White Water and Warm Drinks

We got to sleep in today because we didn't have to be anywhere until noon. Todays activity was white water rafting down the Nenana River! Again, Russ woke earlier than us and took the time to explore the area sans us. After his return, we headed down to the main street shopping area, got some lunch and did some souvenir shopping to waste time before we needed to check in for rafting. We ate lunch at the Denali Doghouse, some excellent greasy food that filled us up for the rest of the day. After the shopping, we met at Denali Raft Adventures where we signed our lives away and suited up for our adventure. We loaded up on the heavy clothing before we put on our dry-suits over everything. We were pretty toasty and felt confidant that we could weather both the water and the weather. Because of a miscommunication, the rafting company had signed us up for the easier rapids as well as the harder ones. Because of this we were going to be on the raft for 4 hours total. After everyone was suited up, we drove to the launch site, and finished our safety briefing. The first half of the adventure was more like a river stroll than a white water excursion. We mostly sat on the raft and told jokes with our guide, Nick, who was really excited that we were a group that he could tell dirty jokes to. There was some class 2 rapids that we went through which Nick took advantage of to get us as wet as possible. At the end of the 2 hour ride, we were all a little cold, but not too bad, and my face hurt more from laughing than my hands hurt from holding on. We were the only ones in the group that were continuing on to the more serious rapids. We pulled the rafts to shore and our fellow passengers switched with new, more adventurous folk, who where waiting on shore. After a 10 minute break we took off for the real white water. Within minutes you could tell the difference. The water was faster, the canyons narrower, and the rapids were now classes 3 and 4 as opposed to 1 and 2. Basically, it was time to hold on. Nick still took advantage of a few choice rapids to get us wet and after he forgot my name, he was really gunning for us. We even got to see some wildlife on our trip. We saw 3 Dall sheep about 100 ft. up on the canyon wall. This was the closest we had ever seen them, but of course, no one had a camera so they will have to remain in memory only. Half way down the river, it also started to rain on us which really helped our body temperatures go down fast. The Nenana River is all glacial melt water, so every time Nick ran us through a big rapid you would get the chills all over again. By the end my hands and toes were completely numb and we were all ready for the warm bus ride back. We were prepared for this cold weather and had already concocted a strategy that would warm our blood back up to normal. That plan was hot drinks, hot shower, hot tub! When we got back to the Crow's Nest, we didn't even go to our rooms, we headed straight for the bar where we sipped down a few hot cider and coffee drinks then headed to the room to shower. Katie wanted to finish up some shopping, so Russ and I waited up in the room for her before we hit the hot tub. About an hour later, we were all nestled warmly in the hot tub with 4 other people from the Czech Republic who we were sharing travel stories with. After we were sufficiently warmed, we headed over to Prospectors Pizzeria and Alehouse where Russ and I took down a pizza called "The lower 48 it ain't" made of Alaskan reindeer sausage, ground elk, and buffalo mozzarella... yum! Even Katie had a bite and agreed it was good :) Content with the meal, we headed back to the Crows Nest to roost up for the night.

PS - My apologies for no photos on this day. As I said, no one brought their cameras since we were out on the water all day. Pictures do exist but only on Russ' disposable camera. Hopefully this will quench some of your photo-lust... Our Cabin!

Revision - I almost forgot! Tuesday night after our hot tub warming attempt, we headed back into Denali NP. We were planning on driving the first 15 miles of the road that was open to the public in order to see some moose. Russ took the wheel so that Katie and I could be the spotters. After about 10 minutes in, we noticed a bunch of cars piled up by the side of the road

looking into a river valley. After we looked for a bit, we finally spotted what the fuss was about, 4 bull moose eating right in the clearing!!! We ended up watching the moose for about 20 minutes before Russ and Katie had enough. In all fairness, I was the only one with a good view so they were just waiting on me to get my fill. After our excitement, we headed out of the park and grabbed some dinner... see above :)

