RV-Dreams Journal

2019 Alaska Trip - Day 96 - Hanging In Homer

It was a lazy day at Mariner Park on the Homer Spit. We slept in, and didn't do anything too ambitious.

Linda walked on the beach, and we watched the kite boarders on the ocean. I worked on photos and did some reading. Steve & Esther paid bills and took care of some administrative items.

Later in the afternoon, we got a call from Samson Tug & Barge. Our Jeeps arrived in Seward and had been unloaded from their cargo container. We could pick them up anytime during business hours.

Since we were heading to the Russian River Campground near Cooper Landing tomorrow, that would cut off about two thirds of the mileage to get to Seward. We'd have to take one of the RVs to Seward, and though we might fetch the Jeeps tomorrow afternoon, the next day, Friday, was more likely.

Yep, I was right. This was a short Journal entry.

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2019 Alaska Trip - Day 95 - Self Evacuation From Kodiak Island & Camping In Homer

So, our visit to Kodiak Island wasn't quite what I expected. What we saw outside of the town of Kodiak was quite pretty and we had fantastic weather, but I had my expectations a little too high for what we would be able to do and see, and the roadside fishing wasn't nearly as good as we'd hoped.

The ocean charter fishing exceeded expectations, so that enhanced the last couple of days here. But the cost of those trips kept us from doing a charter into the interior of the vast island since just a 4-hour bear viewing tour was $550/person. And because we had just been to Katmai and had an amazing experience, our desire to see bears for that kind of money had diminished significantly.

Of course, the ferry strike, and having to think about that and what we should do, weighed on our minds and tainted our time on the island a little. Perhaps in the future we'll come back and spend a couple weeks on the island including a stay at a lodge in the interior, but for now we were ready to move on.

We were picked up at 6:00 a.m. this morning from our rental townhouse and shuttled to the airport for our 7:50 a.m. flight on Alaska Airlines to Anchorage. It was a 45-minute, uneventful flight.

In Anchorage, we took a Ravn flight to Homer, another 45-minute flight. We arrived in Homer around 12:30 in the afternoon and got a cab to take us to our RVs in the 7-day free parking area near the Harbormaster's office on the Homer Spit. We arrived on the last day of our free parking limit.

If the ferry had gone as scheduled, we would have arrived in Homer this morning around 7:00 a.m., so thanks to Esther and Linda, we were only off schedule by about 6 hours. Of course, we don't have our Jeeps. They are on a barge heading to Seward, and we hope to be able to retrieve them later this week.

None of us had any real inclination to do anything in Homer. We had considered a fishing charter, but after our time with Fish N' Chips Charters in Kodiak, there was no need to do that. Linda had heard there was some decent beachcombing on Mariner Beach, so we took the RVs to Mariner Park where there is a city-run, first come, first served "campground" (gravel parking lot) on the ocean. We managed to grab a couple of oceanfront spots rather than having to settle for the sites right next to the road.

 

 

There are no hook-ups, no dump station, and no water, and it's $20/night. Fortunately, before we drove to Homer a week ago, we dumped tanks and filled up our propane. We had checked on a couple of full hook-up RV parks on "the Spit", but they wanted nearly $80/night.

In front of our rig was a picnic table and a firepit although it was a bit too breezy for a fire.

 

 

 

Linda wasted little time getting out on the beach for treasure hunting.

 

 

She had a little success, but it wasn't as good as she'd hoped.

Originally, we were only going to stay one night, but our internet was good, and it wouldn't hurt to have a down day on the ocean before going back inland. So, we all decided to stick around a second night.

I'm guessing tomorrow's post will be quite short.

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2019 Alaska Trip - Day 94 - Birthday Fishing Charter & Planning Our Escape From Kodiak Island

Birthday Fishing

Well it's my birthday - July 29 - I'm 56. And this afternoon, we were supposed to board the ferry and sail back to Homer to continue our Alaska adventure. However, the ferry workers went on strike and the entire Alaska Marine Highway System is grounded until the strike is resolved. The ship that brought us here on July 24 hasn't moved since then.

So, we clearly weren't going anywhere today.

As I mentioned yesterday, Steve booked an open spot on Fish N' Chips Charters this morning.

