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Winter is coming… fast!

Leaves are all turning and there is termination dust on all the peaks now. Winter is coming. Almost time to start tuning the skis.

September day in Broad Pass south of Cantwell, AK. Fresh snow on all the peaks.

Boots, boats and planes… roadless Labor Day Weekend.

No cars were involved this Labor Day weekend. What a nice feeling it was to take off in a small plane out of Anchorage and see everyone scrambling to get out of town for Labor Day Weekend. One stop and two hours later we touched down in Port Alsworth, AK – about 170 miles southeast of Anchorage. It is on the border of Lake Clark National Park. Our friends have a place on the lake there and we had a fantastic weekend fishing, eating, boating and enjoying to cool fall weather. What an amazing place that sees so few people. One weekend was not enough. You could spend years exploring this area and still not see everything. We’ll definitely have to go back. Some photos from the weekend:

Fly fishing for pike in Lake Clark, Alaska

Stalking pike in the reeds while fly fishing in Chulitna Bay on Lake Clark, Alaska

Fly fishing for Pike in Lake Clark National Park

Bear tracks in the sand on the beach on Lake Clark, Alaska

Waves crashing on the beach near Port Alsworth, AK.

Wetlands surrounding the Chulitna River near Lake Clark, AK

Sunset on Lake Clark from the porch of the cabin.

Oh, hey neighbors

Got home the other evening and had some visitors in the backyard. One of them even knocked on the bedroom window.

Fishing my way home

Last week I had to drive from Fairbanks back to Anchorage for work. Beautiful weather and what better way to break up the drive – stop and fish Troublesome Creek. The fall colors were starting to come out as well. I met a friend at the pullout and we walked down to the mouth for some fly fishing for coho and rainbows. A few days prior I stopped to fish here and it was raining like crazy and I was harassed by a black bear – this time the sun was out and didn’t see any bears. Denali was out and I caught a handful of rainbows and two silver salmon. No bad days!

View of Mount McKinley from south of Cantwell

Fall colors were in full force around Broad Pass

Fly Fishing at the mouth of Troublesome Creek

Hunting for clams

A few weeks back we headed to Clam Gulch, AK to see if we could rummage up some razor clams. We knew the clamming was not going to be that good because you need a negative tide and the low tides that day were a +2 and +4. The weather was good and we had the beach to ourselves. We pulled our campers out on the beach and enjoyed the sunset, campfire and had great views of both the volcanos across Cook Inlet – Mount Redoubt and Mount Illiamna. In the end the group snagged 18 clams and it was well worth the trip.

Camping on the beach at Clam Gulch in Alaska

Enjoying the sunset on a beach on the Kenai Peninsula

Floating Down a River (and a lake)

Last weekend we had the pleasure of floating the Nelchina and Tazlina rivers in South-Central Alaska. The rivers are located just on the northern side of the Chugach Mountain Range. We had 8 people, 1 dog, too much gear, and 4 different boats – two 16′ rafts, a packraft, and a whitewater canoe. The Little Nelchina was pretty small for a big raft, the Nelchina was a calm and smooth glacial river, Tazlina Lake was a great booze cruise with a 5 h.p. outboard, and the Tazlina River we had some good waves and a quick pace. Overall a 78 mile high quality float and good times had by all (possibly too good of a time). Some images from the trip…

Safety break on the banks of the Nelchina River

Dinner on the banks of the Tazlina River

Camp 2 on the banks of the Tazlina River

+ high-res version

Fishin’ on the Fourth

Went down to the Russian River after work on the 3rd for some fly fishing. Fished all night and brought some fresh sockeye salmon for the 4th BBQ. Got home at about 5:30 a.m. and got some sleep before the 4th festivities began. Not a bad way to kick off Independence Day! Here are some photos taken from midnight to 2 a.m.

Buddy fly fishing for some sockeye salmon around 2 a.m.

Russian RIver right below the falls. Got kind of dark at 1 a.m.

+ high-res version

Tok, AK Panorama

A great view from our campsite and the Alaska Highway on the last night of our move north.

View of Midway Lake in Alaska on our last night before we made it to Anchorage

Long Road North

Well, it was a hell-of-a move north. It was supposed to be a 5 day trip and quickly turned into a 10 day trip. Our route north included these notable (or not so notable) waypoints:

Boise, ID (Start)
Spokane, WA
Lake Louise, AB
Jasper, AB
Dawson Creek, BC (Start of the Alaska Highway)
Semi Truck brake check area (AKA campsite) in the Canadian Oil Sands
Watson Lake, YT (4 day layover due to highway closure)
Haines Junction, YT
Kluane Lake, YT
Tok, AK
Anchorage, AK (End)

Here are a few photos from our journey…

Trucks lined up ready to bring critical supplies north after 4 days of no food or fuel traveling on the highway

Cold night camping at the Icefield Center in Jasper National Park

Moose and Mojo playing on the beach of Kluane Lake in the Yukon

The “Super-moon”

We had the great fortune to be camping the night of the “super-moon” in the City of Rocks, Idaho. The moon lived up to all the hype about how bright it was. We lucked out and had zero clouds in the sky all night. Here are some photos – believe it or not, these were all taken at night.