Thursday August 11, 2011

Slept in late and had a nice shower at my buddies house......then made a startling discovery. I discovered the best cheeseburger and fry combo in the USA. The place was called Dickie Joe's. Knocking 5 Guys of the top spot, Dickie Jo's was a force to be reconed with. The burger was fresh and awesome and the fries? Garlic fries.......delicious.

Here’s the list of best burger joints…

1. Dickie Jo’s…..Best Burger, Best Fries (Garlic)

2. Five Guys…..prob still should be #1 because of scarcity of Dickie-Jo’s

3. A&W….love the Papa burger

4. Fudruckers

5. Whattaburger

6. Wendy’s, the double is nice once in a while.

7. In-and Out Burger, just average

8. McD….still love the Big Mac although it doesn’t love me, aka, screamers

9. BK….havent had one in a while, but I used to like the Whopper

10. DQ

11. White Castle……awful.

Spent the rest of the day on the river with my pal Matty Flavour. It was the most enjoyable day of the summer on the river as we caught a few fish and and mostly laughed our asses off together. You know, there aren't any friends of mine who fly fish, so getting to spend a day on the river with one of my best friends is a blessing.....and I loved every minute of it. And I mean that Matty, it was my best day fishing this summer......

The fun continued afterward at the Steelhead Brewery as we had dinner and continued howling at the moon.....it was a wonderful day.....one of the very best.

Wednesday August 10, 2011

Drove by Mt. Shasta in northern California on my to Oregon today and headed directly to the north fork of the middle fork of the Willamette River where I was met by one of my best buddies and his daughter. We had a blast casting in the pretty little stream for micro sized trout and shooting the bull about the old days.

Hustled to try to make 5 Guys for burgers before it closed but ended up having to settle for Sy's pizza instead. After pizza we walked to check out more of the University of Oregon campus including the new basketball court.

Parked the camper in my buddies driveway and called it a day.

Tuesday August 9, 2011

Checked out the visitors center on the valley floor this morning as well as Yosemite Falls. All fun but the Giant Sequoias stole the show today. Some were so large, you could walk, and in some cases, drive through the middle of them. Walking around the forest you felt like you were in the land of the giants.....I love trees.

Feeling like I saw the best Yosemite had to offer, I blasted north towards Oregon and eventually shut it down in a town called Weed on the northern boarder of California. You can imagine the ridiculous slogans on the t-shirts in the truck stop.

Monday August 8, 2011

Again, being back “home” in the camper was a nice change and sleeping in it last night was pretty nice too, the lap of luxury in fact.

Today and tomorrow my plan was to see as much of Yosemite National Park as possible before heading up to Oregon. My first mission in the park was to drive to Glacier Point and soak in one of the grandest views in the world, a view second only to Lake Louise in Banff National Park in Canada, in my opinion.

It happens to me rarely, in fact, I can’t remember it ever happening to me so far from home, but on the walk through the parking lot I actually bumped into someone I knew, a former student of mine on vacation with her family. It was wonderful to connect with someone from home. We enjoyed the spectacular views of El Capitan and Half dome while reminiscing about our Chieftain days…

This vista is the jewel of the park, I saw no reason to leave so I stayed until dark……..as you can see, it’s quite a good place for people watching as well.

Painfully bucked up for a campsite in the park, it was just too far to drive to score a free spot outside the park boundaries……

Sunday August 7, 2011

The challenge of the day was to get back on the plane with everything I came here with…….plus the giant blanket and a five sweatshirts I’d bought. I couldn’t cram everything in my current bag situation, so I had to create another checked bag with a giant cardboard box. After some wheeling and dealing it all fit. I then cleaned out the car, returned it, and was on my way…..

Managed to blog a bit on the plane and was headed for Yosemite within a half hour of hitting the ground in San Francisco, the truck's repaired transmission thankfully shifting smoothly.

Saturday August 6, 2011

My last day in Alaska…….

What better place to spend my last day that the wonderful little village of Hope. Probably about 5 miles as the crow flies, you can see across the bay from the outskirts of Anchorage. But it takes around 2 hours to drive there as the road winds its way around the giant bay that is Turnagain Arm.

Hope is the quintessential Alaskan village, the entire village consisting of a only few buildings. The fishing is always spectacular and the scenery is better. The surrounding hills always seem to have clouds floating gently between them no matter what weather. People are happy in Hope……the people fishing always seem to be in a good mood and there are lots of families. I fished slow, savoring every moment. I caught and filleted a few fish for a guy fishing nearby, who, with his three fish in tow, was happy to be getting out of the cold (52 and rain at the moment) sooner than later.

Hope was my last stop on this year’s trip to Alaska. It turns out that……the impact that Alaska has on me is more profound that I thought. Last year I discovered it, this year….. I fell in love. There’s just no place like it on earth. It’s wild and rugged and more beautiful than any place on earth.

Nature……you don’t need a ticket to see it. You can’t buy it or sell it. When you’re in it, no one wants a piece of you, your money, or your time. Sometimes it forces you to cope and sometimes it gives you wonderful gifts. It doesn’t owe you a thing and doesn’t expect a thing in return. I understand that being out here on the edge is not too many peoples idea of a great vacation. But for me, it’s how life should be. I feel alive here, in the rain, feet and legs numb to the knee from standing in ice water, watching it flow over the rocks to the sea. If there’s a holy spirit, it’s everywhere in Alaska……

Would you spend ten nights of your vacation in Alaska sleeping in the back of a '94 Ford Taurus wagon?

"Then, in the Arctic half light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories, and the sounds of the big Blackfoot River, and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

I am haunted by waters."

— Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It and Other Stories)

Friday August 5, 2011

Spent a little time in the city this morning then headed to Bird creek for some more salmon action. Bird creek is probably the closest, best salmon spot to Anchorage, because of that, it can get pretty crowded. All the tour buses stop on the bridge and announce to the masses, “See? real fisherman fishing for salmon in Alaska” before shuttling them onward to their next canned destination. When I arrived it was obvious that no one was catching anything. Most of the shoreline was covered with mud that was super slippery…..people were slipping and sliding all over the place. It was a comedy show because everyone was getting a kick out of watching everyone else slip around……..I don’t know why I think that’s funny but I just do.

Anyway, again people were catching nothing…….so I walk…..and when I’m far enough away from the crowd I’m catching them one after another……all pinks, no silvers….I walked to the car with a guy who had the fiercest southern accent I’d ever heard, and it was fun to chat with him……he thought he had caught a silver and asked me what I thought as he hoisted it skyward…..it was just another pink. When we parted he told me to go on and have a blessed day…..so I did.

The ride back to Anchorage runs along Turnagain Arm on one side, a large extremely tidal body of water, and mountains that shoot strait up to the sky on the other……when the sun get low in the sky it’s a very beautiful ride….blessed if you will. This road is the only way to get to the cities and towns south of Anchorage, so it is heavily traveled and, unfortunately, is a haven for severe traffic accidents. Just yesterday 14 people were injured and 3 were killed. One guy, attempting to get some gory photos, started climbing the rocky cliff on the side of the road to get a better angle and fell, breaking both his legs. I could easily see how drivers could be distracted. There’s the overall beauty, there’s texting, there’s even this cool tourist train that runs along the roadway. From what I hear, the primary reason for accidents is impatience with slow drivers. With the single lane the cars stack up and sooner or later some yeehaw pulls out in an attempt to pass 20 cars at once. In almost every case, the accident is caused by a vehicle crossing the center-line and crashing head on with cars in the other direction at about 70 miles and hour.

Fortunately for me, I made it back alive……I guess it was a blessed day.

Thursday August 4, 2011

Still on the hunt for a silver salmon, my next stop was the ice cold Knick river. The water of the Knick has that glacial gray muddiness to it. I visited the Knick last year, you may remember it as the Mullet spot, the business of fishing in front of you, and the four wheeler hooligan party behind you…….

It was a long walk down to the water and it took me a better part of an hour to get there…..the water was unusually high and it was fun to watch the trucks and four wheelers blast through knee deep water to get from one place to another.

The fishing stunk at Knick. Because of the high water, the area that is usually the fishing hot spot was greatly reduced in size and about 50 yards further back on the shore than normal. I decided to explore a place called Jim Creek another couple of miles even further away. I guess you could say I was sort of banking on getting a ride back to my car from someone when I was done. I hiked and hiked, bush wacked and battled my way far upstream where I encountered a pod of silver salmon wandering up and down a 200 yard stretch of the river. I attempted to hook up to a Silver but in the end was unsuccessful. And an hour later happily found myself with my arms wrapped around a 60 year old man…… who comfortably delivered me right to my car on the back of his four wheeler……

Stopped at a more popular salmon spot on the way back to Anchorage where I was again reminded that everyone fished for salmon here. It was certainly not just a man thing. I saw couples on dates, women in pairs as well as alone, even saw a little kid's birthday part where they ate cake and casted away. One guy had a tall bar stool set way out in the water. He had the back padded with foam pieces from a wacky noodle. His stool even swiveled and came equipped with a rod holder. He was rocking out with his headphones on and was casting away.

Drove to Anchorage and spent the rest of the night on the computer outside McDonald’s.

Wednesday August 3, 2011

Today I was going to attempt to catch a trout in a way I’d never done before….

In the Lower 48 trout survive mostly off a diet if insects….In Alaska, trout eat very few bugs. They feed primarily on eggs from the female salmon and the flesh of rotting salmon…..for most of you, pretty gross right? I guess it’s the circle of life…….

My goal was to use red plastic bead as an imitator of a salmon egg. I bought a variety of colors and stopped to see my guide friend Skip for a little more advice. He told me that one time he actually saw a large trout swim and ram into the side of a salmon. The trout then gobbled up the salmon eggs just dispensed like a candy machine. He did some fine-tuning to my game plan and I was off to Montana Creek.

I was supposed to run my bead literally under the bellies of the giant spawning salmon and was told the trout would be waiting to attack it…….

It worked…..

After catching several trout this way I was left to ponder a few things……First off I was thrilled at my accomplishment, like scoring a hat trick in a men’s league hockey game or winning a tennis tournament, I felt, well……proud of myself. It was great to add a new skill to my overall repertoire.

Usually you get to the river, see the giant salmon, lose your mind….. and start bombing flies at them. Attempting to catch salmon in this particular part of the river was actually illegal, but fishing for the trout was not. I was also using a rod meant for the smaller trout and would most likely break if I was to accidently hook a salmon. Forced to fish exclusively for trout in a salmon filled environment allowed me to study the behavior of the spawning salmon. Today I was an observer. It was wonderful to watch the 4 foot long pairs of blaze orange king salmon do their thing, taking turns in the nest, performing their final act, perpetuating life …..just prior their own death.

The guy that I bought the beads from told me to “be on the look out for nature” while I was out there. So, needless to say, the walk back to the car in the half-light of the evening was scary as hell. Would being mauled by a bear really be a bad way to go? I actually don’t think so……I can certainly think of less noble ways. If one was to be killed by a bear it would say a lot about you as a person……it would say that you died doing what you loved. It would say that you were not afraid to be out there on the edge, alone in the wild. It would say that you too were a part in the great circle of life…….