Letter 17 Indian, Denali, Wasilla, Glennallen, Valdez

Sunday, July 3 we left Soldotna and headed north along Kenai lake enjoying the mountains along the way. Portage pass had lots of
beautiful mountains. The state of Alaska tunneled through these mountains to make the way easier to get to Whittier and connect them to the rest of the Kenai Peninsula. We stopped at the Portage Visitor Center, watched the movie, and enjoyed their displays. Fred’s stomach didn’t allow for us to take the boat ride to Portage Glacier, but we did see several

hanging glaciers from the road to the boat ride.


We made contact with Bonnie and Richard, friends we met at Glacier View CG in BC. They were staying with a friend of theirs, Linda, from Bisbee, AZ. She lives at the community of Indian on the Indian Creek, where it empties into Turnagain Arm. When we passed the turn off to Girdwood the traffic picked up tremendously. Girdwood was having a big celebration for the 4th of July, with a concert at night. We met hundreds of cars before we reached Indian 10 miles way. We pulled in and found their rig. Bonnie contacted their friend Linda. She invited us to park along side Bonnie & Richard and to share supper with them.

Note the Rhubarb growing to the right of the group. Fred says note the beautiful lady hugging him!

We briefly saw the bore tide coming into Turnagain Arm across the road from Linda’s. We were too far away to get a good shot at it. Supper was wonderful with steaks, sautéed shrimp, corn and we enjoyed the company of all including Linda’s landlords Debbie & Steve. Their hospitality was like the deep south.

Monday, July 4 we celebrated quietly with Bonnie and Richard beside the Turnagain Arm and the busy highway. We played a game of dice and had soup for lunch. We walked up the road to Steve & Debbie’s place enjoying the flowers and strawberries along the way. Steve’s mother still runs Jim’s and

MaryLou’s so we walked over to see her. She has tables of t-shirts along with a small sample of liquor. She told us of the big earthquake in 1964 and being moved from Portage down this road 25 miles to Indian Creek. They made their living here and their children all had a place to have a home. When Linda arrived home from work we fixed supper together and enjoyed a campfire and smore's.

Tuesday, July 5 was a long fulfilling day. We said goodbye with invites to come visit us to Bonnie, Richard and Linda then headed into Anchorage. They were heading south to the Kenai and fishing while we were undecided about where we would sleep this night. We stopped in Anchorage for some more books and looked for a special t-shirt for Fred, then headed on. A stop at the visitor center near Palmer told us the weather was good to head toward Denali. Hopefully we would get to see it.

Sure enough as we neared

Denali, there it was peaking out from behind the trees. We kept getting glimpses until we stopped at a roadside park designated a viewing site. By then a little cloud came in front of it and everyone, including us just sat and waited for the cloud to go away.The
cloud never went away totally, but that was ok, we could see the peak. For those that haven’t been here this peak is 20,320’ tall! The others around it are over 12, 000. That’s as tall as Long’s peak in Colorado.

This peak is actually officially called McKinley. The native Indians called it Denali or “high one.” Then in 1896 it was renamed McKinley after the Presidential candidate. The US board of Geographic names dictates that no living person can be commemorated. It was not until President McKinley’s assassination in 1901 that the name change became valid. Many Alaskans and mountain climbers have repeatedly lobbied to have the name changed back to Denali. In 1975, the Alaska legislature made an official request. The request has never been accepted because Congress always has pending legislation to keep the name.

In 2001, the Alaska Historical Commission committed to change both Denali and Foraker back to their original names. The US Board of Names usually gives preference to local usage, but will not take issue with Congress. Policy dictates that name changes cannot be made if there is pending legislation. As long as the congressman from McKinney’s old district in Ohio continues to make sure there is pending legislation this stalemate will continue.

Whatever the official name, we call it Denali and it is beautiful.
After having that 30% chance to see this mountain, we decided to go back south to head home.

Now don’t get excited. It has taken us 3.5 months to get here, it may take us that long to get home. We have targeted October 1 and hopefully we will make it for Waxahachie’s homecoming and Olivia’s 50 year reunion.
On the drive north we crossed the

Susitna River and saw people down on the bank. We decided to head back to that spot later to spend the night. When we parked it was after 5:00 pm and we were hot and tired. Yes , hot it was 71 degrees today and felt hot compared to what we have had weather-wise. Shortly after parking and opening the windows a nice breeze sprang up and it was delightful.

Before we went to bed we heard an airplane noise and sure enough it was right beside us ready to take off on the gravel river bed near us. What an adventure!

