Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

(Part Two of Three)

Part one can be found here.

As I was re-reading Part One of this three-part series, I realized that I forgot to mention the biggest news of all! Steve DID catch a King Salmon while out fishing with Bill White! A good size one too - about 35lbs!  He had Bill take some photos of him with his catch, but they’re on the video camera and I have to wait for him to download them before I can share one.

Steve left the fish with Bill, so that he could clean and fillet it, package it up, and freeze it. He made arrangements for us to pick it up when we passed through Sterling on our way out of Soldotna on Sunday morning.  We met Bill and his son (also a guide) at a local diner along the highway, and Bill handed over the king salmon fillets. They totaled about 15lbs. I did a little online research and saw that Kenai River King Salmon fillets currently retail for about $50 for 2.5lbs.  Steve definitely got his money’s worth from this fishing trip.

As an added suprise, and because Steve is a repeat customer of Bill White’s (and perhaps because he felt terrible about Steve’s luck with Steve McClure), Bill threw in another 15-20lbs of Red Salmon (sockeye) fillets! So, all in all, despite the two fishing trips that didn’t pan out, Steve brought home enough fish to make it all worth while. Our freezer chest doesn’t look so empty anymore.

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We left Soldotna around 10am, and began our drive to Seward. We made plans to stop at the Russian River Campground, and hike the Russian River Falls trail. We’ve always wanted to do that, but in past years we couldn’t find a spot to park in the campground because of all the fishermen in town.  I don’t know much about the salmon runs, but I don’t think they’ve reached the Russian River in full force yet, so we were able to get in. Unfortunately, because the combined length of our truck and camper is more than 50′, we had to park in overflow parking - which was .6 miles from the trail head and right next to the entrance to the park.

The trail itself is 2.3 miles to the falls.  It’s an easy to moderate walk, with some slight uphill climbs both coming and going.  Even with my issues with asthma, I didn’t have any problems. There were quite a few families hiking the trail with small children. The trail is gravel, wide, and well marked.  Here’s a trail map I found on line:

Parking is $11 for the day, if you’re not camping there. However, because we were told to park in overflow parking, they didn’t charge us (that was a nice surprise!).

The scenery was gorgeous, and changed constantly.  The trail begins beneath towering spruce, aspen and poplar trees, and then comes out into an open area surrounded by tall grass and mountains, before going back into the woods for a while. At several points during the hike, you can hear or see the river below.  At the falls area, there are two observation decks overlooking the river. The sound is deafening as the water cascades down the valley and into the area where the salmon weir is set up (they count the salmon here).

This area is also where bears have been known to fish, but we didn’t see any on our walk. We later heard that a black bear was sighted on the trail. We did see plenty of fish jumping up the falls, trying to make their way back to their spawning grounds. It’s a beautiful waterfall, and well worth the hike if you’ve got a couple of hours to spare when traveling through this area.

	The Kenai River is turquoise in color because the water is glacial fed. It’s also very cold!

We hated leaving the sunshine behind because we knew it was going to be overcast or raining in Seward. It almost always rains in Seward in the summertime. Even when it’s not raining, it’s damp. The town of Seward, backed up against Mount Marathon, averages 67 inches of rain per year, so don’t forget your rain gear if you plan a visit.

As the skies went from blue with puffy clouds, to gray with low hanging rain clouds, I snapped some photos out the truck window:

This is Kenai Lake, which is also a beautiful turquoise color:

Here, you can really see the color of the water:

Some more photos taken along the way:

We checked in at the campground (Seward Military Resort) and quickly set up our camper as it was drizzling when we arrived.  Our neighbor - the wife of a retired soldier from Texas - was sitting under her awning reading a guide book, and said hello. We got to chatting and found out that the seas had been so high over the previous several days that fishing trips and glacier cruises were canceled or cut short.  Since we were booked to go on a glacier/wildlife cruise the next morning, this was of concern to us.

