Sunday, July 30, 2006

A bear, fish, moose and mosquito tale

July 12 Wednesday Sterling
We left Anchorage about noon after a quick stop at Costco for dog food. Got back to the river around 4:00 after making a couple of stops along the way. We purchased a TV Antenna and had it installed this evening…we now are back in the modern world with a TV! We get fairly good reception on the major networks and nothing on any others, which is fine. The man who did the installation is from Macedonia, but has been in Alaska for 30 years (and yes, he is a citizen of the U.S.) and we enjoyed talking to him. He has lived in this area all of the 30 years and was telling us about the great changes around here in the last 30 years. Fun to talk to.

The weather has finally turned warm and sunny and we are enjoying the 70+ degree temps. And yes, that is warm for this part of the world.

July 13 Thursday
After spending most of the day doing small chores around the trailer, we took off for Ninilchik this afternoon as we are halibut fishing again tomorrow. We are parked back on the beach at Deep Creek State Recreation Area. It’s really windy and the tide is very high this evening. We are going out early tomorrow, so it’s off to bed for all of us before 9:00 p.m.

July 14, Friday
Up early at 3:30 a.m. (yawn…there isn’t much that I will get up for this early in the morning) we were at the boat launch by 5:00 a.m. Ninilchik is a tractor launch, where the boats are put in the water with a tractor. Why aren’t the tractors running this morning? Hmmmm…why aren’t there more boats here? Where is the ButtChaser (our boat)? NO ONE IS GOING OUT! The wind is still blowing, but not as bad as last night, however, the surf is pretty rough. All launches are closed and NO boats are going out as there is a storm moving through Cooks Inlet and the seas are 6-10 feet waves…uh, no thanks, I don’t want to be out in that. We didn’t want to star in our version of “The Perfect Storm!” So we head back to the camper, load up and are back to the trailer by 7:00 a.m. By 7:05 a.m. we are all in bed sound asleep! So much for fishing today. And by the way, the reds still aren’t running in the Kenai, so we don’t have any fish here either.

Finally about 10:30 a.m. we get up for the second time today. Cortney and I decided to go do laundry (it has been 4 days since we saw a Laundromat…we are having with drawals!) And we needed to do some supply shopping, so into Seldotna we go. First of all we discover that the Laundromat there has a waiting line just to get in. Yup, all the fisherpeople are here. At this time of year, every year, thousands of people come to the Kenai to fish. We do our shopping at Fred Meyers, which is a battle since the store has all the aforementioned fisherpeople in it since the fish aren’t running! Finally we finished and found our favorite Laundromat in Sterling is empty…we did the chore and got home around 5:00 p.m. Bruce came down for a dinner of bbq’d ribs. He also tells us of a bear being spotted just up river from the campground. So we have decided the cats and dogs won’t go out on the leash for a few days.

As I sit and write this, I am looking out the window at the trees gently blowing in the breeze and the beautiful blue-green of the river below us. What a great place to be.

Sterling, AK July 15, 2006

This episode of our travels was going to be called "A Fish Tale" until early this morning when we had an interesting experience, with a bear.

