Alaska summer highlights #6

 We canceled our trip to Katmai National Park as it was too expensive to get there. We thought it would cost less to fly out of Homer, but found that it was much less to take a commercial flight out of Anchorage to King Salmon, then onto Brooks Campground. Ah,well, another time.

So, instead we signed on for a day of fishing and bear viewing out of Sterling to Wolverine Creek.

Our flight took us over the Kenai Peninsula and over Cook Inlet. We weren't sure what caused the color change in the water, possibly depth.

 This is Big River flowing into the Cook Inlet. It is a glacial fed river so the color change is the glacial flour.

 As we continued up the Big River, we flew into one of two valleys. These valleys contained Double Glacier. We were able to fly up one glacier and come down the other.

 We landed in Big Lake with our guide, Blake. He got us set up with fishing gear, and then we took off across this emerald green lake on our way to Wolverine Creek.

 Other boats were already fishing when we arrived. The creek is located behind the fishermen.

 It wasn't long before this black bear showed on the scene. This is the only stream in the lake and the Sockeye (red salmon) are gathering at its mouth getting ready to run it.

 This fellow stared into the water for quite sometime, then sat down. He continued to look, then the eyes got droopy and closed. He wobbled a little back and forth and we wondered if he'd topple over!  Nope, he woke up and slowly ambled back into the bushes.

                  Bruce's first Sockeye.

More shots of the sleepy bear.

First salmon, or first fish for that matter!

This brownie came out of the bushes so fast, caught its salmon, and turned to head back in. I barely caught its backside.

 Shots of the schooling reds. Only one showed the intense coloring.

The fish aren't eating. Those caught legally are when the fish reacts to the lure and bites. We snagged some by accident and were able to easily release and return them.

 This fellow was big, much larger than the first. He chased his fish for quite some time before settling down with it.

First salmon, and biggest of the day.

I like the colors and reflections in this one....

Time to head back. Our guide filleted our six salmon on our way back to the plane.

Oil platform in the Cook Inlet.

Kenai fisherman on the Kenai River.

Oh yum.

            Trickster Raven always watching....

Alaska summer highlights #5

Hanging out in Homer on the 'spit'. We had two unusually gorgeous days. Got in lots of reading and eating!

 This was a funny little spot, the Castaway, which became home quickly. We met the Swedish businessman next door, on a trip to see bears, who shared our garlic bread and discussed his opinions on the Euro. We also visited with the couple that had shipped their vehicle across the ocean to travel the Americas north to south (note photo of mustard color vehicle below).

 Campers of all types along the spit.

 Love the colors below. We were to fly out to see bears the morning the storm moved in.....the wind came up, sand began to blow, and campers began to pack up. Time to head elsewhere.

This was on the way to elsewhere. It was actually an advertisement for the Bumble Bee Laundry. We considered it a fellow camper....

Alaska summer highlights #4

 Thanks once again to Groupon Coupon. We were able to get out for a day of sea kayaking. We met up with our guide at Miller's Landing out of Seward.

Someone got lucky on their fishing trip, and we got lucky with the weather!

                           Pretty country! Big mountains, glaciers and ocean. Nothing better!

                        The morning we were to paddle a fog bank just hung on and on and on.

 We loaded up gear and got shoved off. In all our paddling, we'd never gotten a push like that!

 Very smooth paddling for quite sometime.

 We thought this fellow was a stick in the water until we got closer. He just kept on his back and floated right on by!

 Our goal was to head to the point and skirt around it. The wind started to pick up and soon there was a nasty head wind. No fun. 

Made it this far! We'd tucked behind the point and settled in for lunch and a hike. Going home was a lot tougher. By the time we started back, the wind had set up some pretty big rollers. We had water cascading down our back sides so all were constantly working at not troughing the waves. The girls were lean mean paddling machines!