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