Fish and Fjords

After an attempt to catch a Kenai King salmon was thwarted last week due to hooking one through the dorsal fin, (see An Epic Tail) I had another chance this past Monday as I once again was a lucky member upon Tom's driftboat. The weather was beautiful...sunny...not necessarily conducive for salmon fishing so we took our time out on the water and waited until the sun started to set before getting into some of the prime spots along the river.

Through some random MRC cabin conversation, Annie and I discovered our moms had something in common as we both had childhood memories of a food they would make for us called runzas. It had been years since I had enjoyed one of these tasty meat-pocket sandwiches so I made

up a batch at Tricia and Jared's place that morning and brought them along for the ride. They paired well with our BB Porters.

A couple hours into the float, when the pole bent sharply and I started to reel in whatever was on the line, I had flashbacks of last week's battle and wondered why the other Kings that the boat took in prior didn't seem to give the other folks such a hard time? Was it me and my meager upper body strength? The counter-intuitive way this leftie was reeling? Yet another futile fight with a dorsal-stuck fish? Eric, Tom's friend and a fishing fanatic, was a patient coach as he watched me "reeling" in this sea monster (Annie's term), looking more like someone trying to open a can of chunk tuna than land a fish. I just couldn't go any faster. He said he understood.

It was a fun fight! And, a big fish! 50 lbs big! I guess it was a boat record, making the catch all that more celebratory for all on board. We all caught fish on this last fantastic evening of driftboating for the 2008 season; mine, kings also for Eric and Tom and a silver for Annie.

I just spent two days in and around the town of Seward, the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park. Would have loved to have gone kayaking or visited the kennels of Iditarod musher, Mitch Seavy, but both of those will have to wait until next time. Instead, did a great hike up to Exit Glacier and the Harding Icefield. Along the trail heading up to the "toe" of the glacier there were date markers indicating where the glacier was each year, stark reminders of how far it has receded. Met other solo hikers, Amanda and Jordan, at various spots along the way and we hiked together the last 1/3 of the way or so, enjoying the warm weather and views of this ancient relic from the last ice age. Now, I'm all the more excited for tomorrow's backpacking trip into the Talkeetnas with Caryn, Tricia, and sweet-dog Olive.

A Meal for Minnie

I thought you might enjoy this!

A Fond Farewell and Anchorage

A final feeding from me for Minnie yesterday morning with the farewell hope that she is well on her way to being a healthy, full-grown moose. Fingers crossed, and also that our own paths will cross again someday.

Canoed and did a little trout fishing with Annie and Jenna on my last evening and then we cooked a piece of Jenna's salmon for dinner. The added daylight hours, time on the lake, and finicky cabin oven had us eating around 1 am. By the time I was packed, the sky was in a place of virtual sunrise/sunset, captured here in this time release photo:

I am now in Anchorage for a few days, staying with Tricia and Jared, sister and friend of my dear friend and colleague, Caryn. We went fishing up on the upper Kenai today, near the conduit to the Russian River. Tricia and I realized early on that we have the same Gregory backpacks, both equally weathered from over a decade of trailtime. Oh, how to tell them apart? We were parked for a quick lunch break when a black bear came up so watched him for a time and then drifted on. Jared caught our dinner, a nice red that we enjoyed this evening with an equally fine red.

Caryn won't be up here until Thursday evening, so I have several days here as well as another trip down to Soldotna on Monday for more driftboat fishing with Tom and Co. On Friday Tricia, Caryn and I will leave for our 4 night backpack in the Talkeetnas.

It's another night of heavy rain that started right when we got off the river. This is the wettest year Alaska has seen in 30 years. It's been keeping the bugs at bay but everyone sure would be happy to see some sun and stars.

Walter's Big Day

There comes a time in every young bull's life at the MRC when, like it or not, one must say farewell to the security of the cow pen and move forward into the unknown realm of Pen 3; the bull pen. A place where size does matter and your new companions aren't going to be as nice to you as your mom and all of her lady friends were. For Walter, the smashingly handsome young bull with the big brown eyes and budding antlers that we've all been admiring from afar, yesterday was his day.

The process actually started earlier in the week, when we began enticing Walter and his mom, Olivia, into a smaller pen by way of a tasty salt lick. Yesterday afternoon, Stacy and Annie spent 30 minutes or so trying to channel the two into an even smaller area, but to no avail. Finally, like a dog on a leash, Olivia followed Stacy at her heels directly into the area while I closed the gate behind her. We now had Walter separated from his mom. The next task was getting close enough to dart him. Since he was not bottle-raised, he was having none of it and it took another good 30 minutes for the three of us to corner him so Stacy could get a clear shot.

Sedation occurred quickly. There was a lot of information Stacy wanted to gather in a relatively short time frame including blood samples, size and temperature measurements, and body mass estimations, as well as an overall physical assessment and several anti-biotic injections. In addition, Walter was dressed in his very own radio-collar!

You might recall from an earlier posting that Walter had a run-in with a porcupine a couple weeks back. The quills in his nose had already fallen out with no infection but Stacy had to remove a dozen or so from his front hoof/ankle area and treat it for further infection.

When finished, it was a short 5 minutes before Walter had his wits about him again and was able to easily make his get-away from us to the farthest corners of the pen. He'll eventually find his way into Pen 3 on his own.

What an incredible animal. I never imagined I'd get a chance to do something like this. Thanks for asking me to help out, Stacy!

