Leaving Alaska

This is our last entry.

We've had a wonderful summer. One to be remembered forever.

Thirty-five years ago Doug came home from Alaska and was introduced for the first his step-father, Clarence.

Today we learned that Clarence passed away. So we are coming home to say good-bye to him. He was a father Doug looked up to and model his life after. A true friend.

See you soon family and friends.

Thanks for following us on our adventure.

Doug and Linda

Fairbanks Adventures

(The pictures are Bud driving the boat, the Goodpaster River, and the Nenana forest fire, and friends up river cabin)

Smoky!

While traveling the Park’s Highway to Fairbanks we passed a forest fire just outside of Nenana. It was the first forest fire we have experienced. Standing on a hill we could witness flames. It has been very dry here and this fire was started by a lightning strike in June. It has burned 60 thousand acres. There is another fire on the Steese Highway that has burned 15 thousand acres. Fairbanks is right in the middle of the two fires and has made the air very hazy since the town is a bowl that collects the smoke. Hard to breathe and it gives you headaches.

We’ve spent the first week here attending the Fairbanks Festival of the Arts at the University. We heard some great performances, like, World Music Sounds (Jewish Folk Songs, Indian songs, and African music), Jazz, Cabaret, Vocal and Instrumental and Steel Drum Performances. We were really impressed with steel drum music. It’s amazing the sound that comes out of them. It sounds like an orchestra but all they are is steel drums pounded in tune with a musical scale. There were about 40 drums. The instrument got it start in World War II when the US Navy left all their oil drums behind in the West Indies.

We’ve panned for gold, too. It was a tourist trap but fun to be taken in by it.

We took a short break from the smoke by going up the Tanana and then the Goodpaster River to Linda’s cousin Bud’s cabin. It was about a 2-hour boat ride. It was fun to watch Bud navigate the river. He used to be a boat racer so he really knew how to maneuver. We always traveled at around 30 mph, not even slowing down in tight turns. The motor he has is a jet so we went over very shallow water. On the way home we got stuck and had to get out of the boat to push it to deeper water. The river is very low from lack of rain. Many times we were able to skid over sand bars, except for this one.

What a beautiful place he has on the river! No electricity, no running water, heat only through a wood fire but we enjoyed sitting on the deck, fishing Artic Grayling, hunting up diamond willow walking sticks, and enjoying his sauna.. At least so we thought we were in peace and quiet. The military does all their war games up here and the jet fighters would sometimes break the sound barrier and shake the cabin. It is an extremely loud explosion which was in repetition as they flew in formation . . . total silence, then loud explosions.

We also met some neighbors of his further up river that make their home their full time. They live in a 100 year old log home. It is a very small, one room cabin. They’re deep in the Interior away from all civilization but still they are not alone. As one morning they woke up to a sound of whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. They peered out the window to see just over the trees and the river bank a Black Hawk helicopter with its occupants who looked like aliens with their face gear staring at them. It goes to show you that there is no place to hide on this planet if the government wants to seek you out.


The property they live on was owned previously by an old “sourdough”, Lawrence Johnson, that would trap in the winter and grow vegetables and take them down river to market during the summer. To get vegetables to market, he would use a push pole to move his boat. We’re sure his arms looked like Pop Eye the Sailor Man. He also had a cabin down river for layover since it took a few days. The Goodpaster River is a quiet, peaceful river which we could see no problem with this mode of travel but when he would get to the mouth of the Goodpaster he would have to travel the Tanana River which is a cold, fast moving, glacier fed, whirl pool, boiling river. Yikes. People were hardy in those days. He’s buried on the home site. He was not a veteran but the military gave him at 21-gun salute when he died because they truly enjoyed his vegetables. And I’m sure his friendship, too. He was born August 19, 1883 and died February 19, 1958. Just before Alaska became a state in 1959.

We’re getting rain now so maybe that will help control the fires. We’ve heard that these fires can even start up again in the spring since the peat just smolders under the ice and snow all winter.

Our next adventure will be the Chena Hot Springs as we brought our swim suit and could use a good, relaxing soak in the heated waters.

Denali

We arrived at Denali National Park! It is a wildlife sanctuary. The only way to view the park by motor vehicle is by taking a bus tour along a dirt road called the “Park’s Road” It is so massive and quiet. Linda had Doug turn off the diesel engine on the truck and listen to the silence. Fun...

On our bus tour of the park, we were only able to get a glimpse of Mt McKinley. Our tour guide says it is a mountain that has its own personality. It creates its own weather. We tried to get a picture of it from 75 miles away. As you can see, it is way in the distance, barely noticeable. You'll have to click into these pictures so you get a bigger image and look at the clouds. You'll see a faint outline of the mountain. Linda wants to keep trying for a better picture.