Around 7:30 this morning we were aroused from a nice sleep with both dogs barking and growling....all three of us were telling the dogs to "HUSH" and they refused to be quiet. I asked Cortney (who sleeps on a futon in the living room) what the dogs were barking at. I thought it was the owners son or someone walking around outside and I couldn't understand why the dogs wouldn't stop barking, or why both cats were suddenly fluffed up and very scared. Cortney replies, very matter -of-fact to my question with "oh, its a bear in our garbage can". Wait, did you say BEAR???? BEAR!!! I came out of bed in a flash and went to look out the window and sure enough a grizzly bear was eating our garbage. I stood there and watched him in a pure stupor. I couldn't move! I was scared frozen! And remember, we are in a 33 foot camp trailer....with one swipe the bear could be in here with us. I was racking my brain as to what to do? I couldn't remember ever receiving any training on what to do if you encounter a bear in your garbage can right outside your trailer. He was close enough I could have reached out and touched him (I am assuming it was a him--I didn't check!) About this time I heard a growl, and it wasn't from our dogs, who we had finally succeeded in getting them to quiet down. THE BEAR WAS GROWLING AT ME! GULP!.. What to do? I know, I will call my nephew who has a trailer 4 spots from ours....he will know what to do. I wake up Bruce and he says "HUH??? Who is this?" -- Not funny! Finally I get through to him what is happening. Pretty soon the doctor who has a trailer next to Bruce and Bruce's friend Jamie come driving up in this old beat up pickup...they sit outside our trailer and rev the engine..the bear looks up from eating, looks around as if to say "don't bother me, I am eating" and goes back to pawing through our garbage. Obviously, that isn't going to work, and remember us? We are the ones stuck inside this tin can of a trailer. I have already tried my cousin Ted's method of scaring off wild animals, I have yelled "shoo- shoo" a couple of times from inside the trailer and the bear didn't even have the decency to acknowledge I had even said anything! I can see the headlines now "3 people held hostage in a tin can of a trailer by grizzly!" HELP! Finally, Jamie gets out of the truck and throws a couple of rocks at the bear....to which the bear looks around and goes back to eating. Ya, that worked! Finally Jamie and Doc get the bear's attention with a few more well placed rocks and the bear wanders out to the road..for a minute...but the temptation of tantalizing garbage for breakfast is too much for the bear, so back he comes. He decides this time to attack our barbeque....which in doing so the propane tank hits him on the head and he goes back to eating our garbage..much safer! HELP! HELP! Again comes our rescuers with their rocks...oh wait, there is another bear (bear #2) They are chasing the wrong bear.....our bear (as he is now known) is still eating...they chased away the wrong bear! HELP! HELP! HELP! Jamie comes around the corner of our truck (which is parked in front of our trailer) and sees our bear. Bear #2 has retreated into the woods. Finally, Jamie hits our bear with enough rocks that he trots off to the woods, for a minute. But, back he comes to eat more. After a couple more attempts, Jamie (My HERO) chases the bear off to the woods. Then Jamie shouts to me "Pick up the garbage or bear will return" and he walks off! WAIT...you want me to come out THERE and pick up the garbage????? NOT VERY LIKELY SINCE THERE IS A BEAR OUT THERE! We spend the next few minutes on bear watch (seemed like hours) and finally Doc comes back and I bravely go out and Doc and I pickup the garbage and stuff what is remaining of it into the back of his truck and he takes it to the other side of the campground (where I have now decided that is where we will put our garbage all of the time). And where is our camera's in all of this? In the truck! And I wasn't about to go get them. So I used my trusty cell phone to take pictures.....I can only hope I can get the pictures off the phone and on to my computer!

So now we are on bear alert! I finally got brave and took the dogs out to go potty....but we went the opposite direction of the woods! And everyone in the park has been down here to see where the bear WAS! Now, what's up with that? There is nothing to see but bear tracks! And the jokes have started..."oh, having bear claws for breakfast?" etc. HAHAHA--not funny! I need to take the dogs out, but I am sure the bears are lurking near by in the woods, just waiting to come back to see if there is anymore garbage (there isn't) for a mid-day snack. Everyone has assured me that the bears have probably moved on..wait? PROBABLY? Nope, not good enough for me! So for now the dogs have their legs crossed and I am not going out.


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July 15 Sunday
No more bears…thank heavens! Today dawned bright and sunny…but you notice I didn’t say warm! It got all the way to 70 today…will I ever be warm again?

Dick and Janice drove down for the day. We had a good visit…we bbq’d chicken and I made a macaroni salad. Had a fun day.

July 16 Monday
No fish running in the river yet…and the weather is crummy. Cold, overcast and I think someone stole the sun! We basically hung around and watched movies….not too much to do.

July 17 Tuesday
We were suppose to go out halibut fishing today, however, the charter was cancelled due to high waves and heavy winds on the inlet. So we drove into Soldotna so Al and I could get hair cuts – it was either that or dog tags! WOOF ! Had lunch in Soldotna and wandered through Fred Meyers with everyone else in the world. The parking lot at Fred Meyers was so packed we had a hard time finding a parking spot.

July 18 Wed
Cortney and I decided the heck with it, we were going to try our hand at fishing. We hadn’t come all this way to not fish! So Al rigged up a couple of poles and off we went. We had no idea what we were doing, so we just watched the others out on the bank and did what they did. Cortney hooked one, but we couldn’t get it landed. Finally after two hours we were cold, tired and disappointed …no fish.

July 19, Thursday
Laundry day today! Cortney likes this job just about as much as I do! Al went with us to town and we had Chinese food for lunch, then back to the Laundromat. We managed to get the laundry done in less than two hours this time!