We received an email from a friend we met in Wisconsin last year. He had showed us slides of their trips to Alaska. One of them was where they camped on the Chena River out of Fairbanks. We had been thinking of them when we pulled into this spot.

He said, “I am truly glad to hear that you are enjoying your Alaska adventure. I feel sorry for people who could but would never venture past the county line, or the people who cannot find any beauty in the world like the ones who can't see the forest for the trees. We wish the best possible travels for you and know you will continue to find the beauty of Alaska.”

We feel the same sympathy for those who won’t or can’t take off like we are doing. God has made a beautiful world and if you don’t live in one of those places, then get up and GO!

Wednesday, June 6, we enjoyed our river spot then headed to see Talkeetna. We drove into town, through it, and turned around all the time hunting for a place to park. Then we were out of it. The stores, shops, and way-stations looked interesting, but we didn’t get to see them.
As we left we stopped south of town at a pullout and were among many taking pictures

of Denali. It was a clear day and we enjoyed seeing it again. The mountain on the left is Mt Foraker or Denali Be’of “wife of hi one,” at 17,400 and the one in the middle is Mt Hunter or Begguya, “child” at 14,573.

So many people don’t get to see these peaks after driving this far and here we saw them twice. When visible, it mesmerizes. It draws a crowd. Crowds are more intent than bear-jam fanatics.

We pulled into civilization again at Wasilla and found a place to stay for the night at Matanuska Valley state recreation area. We went to the farmer’s market and saw lots of huge squash and zucchini. Then drove to a

U-Pick farm. Unfortunately they were not ready to sell. Give them a couple of weeks. This farm started as a LLD farm to feed the poor, but was sold out to individuals about 30 years ago. Everything looked so inviting and the soil was so rich, with mountains looming over the fields. Wow!

Thursday, July 7 we headed east through a beautiful drive along the
Matanuska River. The road twisted around mountains and over hills.

Before we knew it we had found our home and it was only 12:30 so we had a long afternoon with nothing to do. We were parked on abig cleared area where hunters and ATV’s park to enjoy the country to the north. The trail leads over the hills behind us. The best part about this spot was the view across the road to the south. We could see the
Chugach Mountains. Nelchina Glacier winds downward through a cleft in the mountains. We were on Eureka Summit, a divide separating three major river systems: Susitna, Matanuska and Copper.

Friday, July 8, Olivia woke up at 5 am and it was raining and it continued until 7. Since we were parked on a cleared land, it was very muddy. We knew it would be bad getting the jacks up and ready to roll. The sky was completely overcast and we could not see the pretty mountains. We were blessed to see them the day before.

As we set out we were in the midst of a

400 mile bicycle race. We didn’t envy them, not only because of the miles, but it was 50 degrees, raining and windy.

As the day wore on, the sun tried to come out and puffy clouds were in the sky and we’re sure that made it bicyclists happy.

Even though we had miserable morning weather, we are adjusting to dry camping. Having the generator has allowed us to charge the computer and lets Olivia blow her hair among other things like Fred’s razor, drill, & microwave. Along with the air card it is almost like having power. Plus, most of the time it is a free night.

Later we stopped for the night at Tolsana Wilderness Campground which was a big improvement from the mud of the morning. It was wooded, with a pretty little

stream running though it and was also a Passport America spot with Wi-Fi at the spot.
Sounds like a contradiction from what we said about our previous spot doesn’t it. Well, we are flexible!

We drove into Glennallen for cappucino then back to the
Tolsana Lake lodge for a mid day meal of shrimp, cod and calamari. As we were leaving Fred mused at the biplanes parked in the houses back yard.

Saturday July 9, we set out for a day trip to Valdez passing the
Wrangle Mountains visible for a long way down the Richardson Highway along with the fireweed.

On a short loop detour we enjoyed seeing the

Copper Center City Hall. We thought of Dr. Jon, not only for the "John," but this is Copper River country and he loves it’s salmon.

In 1899, Chief Nicoli of the lower Copper river people, directed prospectors to copper deposits in the Chitina River valley. This set off a copper rush. Between 1911 and 1938, 4.6 tons of the highest-grade commercial copper deposit ever found were processed out of this area.

The Copper River is 290 miles long and is the single largest source of fresh water to the Gulf of Alaska. It’s delta is the largest contiguous wetland on the Pacific Coast,

All along this highway we saw

bicycles riding to Valdez on their 400 mile ride. We saw them going and coming.
We started getting glimpses of the Alyeska Pipeline. Built between 1975 and 77 it employed over 30,000 workers and was the largest, most expensive privately funded construction project ever undertaken.

