THE REDS ARE COMING! THE REDS ARE COMING!

Sterling, AK July 19, 2007

THE REDS ARE COMING! THE REDS ARE COMING!

At least we hope they are! The sockeye salmon count is still low, however, word has it that the fish were schooling up in Cook Inlet, just outside the mouth of the river, getting ready to run upstream, where, hopefully, some of them will be found on the end of our fishing line. The run is late again this year. Usually you can count on 4 days on either side of July 13 for the run. However, in the past few years Mother Nature has changed her mind and the run has been late, later, or latest. Most of the regulars are here in our fishing camp now, and all of us are just waiting. Every year “The Germans” come over to fish. There are 4-8 men from Germany that come every year to fish here and boy are they ever fishermen! From early morning to late at night they are beating the water to a froth and usually catching fish. I enjoy listening to them talk…only two or three speak any English, and then not the best English, so it is fun trying to communicate with them.

Al went down to fish yesterday while I went to town to do the laundry. Yes, more laundry! I swear we dirty more clothes here than anywhere else, or maybe my laundry basket is just smaller here! At any rate, while he was down at the river fishing with some of the guys from camp, they saw a huge grizzly bear not far from them on the bank. ULP---they’re back! Of course, the bears have probably never left, but I haven’t seen one, yet. Al said it was the biggest bear he has ever seen! After the bear looked them over, he/her retreated back up the hill, towards our camp. However, no one has seen him/her since. So I am on bear alert now! Boy, if it isn’t snakes in Odessa it’s bears in Alaska! I still think I would rather encounter a bear than a snake, but right now, it’s a pretty close toss up which one I would encounter. I think I want to go back to Tucson where I only encounter an occasional Javalina or Coyote!!! I feel like I am living in the Wild Kingdom!

Dan and his dad, Rod, left Tuesday morning to fly back to LA. We really enjoyed our time with them here and hope they will return next year. And yes, there will be a next year here, at least we hope so. We had talked about selling this trailer, but have decided to try one more year here. The owners of the camp have the camp up for sale, so who knows, we may not have an option for next year if the camp sells and the new owners decide to do something different with the land. Anyone want to buy a fish camp on the Kenai? Only $1.7 million! Come on, I know some of you have some loose pocket change you can gather up and buy this place!

Not much else happening here. I am enjoying watching the eagles fly up and down the river, and watched one catch a fish yesterday. They really are exciting to watch and especially when they do catch a fish. They circle around and then, whoosh, they dive and grab a fish! We also have a little red squirrel in residence at our trailer. He/she is sitting on our picnic table right now looking for food. Billie, our squirrel girl would like watching this one, and taking a million pictures of it!

It’s been cold, rainy and windy; then hot and sunny; then cold , rainy and windy again. Both of us have a cold….courtesy of the weather I am sure. Dan left with a cold and I was hoping he took it with him, but he left just enough here to share with us! Al has really been feeling down with the cold and I am just starting with the sore throat, stuffed up nose, etc. Woo hoo..what fun!

So, until next time, when I hope I can say, The Reds are HERE, we hope you are all happy and healthy and enjoying life to the fullest!