Still cloudy, cold and rain off and on. Feels like Seattle on an ugly fall day! Where is the heat and sun? Oh yeah, everywhere else but here. Terrible storms in St. Louis and the rest of the country is baking…..except here!

July 20 Friday
We were suppose to halibut fish again today and we got blown off again by high seas and wind. I am beginning to wonder if we will ever get to halibut fish. So Cortney and I went back down to the river. Al, who has done nothing but talk about fishing for the last year seems to have no interest in fishing! That is worrying me. He says he just doesn’t want to fish, but he has gone up and down the 141 steps it takes to get to the river. So that isn’t the problem.

Cortney hooked 3 today, but didn’t land any. One of the doctors (Doc) took pity on us today and taught us how to fish for reds. We pretty much had it down, he just refined our technique! I have fished this river for 6 years and still haven’t landed a red. A bit frustrating.

Ray, the owner of Fish on Inn is very ill and not expected to live. We are concerned about what is going to happen to our spot here when he dies. His children are to take over, but the only one that has any interest in it isn’t who any of us want running it. He has a substance abuse problem (nice way to say he drinks until he is drunk) and we are all afraid he will let it go downhill. We can already see signs of things not being kept up like they were before. And since Al is showing no interest in fishing, we are wondering if we should cut our losses and sell this place. I love it up here tho…much more than I thought I would. I love just sitting watching the trees, river and the eagles fly over. It is truly beautiful up here and I love the peace and quiet.

July 22, Sat
Cabin fever struck today. Cortney and I went fishing for a while, but nothing was happening and my shoulder hurts to much to do much fishing. After we got back to the trailer we all climbed in the truck to do some sightseeing. Now, mind you, we have driven up and down the highway between here (Sterling) and Soldotna for the last month…but haven’t really stopped to check out any of the side roads. We wound up going up to Niskiki today. Not much there, but a pretty drive, however it would have been prettier if it wasn’t so cold and rainy. ARRRGGGG…give me some heat and sun! It was 106 in Odessa today and 104 in Tucson…..

July 23, 2006 Sun
FISH…finally! The reds are finally beginning to run in the river. Bruce brought up his limit for us today. Of course the limit went to 1 today! GRRRR the day they really start to run! What’s wrong with this picture? Anyway, the minute Bruce brought up his fish, Cortney was chomping at the bit to go fishing. As soon as we finished up breakfast dishes, on went the boots and off we went. The dock was crowded, but we found a spot and started to fish. After about 50 casts, my shoulder gave up. I reeled in and watched Cortney fish. She hooked 3 right off the bat, but couldn’t get them landed. After about an hour she finally caught her first red. She was so excited I was afraid she would fall in the river! Jamie helped us net it, get it off the hook and helped Cortney clean it. A nice 6 pound red. Bruce and Holly will have a great salmon dinner!

Weather is still horrible. A true Alaskan summer….I could do without it! It reached a whopping 63 today! I am frozen. We did see a peek of the sun this morning for about 2 minutes…and it left for the day. So I know it is out there somewhere….just not here.

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July 24 Mon
FISH…lots of fish. Not as many as in past years….but the reds are finally running. The counts are way down, and the state is closing red fishing on the Kenai as of midnight tonight. Of course, just as we are finally getting some fish in. Cortney and I went down this morning and beat the water to a froth, but didn’t get our fish. Had lots on the hook and off again, but didn’t get one landed. We finally came back to the trailer and I nursed a very sore shoulder and elbow. Later in the day, we went back down to the river with our neighbor and Cortney caught her fish….so one more in the freezer. Finally, I caught my first red! What a thrill! Now I know why everyone spends hours fishing for them! WHOOHOO! Of course, I caught my first fish about 3 hours before the state shut off the fishing on the Kenai. Oh well, the Kasilof and Russian river are still open.

Weather still cold, gray, cloudy and rain. ICK!

July 25, Tuesday
Halibut fishing today. Finally! Of course, my rotten luck has stuck with me and I got sick before we went out from a bad breakfast at McDonalds and I wound up staying in the camper watching it rain all day while Cortney and Al went halibut fishing. AND I LOVE HALIBUT FISHING! WHAAA! They brought back their limits, but they were very cold and wet when they got back as it has rained all day. But Cortney was happy, she caught her halibuts. She will be taking home some nice fish.

We drove home from Ninilchik in the pouring down rain. This weather sucks! I need sun!

