"Reds"
Tomorrow I have to return to work for the rest of July and the month of August. My 2 week summer vacation is coming to a close. The first 5 days I spent doing projects around TrippingOverMoose Ranch. From the 15th through the 22 I drove the motor home to Sterling and fished for Reds in the Kenai River.
(note: For anyone who reads this and is not familiar with Alaska, "Reds" are Sockeye or Red Salmon.)
Fishing and timing were good and I probably put enough fish in the freezer to see me through the winter. But since my daughter and her family are staying with me I'll most likely need more. We'll hit the Silver Salmon run hard when it starts.
September is hunting season, 2 weeks in the back country chasing moose.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Cough, Hack Wheeze!
Don't Let the Smoke get in your...
It's been smokey here in Southcentral Alaska the last week or so. A stationary high pressure system is trapping all the smoke from 61 active forest fires. The biggest fire is 79,000 acres near Nenana, north towards Fairbanks. This afternoon the visability dropped as the smoke got thicker. This morning I could make out the hazy outlines of the eastern edge of the city from my pearch on the 14th floor near the western edge of Anchorage. I was watching pilots doing touch and goes at Merrill Field at lunch time. Now I can see about a mile into the smoke. Merrill field is not visible and about an hour ago hour ventilation system stopped being able to filter the smoke. It smells like a campfire in my office.
UPDATE:
In addition to smoke being transported into the Anchorage Bowl and Prince William Sound from fires in the Copper River Basin, the National Weather Service issued the following Information Statement early this afternoon;
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ANCHORAGE AK
138 PM AKDT WED JUL 8 2009
...WIDESPREAD HAZE AND SMOKE ARE OCCURRING ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL ALASKA TODAY...
A FIRE ON THE KENAI PENINSULA HAS INCREASED IN INTENSITY OVERNIGHT AND PERSISTENT
SOUTHERLY WINDS HAVE TRANSPORTED THE SMOKE NORTH. SOUTHERLY WINDS AT AND ABOVE
THE SURFACE WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE SMOKE NORTHWARD THROUGHOUT THE DAY. RESTRICTED
VISIBILITIES AS A RESULT OF THE SMOKE AND HAZE ARE EXPECTED TO FLUCTUATE OVER THE
NEXT SEVERAL DAYS.
It's been smokey here in Southcentral Alaska the last week or so. A stationary high pressure system is trapping all the smoke from 61 active forest fires. The biggest fire is 79,000 acres near Nenana, north towards Fairbanks. This afternoon the visability dropped as the smoke got thicker. This morning I could make out the hazy outlines of the eastern edge of the city from my pearch on the 14th floor near the western edge of Anchorage. I was watching pilots doing touch and goes at Merrill Field at lunch time. Now I can see about a mile into the smoke. Merrill field is not visible and about an hour ago hour ventilation system stopped being able to filter the smoke. It smells like a campfire in my office.
UPDATE:
In addition to smoke being transported into the Anchorage Bowl and Prince William Sound from fires in the Copper River Basin, the National Weather Service issued the following Information Statement early this afternoon;
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ANCHORAGE AK
138 PM AKDT WED JUL 8 2009
...WIDESPREAD HAZE AND SMOKE ARE OCCURRING ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL ALASKA TODAY...
A FIRE ON THE KENAI PENINSULA HAS INCREASED IN INTENSITY OVERNIGHT AND PERSISTENT
SOUTHERLY WINDS HAVE TRANSPORTED THE SMOKE NORTH. SOUTHERLY WINDS AT AND ABOVE
THE SURFACE WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE SMOKE NORTHWARD THROUGHOUT THE DAY. RESTRICTED
VISIBILITIES AS A RESULT OF THE SMOKE AND HAZE ARE EXPECTED TO FLUCTUATE OVER THE
NEXT SEVERAL DAYS.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Insurance
More or less as I expected.
The adjuster from the nice middle-school teacher's insurance company came up with the same approximate value for my car as I did, $2100. So he totaled it and wrote me a check for that amount minus $120 salvage fee. I keep the old Subaru and it's up to me to get it fixed with the $2000. Fortunately, my son-in-law, the body man, says he can and will do it for the cost of parts, about half the $2000.
The adjuster from the nice middle-school teacher's insurance company came up with the same approximate value for my car as I did, $2100. So he totaled it and wrote me a check for that amount minus $120 salvage fee. I keep the old Subaru and it's up to me to get it fixed with the $2000. Fortunately, my son-in-law, the body man, says he can and will do it for the cost of parts, about half the $2000.
Chitina Dipnetting
The Trail From Hell
On June 26, my middle sister's birthday, (happy birthday,) my brother, my nephews and I drove to the Copper River at Chitina. The old road downstream from Chitina to the salmon dipnetting area follows an old railroad bed perched precariously on the edge of cliff. Above the road bed rises a mountain of loose shale covered with timber and top soil. Landslides and mudslides during wet wheather are common. Below the road bed is a 50 to 250 foot steep drop off into the Copper River. The lower part varies from shale slide areas, shale slide areas covered with loose soil and trees to vertical cliffs of shale. The first 10 miles of road to OBrian Creek has been maintained and actually improved slightly in the last few years. There is no problem driving a 4X4 pickup to that point. However after multiple large mud slides a few years ago the road past OBrian creek is officially closed. Climbing on our Honda 4-wheelers we continued past the large orange signs that warned you of possible death and trekked the 8 miles back to Haley creek. That meant traversing several slide areas on sketchy 4-wheeler trails weaving between Volkswagon sized rocks that are just waiting for the next rain to destabilize the mud enough so they can continue thier slide into the Copper River below. We caught 6 fish in 10 hours. (When I say "we" I'm including all 4 of us although actually the nephews caught the fish.)
It was a fun trip anyway.
On June 26, my middle sister's birthday, (happy birthday,) my brother, my nephews and I drove to the Copper River at Chitina. The old road downstream from Chitina to the salmon dipnetting area follows an old railroad bed perched precariously on the edge of cliff. Above the road bed rises a mountain of loose shale covered with timber and top soil. Landslides and mudslides during wet wheather are common. Below the road bed is a 50 to 250 foot steep drop off into the Copper River. The lower part varies from shale slide areas, shale slide areas covered with loose soil and trees to vertical cliffs of shale. The first 10 miles of road to OBrian Creek has been maintained and actually improved slightly in the last few years. There is no problem driving a 4X4 pickup to that point. However after multiple large mud slides a few years ago the road past OBrian creek is officially closed. Climbing on our Honda 4-wheelers we continued past the large orange signs that warned you of possible death and trekked the 8 miles back to Haley creek. That meant traversing several slide areas on sketchy 4-wheeler trails weaving between Volkswagon sized rocks that are just waiting for the next rain to destabilize the mud enough so they can continue thier slide into the Copper River below. We caught 6 fish in 10 hours. (When I say "we" I'm including all 4 of us although actually the nephews caught the fish.)
It was a fun trip anyway.
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