Dipnetting for the elusive Copper River Red Salmon

Well, last weekend was a lot of things; sunny, warm, exciting, a new experience, and more than anything it was labor intensive!
Sandi went to San Juan Island, Washington for the week leaving Thane and I to our own devices so we decided what the heck, lets go get some fish for the freezer. Some people may not be familiar with what dipnetting is so let me clarify; in Alaska if you are a resident you can get a dipnet permit for both the Copper and Kenai River and obtain up to 30 Red Salmon (Sokeye) from each river. A dip net is a large net (up to five feet in diameter) on the end of a long pole that is "dipped" into the river to catch fish. When you are "meat" fishing this is the way to go since gill netting is pretty much out of the question for personal use. I personally am not one to spend hours with a rod and reel trying to catch one fish. I commercial fished when I was growing up and I feel like the shortest amount of time spent to catch the most fish is the best way.

Anyhow; my friend Brian Berg was headed to Chitna with his family to catch some reds, so I figured what the heck. Thane and I headed up there on Friday morning to join in the fun. If nothing else we were ill prepared and ill equipped. I guess that is what happens when you kayak the night before a big trip and don't get home until after 1 am and plan to head out first thing the next morning. Since I don't really fish, I don't own chest waders, or any of that kind of stuff so I just took my kayaking gear figuring it would be good enough. After my first and only dipnetting trip on the Kenai a few years ago which consisted of standing on a boat with a net in one hand and a beer in the other and limiting out in a few hours, I figured how hard could dipnetting from shore be? It didn't take but a minute to recall that while on the Kenai I remember watching the guys dipnetting from shore and thinking to myself "boy would that suck" and let me tell you, it does!
I have never in my life worked so hard for seven fish. I fished all afternoon on Friday, all morning and evening Saturday, and all morning Sunday. I could barely lift my arms after we were done. As far as my kayaking gear went, my drysuit and rescue life jacket were bomber but my soft soled booties weren't the best. By Sunday morning my feet felt like someone hammered them for two days with a ballpeen hammer from all rocks in the river. The first night I only caught one fish. Saturday I caught two in the morning and two in the evening, and on Sunday morning I caught two also. When the fish are in thick you can get easily two fish in one pass but last weekend the water was a lot higher than normal and we just missed the first big run. Aside from smelling horrible and being really sore and tired, I had fun and plan to go back again next year. And after all, seven fish in the freezer are better than none!

Now if I could just get motivated to finish my barn......

Thane and I with both Brian and my Sunday morning catch.

Thane and Sydney Berg and Sunday's catch. Six Reds and one King Salmon.

Thane and Sydney in Brian's new Mud Ox.

Kayaking with my new helmet cam!

I have been pretty busy since my last post but haven't made time to put anything on here. I have done a little work on the barn but we are having a literal heat wave and have had 60 to 70 degree weather for the last two weeks. All of our rivers are running about two weeks ahead of schedule so my priority has been on whitewater kayaking. I bought a new helmet cam and have been videoing every run. I'll post a few tonight and try to get some more in the next few days along with some barn photos.

Enjoy .

Playing on Willow Creek

Little Susitna River May 12th

Little Su again...

First Canyon of Six Mile Creek.

We had to hike around the hardest section due to a log being stuck across the whole canyon, so this is the lower section of the first canyon. Notice my lines could have been better.

This is the first half of the Second Canyon. Compared to the Willow and Little Su, Six Mile has a lot higher volume of water and the canyons are very deep with lots of big boils.

The last of the white pictures with blue background...

Well I think I managed to hang onto winter as long as I could but I guess it is time to let it go. That is exactly why I ordered a new kayak! Time to start recycling all of this frozen water I've been playing on all winter.