 

 

I dropped him off and walked down to the boat, the Aurora, with him hoping that perhaps someone cancelled and there might be an extra spot for today's charter. I was prepared to explore the island on my own, but since we had such success yesterday, I was willing to spring for another charter today knowing this would likely be my last charter on this Alaska trip.

Well, nobody cancelled. There was a couple from Pennsylvania and one guy from North Carolina to join Steve. Capt. Dave said he'd be happy to take me along, but the problem was he was only permitted to have four people fishing for halibut. I could go, but I couldn't fish for halibut. Still, I could fish for rockfish and lingcod while the rest were fishing for the big flat fish. Capt. Dave offered me a birthday discount, and I decided to join them.

As it turned out, the one couple was most interested in targeting King Salmon, so halibut wasn't primary on their list.

It was a little crowded in the main cabin, so Steve and I once again went up top to the captain's chairs as we cruised out. Unlike yesterday when we only went out about 20 minutes to start fishing, today we were going about two hours to get to the prime King Salmon spot near Ugak Island. It was another calm, beautiful day and we headed out in a different direction than yesterday.

 

 

We went out past some rock formations with natural arches.

 

 

Flocks of birds were out in front of us as well, a good sign for fishing.

 

 

We had rocks and small islands to our left, .....

 

 

 

and rocks and cliffs and mountains to our right.

 

 

 

 

We also saw whales and puffins.

 

 

Out past that last point, we were more exposed to the Pacific Ocean, and we had some fairly large roller waves, so we had to hang on a bit.

Once we got to our fishing spot with a few other boats, we trolled with two lines and then us five fishermen rotated reeling in whenever there was a "Fish On!"

A couple of King Salmon got off before they could be netted, but soon we were bringing them in. All five of us got our limit of two King Salmon each.

Here's the last one being netted.

 

 

 

Steve quickly grabbed it for a photo op.

 

 

We then tried for rockfish, but it was a little slow today. I caught one, and then we moved on. We returned back inshore a little bit going back by the rock formations.

 

 

 

Puffins were still around and I got this decent shot of a Tufted Puffin coming in for an awkward landing.

 

 

A little later, this one paddled near the boat.

 

 

And there were more whales.

 

 

 

Eventually, we made it to Capt. Dave's special Silver Salmon spot with no other boats around, and we were soon back to trolling. It took a little time to get in a groove, but we started bringing in Silvers (Coho). And sometimes we had two on at once.

 

 

I took a little video of Steve bringing in a Silver, ....

 

 

and he took one of me.

 

 

We lost count of how many Silvers we caught, but we ended up with a huge bag of salmon.

 

 

And we added a couple of rockfish.

 

 

Like I said yesterday, I wish that we could have hung up all the fish or spread them across the deck and got some pictures to add perspective. Our 30-something fish would have been more impressive like that.

But Capt. Dave is more focused on putting us on fish and getting them in the boat than photo ops, and we can't really complain about that.

Now one thing I think Capt. Dave should do is give a better explanation in the very beginning of how the fish will be divided up in the end. Yesterday, it didn't matter as it was just the four of us, and we knew we'd just split the fish we caught evenly.

However, today, there were five people fishing for four families. The way they do things, all the fish just get divided equally by weight, so today each person would get a fifth of each species of fish. It doesn't matter who actually brought the fish in. That's especially fair when we are trolling because none of us is actually "catching" a fish, the deckhand is setting the hook and handing us a rod to reel them in. We're reeling them in in rotation, so it's just luck as to who gets what fish, what size it is, and whether it even makes it onto the boat.

Anyway, individual fish aren't separated, and the processor can't process the fish differently for one person. One fellow got a little upset at the end when we were offloading today's catch when he couldn't claim certain fish and have them cut up the way he wanted. That probably could have been avoided with an upfront explanation before we left the dock this morning.

In the end, it was done fairly, but there was some tension when we were at Island Seafoods, the processor.

 

 

 

When it was all processed, packaged and frozen, Steve and I each ended up with 24 pounds of mostly King and Silver Salmon. With our 30.5 pounds from yesterday, we were shipping over 54 pounds of fish to Linda's Mom in Florida. We previously shipped 18 pounds, so we hope she still has room in that extra freezer of hers.

Unfortunately, for Esther and Steve, the processor won't ship to Canada because of the risk that the fish sits in Customs for too long and spoils. FedEx insurance won't cover anything if it's a government-caused delay.

