Alaska – Page 10 – Wandering Dawgs

Day 68: Enjoying Ninilchik Beach

July 25, 2013March 7, 2015Posted in Alaska, BirdsTagged Bald Eagle, Kenai Peninsula, Ninilchik Beach4 Comments

Day 68: Monday, July 22, 2013

After our exciting day of fishing we decided to take it easy and go for a walk on the beach where our boat was launched. We went at low tide in hopes of seeing some eagles feasting on the fish carcasses the fishermen throw into the water. There were plenty of gulls but the only eagles were soaring overhead.

Each of the skidders has a different Alaskan animal on the front

Beautiful day for a walk on the beach

Blondie goes for a walk on Ninilchik Beach

Blondie swimming in Ninilchik, Alaska

Vehicles can drive on the beach here so we took off down the beach in our truck. Not a good idea. The sand was very soft and with our heavy truck and over inflated tires our truck had trouble engaging the four wheel drive. It started making strange noises so we got out of there quick. Henry took the truck to a mechanic later where we found out the four wheel drive is toast with a blown transfer case. We will stay in Ninilchik until the work is done on Friday.

Day 67: Halibut Fishing in Ninilchik

July 23, 2013June 19, 2015Posted in AlaskaTagged A Fish Hunt Charters, Cook Inlet, Halibut fishing, Kenai Peninsula, Ninilchik3 Comments

Day 67: Sunday, July 21, 2013

A beautiful, sunny day to fish! Our fishing charter with A Fish Hunt Charters left from here in our RV park. We walked to the office at 6:45 to purchase fishing licenses and then traveled to the beach in a passenger van pulling our boat the Afishhunt II. Karen and Mike from Minnesota rode with us. Jonathan and Kelly met us at the beach. We would be fishing through the slack tide.

When we arrived in the beach the tide was going out and the sea was calm. A big relief to me! We boarded the boat by climbing up a ladder and sat in the cabin while the skidder backed us into the water. Captain Seth headed into Cook Inlet for our 45 minute ride to the fishing spot. We spotted a few sea otters on our way out and enjoyed the view of the volcanoes on the other side of the inlet. The sea was like glass. I couldn’t believe our luck!

After arriving at our fishing spot first mate Joey dropped anchor and gave us a lesson in Halibut fishing 101. The Halibut lie on the bottom of the sea floor so you catch them by bottom fishing. With a huge 5 lb. weight on the line and a baited circle hook, you let out the line until it hits bottom and wait for a nibble. In about 120 feet of water we had to let out a lot of line.

The limit on Halibut is two fish per person per day. If someone catches a fish that is too small, they can throw it back and continue fishing. When you keep a fish, it counts toward your limit. When you reach two, you give up your reel. The average size is around 20 pounds although some were much smaller and some were bigger. They all looked huge to me!

It didn’t take long before people started reeling in fish. Mike was enjoying the sport of catching the fish and also was going for a really big fish so he threw back about 12 before he kept his two. Everyone else threw back a couple before reaching their limit. Except me.

I caught my first fish before Henry caught his first!! It was a pretty good size so I kept it. It takes a while to reel in a big fish with 5 lb weight 120 feet from the bottom! It was hard. Joey was there to grab the line to pull it into the boat and get it off the hook. No question. I was keeping it!

I caught my second fish and turned in my reel before Henry caught his first fish! I grabbed my camera and my sandwich and enjoyed watching the action the rest of the trip. Kelly was hoping for a really big fish and threw back a pretty big one to continue fishing. After throwing back several small ones she was the last one fishing. She kept on going until she got a nice one. By then it was time to head back to the beach.

Our view while we fished was one of the volcanoes across Cook Inlet

Mate Joey bringing in one of the fish

My first Halibut!

Captain Seth takes a break while Jonathan fishes

One of Henry’s fish

Karen and Jonathon realing them in

Halibut at the surface before bringing him in the boat

Captain Seth holding one of Henry’s fish

Getting out of the water is the reverse of being launched. The skidder backs the trailer into the water and the captain drives onto the trailer. The skidder pulls up to the beach, unhooks the trailer and goes off to get the next boat. It all happens really fast. We climbed down the ladder to the beach where our friends Ted and Ruth Ann were waiting to greet us. The excited fishermen piled into the van to go back to the campground for pictures and the cleaning of the fish.