The 12 Hour Bus Ride

After seeing Denali from the air, it was time for us to give it a shot from the ground. We arrived in Denali last night at around 8p.m. after all of the National Parks info centers and ticketing booths were closed down. We realized that we would have to arrive early in the morning in search of availability on the tours if we wanted to make it out into the park the next day. We went a place called the Salmon Bake, coincidentally the second such named restaurant that we had visited so far. We enjoyed some food and drinks while we plotted out the next few days of our stay here. In Russ' planning of the trip he gauged that we would need 2 days to make it from Homer to Talkeetna but it only took us one. Therefore, we had some time to play with while we were in Denali because we had a cabin booked for 3 days in the area. After dinner we

bedded down in a motel in the town of Healy since our cabin wasn't booked for one more day. We woke up early in the morning in order to be at the ticketing booth by 7 a.m. in hopes of booking an early tour. Denali National Park has only 1 road that goes through its 6 million acres of land and only 15 miles of that 92 mile road is accessible to the public. If you want to travel the rest of the road you have to be on one of several bus services that the park offers you to take. Since only the first 15 miles of the road are paved and because of the likelihood of encountering wild life, maximum speed through the park is 35 mph, but the busses rarely go that fast. All this,

combined with stops for animal viewing or restroom breaks, means that the 92 mile road from the entrance to its end at Kantishna, an old gold mining town, will take on average 12 hours to complete. This is the tour that we wanted to take in order to get the full Denali experience. Luckily, we got onto a tour pretty easily once we got there, only having to wait about 45 minutes before leaving. Our tour guide, Tim, was a wealth of knowledge who loved to talk. He probably talked for 8 of the 12 hours that we were on the road and this accounts for about 2 hours that we were off of the bus. We first drove down the paved part of the road which Tim told us was

moose country. Within 5 minutes, someone spotted one on a hill in the distance, we watched for a minute, but Tim wasn't satisfied and urged us to move on hoping for a better view. He was quickly

vindicated as numerous shouts of "MOOSE" brought the bus to a halt. There was a small bull moose right next to the side of the road! Tim shut down the van and we watched on as he came closer to us, crossed the road in front of the bus, and then moved over to a tree and began scraping his antlers on it. We were in Denali right before moose mating season started so all of the bull moose were congregating in the rutting area and preparing to do battle with one another. We didn't see any of this but it did offer us some up close views of

moose. After the excitement we moved onward only to stop a few miles later when I spotted a wolf in a clearing! He was bounding around and apparently hunting ground squirrels or snow shoe hares. We didn't see him catch anything but he put on a good show as we looked on. One of the people on our bus noticed that he had a radio collar on and Tim informed us that this meant that he or she was the Alpha male or female of the pack. Apparently the park service collars the Alpha's of each pack at the beginning of the year in order to track each packs movements. Again we moved on down the road and made our next stop for group of grizzlies and caribou. There was a momma bear and 2 cubs pretty close to the road and some caribou grazing on the hillside pretty far in the distance. I'm sure that you can gather from this how the rest of the day went. It was comprised of our tour guide telling us information about wildlife and park history coupled with sporadic stops to view wildlife. In the end, we saw all of the parks "big 5" as Tim referred to them as: moose, bear, wolves, caribou, and Dall sheep. We saw 11 bears, 4 moose, about 10 caribou, and a number of Dall sheep off in the distance. We only saw the one wolf though and I felt that it would have been neat to see more. Another thing we got to view that was just as

impressive as the wildlife was the fall colors. The berry bushes had turned making the ground fiery red, the aspen trees produced a bright yellow, while the spruce trees gave the landscape a speckle of green. None of us knew this was going to be happening during our visit, and no where else in Alaska had we seen the

changes set in yet. Simply put, it was beautiful. We even got a full view of Mt. McKinley and officially entered the 30% club. Though most of the day was overcast, providing a good day for wildlife viewing, we sneaked a peak at the mountain just as we passed by Wonder Lake. All in all, it was an amazing day and an experience I would recommend to anyone. The 12 hour bus ride was a piece of cake

and you would never guess that you were on it for so long. We had plenty of stops at visitor centers where we could learn about the park, read exhibits, and walk around for a

while. Not to mention play with caribou and moose antlers and Dall sheep horns. The last hour of our trip it began to rain which meant that dirt and mud sprayed up onto are windows and made wildlife viewing impossible. Luckily it was the last hour and everyone on the bus had had their fill of wildlife for the day. When got back to the entrance at 8p.m. and headed over to the Crows Nest where we had a cabin booked for the next 3 nights. We also ate dinner at The Overlook Cafe as recommended by Tim the tour guide. We were all exhausted after being out on the road all day and went to bed with plans of sleeping in the next day.