So, they are going to ship their fish to Soldotna and buy a freezer to put in their RV. We might end up doing the same as we have 15 pounds of rockfish in Anchorage and about 20 pounds of Sockeye in Soldotna. Plus we'll be doing more fishing when we get back to the mainland, shipping fish overnight gets really expensive.

 

Planning To Evacuate Kodiak Island

While we were out fishing, Esther and Linda attacked the logistics of getting us off the island. Nothing could be done over the weekend, but now that it's Monday, they were able to get some people on the phone.

We all agreed that we didn't want to stay on Kodiak until August 12 when we were re-booked on the ferry. And we weren't comfortable with the open-ended idea that we "might" be able to travel sooner if the ferry workers strike ended quickly.

We definitely weren't leaving tonight, so the ladies worked it out with the property owner (who is out of town) that we could stay one more night by paying cash to her housekeeper.

Then, they found that we could put our Jeeps on a barge in a cargo container to get them to the mainland. However, it would cost $1,200 per Jeep and they would be delivered to Seward rather than Homer. We could get them in a few days or it could be a week. The Jeeps had to be delivered to the barge company by 5:00 p.m. today, so our wives drove them over, and the housekeeper gave them a ride back.

Steve and I got a ride from one of the other charter guests who had to drive right be our townhouse.

Before taking the Jeeps, they booked us flights tomorrow morning. Early in the morning, we'll fly to Anchorage and then catch another plane to Homer to reunite with our RVs.

The bad news is our evacuation is going to cost us about $2,000, more than the cost of our round-trip ferry to Kodiak and back and our lodging.

The good news is the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) is refunding our entire ferry fare even though we were technically only cancelling one way. That really helped offset some of the cost of getting off the island. Assuming we were going to have to stay on the island and find lodging for at least another week, the cost of getting off the island will end up being about the same as if we chose to stay until we could catch the ferry or it could be far less if the strike were to drag on, and that was all unknown.

The other good news is this plan would get us back to Homer and back to our RVs on pretty much our original schedule being only a few hours later than the ferry would have gotten us there tomorrow if it was running. We wouldn't have to cancel our reservations at the Russian River Campground for the first three days of August.

Kudos to Linda and Esther for working all of that out while us boys were playing. They informed us our penalty was that we were responsible for retrieving the Jeeps when they were ready to be picked up in Seward. No problem.

UPDATE: The strike ended shortly after we got back to the mainland, but the ferry from Kodiak to Homer wasn't going to leave until late evening on August 7 putting us in Homer in the early morning hours of August 8. And that assumes we could have gotten on the ferry. In all likelihood, it would be full and we'd have to wait a few more days. In the end, we all feel like we made the right decision to leave Kodiak when we did. Otherwise, we would have had at least a week delay and probably more.

Having everything worked out with a plan to leave early in the morning, we cooked and/or ate everything we had in the refrigerator that we could. But the housekeeper said we could leave whatever we wanted as she has teenage boys and they'd eat anything we left behind.

She was a sweetheart and even volunteered to drive us to the airport in the morning.

Well, if we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times. It's always an adventure with Howard & Linda. It's not every day you get stranded on an island due to a labor strike. However, it could have been much worse. We're glad the strike didn't occur while we were in the middle of the Inside Passage in May with no way to get our RVs to a road system. That would have much more significantly messed with our plans and schedules.

If all goes well tomorrow, we'll be back in our RVs and back on schedule. Until next time.

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2019 Alaska Trip - Day 93 - Successful Fishing Charter On Kodiak Island

This morning at 8:00 a.m. we drove to the Kodiak Harbor for our all day, private fishing charter with just the four of us. We were going on the Aurora, .....

 

 

a newly added boat to the fleet of Fish N' Chips Charters.

Capt. Dave was taking us out, and his wife, Kathy, was joining us. Also, his 17 year old son, Sky, was the deckhand.

We slowly made our way out to the fishing waters, passing the docked MV Tustumena, our ferry boat idled by the ferry workers strike.

 

 

It was an overcast but lovely morning ....

 

 

as Kathy cooked us bacon and eggs on the way as a special treat.

Steve and I went up on the top deck as we cruised.

 

 

The view was quite nice up there.

 

 

It only took us about 20 minutes to get to our first fishing spot where we did a little trolling. We caught a Pink Salmon and a couple small rockfish. We were going to use the salmon as halibut bait later.