Back on the beach after a great day of fishing

Four of these fish are ours!

With our fellow fishermen Mike, Jonothan, Kelly, and Karen

Mate Joey and a helper working on the fish

Captain Seth cleaning one of the fish in the front while mate Joey works on another one

A perfect day! Beautiful weather, calm seas, excellent crew, fun fellow fisherman. It was great.

Henry and I had 24.2 lbs of filets between us. We kept some and had the rest vacuum sealed, frozen and shipped home.

Ted and Ruth joined us for dinner. We followed Seth’s recommendation of dipping the fish in butter, wrapping it in foil with lemon and garlic and seasoning, and cooking it on the grill. Henry cooked it to perfection and I made some more red rice for Ted. A delicious feast to end the day.

Day 66: It’s all about the fishing

July 23, 2013June 19, 2015Posted in AlaskaTagged A Fish Hunt Charters, Halibut fishing, Kenai Peninsula, Ninilchik, salmon fishing

Day 66: Saturday, July 20, 2013. Seward to Ninilchik, Alaaska. Alaskan Angler RV Park Site EW7. 132 miles traveled

We left the city park in Seward to continue our journey through the Kenai Peninsula. We traveled up the Seward highway and then down the Sterling Highway which ends in Homer, Alaska. This part of the Kenai Penisula has many more villages and people than the area going to Seward. Our drive took us near the Kenai River where fishermen flock to fish for salmon. There was more traffic than we have seen for a while and we found out later the red salmon were running and it was the first day the limit went from 3 per day to 6 per day per person because of the high number of fish. We passed by the Fred Myer Store (similar to Walmart) in Soldotna where the parking lot was overflowing with cars and RV’s.

After setting up camp we drove to the beach at Ninilchik to see where the boats were launched into the water. A log skidder (huge John Deere Tractor) backs the boat and trailer into the water and then quickly pulls forward leaving the boat in the water. The captain fires up the engines, turns the boat around and heads out into Cook Inlet. The tide was just past high tide and the sea looked pretty rough. I was a little worried about rough seas for our fishing trip the next morning. The tides in this area are the second highest tidal change in the North America, about 22 feet while we were here.

When we returned to camp we watched our friend Ted clean his catch of red salmon. He has been fishing every day and caught so many he and his wife bought a chest freezer to take them all home in their motorhome!

Ted and Ruth Ann fixed a grilled salmon feast at their motorhome which was delicious. Nothing like fresh fish right from the water. I brought over some Savannah Red Rice which Ted loved. It was a great evening.

Boats leaving the beach in Ninilchik head into Cook Inlet

John Deere tractors are used to launch the boats on the beach in Ninilchik

Our friend Ted with some of his sockeye salmon catch

Glaciers and Wildlife in Seward, Alaska

July 22, 2013February 10, 2016Posted in Alaska, Birds, City Park, Glaciers, National Parks, Restaurants, WildlifeTagged Aialik Glacir, glacier calving, Holgate Glacier, humpback whales, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kenai Peninsula, Nature, Puffin, Sea Otters3 Comments

Our Alaskan Journey continued in Seward, Alaska where we spent three nights in the Seward Waterfront Park.

Day 63: Wednesday, July 17, 2013. Palmer to Seward, Alaska. Seward Waterfront Park, Resurrection Campground Site R5. 132 miles traveled.

Our drive took us through downtown Anchorage and then south along the Seward Highway. There were spectacular views of Turnagain Arm and mountains most of the way.

Turnagain Arm at low tide

Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage

Henry and Blondie enjoying the view

Gorgeous scenery every where we went

Resurrection Campground City of Seward Waterfront Park

Small boat harbor in Seward, Alaska

We arrived in Seward and searched the city campgrounds for a waterfront site but had no luck so we picked a site in the fourth row from the water and then took a walk to the small boat harbor to check things out.

Day 64: Thursday, July 18, 2013.