My last time at home I managed one more trip with the guys to the cabin at Honolulu Creek as well as a few day trips from home. The guys at the Polaris shop managed to get my machine running despite several known manufacturing problems and it ran good the whole time I was at home. I can't say it didn't take a good beating but it did run well. Spring riding is probably the hardest time to keep from inflicting damage to both machine and rider as the snow is mostly good but has soft pockets and rocks, trees, and stumps sticking out. Oh well, I guess everything has it's price and that is why my Dragon just became my fall/spring rock sled! I have proven it can take a beating thus lowering it's resale value enough to just (and I hate to have to do it) keep it.

On my second Friday home I ran across a moose that had been killed by wolves about an hour from home, so I brought home some pictures. My wife being a large animal veterinarian who also teaches an Anatomy and Physiology class at the college thought I should go get it for her. I asked why a picture wasn't sufficient. So anyway, being the obedient husband that I am off I went....
Saturday morning I headed out to once again find my moose. Unlike Friday it wasn't sunny and nice, it was cloudy and wanting to snow. The best place to ride this time of year is about 20 miles up the road from where we live. This gets you deeper into the mountains and at a much higher elevation. On Saturday as I was working my through the swamps and trails to get up the pass to better snow I kind of crashed at a high rate of speed. As I was screaming across one of the swamps I hit a small bump that landed my left ski in a patch of rotten snow starting a chain of events that I still haven't completely pieced back together. Like most accidents it happened so fast I wasn't sure what exactly was happening, I just remember wondering how many more times I was going to cartwheel through air. After all motion ceased and I got enough of the snow that was packed in my helmet cleaned out to see, I jumped up and looked around to see if anyone might have seen me. I guess it was just out of habit because the reality of there actually being anyone around to see me eat it was less than zero. After surveying the crash site I determined a few things really quick. The first of which was that I could still walk, and the second of which was that my snowmachine was on it's side and facing the opposite direction that I was going. After looking my snowmachine over all looked ok and then I noticed that the rear tunnel behind the seat and the bumper were bent downward a fair amount causing the need for a bit of future body and fender work (the kind that involves a really big hammer). It looked to me like my machine went end over end at least once but couldn't determine for sure.

After I got going again it didn't take too long to get to the place where the moose was awaiting my arrival. Once I got there and did a little excavating I determined that the moose wasn't facing the same direction that his antlers indicated. I had to chip a little ice to get him out but luckily the animals that had been there before me did most of the work and his head was basically ready to be strapped right on the back of my snowmachine. The interesting part was the ride home down the valley in rotten snow with a giant rack on the back of my machine. I only clipped one tree. At great risk of looking a bit like a redneck I did this favor for my favorite wife.

I was pretty sure that after Saturday's crash that I was done for the season so I spent Sunday cleaning up my snowmachine to park for the summer. I did however get curious about how hard it was going to be to take the bend out of my tunnel so I got my big timberframing sledgehammer and worked the dents right out. I may have missed my calling in the auto body industry....
I was planning on putting things back together enough to store it for the summer on Monday and then spend the rest of the day doing a little spring cleaning around the yard. At 8:00 AM Bill called and wanted to know if I wanted to go riding. It took all of about twenty minutes to put my machine back together, gas up, and strap on an extra two gallons of gas (turns out that wasn't near enough). It took about thirty five minutes to get up the pass to meet Bill who came from the Palmer side. I was extra cautious and rode slow through the swamps as the snow was even more rotten than on Saturday. I have to say that once we got to the top of the first pass the snow was great and combined with the sunshine it made for an epic day. I did incur a little rock damage that limited my ability to turn right, but not enough to make me miss out on this great day of riding. It was actually running out of gas that did that! Luckily with my two extra gallons and the two gallons that Bill was kind enough to loan me I made it about a third of a mile from home before running out.
All said I put 1230 miles on my Dragon from December 23rd to April 20th and another 205 miles on my friend Lukes SkiDoo XP because my Dragon was in the shop for three weeks. I think I'd have been over 1500 miles if I'd have had my machine all of March which is a huge increase over the 800 miles from 2007 and less than 600 miles last year.

I got to ride a lot this winter at the expense of putting off any and all projects for the winter. The downside to that is that now I have a ton of work to do this summer. Stay tuned for hopefully future progress on our barn and landscaping in the next few months.....