Here's Linda reeling in her first fish.

 

 

And Esther got a one-day license and got in on the act.

 

 

We had a bit of a slow start, but Capt. Dave got word from his other boat that a prime halibut location was paying off, so we headed that way.

 

 

Sure enough, once we started drifting the new spot, we started catching halibut. We were each allowed two halibut with one having to be under 28 inches and the other having to be over 28 inches. In about an hour, we had our limit of halibut for the day. We didn't catch a huge halibut which is often referred to as a "barn door", but we got a bunch that were perfect eating size.

Then we moved on to rockfish. We could each catch three rockfish in the bay we were in. We ended up catching four lingcod plus our limit of rockfish.

Steve got this nice Yelloweye.

 

 

We didn't get many fish photos because they were coming in fast and furious for a while there.

In addition to the great fishing, we got a good look at this Sea Otter.

 

 

And we saw some distant whales.

Before going back in, we trolled a little more for salmon, but only caught a couple more. Still, it didn't matter. We ended up with over 30 fish.

 

 

 

I only wish we could have spread out all the fish and gotten a photo or two. This was the best we could do.

 

 

We took the fish straight to Island Seafoods who used a crane to offload the bag of fish. They would process them (fillet, vacuum pack, and freeze) for us for $1.95 per pound finished weight. When the processing was complete, each couple ended up with 30.5 pounds of processed, packaged, frozen fish.

This huge Steller Sea Lion floated up beside us as we delivered our catch.

 

 

 

That was easily our most successful fishing charter on our Alaska trip, and it was a lot of fun. There was comfortable seating, Capt. Dave played music from our generation, and we brought in a load of fish.

In fact, they were going out again tomorrow, and there was one open spot. Steve quickly booked it, and I was going to sit out since we'd already spent enough on charters. However, I was going to drop Steve off, and cross my fingers that one of the others didn't show up. With the ferry strike, it was possible, and I didn't mind spending the money as much with a captain that knew how to put us on fish.

Today really made our time on Kodiak worthwhile.

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2019 Alaska Trip - Day 92 - Do Nothing Day On Kodiak Island

With the news about the ferry strike still fresh, and with the lackluster fishing, we all decided to just hang out at the rental townhouse for the day. If we had to stay longer or if we had to fly back, we were going to be out some money, and we didn't need to tempt ourselves to spend any more. A couple weeks ago, we had already booked a private fishing charter for tomorrow, so we took it easy today.

We cooked some bacon in the oven and had a nice breakfast.

I went through photos from our Katmai National Park trip, and I worked on updating the Journal since the place had pretty good Wi-Fi.

Linda and Esther worked on their jigsaw puzzle, and started another when they finished.

We took naps and showers and did some laundry.

Not much else to tell for today. But we are looking forward to the fishing charter tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be more productive than the others we've had so far.

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2019 Alaska Trip - Day 91 - Rainy Day Fishing For The Boys & Chill Day For The Girls Until We Found Out We Were Stranded On Kodiak Island

The weather was iffy today on Kodiak Island, but Steve and I headed out anyway to do some scenic driving and some fishing. Linda and Esther ended up staying at the rental townhouse and immersing themselves in a jigsaw puzzle.

We drove out Anton Larsen Bay Spur over a small pass and to the bay on the other side.

 

 

 

We noticed ripening berries and bear scat on the road, but we didn't see any bears along the way.

Along the bay, locals with remote houses and cabins that can only be reached by boat park their trucks. When they need supplies, they boat over to the bay, and then drive their trucks into the town of Kodiak.

There were some boats anchored on pulley systems waiting for the folks that were currently running their Kodiak errands.

 

 

We walked around a little before heading back.

 

 

On the way back, we stopped at a little public boat dock we had passed earlier.

 

 

We fished off the dock for a little while. I managed to snag a small halibut that I released.

It was calm, quiet, and pretty out there, but we didn't have much luck with the fishing.

 

 

We returned over the pass ....

 

 

 

to Kodiak Island's main road, Rezanof Drive. We heard that some salmon were biting lures at Russian River, so we headed that way. We didn't really like the looks of that, so we continued on another twenty miles to the Olds River where we got word some Sockeye Salmon were moving.

At the Olds River, there was a really nice pool and we could see fish flashing, but just like yesterday nothing would bite. I snagged a nice Dolly Varden that I also released. It was cold and windy out there, so we turned around and went back.