It is owned by Alyeska Pipeline Service Company a consortium of oil companies including BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon/Mobil, Unocal and Koch Alaska.

Fred enjoyed

holding this 48” diameter pipeline which winds through 3 major mountain ranges and terminates in Valdez.

The pipeline is 800 miles long and sends 1.5 million barrels a day through the 48” diameter.
Where permafrost-permanently frozen soil– is present, and heat from the pipeline might thaw unstable soils, the line is insulated and elevated. The insulated pipe is mounted on Teflon-coated shoe assemblies, designed to slide on crossbeams installed between vertical supports.

These supports are located about every 60 feet. The zig-zag design of the line provides the flexibility necessary to accommodate movements due to temperature changes.

In areas where the frozen-soil temperatures are near the thaw point,

heat pipes are installed inside the pipeline’s vertical supports. The finned radiators above the supports are the external extensions of these heat pipes, which employ a fluid with a low boiling point to take heat from the ground through vaporization and condensation. Heat from the soil enters the lower end of a sealed tube, causing the fluid inside to boil. The resulting vapor rises to the radiator and condenses, releasing energy.

Ahead lay Mount Billy Mitchell, which brought back memories to Olivia as her daddy, Cecil, was on the ship Billy Mitchell when he came home from Europe after WWII. Billy Mitchell was in the signal corps completing the trans-Alaska telegraph line to connect all the military posts in Alaska. He was later to become the “prophet of American military air power” with his idea that “He who holds Alaska will hold the world as far as defending the North American continent.”

Later we crossed the Tsaina River at the Devil’s elbow with deep gorges to both sides of the bridge and pretty mountains in the background. Here we also entered BLM land with a sign stating sustenance hunting was allowed.

Bicyclists showed up again and again, this time as we neared Worthington glacier. The clouds were rolling over the top like an avalanche.

Around the corner Fred named this glacierBeverly glacier after our friend Beverly Worthington.

As we crested the top of
Thompson pass we could see all the way to the valley of Valdez and the

bare bone peaks of the Chugach mountains rising above the highway. This road was the last of many ways over these mountains. During the gold rush the miners climbed over Valdez glacier, then horse-drawn freight sleds and a goat trail. We were so fortunate to have this nice highway to enable us to see these mountains and ultimately Valdez.

We detoured into a nice little road to see Blueberry Lake Recreation site and watched a man fly fishing from an inner tube float. Tucked in between tall mountain peaks, this is one of Alaska’s most beautifully situated campgrounds.

Entering Keystone Canyon we saw a long tunnel from the old road visible beside the new highway. “On the far side, just above the water were remains of the old sled trail used in the early days. It was cut out of the rock, just wide enough for 2 horses abreast. Above it was the old goat trail, used until 1945.”
Around another turn we saw

Bridal Veil and
Horsetail falls. While stopped to take pictures of the falls, Olivia witnessed a weird sight. We know bees and butterflies pollinate flowers but have never heard of flies doing this. All of the cow parsnips had hundreds of flies on the flowers.

As we neared Valdez, we turned onto Dayville road recommended to be an option for RVers who like to stick close to their RV but still see wild Alaska. We could see the back side of the harbor with fishing boats in the bay.

In Prince William Sound over 20 glaciers terminate at sea level; numerous others cling to steep mountainsides. There are hundreds of bays, fjords and islands with over 3,000 miles of shoreline.
People were wade

fishing all along, under the mountains.

At the fish hatchery we saw some of the pink salmon
attempting to go up the little stream instead of being diverted into the hatchery. Sea gulls and eagles were waiting to have dinner along with the
anglers.

The fireweed also thrived along the bay of Valdez.

As we watched these fishermen one lady squealed, “I caught one!.” After landing it and casting again, she squealed again, “I caught another one.” We believe she got her money’s worth for the whole day. The other anglers were not as lucky.

At the end of Dayville road was one of many campgrounds along the road and a guardhouse restricting public access to the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal complex as there was NO public access to the marine terminal and NO public tours.

The campgrounds are $12 for overnight, $3 day use. There was a wonderful array of wild life viewing opportunities steps away. We saw seals among the fishermen and were told bears were known to frequent this area, along with fish, otters, and birds.

Driving to the other side of the bay and into the town of Valdez we could see the

terminus at the bottom of the mountains and next to the water. The oil is fed by gravity into tanks or directly into waiting oil tankers at the terminal. We didn’t spot any large ships loading.
We did see the fishing boat Gladiator out of Seattle at the city dock.

