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.

Fishless Trip To Chitina

Glen, Daniel and I made a trip to Chitina to dip net the famous Copper River Sockeye Salmon. It was a lovely 4 hour drive, this morning, during which we saw a cow moose with twin babies, a young bull moose with his anters in velvet, numerous Snowshoe hares and squirrels. We had the choice of trailering a Honda 4-wheeler or two up to Chitina and riding back to our old fishing hole on what is now an officially closed road, or having the charter boat run us in. We choose to do the charter this time. However the charter operator told us when we arrived that he'd run us it, but we'd be wasting our money. No one was catching fish today. Since they charge $100 dollars a piece we took his advice, saved our money, and drove 4 hours home. On the trip home within sight of the junction at Glennallen a young Grizzly bear ran across the road in front of us.

Pictures of the trip: no animal pictures though, they were too quick for me...

Feeling Old

Today is my youngest child's 32nd birthday. Happy birthday, Son. The youngest of my nieces and nephews are in High School. One of my nephews is driving home to Alaska right now after finishing 4 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. Didn't his father and I just get out of the Army a few years ago? My older sister and I are both Grandparents. Except for the fact that every joint hurts nearly all the time, I take a stack of prescription medication every morning, there is an old guy with white hair and a long white beard staring back at me from the mirror when I brush my teeth, and I've been working the same job for over 20 years, I feel like I should only be 32. Time speeds up. The days feel like a couple hours. The months like weeks and the years like months. Summer just got here and now it's gone. Time is running down hill. The only advantage is the winters are shorter than when I was young, since a day on a snow machine cripples me up for a week.