Mile High Mayhem

We woke up in Anchorage and instantly headed out for Talkeetna, our destination for the morning, where we would be taking a small aircraft up into the Alaska Range to view Mt. McKinley and possibly land on a glacier! This was all dependent on the weather which, as we left Anchorage, looked less than favorable. It was another overcast day and the clouds looked like they were going to stick around for a while. We hoped that as the day wore on and we drove further north that the clouds would break offering us that ever elusive view of Denali. We learned later, after we got into the National Park that only 30% of the people that visit Denali National Park actually get to view Mt. McKinley (Denali) and its summit. We had

no idea that the peak was so elusive and took it for granted that if we were flying to the mountain, we would be able to see it. By the time we arrived in Talkeetna we were an hour early for our check in. The sky was still overcast and when we went to the office they told us that currently no flights were going out. The weather report said that the clouds would be breaking as the day progressed, but there were no guarantees. We decided to wait a while and check in at the next time slot to see if we could get out or not. We agreed to take the 3 mile path around the X-Y-Z Lakes that are about 5 minutes outside of town. We didn't have a whole lot of time since we had to check in again in an hour, so we hiked the trail relatively fast. We finished 3 miles in an hour which included stopping several times for the scenic views or the hope of wildlife though we didn't see any. We did get some hope, however, from the weather... the clouds were breaking. We headed back to Talkeetna Air Taxi to see if our flight was going out. They told us that though the weather had broken here, it was still cloudy around the mountain. They wanted to hear back from another flight that had left so they told us to wait again another hour and a half for the next flight. To pass the time we went back into town and had a beer and some nachos at Denali Brewing Company. We sat on the deck and kept watching the sky get clearer and clearer. While sitting outside, we heard a few small planes take off and our hopes began to

rise again. We went back once more to the air service, this time sure we would be going out. They said that now would be the best time to go, but they wouldn't guarantee we would see the mountain or that we would be able to land on a glacier. We decided to risk it and leave it up

to fate. We boarded the plane and Russ got to sit as copilot in the cockpit. Once our little 10 person plane was packed, we headed into the air and towards Denali. The views were beautiful even before we reached the Alaska Range. We could see glacial rivers with their giant river beds as well as forests as far as the eye could see with only lakes and kettle ponds obstructing the blanket they

created over the land. There was only one road that we passed over, indeed the only road that goes through the area, and one set of train tracks, again the only one. Everything else was natural. We got to the mountain range and were instantly shocked by the size of the glaciers that were up there. The Ruth glacier alone was over 30 miles long and that was just one in a vast array of glaciers. We flew up through the Great Gorge and towards Mt. McKinley and for a brief period we saw the summit. We did not get a view of the entire mountain which means that we weren't in the 30% club, at least not by our standards, but we did see the

summit and from what we hear, a lot of people walk away not even seeing that. After the clouds consumed the mountains once more our pilot circled back and told us he was going to attempt to land on Ruth glacier! Now when a pilot says "attempt" its a nerve wrecking thing, especially when it is followed by "land on a glacier." He took a few passes as we spiraled down closer to the landing area (which was marked by sleds stuck in the ice) and finally we touched down smoothly. The plane had skis attached to the wheels so when the wheels sunk low enough into the snow the skis would take over. He fished tailed the plane a little as we landed producing a 180 degree spin which made the actual landing area pretty small. We