July 26, Wed
SUN!!! FINALLY!!! We woke up to a nice, sunny day. Not exactly warm, in the mid 60’s, but sun. We spent the morning doing some cleaning around the trailer and doing some chores. Bruce and his nephew Zach got here about noon and they invited Cortney to go fishing for trout, kings or what ever they could catch out of the boat. So she went with them and Al and I went into town to dump the old futon mattress at Salvation Army and to get some parts we need to make some repairs to the trailer.

After we got back we did some more work, then Cortney came back and said they had caught 2 trout and Bruce had invited her for dinner and then they were going back out for more fish. She is really hooked! Don’t know where she is going to fish in Arizona!

I took the dogs for a walk after dinner and guess what we ran into. A mama moose and 2 babies! I usually walk the dogs up to the road, let them off the leash and let them run for a while. As I was getting ready to leave the park I looked up to see mama moose….uh…without having cousin Ted here to protect me from mama moose, I decided it would be wise to go back to the trailer. Especially after Beau got a look at mama and let out a WOOF! Mama did the “look”, lowered her ears and hackles came up…..we went back to the trailer as a pretty good pace! I got the dogs in the trailer, but I couldn’t stand it…I had to go see where mama and babies where. Sure enough, they were just off the road leading into the park. I stopped and chatted with the couple who have the first trailer and we moose watched for a while. Babies seem to be yearlings, and usually this is about the time mama is trying to break away from babies. These two seem to be sticking pretty close! If nothing else, we have seen plenty of wild life here…how exciting. It would have real exciting if mama had gone after Beau, however, we have already done that and don’t want to repeat it. What are the words cousin Ted? Oh ya, “HEE YAW” with a wave of arms! Got it!

July 27 Thursday

More sun! Whoo hoo! In fact it was an absolute beautiful day.

Cortney went fishing most of the day with my nephew Bruce and his nephew Zach. She out-fished them! She caught a 23 inch trout! Of course, you can’t keep any over 18 inches, but she had a blast catching them. She also caught more than they did! She has really turned out to be a real fisherperson!

Of course, I did the thing I do best today….laundry! UGH! I am on a first name basis with the owner of the Laundromat in Sterling!

July 28, Friday
We are in Anchorage tonight. We drove in today…which, by the way, was another beautiful day. The drive is so beautiful, but it is extra pretty when the sun shines. I can’t begin to describe the beauty of Alaska. The mountains are so pristine and the water in the rivers is what I would call in “icy” blue. Just breath-taking!

We are at my brothers tonight. We went to Sea Galley for dinner tonight so Cortney could have her promised crab legs. We promised her crab legs months ago, so we did that tonight. I ordered oysters, which I love, but these were horrible. I am having one heck of bad luck eating meals out!

We have a sick dog….our Beau dog is very sick. After dinner Cortney and I took him to the emergency vet. He hasn’t ate or drank for two days and is very lethargic. And he doesn’t want to play BALL…so we know he is very sick. The vet did an exam and ran some tests. Beau has Masticatory Muscle Myositis….translates into the muscles in his head and jaw have atrophied and he is unable to open his mouth without a great deal of pain. This condition is not cureable, however, it is treatable and he will be able to live a long, productive life with the aid of prednisone. Right now he is on a massive dose of prednisone and an antibiotic, since he is running a fever as well. A couple of years ago he had a horrible eye infection and our vet suspected he had Masticatory Muscle Myositis. She sent a blood sample to have tested for the disease, and the results were negative. However, she cautioned us then that as he got older it may present itself again, which it has. The vet here was wonderful and took his time to explain everything to me. Of course I was scared to death…my poor baby dog! We are having to feed him through a feeding syringe tonight, which he wants none of. And the antibiotic is a huge pill…how I am suppose to get this down him is beyond me! Needless to say, he will be in bed with us tonight so I can monitor how he is doing.

July 29, Sat
We did the “farmers market” thing today. We went to the South Anchorage Farmers Market which is truly a farmers market. Got some great veggies! Then Al wanted to go to the “Farmers Market” downtown – which is more of a craft fair than anything else. But, I really enjoyed it. I don’t know if any of you have ever read the comic strip “Tundra”….I LOVE IT…it reminds me a lot of FarSide by Gary Larson, which is my absolute favorite. Anyway, Chad Carpenter, the creator of Tundra was there and I got an autographed book. I have already read and laughed my way through the book once. And cousin Ted, he is as funny in person as the comic strip is! Visit: http://www.tundracomics.com/index.html for a great laugh.