We again stopped at the Russian River where we saw a bunch of Pink Salmon swimming around under the bridge. We watched the other fishermen try to coerce them to bite, but it just wasn't happening.

Eventually, we went back to the Buskin River where we fished a little yesterday. I caught another Pink Salmon, but we didn't get anything else, so I released it. The rain picked up, and we decided to call it quits for the day.

On our way back to the rental, I got a text message from the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS - the ferry). It said:

"Due to the IBU strike, the MV Tustumena sailings are cancelled through July 30th, 2019. Please call to reschedule or refund your travel."

Yikes. Who is IBU and what strike? Turns out that's the Inland Boatman's Union and the ferry workers went on strike July 24 right after we were unloaded off the ferry in Kodiak a couple days ago.

We were scheduled to sail back to Homer on July 29, but apparently that's not happening.

When we got back to the townhouse, Esther had gotten the same text and called to see what was going on. The AMHS said that they weren't sure when the strike would end and service would be resumed. To be safe, they re-scheduled us for two weeks out on August 12, but said they will resume service sooner if the strike is resolved quickly. However, we may or may not be able to get on earlier sailings if that happens.

Linda and Esther called the owner of the townhouse, and she said we could stay there until August 4, but then she had new renters coming in. Technically, we could have found new lodging and stayed until August 12 if we had to, but that was going to get really expensive, so we started considering our options.

We took a "wait and see approach" hoping the strike would get resolved in the next day or two, and we could sail back to Homer on time or just a day or two later than planned. 

We called the Harbormaster Office in Homer and explained our situation since our RVs were in the free 7-Day parking area and it looked like we weren't going to be back within the 7 days after all. They said we could purchase a one-week parking permit for $30, and they would inform parking lot security that we couldn't be there to place our permit on the vehicles. We told them we'd call back and do that if necessary.

Sheesh. Kodiak Island is nice, but I was a little disappointed in it thus far. The road system fishing wasn't as good as we hoped, and the more remote areas just weren't accessible without booking an expensive bush plane or float plane charter. We could have stayed until August 12, but none of us really wanted to do that. The big issue was our Jeeps. We could easily fly back to the mainland, but what about our Jeeps?

I guess we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, we had another delicious dinner, and Linda made a maple-bacon cheesecake.

 

 

That was the birthday cake for me and Steve, since his birthday was July 25 and mine is July 29. We managed to save just a little for tomorrow night.

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2019 Alaska Trip - Day 90 - Fishing For The Boys & Beachcombing For The Girls, Kodiak Island, Alaska

It was Steve's birthday, and we went out to try our luck on this beautiful day after a leisurely morning at the townhouse we rented in Kodiak.

We went to the places we looked at yesterday, but as suspected, we couldn't get any of the fish that were just holding in the rivers to bite.

We drove out to the Buskin River State Recreation Area where we tried our luck at the mouth of the river where it met the ocean. There is a $5 day use parking fee.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, we had no luck there. But the surroundings were pretty, .....

 

 

and the water was clear.

 

 

Moving up the river, we watched as a Coast Guard plane flew in directly overhead and landed at the airport next door.

 

 

Apparently, they were practicing "touch and goes" as they flew over me several times. I stopped fishing long enough to shoot this video.

 

 

Just a little farther upriver, we could see some good-sized salmon holding in a deeper pool. We threw everything in the tackle box at them, and they just wouldn't bite. They expressed a little interest a couple times, but not enough to grab a fly or a lure.

We talked with a young lady that had recently moved to Kodiak with her Coast Guard husband, and she was learning to fish while he was working. She was very sweet and gave us a few tips on places to fish. She even offered to rent her ATV to us to access the Saltery River where fishing guides take clients. Concerned about damaging the vehicle, we declined.

We moved the Jeep and walked down to the river at another access point where a few people were "flossing" for Sockeye. We had been told that the Sockeye run was pretty much over, but there were people pulling them in.

Steve and I tried our luck. We could see the fish, but they weren't moving. It seemed people were "flossing" but they were more snagging the fish and hoping they'd get a hook in their mouths by luck since the fish weren't swimming into the lines.

I ended up catching one pink salmon legally, but that was it for the day.