all hopped out of the plane and instantly received the bragging rights of being the first plane to land on the glacier in about a week! This was obvious too. Unlike our other glacier walking experience in Banff where the path was well trodden and laid out for us, this time there was nothing, just about a foot of snow before your feet sunk in enough to get traction. We took a few pictures of the scenery and then began to play in the snow. We threw some snow balls at each other, all made snow angels, and Katie and Russ wrote their name in the snow with their feet. Katie's was ruined before she had even finished her K by 2 elderly women. They were

completely oblivious to what was going on, and walked right

through her hard work. I wore sandals out onto the glacier because I did not expect us to land so I was not about to partake in something that involved dragging your feet through the snow. After about a half hour the pilot herded us back onto the plane with promises of touring the mountain further. This time Russ let me sit copilot and we took off as quickly as we had landed. Something must had happened on the other side of the mountain while we were on the glacier, because instantly the pilot said that

we wouldn't be able to fly more and started heading back. We were fortunate to see the summit when we did. We still got to fly in and out of the canyon walls in the Great Gorge, but a storm must have come up around Denali that prevented us from exploring the north and west sides. We landed back safely at the air field about 20 minutes later, hopped back into ole CJ and headed north towards Denali National Park.

Moose Tracks and NOT the Ice Cream!

After our early morning wake-up the day before and 12 hours of fishing, Russ let us sleep in today to recover some strength. We didn't have anything planned for the day as Russ had planned for it to be a travel day. On our way from Seward to Homer a couple days before, we had driven a 22 mile loop that took us around a state gaming preserve. It was a dirt road and we did not see any wildlife as we drove down it. However, Katie read about this park in the Milepost and found a few good trails that time didn't allow for us to hike on the day we drove in. Our loose plan for the day was to hike the trails and then make our way on to Anchorage and possibly Talkeetna where we had a plane ride booked for the next day. After blissfully waking up without an alarm, Katie and I packed our bags and waited for Russ to come back from his morning drive. He had woken up earlier than us, of course, and drove down to

the Spit and around town while we got our beauty sleep. We packed up and hit the road but didn't even make it out of Homer before we stopped. Russ spotted 2 bald eagles and a nest right next to the highway, so we pulled off to snap a few pictures before we headed on our way. While driving to Homer we were tuckered out and came in late so we didn't stop at any of the suggestions

that the Milepost had given for the road. But, since we left the town with no where to go, we made all the stops that we wanted starting with the welcome sign to Homer, the halibut fishing capital of the world. We made a couple more stops but reached the Skilak Lake Rd around noon and geared up for our hike. We did a small hike to a gorge with a great view

then headed back down the road for our 3 mile round trip hike to the lake. Russ packed his bear mace, I got on my hiking shoes, and we all put some rain gear on. It was an overcast day and the rain had been coming on and off all day so we didn't know what to expect for the hike. The trail itself was beautiful! We hiked through 3 different terrains as we made our way to the lake. First we hiked through a forest made mostly of pine and birch which eventually opened up into a burn area offering commanding views of the hills around us and then finally we passed through a swamp before we came to the lake. The lake shore was a black sand beach full of small, smooth, pebbles. There was a fog rolling in off the mountains toward the lake which although it was beautiful, also meant rain was coming. Along the path we had seen no wildlife to speak of other than a few birds, though

we did see the normal signs,

especially on the beach. There were bear tracks and scat everywhere and they looked awfully fresh too. We walked along the shore for a bit and after it started to rain we decided we should to head back to CJ's loving arms. We ended up taking the wrong trail back. The one we took was apparently designed for the primitive campsites that lined the shore. We took the trail to the end and were just about to turn around when Russ spotted a huge coastal brown bear starring right at us. He watched us for a second and then went back down the bank at which time Russ and I started walking forward to get a better look. Katie