We saw a mother bear and her cubs on this trip. Grizzlies are very beautiful animals but they can sure have an attitude problem. Linda hopes to stay a long distance away from them. Doug isn’t bothered.

Last night we went to a Log Cabin Dinner Theatre performance. Linda now has another recipe for cooking salmon she’ll try when she gets back home. It was an enjoyable evening as they reviewed the history of Alaska in a Cabaret style performance.

At our table we met two ladies who are guest conductors at the University of Fairbanks. They’ll be putting on a performance on Wednesday and Sunday. Since we’ll be in Fairbanks then we will plan to attend the Summer Music Festival going on at the campus.

Tomorrow we’ll be rafting the Nanana River. We’re taking the mild run . . . no fast rapids for us.

We can’t get over the massive expanse of this country. The air quality her is so clear, neither of us have been bothered by allergies. It feels good to take in a fresh, clean breath of air. Where we are staying is somewhat in the valley of the Nanana River. It is very windy. It really shakes the trailer.

The flowers in front of this picture are Fireweed. They grow wild all over Alaska. Aren’t they beautiful? In the fall they’ll turn bright red. That’s how they got their name. The Natives thought that it looked like the ground was on fire. While on a mountain trail, Linda noticed some Fireweed that had turned red. Up in these higher elevations, summer is coming to a close.

Time seems short now with only one more month to go in Alaska. Seeing the Fireweed red was a reminder of this. Someone said that when the Fireweed turns red, there will be only five more weeks until winter.

I guess that will be true up here in the mountains at Denali National Park.

Leaving the Kenai Peninsula

We have been at the Kenai Peninsula since June 14 and will be leaving tomorrow for Denali.

The towns we’ve visited to fish are Sterling, Cooper’s Landing, Anchor Point, Soldotna, and Homer. We’ve fished Resurrection Bay, Kachemak Bay, the Russian River and the Kenai River. On the Kenai River it averages about 8,000 fishermen a day during a salmon run. The Anchorage newspaper reported that someone pulled in a tree with his fish line. It was decorated with over 800 fishing lures on it. It was bought by a business in town and placed on display. That’s one less snag hang up on the river.

It’s very peaceful fishing on rivers. The sound of the rushing water and watching the sea gulls is relaxing. The Kenai is a beautiful emerald green river. And the air is so fresh here.

The Sockeye Salmon are real fighters. They come out of the water a least three times. They are about an 8 – 10 lb fish. They are very strong and it’s amazing to see them go up stream on a fast rushing river. They’ll bend your pole in half and if they’re not hooked in the mouth, they could take your line back out to the ocean.

The fish score is:

26 Sockeye (Doug 19; Linda 6)
7 Halibut (Doug 1; Linda 6)
2 Rock Bass

We’ll be back to the Kenai Peninsula mid August for the Silver run.

Next we’ll be going up to Denali and then onto Fairbanks, North Pole and a hot spring. We plan on doing some fun things. In the North Pole we’ll meet up with Bud, Linda’s cousin. He has planned a week stay at his cabin which is about a 4-hour boat ride up the river. The first thing Doug and Bud will do when they get to the cabin is shoot guns to scare bears away. After reading a book on bears in Alaska and hearing about someone from Willow, Alaska, who was attached and killed last week by a bear, she’s a little nervous. So please pray for safety.

ROUGH SEA ADVENTURE

Yesterday we were Halibut fishing with Gary and Peggy Patterson from church. We chartered the boat Restless and were driven 1 1/2 hours (32 miles out in the ocean) for the roughest boat ride we've been on since we've been here.

Doug made it about 3/4 of the way out before he had his head in a basket puking. This is were he spent the remainder of the trip. The swells were so big you would lose track of a boat 100 yards away. It would completely disappear. By the time we arrived at our fishing spot. The entire boat of six people except Gary and Linda were over the side of the boat heaving. But we were on the fish and that was exciting because they were biting one right after another.

A call came in on the radio from the other boat which was 100 yards and they, too, were over the side of the boat puking. Besides that they were excited because they too were on the fish.

Gary caught the biggest catch, 95 lb halibut. They shot it with a 410 shot gun to get it on the boat.

We now know what our clothes feel like in the drying being tossed all over.

It was a fun day!

PS Notice that Doug is not in the picture. He hadn't revived yet. I caught his limit in fish.

Reeling up these fish was like being on a blacket toss while reeling up what felt like a 48 quart cooler from 200 feet. Linda's arms are shot.

Halibut Score: Doug 1 Linda 6

People, Places and Fish

We were looking for someplace to fish on the Kenai River and stumbled upon a road that said Morgan’s landing. We never completed our mission of looking for the landing but found an outside chapel service conducted by the Jubilee Baptist Church. They don’t have a church building but the foundation is poured. They had built a pavilion and tarps surrounding three sides. There were moose tracks on the cement floor as soon after the concrete was finished a moose and her calf came over the check it out.