The last time I was in Seward was last summer, when my friend Michele and her daughter Maddie came to visit. We were booked on the Kenai Fjords National Park Tour and we had high seas then. They couldn’t complete the tour because of the weather, so we were turned around and brought back to port. To compensate us for the shortened tour, they refunded us a very paltry sum of money.  I didn’t feel this partial refund was adequate then, and I certainly didn’t want to face the same situation with Steve this time.  If the seas were high, and we couldn’t make it out to Northwestern Glacier, I would just as soon cancel the trip totally and have my money back. At $169/pp, the cost of this tour is certainly not cheap.

We woke the next morning to rain and wind. As instructed, we arrived at the Kenai Fjords office to check in an hour before we were due to leave (9am). I specifically asked the agent there if we were going to be able to get out to Northwestern Glacier, as I knew that seas had been high and cruises had been canceled in days prior. She assured me that the seas were much better and we’d be making the full trip.

I let her know what happened to me last year with Michele and Maddie, and told her that I would much rather cancel Steve’s and my trip, than pay a significant amount of money and not get what we paid for.  She informed us that trips canceled within 14 days of departure are not refundable. Basically, we were stuck going on this trip whether or not we got what we paid for.

Things didn’t look good when we boarded the catamaran. In fact, the boat was fairly empty. I wished that I had waited and took my chances of getting a seat on board the day of, rather than paying for this cruise in advance. In fact, I might just do that in the future.

As we made our way out into Resurrection Bay, seas weren’t too bad, but visibility was nearly zero. The captain assured us that the clouds weren’t as low further out at sea.  We made a stop at Fox Island to pick up passengers and drop off overnight visitors. It was raining and windy at that point, so I didn’t even bother going outside to take photos.  I was glad for my rain coat, but wished I would have worn my rain pants too.

Once we hit the open seas in the Gulf of Alaska, the swells were horrible. The boat was pitched and tossed, and we were slammed down in our seats as the boat crashed down, while losing our stomachs as we were thrown upward out of our seats.  The crew made the rounds with barf bags, and a good 50% of the passengers spent the next several hours with their faces in bags.

I took a Dramamine that morning, but even my stomach was queasy. At one point, I broke out in a cold sweat and I knew I was on the verge of losing it. Fortunately, one of the deck hands (a gal from Pennsylvania) had ginger root with her and gave me some to suck and chew on. It kept my face out of a bag, but I certainly wasn’t feeling very well.  Steve, who is usually immune to seasickness - and who also took a Dramamine that morning - had to concentrate on the horizon himself from time to time. It was not fun.

On a positive note, we did see several whales, otters, sea lions, puffins and other waterfowl, and one harbor seal.  But wildlife viewing was done quickly, as the rain and wind was so heavy, that even going out for a few minutes soaked us to the bone. My pants were sopping wet, and my camera was taking a beating, even though I kept it shrouded under my jacket when not using it.

It was not what I would call an enjoyable cruise.  And then, as feared, the Captain made the announcement that we would not be going out to Northwestern Glacier because of the rough seas. Instead we visited Holgate Glacier for a brief 15 minutes before heading back to port. Honestly… I just wanted to be back on non-rocking land.  He also mentioned that there would be envelopes waiting for us - with partial refunds in them.

We were refunded $30/pp. I did not feel that was adequate, and asked the clerk how they had arrived at that figure. She told me that we were refunded the difference between the Northwestern Glacier tour and the National Park Tour - which is the one she said the captain took us on.  I challenged her because we did not go on the National Park Tour. The National Park Tour includes the Chiswell Islands on the route - which is home to a small rookery of Steller Sea Lions, as well as an abundance of sea birds.  Granted, I was glad to be back to shore, but I felt the refund should have been a little more substantial.  Imagine how the sick people felt, paying $139 to enjoy the inside of a barf bag! I really don’t think the captain should have gone out that day, but I think after canceling for two days, they didn’t want to lose any more money.

In between hanging onto the rails for dear life, and trying to keep the rain off my camera, I did manage to get some photos:

I animated several frames I took of Holgate Glacier calving (it might take a few seconds to load):

We were so cold and wet when we got back from our cruise, that we immediately got into fleece lounging clothes, turned on the TV, had a glass of wine with dinner, and went to bed early. We were looking forward to leaving the rain behind, and hoped that the weather would be better for us on the way to Talkeetna.

Stay tuned for Part Three…