While we were fishing, the ladies made the 50-mile drive to the end of Pasagshak Road to Fossil Beach, which is known for beachcombing and fossils in the rocks on the cliffs. Esther and Linda supplied the following photos.

These shots were taken on the drive out, which they said was gorgeous.

 

 

 

Arriving at Fossil Beach.

 

 

 

They had some luck beachcombing, and Esther was more interested in the fossils than Linda, so she took some photos.

 

 

 

These are spherical concretions.

 

 

After spending some time there, they stopped at a couple other beaches on the way back.

At Mayflower Beach, way down the beach, there was a Kodiak brown bear. You can't really see it in the photos, but it's there.

 

 

 

That would be the only Kodiak bear any of us would see during our stay. You can sometimes see them on the road system, but your odds are better if you take a plane into the interior on a bear viewing excursion.

The Kodiak brown bears are a slightly different subspecies of the coastal brown bears we saw at Katmai, and the largest of them are the largest of the species, rivaling Polar Bears in size. But they are still brown bears which are made up of Kodiak brown bears, coastal brown bears, and grizzlies which are a smaller version found more in the interior areas of their range. The grizzlies are smaller due to their lack of access to the high fat, high calorie food sources found along the coast.

Eventually, the four of us rendezvoused at the rental property. I took the salmon I caught and cleaned it at a nearby beach.

Esther made an amazing crab dip with the last of the Dungeness Crab we had left from our crabbing on Prince Of Wales Island back in May, and she cooked steaks for Steve's birthday dinner.

While disappointed in the fishing, we can't complain about the weather and the beauty of the island outside of town. Tomorrow, we're supposed to have some rain, so we'll see how that affects the day's activities. The boys are planning to fish again, but the girls are thinking it may be a day of hanging out at the townhouse.

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2019 Alaska Trip - Day 89 - Ferry To Kodiak Island & First Day Exploring, Kodiak, Alaska

Well, it wasn't the best night's sleep in the bunk beds in our ferry cabin as we made our way overnight from Homer to Kodiak Island. But it was a lot better than trying to sleep without the cabin.

We both slept past the ship's breakfast hours, but we eventually got up as Kodiak was in sight and we were getting closer.

 

 

There were some pretty nice houses on the cliffs as we arrived.

 

 

A Coast Guard helicopter flew over as we approached the ferry terminal.

 

 

The Coast Guard base on Kodiak Island is the largest base in terms of acreage in the U.S., and it is the largest base in the Pacific in terms of personnel.

View of the island connected by the bridge in the photo above.

 

 

Soon we were docked at the terminal. We were about a half an hour late arriving just before 11:00 a.m.

 

 

Now we had to get off this strange boat, the MV Tustumena. In yesterday's post, I mentioned that there is a turntable/vehicle elevator set-up to get vehicles on and off the ship. I took video of this motorhome being offloaded.

 

 

No wonder it takes so long.

Here is the video of us disembarking.

 

 

Well that was different.

We waited on the side of the street until Steve & Esther were brought up. The Visitor Information Center is located right at the ferry terminal, so I popped in there and got a street map for the town of Kodiak. 

And across the street from the town information center is the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. 

 

 

Eventually, Steve & Esther were released from the ferry and they followed us out of downtown to the townhome we had reserved months ago through VRBO.

It didn't look like much from the outside, but the inside was very nice. Here's a link for anyone interested: Kodiak Alaska Townhome Rental.

It had three bedrooms, two full baths, a full kitchen with a separate dining area, and a living room. It had Wi-Fi and an obstructed view of the ocean. It was going to be nice to stay in a place with some space and amenities for a few days.

Steve and I went out and found a Safeway grocery, a Walmart, and a liquor store within a mile of the rental unit, so that was quite convenient.

Later, we went out to explore our fishing options. The road system on Kodiak Island is only about 80 miles, so there aren't many places to go, but the road fishing is supposed to be pretty good. For what it's worth, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the U.S. behind only the Big Island of Hawaii. But the vast majority of it is inaccessible, unless you have a bush plane or float plane.

We first stopped at Big Ray's, a large outfitter and tackle shop, to get some advice on the best places to fish. Armed with some information, we drove to the Buskin River State Recreation Site, and the weir at Buskin Lake to check out some fishing options. As we have often heard on this Alaskan trip, we were "between salmon runs".

