My photos are online already, and I’m writing this up a little late, but backdating somewhat to keep the journal more intact, date-wise. It’s a long post, so click the link to read it all.
The short version: it was a fantastic trip, perfect weather, excellent fishing, great food and a great time hanging out with my dad and brothers.
My dad, brothers and i all had a fantastic time in Alaska, the first time there for all of us. The vacation was Dad’s idea, conceived as he was on the mend from chemo and surgery for lung cancer, diagnosed almost exactly a year ago. Alaska was somewhere we’d each thought would be a great place to visit, but we just couldn’t pull it together, and as we each got married and started having kids, all travel time got short. This trip was extra special though, and none of us would have missed it for the world. Needless to say, there were many toasts to dad’s continued good health. The last year was scary, but dad’s recovery has been going very well. Many thanks too to our wives for their support, they also helped make this trip possible in the most practical sense by holding down the homefront (see Autumn’s earlier post about their week while i was away).
Brother Mike was our trip planner, and he gets huge thanks for finding the great places we stayed and the guides we fished and toured with. We wanted a semi-planned trip, and ended up with just one scheduled thing a day, which was perfect.
We all arrived in Anchorage within 30 minutes of each other around 8:30 local time, and sure enough, it was as bright as mid-afternoon there. It would take most of the week to get used to having so much daylight there, but it was nice to be able to take a couple of mountain pictures right from the gate and navigate around with the sun out.
We stayed the first and last nights in Anchorage because of the later arrival and morning departure flights. The Long House hotel was nice, and we made good use of their freezer on the last day before heading home.
The first day’s task was just to drive down to Homer, which took about 5 hours with plenty of stops for breaks and pictures. The route there is beautiful, with mountains on one side and the inlet on the other. We spent most of the drive gawking out the windows and listening to KWHALE on the radio. It was Saturday, and the fishermen along the upper Kenai were practically elbow-to-elbow in waders, but overall the traffic wasn’t too bad. Page one of the photo album ends with the scenic overlook just outside of Homer, and about 2 miles from our cabin, the Goofy Moose.
The Goofy Moose cabins are nice - just built this year, we were in the first month or so of renters. Right on the highway, but quiet inside, and a great view out the back porch. Plenty of space for sleeping 4, and we made good use of the stove and grill to cook our fresh fish.
We spend the rest of the afternoon and evening Saturday getting some food and beer supplies and cruising the Homer Spit. The Spit is where the docks are, along with a line of little gift shops and restaurants. A little touristy maybe, but definitely understated and neat. We looked for the boat we had booked for Sunday, but they were still on the water. We did buy tickets for the Homer Jackpot Derby, which would qualify us for thousands in prize money if we caught the biggest fish of the month or year - the winner last year got something like $43,000. We also visited the Salty Dawg, a little dive of a bar that spans three little buildings and has dollar bills tacked to the ceiling and walls all over inside. Cool little bar, and we discovered the local Homer Brewery Pale Ale there, sold in recycled 20 oz. Sobe tea bottles. John bought some king crab legs from a little shack for $18/lb, and they were delicious as an after-dinner snack.
On Sunday, we were up early to meet the guide for our halibut fishing trip. Captain Mike Swan is a great guy, lots of experience on the water, and the Beau Soleil is a nice boat; 35′ long, 13′ wide, so plenty of room for 6 fishermen at the stern. The other two on the trip were a father and son from the twin cities (we met a lot of people in Alaska who had ties to Minnesota, it’s like an amped up North Shore in a lot of ways). There are pictures of the boat in the gallery, but this is the best photo of the day (of mine):
We ended up going out 50 miles out, around the point and near some islands. It was a calm day mostly (6 foot swells while anchored), and with that plus a couple of dramamine, I avoided getting seasick, so i had a great time. We all caught our limit of 2 halibut, mostly in the 40-lb range each. During the trip out, we saw a couple of sea otters, and while fishing saw a group of jellyfish and several whales spouting and flipping their tails. We had the fish filleted and frozen to pick up before we headed out of town. Halibut for dinner that night - grilled and fried.
Monday was the planned ATV trip of some back country, but it was a rainy morning, and the trip was postponed to the afternoon. We cruised around a little more of Homer, went to a nice oceanic interpretive center and walked along the shore. After some delicious pecan rolls and a stock-up trip at the Homer brewery (they sold 1/2 gallon growlers to go!), we had lunch and hooked up with our ATV guide Dan. He was quite a character, and had lots of stories about his hunting trips around the area we toured. Spring has been late and wet around there, so we had plenty of mud holes to get through, so even though we didn’t really see any animals, it was a fun trip through beautiful country.
Tuesday was the drive back north to Soldotna for the river fishing portion of the trip. Our cabins there were also nice, and our host Tony was a nice guy. The drive was only a couple of hours, but we took our time packing up (160lbs of halibut not in freezer boxes to pack now), and took a little tour of the Soldotna/Kenai area. Dad got his wish for a dinner of razor clams after getting a restaurant recommendation from Tony, then a few beers before bedtime.
Wednesday we were on the Kenai river by 5:30 with our guide Mark. When fishing with a guide, you can’t start fishing until 6, but we were in the boat at the first fishing hole by 6, and the lines dropped in the water at 6:00:01. The limit for King Salmon is 1 per day, and 2 per year, and there’s a slot limit, so they have to be within a certain size range. When you’ve caught a King, you’re done fishing for the day. We each caught our limit, but Mike had his at 8:30am, so he did a lot of watching us fish. After that early fish, and a sockeye that i caught, it slowed down for a while, then the rest of us each caught a nice King within an hour, done by about 2:00. Sockeye salmon and corn on the cob grilled up for dinner, delicious!
Thursday we were fishing the Kenai for Kings again, but with Ed as our guide (booked through Mark). Again there was an early fish, this time it was John with the first keeper in the morning. We had run out of beer early the day before, so John brought extras for this trip. With the early fish and the beer supply, John spent most of the trip sitting back and watching the action. I caught a nice 18″ rainbow trout that i couldn’t keep, and a Dolly Varden that we also threw back. Grandpa got skunked, but Mike got the biggest fish; a 62 lb King Salmon that was unfortunately too big to keep, but still the record for our trip.
Friday we packed up and drove back to Anchorage, now with an additional 10 lbs or so of salmon each on top of the 40 lbs of Halibut. We did some serious planning and repacking to get all the fish into our allowed airplane luggage. Dad still ended up paying for one additional box because he and John flying together had just one too many bag and couldn’t consolidate it all any more. We spent the night in the Long House again, our fish in their freezer. After dinner, we stayed up late telling fish stories and looking back at a great trip.
Just as we arrived, we flew out within an hour of each other, Dad and John flying together to Oregon, and Mike and I back to Minneapolis. Flying to Alaska, i was wearing shorts and sandals as it was in the 80s, and quickly put on an extra layer in the 60° Alaskan air. For the ride home, i wore the camp pants, shoes and long sleeve wool shirt that i’d been wearing practically all week in Alaska. We’d had beautiful weather, but it was definitely long sleeve/pants temperature, but easy to get used to.
The plane ride home was as smooth as can be, and i was excited to get home to see my girls. I’d been sending postcards every day of the trip, and with the mail delay, we kept getting them for a week after i returned. Alaska is a beautiful place, and i want to go back with my own kids someday to show them. Thank you for a wonderful trip, Dad!