Ash from Mt Redoubt layered in the snow.

Headed for the cabin; what more is required aside from gas and beer?

Riding into Honolulu Creek valley head with Denali in the background.

Stuck Fest 2009! Three out of four of us in this photo were stuck (Clay was over the far creek bank). We went down Little Honolulu Creek and all went from good to bad in a hurry. Boy did I do a lot of shoveling...

Our evening fire at the Cabin.

This was the best stuck picture of the weekend. While trying to get up this ravine which is steeper than it appears I got stuck after I encountered a large clump of alders at a high rate of speed. Clay thought he could make it to the top on the left of me however he met the other clump of alder and ended up keeping me company. In this picture I have rolled my sled upside down to try and get it out of the hole it was in. Before I could get it all the way over we had to roll Clay's sled over to get it pointed downhill. The funny part was that when we rolled his back on it's track it took off down the hill before he could get on. He did manage to do a superman leap and catch the bumper and drag halfway down the hill before letting go (at a high rate of speed) to watch his sled narrowly miss a big birch tree at the bottom. It was quite funny. Although I must say that had he not have helped me roll mine all the way over I'd have probably ended up in the same boat.

Looking across the valley at where we had ridden the previous day.

Spring riding up the pass from our house. Things were starting to really break up.

Wow, look an antler....

Is it frozen? Ummm, no it appears to still be attached to a head...

Right behind the gas can is where the tunnel bent. The bumper was bent down a bit too.

Ok, come on Mr Moose lets go...

A touch of digging and chipping of ice and out he came.

My redneck picture of the year...

Bill Hall headed up this hill.

Looking down a valley; Denali is barely visible in the background.

Bill and I taking a break.

My Dragon from the top of this saddle. We left here and rode right up the ridge on the right and stopped at the top for an even better view.

The view from this side was spectacular!

Looking back up the ridge.

Looking at it from the bottom.

My favorite parting shot; Mt Redoubt is steaming in the distance (right of center).

Ashfall and Air Travel...

When you depend on air travel as much as most Alaskans do, a volcano can really interrupt your travel plans as well as your daily life. Although I only have to fly a few times a month it is still a pain wondering if I'm going to make it to work or have to make the four hour round trip to the airport to try again tomorrow. Or after my two week shift I have to wonder how many days it will take to get home.

Sandi flew to Seattle yesterday and made it by the skin of her teeth. As they were boarding the airplane the gate agent came onto the ramp and told everyone that the volcano just went off and if anyone wanted to make it to Seattle then they better hurry up and get seated. She said that people were yelling at each other to hurry up and sit down. The volcano erupted at 1:50 and her flight made it out a little before 2:30. Sometime around 3:00 they shut the airport down completely until 3:00 this afternoon. One of my friends has been trying to get out of here since Friday and I think he made it into Anchorage around 5:30 tonight.

My niece Sydney had her 15th birthday yesterday and was really bummed that the bowling alley and all of the theaters and malls closed because of yesterdays three eruptions. I told her she should be happy because not everyone has a volcano erupt to celebrate their birthday.

In 1989-90 Redoubt erupted 20 times over a six month period. Since last week when Redoubt started erupting again it has erupted something like 17 times! This could make for an interesting summer. My only hope is that after our cold summer last year that we aren't stuck under a dark ash cloud all of this coming summer.

For anyone interested here is the link to the Alaska Volcano Observatory site. It is a great site despite what Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal thinks.
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/

I haven't posted in the last week because I forgot my laptop at home the morning I headed to work and haven't had much time. My last time home I got a lot of good riding in with minimal work required on things around the house (a rare thing), and we had a ton of sunshine. The last weekend I was off we went back up to Clay's Honolulu Creek cabin for two nights of fun and adventure.


On Friday Ryan, Clay and I rode as far as we could up Honolulu Creek until the canyon got too narrow and the water got deeper than any of us cared to sink a sled into. Also, since I am still waiting for my machine's to get the motor rebuilt I had to borrow a machine from a buddy so I surely didn't want to sink it in the creek.