We were at the end of the Sockeye run and the Coho (silvers) hadn't arrived yet. It was a bad year for Chinook (kings). The Humpies (pinks) were in the rivers, but they weren't as aggressively biting as usual. We heard the Dolly Varden fishing had been fantastic, so we were hoping to get in on that.

Eventually, we returned toward the townhouse and went passed it to the opposite end of the road to White Sands Beach. The tide was out and there was a little spit of white sand beach out in the water.

 

 

There was a creek mouth there as well, and we were told that was a good place to fish for Humpies (pinks).

 

 

We made a couple of other stops, but on this first reconnaissance mission, I was not optimistic. We were seeing some fish holding, but not really moving or feeding. Apparently, it had been a dry summer in Kodiak and water levels were warm and low.

Back at the rental, Linda & Esther had gone to the grocery to stock up on essentials. With the two of them working in tandem in a full kitchen, we were going to be eating good.

After our wonderful dinner, we sat around and relaxed and made plans for the next day. Linda and Esther were going to drive out to the end of Pasagshak Road to Fossil Beach to do some beachcoming while Steve and I were going to try to catch some fish somewhere.

Stay tuned to see how it goes.

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2019 Alaska Trip - Day 88 - Morning Fishing In Soldotna & On To Homer To Catch A Ferry

Since we were traveling today, and Steve wanted to get some coffee at McDonald's, we headed out at 4:30 a.m. instead of 5:00 a.m. to go fishing.

It was still pretty dark, and as we slowly drove through our campground, a moose and her two calves walked through. I didn't have my good camera handy and it was too dark to get a good shot with my phone, but I have a fuzzy "at least we can tell it's a moose" picture.

 

 

Steve was able to brighten up his photo, but they were on the move as they passed right in front of the Jeep.

 

 

Good start to the day.

When we got to the River Center, we had to walk to the end of the line of people to get a spot. But, fortunately, we ended up in a spot others told us was pretty good. And it was yet another gorgeous morning. We haven't had much rain at all since we arrived on the Kenai Peninsula.

I caught my three fish in about an hour and a half, and Steve got his three fairly quickly as well. 

 

 

 

I had him hold up all six fish which is no easy task.

 

 

We were happy to be out of there a little earlier this morning. Perhaps we're gettin' the hang of it.

 

 

More photos at the Centennial Park cleaning station.

 

 

 

I was pretty excited to get my limit three days in a row, and with Linda's three, we had a dozen Sockeyes and about 30 pounds of fillets. That would go with about 20 pounds of Copper River Sockeye from Copper Center at the end of June. We had already eaten some of that and shipped the rest to Linda's Mom in Florida along with some halibut and King salmon. We still have about 15 pounds of rockfish with our friend Renee in Anchorage.

After cleaning and vacuum sealing today's catch, we were ready to pack up and head out. Though Swiftwater Park has a dump station, they charge $20 even if you are guest, so we drove to the nearby Fred Meyer where they have a free dump station and a place to take on water. 

We got in line and waited our turn to dump, and then took on water at their potable water station. The water station is slow and holds things up, so that took quite a bit of time. But we weren't in any hurry. In fact, when we left there, we took the RV to a self-wash car wash bay, and we spent about a half hour cleaning it up.

After dropping off today's fish with Sara, we made the 80-mile trip south to the Homer Spit. We were catching a ferry after midnight tonight to go to Kodiak Island.

In our research, we learned that there is free parking on the Homer Spit for up to seven days. Since we would be gone only five nights, we decided to park in one of their lots. We went into the Harbormaster's office to make sure of our options so we didn't accidentally park somewhere we weren't supposed to. Since they patrol the parking lots to make sure people don't exceed the seven days, we felt comfortable parking in a wide open lot near the Harbormaster's office.

 

 

 

After getting parked, we drove over to Harbor Grill Seafood & Steak to get some dinner. Linda was geared toward the steak and hamburgers considering all the fish we've been eating lately.

The food was decent to good but not outstanding given the high prices. And our server wasn't the sharpest tack in the box. She got a few things wrong or forgot some of our requests completely. The view of the harbor was okay, but not a reason in itself to choose this place.

 

 

Homer is in a beautiful setting with gorgeous mountains across the water. Today, the mountains were covered in clouds, so we couldn't grasp the full beauty, but we could tell it would be really pretty on a clear day.