A van picked us up at 9:45 and drove us to the harbor for our 7 1/2 hour sightseeing cruise on the Spirit of Adventure with Major Marine Tours. Our trip took us through parts of Kenai Fjords National Park and there was a park ranger on board to tell us information about the wildlife and glaciers we were seeing. We had comfortable seats inside a cabin where we stored our gear and then went outside to see the sights. As we traveled through Resurrection Bay we could see our RV when we cruised by the campground. There were sea otters in the water and we stopped to watch a mother and calf humpback whale.

Our campground from the water – we’re in the middle on the back row

The buildings on the top of this rock are bunkers from WWII

We saw sea otters all day

Sea otters enjoying the day

So relaxed

Humpback Whale

There were Puffins in the water

The cruise continued thorough Ailiak Bay to the Holgate Glacier for a close view of the half mile wide Holgate Glacier and Surprise Glacier. Captain Nicole turned off the engines so we could listen for the sound of ice breaking loose from the glacier before falling into the sea. When the ice breaks loose and falls it is called calving. We heard and watched about four or five calvings before moving on to the next glacier.

Henry and Beth at Holgate Glacier

Holgate Glacier

Surprise Glacier

Ice fallen from the glacier floated all around us

Our next stop was at the mile wide Ailiak Glacier where we witnessed more spectacular calvings. There was complete silence on the boat as we waited for the roar of ice. We were fortunate to see several more chunks of ice fall into the water including what our captain said was one of the biggest ones she has ever seen. Take a look at the next sequence of pictures to get an idea of what the ice falling looks like.

Seeing ice calving on Aialik Glacier on the Kenai Fjords trip from Seward

Hearing and seeing the ice fall was simply amazing. I could have sat there all day but the cruise continued as we traveled through the Chiswell Islands and saw more humpback whales, puffins, and other wildlife. Captain Nicole got us back to the dock right on time at 5:30. What a great day.

It was our anniversary so we drove about four miles out of town to the Salmon Bake restaurant for a Salmon dinner to celebrate. I just can’t get enough of this salmon!

Day 65: Friday, July 19, 2013

After a day at sea, some of it being in very rough waters, we were both sore and exhausted. I think 2 months of travel and sightseeing tours finally caught up with us. We both slept late and took it easy all day. We took a last drive around Seward in the afternoon.

View across Resurrection Bay from Seward

The Iditarod Trail starts in Seward

The tiles on the Seward library are designed to look like the Northern Lights

Three nights in Palmer, Alaska

July 17, 2013July 4, 2017Posted in Alaska, Historic Sites, Tourist Attractions, WildlifeTagged Alaskan Husky, Big Bear RV Park, Hatcher Pass Road, Iditarod Headquarters, Independence Mine, moose, Palmer Alaska, Titanium Fifth Wheel3 Comments

I’m sure many of you are getting bored to tears with all my posts and photos so I will condense our three nights in Palmer into one post.

Day 60: Sunday, July 14, 2013. Talkeetna to Palmer, Alaska. Big Bear RV park, Site 56. 145 miles traveled. We are actually closer to Wasilla but the RV park has a Palmer address.

After all the excitement and fun we had in Talkeetna we hated to leave but there is still more of Alaska to see. The drive was uneventful except for seeing a moose cow and her calf cross the road in front of us.

Our first order of business after getting set up was to go to Walmart a mile down the road to get some much needed supplies. When we got back we met some fellow Titanium owners from Missouri who were parked in our row.

Day 61: Monday, July 15, 2013

Our plan for a drive on Hatcher Pass Road was shortened by fog but we enjoyed our drive as far as the Independence Mine

Henry and Blondie at the Little Susitna River

Wildflowers by the river

It was foggy all day

Marmot on top of one of the old buildings

Independence Mine State Historical Site

Old Mine Train

Henry and Blondie exploring the Independence Mine in Alaska

Wildflower

Independence Mine

Day 62: Tuesday, July 16, 2013

A trip to the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla, Alaska and then a shopping trip to Fred Meyer for our final grocery shopping before heading to the Kenai Peninsula.