got really nervous and wanted us to stop and turn around and of course we didn't listen. A few seconds later we spotted him again as he swam up the stream toward the lake. A boat with 2 people in it started yelling at us to stop, thinking that we didn't see the bear. This time we heeded the advise as we thought we had gotten close enough. We watched the bear for about 15 minutes while he swam around searching for fish. We saw him make a few swipes, but he always came up empty. It was amazing to watch, but eventually the rain got the best of us and we headed back down the trail. About half way back from the lake we came across these freshly trodden moose tracks. After our bear encounter our hopes were pretty high for seeing a moose. The tracks continued on most of the trail but eventually they veered off right before the trail head and we left slightly disappointed, but we had no room to complain. The rain followed us all the way back to Turnagain Arm where we had planned to watch the bore tide come in and hopefully glimpse some belugas too. Unfortunately, we misjudged the date when we looked up the bore tide schedule resulting in us waiting for a smaller boar tide and not knowing the exact time it would coming in. Because of the rain we had almost no visibility and it wasn't long before we left Beluga Point in search of food. We went to the Sour Dough Mining Company for dinner where Russ ordered us the feast which was for 4 to 6 people and included unlimited trips to the ice cream bar, which was Katie's favorite. The food was pretty good and we all were so stuffed by the time we left that walking was difficult. Even after all we ate, we still had leftovers that would feed us for 2 meals. Being in our engorged state, we didn't feel like doing any more driving, so we ended up staying in Anchorage for the night, which meant that we would have to wake up early the next morning to compensate for the lost time in order to make our flight to see Mt. McKinley.

Deep Sea Fishing - Alaskan Style

Today we headed out for another day of fishing, this time it was a multi-species deep sea adventure. We were targeting Rock Fish to start and then heading to deeper water to go after Ling Cod and Halibut. We started the day off bright and early, waking up at 5 30 a.m. to be at the docks by 6 30 a.m. We had to make a run to Safeway for some lunchtime sandwiches, then made our way down the Homer Spit to meet up with our boat for the day. We arrived at the spit a little early and met our captain and the fourth member of our party. He was a guy who grew up in Homer and lived there his whole life, but never had been out fishing for Ling Cod. He had been a deck hand most of his life and never had gotten the chance to go fishing for himself. Needless to say he was just as excited about the trip as any of us, if not more. We set off from the Spit and again ran into some wildlife right outside the harbor. This time is was another sea otter and then a little later we came across some sea lions hanging out on an island a little off shore. Its amazing to experience how seeing these creatures means as much for our guides as seeing squirrels means to us... From the shore, we had a 3 hour boat ride to get to the deep water. Most of the ride was relatively smooth, though there were some 6 ft. waves every once in a while that made you get a little uneasy. Russ had taken 2 pills of bonine and had 2 anti-nausea bracelets on before we even got off shore. Katie also took one of the bonine pills just in case. I flew solo, trusting that with my many years on the water in Lake Erie I would be fine. In the end we all

escaped unaffected by the sea, so it was a happy ending for everyone in that regard. After our long trek the captain began to slow the boat down and match our coordinates to ones that some of his buddies gave to him back on shore. They promised that this was where the "mother-load" was and that we would not be coming back empty handed... they were right. Within seconds of us dropping our line in the water we had fish on. Originally, the captain told us to go to the bottom, but after 2 minutes, so many fish had begun following our lures to the top, you could look over and see the entire school as thick as the salmon were the day before; only these guys were hungry! Katie was so freaked out by the swiftness of the action that she would not even grab a rod and

put it in the water until the final pass when things slowed down a little. It took us 3 passes and 25 minutes for us to be one fish under our limit each for rock fish. We left one spot open because there was a possibility of pulling in different species of rock fish once we got out into the Halibut and Ling Cod, and since these guys would be bigger, it was worth giving up one spot. By the way, here are the limits for each persons Alaskan fishing license... each person is allowed - 5 rock fish, 2 Halibut, and 2 Ling Cod. This meant that as a boat we could pull in 25 rock fish, 10 Halibut, and 10 Ling Cod. Anyway, after we caught our desired amount of rock fish we took another mile or two drive over to deep water. We had been drifting and jigging at the last spot and we would be doing the same here, only this time we switched out our rods for the big boys and also fitted

them with 1 lb. jigs that were worth $100 a pop. Our first fish up at this location was a Ling Cod, and again Katie stole the show with the first fish. The sight of this monster in the water was amazing and truly gave me a shock. I had never seen a Ling before and had

