but he's not sold yet. we'll see.

fish from kenai river

some pics

dad in front of exit glacier:

me over harding ice field:

cool view overlooking exit glacier/harding ice field:

me and pa after kayaking to falls near seward:
dad preparing to get in seak kayak near seward:

dad in front of aialik glacier:

view from boat near or in kenai fjords NP:

view from boat in resurrection bay:

resurrection bay early in the am:

dock at valdez...people fishing for silver salmon:

view of chugach mnts over prince willy sound at valdez:

a cool view of a glacier near valdez, can't remember name:

cool peak in wrangell-st. elias NP:

fishing was fun

we went fishing today and caught our limit on silver salmon before 9am. we fished the rest of the day for rainbows. we caught some beauts. the silvers probably avg'd 10-15 lbs. dad and i caught a total of 3 big bows...probably 5-7 lbs each. then we caught about 12 more bows each...some 2-4 lbs then some smaller 1-2 lbers. all in all it was a very fun day fishing.

it's slow and a pain to insert pics, but i'll try to post some of my favorite pics from the trip thus far soon. maybe tonight.

pics?

i'm currently working on uploading pics, but it's a slow process. i might try to convert some vids and post those, too. we'll see...we have to get up at 415 am for our fishing and i should be sleeping soon...it's 930pm.

to kenai

we had a pretty slow day today. we slept in, had a good breakfast, and left our very nice room overlooking resurrection bay. we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in seward and had a great time. we met a couple there that were on the glacier cruise with. we kept bumping into them as they were lodging at the same place. they were fun to talk to.

today was the first day we had some cloudy and cool weather. luckily we didn't have a ton on our agenda. we headed towards kenai looking for fishing. there are 2 main rivers in the area that are best known for their fishing: the russian river and the kenail. we stopped at various places on both and tried our luck, but we're just not familiar enough with the tactics to target the fish. plus we elected NOT to bring our waders which limits us to bank fishing. we fooled around nonetheless and my dad hooked into a big red salmon (which you're not supposed to catch this time of year). he was using his 4 weight fly rod and the fish probably weighed 10 lbs or so. he didn't land it but it was probably a good thing. the russian river and the area is very beautiful. i snapped a few shots of the river and the area. also, there was one area where there were about 12 guys fishing a 100 foot section of river. it was ridiculous...and not my type of fishing at all. but, it was fun to watch anyhow. the kenai river is cool, too. it has the glacial blue color to it. we'll be fishing that tomorrow for a powered boat with a guide and two other paying passengers. we hope to get into some nice silvers and rainbows. it's what we've been looking forward to.

we arrived at our place tonight with a bit of trepidation (if that's the right word...we didn't know what to expect). it's a place called kenai landing and all we knew about it was that it was some sort of revamped canning facility. we pulled up and it looked pretty ghetto. we got our keys and drove to our 'captain's quarters'. it looked but but kinda plain jane from the outside. we got and it was like a small 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. our first thought was, oh no, we're gonna have to share this place with other people. so my dad went back to the front desk to ask. nope, it is all ours! cool. it has a kitchen and we each have our own bedroom and bathroom (queen size beds, too). we noticed the water was nasty brown. then we saw signs that said the water is fine, it's just colored cause it's unchlorinated and has tannins (?). will have to look that up. apparently it's fine to drink. it's a cool area tho. it's a whole complex of stuff that used to be a cannery. it's right were the kenai river dumps into the cook inlet. i'll have to take some pics tomorrow. oh, and it has free wireless. i even have a small flat screen in my room.

we're hoping for good weather tomorrow while we fish. we don't anything planned for tomorrow after fishing, or monday, or tuesday. we think we might rent some waders and try our luck in the russian river again. we'll see how it goes.