The Russian

This Saturday I went with three coworkers south two hours onto the famous Kenai Peninsula to fish the equally famous Russian River. People come from all over the world to 'combat' fish on the banks of this freezing cold river. Literally hundreds of fishermen flip their lines hoping to snag a Red Salmon. Our trip proved to be of bad timing- none of us even had a bite. hahah. But I felt less worse when I noticed that no one else on the river had any luck either. Sometimes you just miss the run! The experience was still amazing. It's such a huge event to be fishing here. On our way out we saw a big group of people who were about to start a wedding right on the bank of the river! That kind of speaks to the importance of what goes on at the Russian.

As Fresh As It Gets

Got my first Alaskan Salmon! One of many more to come (hopefully). This is a Copper River Red (Sockeye) Salmon. They're known to be fighters and to have the best taste of any salmon. This big one left me with about 15 good-sized pieces. I ate two big ones as soon as I got home to celebrate. There's no use describing the taste..haha.

We fished the Klutina River for Reds this morning. The run was much slower than the previous week they had up there. Caught one nice one, and had about 4 halfway to the shore before they rolled off or broke free.

I really didn't take pictures while we were fishing, but here's a shot of us getting to our spot on the Klutina. It's a glacial river, and my waders were flooded a few times. And here I was thinking that Barton Springs was cold...

Covering Ground

Headed a couple hundred miles northeast of home base to Copper Center, AK. Trying to fish the salmon runs up here has taken a lot more effort than I ever would have thought. You have to time these runs pretty closely, and this means planning ahead is very difficult. Especially when you have no car!

Me and another intern at CH2M drove 3.5 hours along some of the most amazing highway I've ever seen. The thing about Alaska seems to be that driving is itself an adventure.

I just ordered a brand new camera! I'm tired of taking all of my pictures with an iPhone. Expect some great stuff in the future!

Rust's, Keats, and Moose

On a whim today I took a float plane out to some nearby mountains- it's pretty fun to randomly decide to do something like this, and that's the opportunity you get up here!

Rust's is a pretty famous fleet out of Fort Hood, which is the largest float plane base in the world. Sarah Palin tends to frequent their service on her (hit?) TV show haha. Naturally I felt like a VIP flying with them.

From the plane we saw a few moose, and I think I saw a bear but it's hard to tell from up there. 

Here's the bear (Keats) I have to live with at my apartment:

This grizzly creature has a nasty bite and a habit of stalking it's prey. 

I saw my first moose within city limits this past weekend! It was as big as a car, and had a tiny calf with it so I was sure to give it some distance. Unfortunately all I have to document my adventures has been my iPhone, but I plan on buying a nice camera very soon! Expect my pictures to get better!! 

This is a spot about 2 minutes away from my apartment that I go to relax. It's actually a decent sized river, but this was an offshoot still-pond that had some ducks, and about 6 tiny ducklings hidden in the grass. I saw the moose with her calf not far from here. The water is really cold.

Breaking Glaciers

The day after my triple-peak climb I boarded the Alaska Railroad and headed southeast along Seward Highway to a tiny port town called Whittier. Even the train rides in Alaska are intense- we saw a Pilot Whale, many Dall Sheep, a few moose (including a calf), and multiple eagles. Seward Highway is named one of the most beautiful drives in America, and for good reason. The mountains that follow you as you drive are just amazing.

Whittier was absolutely tiny- basically just a harbor in my opinion. I've been hearing it mentioned so many times up here that I figured it would be a decent sized town. It's not. Just a great location to start an adventure.

My cruise of Prince William Sound lasted about 5 hours and included a salmon-and-prime-rib dinner. Good stuff. The water was an amazing color that my pictures can't begin to convey, and the scenery was spectacular. We saw otters, seal, mountain goats, and a large amount of birds. We were lucky enough to witness one of the glaciers calving! Huge chunks of ice crashed into the water and caused waves and a splash way bigger than I would have thought possible.

Photo editing provided by Jared Imm!

Three Peaks

Last Friday marks the first time I've ever climbed a mountain. Flattop is one of the 'skyline peaks' of Anchorage, meaning you can see it from the city. It's in Chugach State Park, and the area is incredible.

(the surrounding mountains gave me one of the most spectacular views I've ever seen)

Since I'm here for a seasonal internship I have no mode of transportation. I've relied on a few very generous people I've met up here to get me where I need to be. I rode a shuttle from a downtown bike rental shop to the first mountain (Flattop) where they left me with a mountain bike to ride back on (about 15 miles on some beautiful trails).
The first summit was easy enough. Many people climb Flattop, and there are a lot of solo hikers. I left the first peak and continued on to a second, higher peak. There was a great ridge in between Flattop and the second peak.

Snow started to become a major factor right about now. I was wearing shorts and had no hand gloves (everyone told me I'd be fine because it was sunny outside haha) so I had to frequently take breaks to warm my hands from using them to help climb in the snow. Looking up to the third peak was pretty intimidating. It ended up being a much greater effort that I originally thought- that thing was steep! And climbing ice without gloves was definitely a lesson learned.

Here's a cool shot of the last part before the summit.

And after about 4 hours:

The summit had a cool marker of sticks and paracord.

After the summit I had a great bike ride downhill into the city. I slept great that night!

I'll be posting my adventures here as often as I have them! Stay tuned for the glaciers I saw this past weekend- they were amazing!