Back at our rigs, we packed and prepared for our trip to Kodiak Island. We were ferrying the Jeeps and staying in a VRBO condo. We packed clothes, fishing gear, rain gear, and groceries and barely had room for anything else.

We had to check in at the ferry by 10:30 p.m. for our 12:30 a.m. sailing.

 

 

The MV Tustumena arrived at the dock about the time we did.

 

 

It had been a long day, and Steve and I both fell asleep in line waiting to board. I'm not sure what the problem was, but it was well after 1:00 a.m. before we drove on.

One issue is the way they load. Basically, they have a vehicle elevator that can only accommodate one or two vehicles at a time. You are then lowered down to the car deck where the elevator is rotated for you to back off, and then you are squeezed into pretty tight quarters.

We were just happy to finally be on the ship. It would be a 13-hour trip, and we reserved cabins for the journey. We just wanted to get to our rooms and go to sleep in our bunk beds.

Hopefully, we'll wake up safe and sound somewhere near Kodiak in the morning.

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2019 Alaska Trip - Day 87 - More Sockeye Salmon Fishing On The Kenai River, Soldotna, Alaska

Just like yesterday, Steve and I we were off to our fishing spot around 5:00 a.m.

Again, we went to the Gilman River Center, and again, we arrived just as some guys had gotten their limits for the day and were leaving. We were close to the same spots we had yesterday.

Today, I left my spinning rod at the RV, but took both our 9-weight and 8-weight fly rods. I had them both set up the same, and if I broke a line on one, I could just grab the other one without having to take time to re-set.

I managed to get one Sockeye in on my 9-weight rod, but the next fish broke my line. I got another one in on my 8-weight rod. Then, as I had my third fish on later in the morning, I was getting it close to Steve for netting and the rod snapped. But I still had the fish on the hook and, somehow, Steve managed to net that one, too. So I got my three, and ended up with a broken rod and a broken line on the other rod. I would worry about that later, and turned to be the "net guy" for Steve.

Today, after talking to guy at Sportsman's Warehouse, Steve had a different set-up and he got his three as well. Like yesterday, it took us about three hours.

Before we got to Soldotna, Steve had bought a net. However, we learned yesterday that we needed a bigger net. A couple of fish got away because we struggled netting them, so Steve went out and got a much bigger net for today and it definitely helped.

We went back to Centennial Park where we got some more photos before cleaning our fish.

 

 

Steve got the biggest of the day.

 

 

But I was still quite happy with mine.

 

 

 

We filleted them out and were one again back home a little after 10:00.

Linda vacuum sealed them and put them in the freezer until we could get them to our local friend, Sara.

I then took my broken rod to Sportsman's Warehouse here in Soldotna. I bought two Reddington Path Combos at their store in Anchorage, so I figured it was worth a shot to see what they would do about my broken rod.

When I walked in and showed them my rod, the clerk said "Another one? Must've been a bad batch". Apparently, I wasn't the only one. I was hoping it was just a bad batch as well, as all I wanted to do was replace it with the same thing. They found the exact weight and length combo in the back and gave me the new one with no questions asked. Nice.

Back at the campsite I re-rigged both rods again, this time with a slightly different set-up. And then Linda was finally ready to try her luck.

She got on her waders and we went back to the River Center. There was still a long line of fishermen, and she didn't want to walk to the end against the swift current, so we hung out near the stairs waiting for a closer spot.

A young man right by the stairs broke off his line and told Linda should could fish there while he re-rigged. On her fourth cast, Linda caught big male Sockeye.

 

 

That was her first salmon of this trip.

After that, we waited until the young man got his limit and Linda got his spot. There was a lull for a while, but eventually she caught her second, and soon after that she got her third. Nice.

She could barely lift them.

 

 

She really liked having a personal assistant to get her off of snags, net her fish, get the hooks out, bonk them, and bleed them out for her. And I didn't mind doing it at all since I wasn't fishing myself. Perhaps I'll get her out there again.

So we got our limit of three each. I cleaned them and she vacuum sealed them, and we delivered about 20 pounds of fillets from yesterday and today to Sara to store in her freezer.

Tomorrow, we're heading down to Homer where we will store our RVs while we take our Jeeps on the ferry to Kodiak Island for a few days. But, before that, Steve and I agreed we'd get up early in the morning and try to catch our limit again before we leave Soldotna.

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