Clay taking some video. The red rocks reminded me of Colorado, this was a magnificent spot.

Ryan coming up the canyon.

Clay taking a break and a little video in the canyon.

Taking a break after digging me out. Yep, I got stuck again...

Clay heading up a hill on the trail on our Saturday ride.

Our friend Stubby (his real name is James Shannon Sullivan but we have been calling him Stubby for so long I wouldn't feel right calling him anything else) who is disabled went to the cabin with us and after much prodding Clay got him to come out on a ride with us. Stubby rode on front with Clay like Thane does when he goes with me and was so happy that he went. It was a little extra work for Clay but it was worth it to see Stubby so happy. We rode down the Chulitna and up the Ohio Creek valley. It is a beautiful canyon and worth seeing.

Ryan as we were making our way through a patch of alder.

Clay on top of a stepped ridge with Denali in the clouds in the background.

Denali is hiding in the clouds but it is center left. This was yet another amazingly beautiful day.

We ran across this cabin and it looked worthy of checking out. We all had to check it out as it is such a great thing to find this far out in the middle of what seems to be nowhere. After Clay read the sign above the door, it turns out that it's a mining claim and belongs to a guy I know from Talkeetna.


Riding up the Ohio Creek Valley.

The Ski Doo XP that Luke let me use.

Ryan after helping me get out.

Proof yet again that it doesn't matter what I am riding I can get stuck on the downhill as well as the uphill.

There wasn't a lot of room for error.

Negotiating the last Canyon on Ohio Creek.

A break before we turned around.

Heading up the valley. This is where we turned around as it was getting late and this was also the park boundary. Hard to believe that the valley on the left runs up to a glacier that comes right off Denali.

Clay and Ryan coming through the last canyon we encountered on Ohio Creek.

A shot of the cabin and where we melted out the summer fire pit.

Ryan buried his machine coming over this beaver dam. I think he was trying to show me up on being the best at getting buried.

Thank goodness for warranties...

If it's new and it's mechanical and I've bought it this year then chances are pretty good that it has failed. 2009 isn't looking so good for me when it comes to anything mechanical...

Last week my brand new snowmachine burnt up a piston with just 600 miles on it and about 45 miles from home. I have a great dealer so they had me going a day and a half later and due to some unresolved issues that Polaris is having on their 800 motors I got another 200 miles on it and had the same thing happen riding in the same valley and exactly seven days later. I know my dealer will fix it asap but the pistons are on backorder from the factory and we have a three day ride planned for Thursday through Saturday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

My other major mechanical failure was the compressor on my heat pump for my geo system. I was gone and Sandi smelled something electrical and noticed that the unit wasn't starting like it should so she shut it off until I got home (luckily we have the oil fired furnace for backup). So last week I worked with my mechanical contractor and we put in the new compressor and our Geothermal system is back up and running after about four weeks of down time.

Luckily both of these issues are covered by the manufacturers warranty. I haven't really been a big fan of extended warranties but after the last two months I think they might be worth it.

Today as I was doing laundry my washer door lock mechanism broke so I had to tear apart the washer to see what needed to be replaced. Unfortunately this one is out of warranty but isn't too hard to fix. I am however afraid to touch anything without fear of it breaking. Yesterday after Thane and I got back from a short snowmachine ride I was taking off my new snowpants and the zipper on the leg broke. And last night I took the snowblower off of the tractor and put the bucket back on. I thought I should grease all the joints on the bucket arms and the first one I did the zirc (grease) fitting broke off when I took the grease gun off. See what I mean, it's like everything I touch is falling apart.

Oh well, maybe I've got it all out of my system by now. Let's hope!

Anyway I thought I'd post some more pictures of the last few rides I took. Again the snow was fantastic and the sun was big and bright. Since the time change we have light from 7am to 930 pm so plenty of daylight already. To get to the last valley we ride in we have to cross three steep mountain passes and it's about an hours ride from the house. After a couple of feet of fresh snow any of the valleys are great to ride in but it has been about two weeks since we've had fresh snow and most of it has been ridden on by all of the people that come out from town. The nice thing is that most people don't carry enough gas to get to where we go so we always get the last valley to ourselves.