They had a little flower garden and hanging baskets full of petunias. The service started at 2 pm which was a good thing since the weather was still cool here and we all had blankets wrapped around us. There isn’t a stained glass window that could project the beauty with the mountains in the background listening to an older preacher preach a warm message.

After the service we were invited over to Allen and Rosa’s for dinner. We had a wonderful time fellowshipping over a wonderful dinner. We soon learned they were half owners of a fishing charters business in Seward. It was a long boat ride as we found ourselves in the Gulf of Alaska fishing for Ling Cod. It’s the scariest prehistoric fish you ever seen. But it tastes better than Lobster. There were six of us onboard and we caught two cod and eleven halibut. We pooled the whole catch and ended up with 25 lbs of frozen packs of fish.

We had halibut the next night for dinner. Yummy!

The boat captain and Doug really hit if off. They are both mentally challenged Vietnam Vets. It’s amazing who God puts in our path. His boats name is Visitation. He ministers the gospel message on his boat. Before this he was known as the Bird Man. He was known throughout Alaska and the United States. He had about 20 exotic birds. He gave the gospel message using his birds. The birds had Bible character names. Like all things in life they are a season as he found himself allergic to bird dander. It broke his heart to let go of his birds and his ministry.

We were invited back down to Seward by the Resurrection Bay Baptist Church for the 4th of July. The town was celebrating their Mountain Run Marathon which brought in about 40,000 people. This run is in its 80th year. It is a challenge to athletes to run up 3,022 feet and back down again in the shortest amount of time. The church was selling pulled pork sandwiches at this event to raise money for their youth group’s camp fund and to pass out tracts.

They had also had invited Pastor Roach the Independent Baptist Church from Anchorage and his Vietnam Vette Corvette. The purpose of his ministry is to thank all Vietnam veterans, a memorial to those who died in the September 11 attack on America, and to introduce people to the God salvation message.

The car was in the parade and then a draw to give people the Gospel of John and Romans. 3,000 booklets were given out, even to a state trouper stopped by afterwards because he liked Corvettes.

Again Doug had an instant connection with Pastor Roach since he too was served in Vietnam. They both use a tool to reach others for Christ, Pastor Roach the Corvette and Doug and his popcorn.

The best part of the day was when Doug gave his testimony to some very young evangelists from Texas. They were doing a documentary asking people in the crowd if they knew they were going to heaven. Doug told them by accepting and acknowledging that Jesus died on the cross for their sins.

Tomorrow we’ll be going down to Homer for another fishing charter with Peggy and Gary from our home church. It will be good to see folks from home.

Fish Count To Date:

Sockeye 15
Halibut 3
King Salmon 3
Rock Bass 2

Catching Fish

Here is the latest fishing update:

On our Homer charter excursion, we caught three King Salmon plus we ran over a school of Sea Bass and caught three. Our Ford truck repair cost us $1,200. It was a broken fuel pump. Expensive fish!

In Valdez, we forfeited going for Halibut since the boat ride was 70 miles out to sea or a 3-hour ride, fish for 3 hours then back again for a 3-hour return ride. That seemed to be too long of a day. But we didn’t go there to fish. Instead we took an 8-hour leisurely tour on a yacht. We saw humpback whales, beluga whales, sea lions, the Columbia glacier, where the Valdez oil spill happened, the pipeline terminal, and caves. It was quite an experience. Our picture was taken of us for our Christmas card near the Columbia Glacier. Very cool (literally, since it was 38º). We’ve seen the Titanic movie. It seemed rather strange dodging ice bergs. They were all over. But we kept putting closer with the boat to the glacier. And then before we knew it, we were next to the glacier. It was like sitting in a bowl of ice cubes. There were broken icebergs all over. We now know where the term “blue ice” comes from since this was the glacier’s color.

Today we are in Sterling, Alaska. This morning we drove to “The Sanctuary” (as the locals call it) were the Kenai and Russian Rivers meet. The Sockeye salmon were running. There were probably 800 people fishing up and down the river banks. The only time the banks cleared up was when the grizzly showed up. It was easy fishing for him. Just look for the fish on the stringers. Linda has never seen anything like it before in her life. Here we landed two Sockeye salmon. We caught fourteen but they seemed to have wiggled off the regulation hooks we have to use in this fishing zone. Linda stood fishing, casting and retrieving for eight hours. She feared even to go to the bathroom because her spot on the river would be taken by another fisherman, besides there might be bears in the woods. Lifting a glass of water is difficult after fighting salmon all day.