We spent a little time in the city and ate at the Hamburger joint across from the Halibut House. Both had been recommended and now we can recommend the hamburger house for it’s Halibut fish and chips. Delish! As you can see Fred is cramming all the fish eating into our last few days in Alaska. We declared this was the best of the best.

Valdez was not what either of us expected, but there again we didn’t really know what to expect. It is on the back end of a beautiful fjord. So did we evidence of the Exxon Valdez oil spill? None what-so-ever. We did see evidence of wealth around the city. This town has benefitted many relatively high paying oil related jobs and from a lot of Exxon settlement money.

On the way back over the pass we kept seeing

bicycler’s laboring over the big climb. Too bad they weren’t looking at the
scenery.

This road is the southern part of the Richardson highway. We witness the last 75 miles were in the mountains. Not on the peaks, we were in the valleys where we could see mountains on both sides of us.

Olivia decided this drive was pretty, no beautiful, no gorgeous! Of all the roads we have driven in Alaska, three top our list for scenery.

The drive to Skagway was dramatic in it’s beauty.
The ”Top of the World” was the most spacious in it’s beauty.
The road to Valdez was simply just beautiful. They are all favorites in their own way.

We recommend these roads as a MUST if you are planning a trip to Alaska.

The

fireweed is among the prettiest of the wildflowers in the north country. We have enjoyed it every time we go north of the 45th parallel. The story is when it quits blooming winter is six weeks away.

We hope you were able to download all the pictures.

We love to hear from you, so email us at
Olivia@bobheck.com or Fredharrington@yahoo.com

Letter 16 Kenai, Seward, Soldotna

Friday, June 24 we left Ninilchik and headed north with no destination in mind. We knew we wanted to be in Seward on Saturday, but no plans for the night.

Our daughter Teenya connected us with one of her the customers of her beauty shop, back in the spring. During this trip Olivia had been corresponding with a her. We had figured we should meet or pass this day.

We stopped in Sterling to eat at Susie’s. The food was wonderful. We split a seafood platter. It was more than enough for the two of us. As we finished Karen called. Sure enough, they were to camp on the Kenai River close to Cooper Landing. We were headed that way so we had a destination.

The drive along the Kenai where the Russian River joins it is a very popular place to fish.

We pulled into the campground just off the highway and parked. Karen, her husband and their traveling friends came right behind us. After they parked they brought their chairs, because we had the only space with shade. This was the warmest day in weeks. The temperature rose to near 70. So we sat and had a good time becoming acquainted. The two couples are traveling together and are from Colorado.

Their mission in this trip is to catch salmon. They plan to stay on the Kenai peninsula until they have their fill. Roger found out where to go and planned to get up at 2:00 am and go when it wasn't crowded.

Saturday, June 25 as we were going through our morning ritual we noticed Roger’s truck was back. Seems he got up at 2:00 o’clock and found it was dark, so went back to bed and started again at four. He fished for several hours before finding the fish, but ended up with three sockeye salmon. Fred said they were beautiful. The meat was such a wonderful red color, his mouth watered. Good for him. As it turned out the fishing was spotty. Very few catching fish.

After having coffee with Karen and Gary we told Jane and Roger goodbye and maybe we will see them again, but first there was good weather predicted for Sunday in Seward and a boat trip to see the glaciers from the water in Kenai National Park.

We found a parking place in the Municipal Campground in Seward right on the water. It is a huge parking lot with back in spaces and a place for the car for $15 with no hookups. We took the last of the spots. Olivia can look out the slide windows and see the water with the mountains in the back ground. Too bad they were covered with clouds. We were keeping our fingers crossed hoping for the sun.

We drove to see Exit glacier and in the visitor center found this whole area was mountains and in the higher elevations it was covered with an ice field. As the ice field grew each year with more snow the edges started moving down the valleys, causing glaciers.

The relief map in the center showed what this looked like from the air.

Sunday, June 26 we were on the dock at 9:15 to get our boarding tickets for our Kenai Fjords National Park full day cruise. This park has thirty-eight glaciers. The weather forecast had been sunny for this day, but they miss it!

We weresocked in.

We traveled to the Kenai NP where wildlife was abundant. We covered 120 miles seeing Eagles, otter, horned puffins, before we came to Bear Glacier. We saw it at a distance with it’s icebergs. The NP ranger told us all about the area and all the animals. He brought around a picture of Bear Glacier from the air, as it’s lake has a moraine blockingour entry closer to the glacier.