The weather has turned cloudy again this afternoon and rain is forecast for the next ? days. Whoopee…

Beau is doing a bit better today. He drank some water and ate a little and his a little more active. Getting pills down him is still a struggle tho!

July 30, 2006 Sun
Up early to take Cortney to the airport…we are now Cortney-less. Sure is quiet around here. The dogs and cats are POUTING! They miss her.

It has rained almost all day. A constant rain, good for the yards, miserable for me! And the camper has developed a leak in the front right corner, so I spend a lot of time mopping up water….Denise and Gordon take note….a repair coming your way when we get home.

Beau is doing much better today – he is so smart tho. He KNOWS when I get his pills out and he goes and hides! I have to find him, then convince him to take his pills…I have hidden them in a bite of hot dog…he eats the hot dog and spits out the pill; in cheese which he does the same thing. We tried peanut butter and just butter and to no avail. Tonight I am trying a piece of ham….

Schuster has been so funny during this whole thing…he watches over Beau like a mother hen. Today he has not left Beau’s side and I think he is getting on Beau’s nerves! Beau growled at him this afternoon as if to say….”leave me alone”!

We are going to stay in Anchorage until at least Wednesday morning. Jerry (Al’s son) is flying in on Tuesday for a week stay with us. We are really looking forward to having him here. OF course, we are going to do the halibut fishing routine again, and hope to get him out on one of the rivers that are still open for red salmon fishing. And my nephew is going to take him out silver salmon fishing as well.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Alaska Update

A few pictures to include with our daily log. We are really enjoying our time here and being with Cammie and Cortney...however, I would not want to go through the teen years again! ugh!

We are slowing getting the trailer the way we want it. Still have some work to do however. And the park we are in has to cut a new road in to it, so we have the wonderful experience of listening to the road construction. The acreage next to our park has been sold to a developer and they plan on putting houses on it....which doesn't make us happy. That will bring more people and more noise, to our quite little retreat, plus we will have to listen to more construction for the next couple of years since construction time here is April to Sept. usually. AND I am sure it will run off all of our wildlife we enjoy; at least during construction. OH well, life goes on.

July 3, Monday

Off to Anchorage today. Jean, Bob and Mary will leave on Wednesday, so we wanted to spend some more time with them before we left. We got into Anchorage in the late afternoon after a quick stop at Walmart to pick up supplies for the river.



July 4, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, Tuesday

We visited most of the morning; then Bruce came over about noon, as did Janice. We had a bbq this evening with friends Jamie and Julie Brophy joining us. Jamie did Panko Halibut (yum) and Bruce bbq’d wonderful steaks. We also had the required potato salad, watermelon, baked beans, etc. Great 4th of July bbq!



Bruce took Bob and Mary to the airport late tonight as their flight is a 1:15 a.m. The rest of us just collapsed. Finally about midnight we heard some fireworks going off…remember, it stays light up here a long time this time of year!



July 5, Wednesday

I took Jean to the airport this morning at 10:30 for her noon flight. When I got home Al, Dick and I just looked at each other and said “boy, where did everyone go?” I did some errands today and Al and I went to buy an TV antenna for the river, hoping to get some reception for a least a couple of channels.



We cooked Moose steaks for dinner…the girls loved them. I was betting they wouldn’t touch them, but they surprised me and asked for more!



After dinner, Al, Dick, Cammie and Cortney went out to Elmendorf (Dick is retired Air Force) to look for moose. They saw a yearling bull and the girls got plenty of pictures.



July 6, Thursday

Back to the river today. It sure is a beautiful drive from Anchorage to the Kenai. Majestic mountains, glaciers and glacier fed rivers and lakes. Really impressive! I never get tired of this drive.



After we got back and unloaded, we were sitting outside when our eagles made an appearance. They are so impressive and beautiful. Cammie and I watched them a long time and the eagles were putting on a show for us, swooping down low and soaring high above the trees and river. Cammie got some good shots with the camera.



The weather has turned cool and cloudy today and we are suppose to have rain tomorrow. This is a typical Alaska summer, which reminds us of Seattle. I spend a lot of time with the mosquito zapper...waging my never ending war on mosquitos!


THE WROAMIN' WRASPIRS
AL, JO, DOGS, CATS AND
CORTNEY AND CAMMIE

http://wroamin.blogspot.com

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