This is Maverick, one of Walter's new penmates.

Other news:

Minne continues to be doing well. She loves our company and wants to be close by. She weighs in at 136 pounds!

I saw a bear this morning! It's the second one I've seen, both very close to the cabin. We were all inside looking out on this dreadfully rainy/blustery day when he lumbered up into view. Grabbing pots and pans, we ran onto the porch and scared him off.

My time at the MRC is coming to a close. The weather here today kind of matches my mood in light of this realization. If you've been reading this blog, you know why.

The Deadliest Catch

An unexpected turn of events kept me here in Soldotna for an extra day, a great opportunity to try my hand at fishing from the shoreline.  After a morning of learning the finer techniques in fish fillet while nibbling on the bits and pieces of leftovers from Jenna's monster catch, headed back to the Kenai river for what I hoped to be my first catch.  Actually, I didn't really mind if I caught something, just wanted to be back out in it.

Annie gave me a quick lesson, drove me out to a spot where she had some success earlier in the week, and I proceeded to spend the better part of a day in thigh-high water.  My fishing buddies for a good chunk of it were Peggy and Trevor, and was that ever a stroke of luck for me.  Trevor,a local who is about the age of folks I get the privilege to be around for 9 months of the year, knows what he's doing on the water and he taught me a thing or two about casting, that is for sure.  Peggy, his grandmother, was just a whole lot of fun to visit with...and to see her land that red within the first 15 minutes she was in the water let me know I was in good company all around!

Mid-day, Annie showed up and we fished out the rest of the day with a family from LA area and a few others from here and there .  No fish were running for anyone, but lots of good laughing and chatting in a steady rain.   It was decided our attire gave a whole new meaning to the term, "The Deadliest Catch".

Just finished enjoying just a bit of Jenna's salmon, prepared 5 different ways no less!  Thanks, Tom, for hosting such a fantastic dinner!

An Epic Tail

Yesterday. Oh, where to begin. Little did I know when I booked my flight for this volunteer stint, I'd be here during the 3 weeks of prime King salmon fishing. Tom, the now former Director of the MRC (off now to spearhead work with Dall sheep), has a drift boat and yesterday he took Annie, Jenna, and me on a 13 mile float down the Kenai River. Mondays are drift boat days so the river was relatively free of power boats (read that, quiet!), other than the palatable buzz of excitement coming from all around us.

Yes, I got one! Well, I hooked one, and it was the epic battle that will surely grow with each recounting, just to get it up to the surface. Unfortunately, the hook landed in its dorsal fin and therefore I couldn't keep it. Tom estimated that it would have been well over 50 lbs.

I got hits two more times in the day and both Jenna and Annie caught one; 40 lbs and 27 1bs, respectively. Tom and Jenna are in his garage filleting it up as I write this, and Jenna has already decided she's not shipping it home so it will be on our dinner table tonight back at the MRC.

We were on the river from 5 p.m. to midnight, mostly backtrolling into various spots that Tom knew well from his years of experience. The day couldn't have been better, for fishing, new friendships, and just for the scenic factor alone. It was a blissfully perfect day. So much so that I think I'm going to try my hand at red fishing off the banks this afternoon. Fish on!

This and That

It’s about 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning. I’m down at the lab, enjoying the usual coffee and banana breakfast after feeding Minnie hers of milk and fresh cut fireweed. As I said before, the bottle goes down quickly so afterwards I usually stay with her for a while as she seems to appreciate the company now that she’s in the pen all by her lonesome. I find at least two more big chunks of time during the day to be with her and Jenna does as well. It’s hard to think she’s likely to succomb to the same fate as her fellow calves, and I’m trying to stay somewhat detached, but it sure is difficult when she’s so darn cute. Just keep hoping these copper supplements are giving her what she needs.

Jenna and I are holding down the fort this weekend as the silvers and kings are running now and all the locals are on the river, something that I’m really looking forward to doing tomorrow. The clouds and rain left yesterday afternoon while we were out doing more data collection and this is the first morning since my arrival nearly two weeks ago that I am welcomed to the day by blue sky. Last night was gorgeous, too. Changing into tanks and shorts to satisfy sun-starved skin, we fixed a quick supper and, at Jenna’s suggestion, enjoyed it rooftop on one of the buildings down here by the lab. The better part of two hours was spent taking in the sun and views, chatting about this and that, and a monotonous game of checkers.

Our elevated vantage point also allowed us to scan the pen where Walter is currently residing. This yearling had a run-in with a porcupine that left him with a nose and ankle full of quills. Now, in certain adolescent alces-alces circles, Walter's new body piercings might be considered "sick"...you know, like sick in a good way. And granted, porcupine quills apparently do have a natural antiseptic component to them that actually might help stave off infection for a time. Despite the chance of possibly tarnishing Walter's budding reputation as a hipster moose, we still of course want to get them removed sooner than later. In addition, now that Walter is “coming of age”, it is time for that oh-so-important rite of passage in an MRC young bull's life; a transfer into a new pen to permanently hang with the big boys! Our task this afternoon is how best to persuade Walter into an area where both events are possible.

I’ve been ending most every day with a paddle out on Coyote Lake. Wish I could describe in words what this kind of quiet feels like and how it permeates everything around and within you. A photograph doesn’t even come close but here's a try, along with a few showing a bit more of weekend happenings.

Time with Olivia.

Gathering browse for Minnie and leaf samples for nutrient testing.