Glaciers begin humbly, as moisture. Clouds gather off the Gulf of Alaska coast, where the Aleutian Low, a low atmospheric pressure system, spins counterclockwise. Wet weather bathes the coast in jewel green colors. Colliding against the coast’s steep mountains, it also rises and cools as it moves inland, becoming snow. The low spends steadily, the snow gathers, its largest reservoir the 700 square-mile Harding Ice field that mantles the National Park. Instead of melting seasonally, the snow compacts into thickening layers of ice. Time allows the ice to condense until it is nine times denser than ordinary snow. Gravity allows the ice to become a true glacier. A glacier that plows all the way into the sea calves there, noisily. The boom and echo of splashing ice can be heard from miles away. The Harding ice field is the largest ice field located entirely with the US.

Around the point we saw the three hole point and the water became very rough for about an hour. Several on the boat became seasick. Fortunately we had taken Dramamine and were ok. Then we entered the Holgate Arm where the crew started serving the all you can eat buffet. Salmon and prime rib, rice and salad.
We started seeing the Holgate glacier. Olivia put on her raincoat, but not her big coat before going outside on the bow of the ship watching for the glacier to calve.

This was on Olivia’s bucket list. Holgate glacier is
600’ high above water and 300’ below water. The picture is blurry because that spot was rain.

Several times it cracked like thunder and a few small pieces broke off, but no big ones. The boat stayed near this glacier about 20 minutes and Olivia stayed outside the whole time. It was cold and rainy. BRRRR! Olivia was ready to come back in to warm up and eat her lunch.

After lunch was cleared the crew announce they had retrieved a piece of the ice from the glacier. This ice was over 200 years old. They served
margaritas over this ice to those who wanted to pay $6.00.

We hurried over the same rough water and back to Barwell island off Resurrection Peninsula. Barwell was one of the USA’s protection places during WW2.
Resurrection Bay, like all fjords was carved by ice. When the glacier receded and sea levels rose, the U-shaped valley became a steep-sided bay, like many other fingers of water into this land.

The Captain started finding wildlife and the first were several whales very close to the island, then Kitty Links, other birds and
Stellar sea lions.
It was a nice trip, but would have been much better in the sunshine. We are so thankful the Fulton’s gave us a coupon book they hadn’t used as it saved us $149. Thank you!

Monday, June 27 was a lazy day. We slept until nine am and took it easy. About noon we decided to poke around town. We ran into Safeway to pick up a few items and found the power was out. Not just for the store but all over town.

Since we were staying in the municipal park with no hookups we didn’t realize the power outage was upon us. Safeway had backup for the cash registers so we didn’t have a problem checking out. Fred’s cappucino was the next stop and the power outage was a problem. The machines didn’t work. We waited a few minutes then drove around the town. Seeing the lights on the filing station we went back to get cappucino.

A little road attracted us to see where it led, so we drove to
Lowell Point and found two RV parks/campgrounds, the sewage treatment center and a bunch of junkie stuff. The drive was pleasant thought. Back in town we visited the Sea Life museum’s gift shop, then browsed the stores of down town. We did see some nice items, but nothing we couldn’t live without.

One of the shop owners told Fred just what we suspected. This was unusual weather. The normal daily low for this time of year is in the upper 50s with highs in the seventies. We had been having lows in the low 40s and highs in the fifties. This might sound awfully good to our Texas friends, but we are wishing for some warmer weather. Our shorts go unused!

Tuesday, June 28 we drove west back to Soldotna hoping to find some salmon running and a place to spend the 4th of July. We nested at the city’s Centennial park backed up to the
Kenai River which is a popular place to catch Salmon. They don’t run here again until about the middle of July. The city has set up ramps and ladders to the banks for fishermen. We found the unusual weather has affected the timing of the salmon run. We say runs because there are multiple runs during the summer for kings, sockeye and pink. They usually don’t run together.

We scouted out the fishing in the Kasilof river south of here, but it didn’t look promising. We did see a yearling moose beside us which crossed the road.

Wednesday, June 29, we cleaned our trailer and washed clothes before we decided to see the town of Kenai and visit with Karen and her bunch. They were camped on top of the bluff and had been fishing from the beach, without any luck . They plan to go clamming further south.