no idea what to expect. Going deep sea fishing, you always know that the fish will be big, but it still took me by surprise to see this thing come out of the water. From then on the fishing was on! We ended up catching both our limit in Halibut and Ling Cod, sealing the deal on the final pass with Russ and Katie bringing in the 2 biggest Lings of the day. As I said we caught our

limit, but for every one that we kept, we reeled in at least 4 others that were thrown back. Our captain was of the philosophy that "size matters" and he was not into bringing sub-par fish back the the dock. It happened a few times that after a nice long 15 minute battle with a Halibut that the captain would come to take him off the hook and throw him back without even bringing him in the boat. It was a little disheartening at times, but it made the keepers that much more special. We only lost 3 lures to snags on the bottom which was pretty good, and considering they were all within the first half hour, you could really tell that we caught on quick. Though the fishing here was not as chaotic as it was

with the rock bass, there was still plenty of action. It was not uncommon for all 4 of us to have a fish hooked at the same time. It's just when it takes a minimum of 5 minutes to reel one in, things are at a much steadier pace than when we were flipping them in the boat with the rock fish. In the end, we were sore all over with our arms and backs taking the brunt of it. All told, we walked away with 235 lbs. of FILLETS!!! Katie caught the biggest fish, a Ling that weighted in at about 50 lbs. The Halibut all ranged between 30 and 40 lbs. a piece! Though Katie caught the biggest fish, Russ and I reeled in twice as many since Katie

was often seen taking a break to rest her arms.

All in all it was one of the best fishing trips that any of us had ever taken. On the way back to the Spit, Russ and Katie took their token nap while I talked with the captain and watched all the fish get filleted on the back of the boat. Once we got to the Spit, we went to the infamous Salty Dawg Saloon and had a celebratory drink, then went out to dinner before calling it quits on an amazing day.

Not all that glitters is gold... sometimes it's silvers!

The next day we left Seward early in the morning and headed to our next scheduled activity. This included a flight to the mainland for combination salmon fishing and bear viewing. We had to get to a little town about an hour and a half outside of Homer on the Sterling highway called Soldotna. Our flight went out at noon and we got to town with plenty of time to spare thanks to our

6a.m. wake up call from Russ. Along the way was the first time I noticed a common trend that had developed between Russ and Katie; they both love to sleep whenever they can, especially while I drive. Each morning so far that I have taken the wheel (every morning) its the same thing, within 15 minutes they are both out and its just me and the road again. I am not complaining at all, in fact I get a lot of enjoyment out of messing with them while they are passed out. Its a pretty funny sight to see them nodding off and I have began taking pictures of the 2 of them together whenever I can. By the end of the week, I will have quite a collection. Anyway we made it to Soldotna and had a makeshift lunch of beer, cheese, sausage, and crackers before we took off for our day of fishing. We met the pilot, our guide, and another group who were flying out with us at the dock. The other group was 4 older men who had been coming fishing to this place for at least 4 years now. They were from Maine and all pretty good guys, loud mouthed, and full of one-liners. One old guy especially kept talking about how crazy the flight was going to be, how the pilots were mental, and how he had worn 3 pairs of underwear just for the flight. We boarded our float plane assuming this guy was just an old talker who had flown through a storm one time and didn't really like flying. We took flight and flew from the Kenai peninsula across the Cook Inlet to a lake inside the Lake Clark Park and Wilderness Area. We got off the float plane into our boat and bade farewell to our friends from Maine, at least for now. As soon as we stepped out of the plane

you couldn't help but be taken aback by the scenery. The words "splendid isolation" came to mind as our boat motored down the lake and our plane took off not scheduled to return for