On Friday I rode with Colton Conner and his friend Nate and we were the first ones into the head of Peters Creek valley and had the whole place to ourselves without a single track on it. The snow wasn't quite as good as it was the week before with Clay and Larry but it was hard to complain about as it was still untracked and powder on top.

Saturday it was just Clay and I and we went all the way to the last valley as Peters Creek had seen a lot more riders than just Nate, Colton, and I on Friday. I had a few issues with my machine on the way in but it ran good the whole time we were back there so I was happy. It didn't start making those not so good noises until on the way home.

What a way to start a Friday morning!

First tracks down the second pass. I really like this picture.

Colton on our way up the valley.

My favorite thing to do is carve turns while going downhill. The only problem is that the more tired you get the harder it is to do. Well at this point my precious Dragon went left and I pretty much kept going straight. The divot on the left of the picture is where I took a header.

Our three tracks were the first ones on the fresh snow on Friday.


Nate on our way home.

Hard to see but the two dark specs on the top of the knoll are Colton and Nate.

Clay on our way in on Saturday.

This was right as we got to this high mountain lake. I took two passes at the hill in the background, one low and one higher. I want to break over the top of that one and into the next valley but the snow gets really thin on top and you really have to watch for rocks.

Clay playing on a high mountain lake.

Five guys followed our tracks over the last pass and this guy tried to climb this face and as you can see he didn't quite make it. He was camped out up there trying to get unstuck without his sled rolling all the way to the bottom of the hill. It took him probably thirty to forty minutes to get out. We did see another guy do exactally that on our way out. He climbed to the top turned out, jumped off and watched his sled roll about 200 times to the bottom. Fun to watch as long as it isn't your sled.

Looking down into the last valley we ride into. The valley in the center right is where Ryan and I caused the avalanche in February. Clay and I stayed out of that one due to Avy danger.

So, if you notice my track coming down this face you might say to yourself "why didn't he go a little more to the right" well that is exactally what I was saying as I came careening down into that dark spot in the center left of the picture. I have to say this is the first time ever that I just bailed off and watched my sled continue on it's own.

A little better close up of my tracks and where I bailed off (right above the shaded spot) I was pretty sure the machine was going to endo and I didn't really want to be on it. So I bailed, sled endo'd, then I climbed down to it, rolled it back over and off we went. Thank goodness for deep snow.

I never get tired of just sitting and looking at these peaks...

I had to jump off at this point so my sled would crest this hill. Otherwise I'd be in almost as bad of shape as the guy that was stuck in the middle of the hill above the lake.

The trench getting up there. This hill is a little steeper than it looks.

I'm so good at getting stuck that I have even mastered it on the downhill.

Note that there is plenty of snow up there.

I knew this was going to be a good picture...

Clay on our way our of the valley. Notice Denali (Mt McKinley) is the peak furthest in the distance center left. I love looking at that mountain!

Clay and my Dragon on a quest for untracked powder.

Clay jumping a snow drift.

Saturday afternoon powder turns. These machines carve just like a pair of skis or a snowboard. the only bad thing is at about 500 pounds it hurts a lot more than skis when it lands on you.

Thane on our way to find the group on Sunday. We didn't go with them earlier because I knew my sled was sick but I figured it would live to make a trip out and back later in the day.

Thane, my sister Jana (behind Thane) and Bernie about 25 minutes from the house. Thane and I went to try and catch up to these guys only to find Bernie (who has the exact same sled as me) on the way out because Bernie had lost compression in one cylinder. Mine was on it's way out but as long as I kept it out of the 5500 to 7000 rpm range it was fairly happy.

A pan up and down the last valley we ride in.

Clay after he fell off his sled and it went down the hill without him.

A view of the landscape, my finger covered part of the lens though...