Thursday, June 30, this day was a shopping day, groceries and propane. We stopped at the visitor center to find out about fishing and 4th of July activities before returning to the Kasilof River where Crooked Creek comes in. We saw people fishing and actually witnessed a King salmon caught. They released this big fish and we were told it was because he was so red, the meat would be mushy. It had been in the river too long. Others fishing in the river had caught a few sockeye and they were also red, but they were keeping them.

We need to tell about the hours of daylight here. Olivia woke up at 11:00 pm and took a picture of thesun shining in the window. It sets about 11:30 but doesn’t go very far below the horizon causing light until about 2:00 am. Then it starts being light again about 4 am with sunrise at 4:30 am. Fred thought he would have difficulty sleeping with so many hours of light. Well he thought wrong, as usual he sleeps like a log.

Another fact we had heard is true. The cost of everything is much more than in the lower 48. Example: our high fiber cereal, if the flavor can even be found. At home we buy it for about $3.00 a box. We paid $3.50 in Oregon. It is $5.50 here.
Gas is around $4.25 on the Kenai, $4.15 in Anchorage and it goes up away from those areas.

Friday, July 1, we were at loose ends and didn’t have anything to do this day but read. We did have some coupons for buy one get one free donut so we went to get Fred’s cappucino and the donuts. We explored the Funny River road and didn’t see anything funny. Back at the trailer we decided to have lunch on another buy one get one free. This time at Acapulco's for Mexican food. We hadn’t had any in a long time, knowing it wouldn’t be the same as at home or New Mexico. It wasn’t the same, but the flavor was close. Thanks again to the Fulton's for the coupons.

Back at the campground we walked the trail along the river all the way to the boat ramp where we met the guide boats coming in. We saw one king salmon being filleted, then another fresh out of the boat
with the proud fishermen, then there were three on the ground. It was interesting to see a State of Alaska staff measuring the salmon and taking a sample of each king.

So now we see the second king salmon run has started even before the sockeye run is going good. This is unusual.

Saturday, July 2, we woke up to a slow steady rain and it continued until after lunch. Going into town for cappucino and gas we decided to follow up on a flier Olivia picked up in the visitor’s center. It was from B.E.A.C.H.M. Fishery in Kasilof (ka-sea’-lof). The prices in the ad were too good to be true. Fred called and we headed south. We found their processing plant next to their home. It turned out to be a commercial fishing operation. The fishermen had just arrived with the morning catch—276 sockeye from the bay. They catch, then sell. They do very little processing.

They were so nice to us. Fred decided ontwo fresh sockeye salmon and the crew processed it. The lady on the right was the owner and the rest were college kids working for the summer.

They came from Oregon, Montana, Tennessee, Georgia and Wisconsin. They said it was hard work, but was fun work. The owners treat them like family and feed them well. The students talked about how good the salmon was. This experience was more fun than fishing and a whole lot easier.

Even though they don’t normally process fish, they happily agreed to what Fred wanted. They filleted the fish cut them into individual serving sizes and shrink wrapped them. We were charged $2.45 per pound of live weight for the fish. The live weight was 15 pounds. They gave Fred the shrinking and ask that we tip the hands. We gave them $40 for about 11 pounds of processed fish. It looked wonderful. The owner told us that king salmon had much more fat than sockeye, so it was harder to over cook kings. Sockeye should not be over cooked. Their effort to attract retail business to this out of the way location had not gone well. We were the only customers—maybe the only ones for the day and they treated us royally. We got a super deal.

If you want a great summer job for your grandkids—call 907 262 3233 or visit on-line at—www.alaskasbestwildsalmon.com.
Some of you may wonder why Fred didn’t catch his own. The answer is complicated.

First you can catch river fish from the bank or from a boat. Fred has no boat so he would have to hire a guide for about $135. Or he could buy waders and the right bank equipment. That’s not a problem. Most all river fish have already started dying and he believes the taste and texture would be degraded. The biggest problem is the fish just have not cooperated and we are not here at the right time. They have run in such small numbers that fishing for them would be very iffy. Fred is okay with not fishing besides he has a head cold and doesn’t feel like fishing. Eating them is best part and we have done that.

On our way back to the highway we sawanother moose. This one posed for us.

All around our camp spot was ground cover like plants with little white
four leaf flowers. Olivia said, they looked like a dogwood flower. She looked it up and sure enough it is a dwarf dogwood, with the purple center being the flower, and the white the modified leaf. It is also called a Bunchberry as the centers turn into a tight cluster of bright-red berries in early August. Too bad our timing is wrong for them too.

We would love to hear from you, so email us by clicking on
Olivia@bobheck.com or Fredharrington@yahoo.com