another 6 hours. We made our way to a little corner of the lake which seemed to be our guides favorite spot. Its name was Avalanche Creek and apparently it is renowned for being an excellent spot to view the coastal brown bears that inhabit the area. This is due to the fact that there are literally thousands of salmon that flock there in the spring to climb the river and spawn. We arrived too late in the season to witness this taking place and thus there were also no bears to view either. We still tried our hand at fishing here since you could simply look over the side of the boat and see fish everywhere you looked. However, to our dismay, we dropped in our hooks, baited with salmon spawn, and watched as fish after fish just passed it up. They simply weren't biting. I had my doubts about our guides method and thought that casting lures would have proven a better option since we had talked to a group who just left the area and thats what they said was

working. Our guide Denny had faith in the spawn though, just not the location. We quickly moved around the bend and tried our luck again. Within 10 minutes we had all gotten

bites and Katie had landed the first fish. It took me about 4 missed fish to get the timing down with setting the hook, but as soon as I got it down, I didn't miss a fish the rest of the day. By the end of the day we were all old pro's and we had our limit with 2 hours to spare. It was some of the most fun I have ever had fishing. We were catching silvers (coho salmon) and they fight, as our well-spoken friend from Maine would say "like tha devil were in 'em" and it was true. Once you got them on the hook, they were jumping up in the air and

leading you all over the boat. They didn't take to long to real in and we only had about half of them run with the line, but still it was a wild time. Add that to the amazing setting and an overcast day and you couldn't ask for more. After we reached our limit, we caught one more fish to cook

up and eat out on the lake, then we went hunting for bears. We drove around the lake for about a half hour, going to all of our guides hot spots and though we got great views of waterfalls and even spotted a porcupine, there was not a bear in sight. After we ate our well deserved meal, we headed back to the area our plane would pick us up at and waited for their arrival. When they landed we climbed

back in and met our old buddies from Maine. They had fared considerably worse than we did and only ended up catching 4 fish between the 4 of them but perhaps not surprisingly, that is not what they were talking about when we got in the plane. Apparently on the flight to pick us up they had seen 2 bears as well as a number of moose!!! We were pretty excited to hear this and hoped that the pilot would be taking us to see some wildlife as well. As we started to go into the air, we noticed a nervous look from the talkative guy and watched him cross himself over and over. We would soon find out why he needed those 3 pair of extra underwear. The pilot took us on a half hour long roller-coaster ride in which we flew over 4 bears and 3 moose, one of them a giant bull moose with an amazing set of antlers, and not to mention a flight up Double Glacier with stunning views of the ice fields. We took turns at 90 degree angles on every other turn, dropped altitude so fast you could feel the butterflies in your stomach, and chased down the animals, sometimes so close that you could see their eyes. It was nuts and hands down one of the most fun moments in my life. The best part about it was that there was no warning. We had no idea that we would do any of the sight seeing let alone the acrobatics. We thought that we were just on our little commuter flight back to the Kenai, but boy were we in for a treat. As Katie described it, "it was a roller-coaster that just didn't stop!" It was great and really the icing on an already amazing cake of a day. Once we finally landed we took our fish to the processing plant and found out that we had caught 32 lbs of fillets between the 3 of us! We were thrilled and couldn't believe our luck. We got back in the car and headed for Homer, not knowing that our catch today was only the tip of a much bigger iceberg.

A Grand Day

This morning we had an action packed day planned. Today was the first of many of Russ' scheduled trips that he had planned for us all over Alaska and so far each day has been better than the next. Today would be the Grand Day Tour, ocean kayaking in front of a glacier, as well as wild life viewing along the way. We woke up early, packed, and walked to the Seward docks in search of our outfitter. We were told to pack for all types of weather and bring an extra pair of cloths in case you got wet at all during the kayak trip meaning we had 3 big bags packed to the brim to carry along the way. We found our outfitter and found out that we would be the only ones on the boat today! This was an unexpected treat seeing as how our guide told us that they had packed up to 18 people on the boat the previous week. One of the advantages of touring Alaska at the end of the season is that there is no one else around doing the things you are doing. On top of the spacious room that we would be having on the boat, we also learned that the weather

