Alaska Adventure

[Rusty]

That's not what they drink up there?

[Terry Beeson]

I think it's Polar Bear milk they drink... And you have to milk your own Polar Bear...

[Phil Lilley]

Whale milk??? You guys need to educate yourselves on our world using the internet and quit spending so much time on forums :)

Well it's been an interesting time up here in Naknek... everything is behind schedule including the lake and river levels and the barges carrying everything into this part of the world. It all affects what you do and don't do.

The river was 2 foot lower than normal when we arrived 10 days ago. It has risen about a foot. For Bill, it's about 4 feet down from last August. We have to watch for boulders even from camp to the ramp. We took the crew upstream and across the lake on Sunday in the big boat. Jim, James and I had to get out and walk the boat 200 yards because it was so low getting to the lake. The river runs about 4 miles from our place to the lake and it's low and full of boulders that will get you when you're not looking. But we made it thru - took an hour but we did- and across the lake to Brooks and Idavane and then the Bay of Islands.

At Brooks, we walked the road to Brooks Lake, about 1.5 miles. We took the path to the famous falls- no bears. The people at the park, which doesn't officially open till June 1, said they've seen 3 bears in the area. We saw several piles of scat- fresh ones. It would have been nice to see one for the crew (my dad, uncle Jack and cousin Dan from TX and Dave Eckerle from KC) but this time of year they should be seen from a far- they are HUNGRY right now with no salmon to feed on. We took the path thru the woods to meet up with the road to Brooks Lake and kinda got lost. So here we are, footing thur pretty thick woods with fresh bear skat... it was an "adventure" as my uncle Jack put it, AFTER we found the road. Brooks Lake was beautiful.

At Idavane, the lake was surprisingly low and the bay Jim usually parks in at the mouth of the creek was full of boulders. We casted spinners from the shore and James (Jim's son) caught a small rainbow and a dollie. On the shore we found Moose, bear and wolf tracks. I took pics of lamprey spawning in the creek (underwater).

At the Bay of Islands, we casted spinners again from the boat and found a school of pike- all about 28-30 inches and great fighters. We caught 10- everyone caught at least one and lost several. We fried them up at camp and they tasted fine! Thanks for the tips.

We've boated up to the upper boundary of the "river"-- the river is closed to fishing till June 8 but you can fish above a set of signs about a mile above our place. There's good current there- the river narrows and gets shallow. Lots of rainbows starting to feed on salmon smelt. Surprisingly, swimming minnows have done the best along with 1/8th oz white jigs. James landed a 7 lb rainbows and David landed a 9 lb- about 29 inches- a couple of evenings ago. We tired to fish till midnight on Tuesday just to say we did but it got alittle chilly and the fishing had slowed to nothing. It's getting dark about 12:45 am not. We're also starting to see some rainbows feeding in the river in front of our place. Hopefully it'll be HOT fishing by June 8th- can't wait.

Our building has gone slowly... as I said everything is behind here. The barges that supply the area with everything for this community was late arriving. We were getting what we could each day from the lumberyard. We've gotten the floor and walls up on Jim's cabin... my will follow in the coming days.

Weather has been great the last 5 days. Some wind but not much. No wind equals BUGS!!!!! Everyone else needed bug hats but they didn't like me as bad so I reframed from the net... so far. Temps in the high 50's to low 60's.

Here's some pics- They are going to be in random order- sorry. I'm running out of time here at the library.

[MrDucky]

Phil it seems your having a great time , take care

[Rusty]

What a beautiful area you are in.

I hear that when you cut those lampreys up in 1/4 slices and deep fry it, that it taste like calamari.

I can only imagine wht its like to NOT be able to run to the local HD or Lowe's to get you building supplies. Waiting on a boat to bring supplies, sounds like a Twilight Zone episode.

[Danoinark]

Nice stuff bud...Dano

[Terry Beeson]

Hey Rusty... I just watched Survivorman... it's whale blubber and polar bear meat they eat up there...

You're having too good a time up there, Phil... but don't worry... Dano is keepin' us all in line...

Nice pics!... Keep 'em comin'!!!... 'cept about three of 'em didn't come through for me... anyone else have that problem?

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

Nice Pics! Terry, I had the same problem not getting about three in. 22 days and counting til I'm up there.

John

[Don]

Great pics.

Ahhhh..... Someday.....

Thanks for sharing and have a great time.

Don

[Phil Lilley]

Well guys and gals... we're online at camp. It's slow but working.

We're limited to bandwidth so not sure how much I can be on and not go over the 2 gigs per month limit but we'll see. Won't be uploading pics from here... have to wait till we go to the library or rob signal from Crystal Creek down the road (with permission of course).

I have mixed feelings about being connected to the outside world like this though... hard to describe.

Had the coolest day we've had yesterday. Didn't get out of the 40's.

Tom Burckhardt, Chuck Puckett and Jim Turner came in yesterday. The plane Tom came in on was full of cannery workers arriving for the short 6-7 week season. Most were young college aged kids from Russia... interesting. The canneries ship in over 20,000 workers.

Tom is working on our GPS mapping. He's works for Bass Pro in St Charles and teaches GPS classes there.