was going to be perfect and indeed it was. According to our guide, they had not had a sunny day in over a month but there wasn't a cloud in the sky by the time we got out on the water. Before we even made it out of the harbor we spotted a sea otter resting on his back. At first I thought that he was a log because he was stretched out stiff as a board, just bobbing with the water. But then, every once in a while he decided to move his head or spin around and I was convinced that he was indeed an otter. We were already pretty excited about the day since we hadn't even gone a mile and had already seen some wildlife. This was just the first in a number of sea life that we were to see that day. During the 3 hour boat ride to our drop off

point, we saw a bald eagle, sea lions, jellyfish, harbor seals, starfish, and hundreds of puffins not to mention all of the beautiful mountains, islands, and glaciers. When we made it to our kayaking destination, we all piled into a Zodiac and dragged our kayaks to shore while our guide paddled us in. We got some quick instructions then got into our tandem kayaks. At first I was

skeptical about the tandems, but almost immediately I was converted into a fan. They are quite stable and I love the foot peddle controlled rudder! It is easy to control and very responsive to even the slightest adjustments, ideal for our purposes that day. We set off kayaking toward the Holgate glacier which is part of Kenai Fjords NP. Our guides strategically launched our kayaks from a point in the bay that you could not see the glacier from, making the view about 10 times more impressive as it slowly unfolded before our eyes as we rounded the corner. We kayaked about 3 miles from the drop off point until we were right in front of the Holgate

Glacier, and let me tell you, it was HUGE! We could hear and see ice breaking away and falling into the ocean. When the chunks hit the water the sound resounded like thunder clapping through the valley and made you jump the first couple times you heard it and left you wondering why you didn't see any lightening. We could

not get super close because of the ice falling from the glacier, but we still had about as close of a view as you could ask for. Starting about a mile back from the glacier the water was filled with huge chunks of glacial ice, some the size of a small car and others small enough to put in your glass to cool down a soda. There were 2 harbor seals that were very curious about us and kept popping up around us as we paddled around the glacier. Aside from the main attraction, the Holgate Glacier, there were 2 others that graced the scene, one you could see right next to Holgate, and the other wasn't noticeable until you turned around; the aptly named Surprise Glacier. As I said before it was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. Me being the warm blooded, well insulated person that I am, I was pretty hot in all my kayaking gear. Hot enough to wear just a tee shirt and rain pants out on the water. Now this was perfectly fine before we got up to the glacier and indeed I was quite grateful of my decision as the others complained about overdressing, our guide included. But when we got up to the glacier it was a different story. The glacial winds coming in at about 20 knots, topped off by the fact that my

hands dipped many times into the icy water as I paddled, got me a little on the chilly side. My hands bore the worst of it and actually underneath my sea skirt I was still quite toasty, but it just felt like I was asking for pneumonia. Luckily I escaped with just a couple cold, red, hands. Anyway, after sitting in front of the glacier for about a half hour and thoroughly enjoying all of the scenery I just described, we paddled back to the boat and made our way back to the harbor. Our captain, who had been waiting on the boat for us the whole time had heard rumors of a humpback whale that was on our way in, so he made the route home coincide with its path. With the help of a few other boats we got into the range of the whale just after he took a big dive. We waited about 5 minutes when we saw a porpoise surface in front of us, after another 5 we spotted the whale. He was about 3 hundred yards away and as we headed for him he started to put on a show. He dove almost immediately after we saw him and I thought he was gone for good when all of a sudden he jumped up into the air and came down with a huge splash, just like a Pacific Life commercial. After about 3 more smaller jumps he stuck his tail up in the air and started splashing it around madly stirring up the water pretty good. After his little show, he took a dive and we didn't see him anymore. I have never seen a whale do anything like that outside of Sea World and it was really great to have experienced it in the wild. We got back to shore and

parted ways with our guides, and decided it was time for a meal. This time we chose Thorn's Showcase Lounge for the best Halibut in Alaska! Another shout out to our pseudo trip advisor Meg Steele for recommending this fine establishment! Thanks Meg! After dinner we headed back to Bear Creek and the dumpster to look for bears. Bear Creek was empty again, aside from thousands of salmon, but Oscar was home again and we got to see him one last time before we left Seward in the morning.