Thanks

I just want to thank Alaska Trophy Adventures for a fantastic trip and some wonderful memories. I'm already dreaming of the next trip and I think I've gotten the wife to agree to another trip in 5 years so we'll have to see about that:)

...And the fish (some of them)

Last but not least. Here are some of the fish from the trip:

Here's me (just in case you thought I wasn't actually there) with our guide Pete and a nice rainbow trout

Me, Pete, and a Coho salmon

One of the anadramous Dolly Varden (a char) caught on an egg pattern

Another Dolly

Two Arctic Graylings

Another rainbow

...Coho (my first)...

...and one last Dolly

The Wildlife

There were eagles...

and bears...

and wolves...

and there was the camp pack.

Traveling pictures

There was some pretty cool scenery between Anchorage and King Salmon.

This is Mount Redoubt, the volcano that erupted over the summer.

We flew over these mountains on the way to King Salmon

This mushroom was outside our room at The King Salmon Inn. All the people were absolutely great in King Salmon... the town's not much to look at though.

...and these are some pictures of the tundra (and our plane over the tundra) on the way to King Salmon.

Home at Last

Well we finally made it home and I can start uploading pictures. I'll start off with some travel pictures. We started our trip on rather routine Boeing 757's all the way to Anchorage. From Anchorage we boarded a twin turboprop plane (like this one except with a moose painted in front of the tail section)...

to King Salmon, Alaska. In King Salmon we went to this airport...

to board this plane...

to this airport...

which is also known as the Alagnak River. By the way that speck in the water is the snout of a Chum salmon in the pool that we landed in. The flights to the lodge were uneventful and all our luggage arrived to the lodge without a hitch. On the way back we took the same aircraft in reverse order except that our checked luggage was left in King Salmon (including a cooler full of coho and sockeye salmon fillets) due to weight and balance issues on the turboprop. There was a happy ending though with the luggage fiasco as the salmon arrived a mere 5 hours after we did by Northwest Airlines via Minneapolis to Reagan National airport, where my parents picked it up (we flew Delta airlines via Atlanta to Dulles but who cares the stuff arrived). The salmon was still frozen too. There was much beautiful scenery along the way which will have to follow on the next post

Last Day :(

Just finished the last day of fishing. It's been a wonderful week with lots of fish, bears, and eagles but tomorrow we leave Alaska to rejoin the real world:( I'm bummed... When I get back though I'll be able to post some of the pictures and video I've accrued over the past week. I'll be writing again soon.

We're here!!!

Well we made it. I would have liked to post some photos but each pic would take at least 5 minutes to upload so they'll have to wait. We made it to the lodge on progressively smaller planes starting with a boeing 757 and ending up on a single engine float plane. It was a fun trip and I have some good video I'll post later.

We got in yesterday and spent the day going over how things work at the lodge like turning on the heat (turns out my cabin and the guy's next door didn't have propane attached so it was a cold morning) and enjoying the scenery (which is amazing). Did a little fishing but only got a strike. That was last night...

Went fishing today for the first time. It was AWESOME. Got a number of pretty Dolly Varden, a few good sized rainbows (as well as a lot of smaller ones), my first salmon (a coho), my first grayling (some pretty critters), some whitefish, and a few scattered salmon fry about 2 inches long. Also hooked into an angry chum salmon with my light rod and it just owned me. It had my rod bent all the way down to the cork handle (I was trying not to break it) and was pulling line out at will. Finally it just tossed the hook and to be honest, I was a little relieved.

The other eventful happening of the day was when the brown bear walked out of the brush about 20 yards up river from where Dad was fishing on the same bank. Mom was bear watching but we think she was just waiting to see how close the bear would get before saying something (she's got some of Dad's underwear to clean tonight). The guide chased him off and we all went our separate ways.

Can't wait till tomorrow.

10 hours to go time...

The flight leaves in less than twelves hours and I'd like to thank all the people who made this trip possible: my understanding wife (who now knows that travel expenses were not included in the package price), my ever enthusiastic dog (who kept trying to climb into the car while I was packing), and last but not least - the doctors, NPs, nurses, and techs who loaded me up with anti-inflammatories so that hopefully I will be able to walk without pain by Monday. Thanks to all!

The Final Countdown

Just 2 more weeks!!!! I can't wait. I think I've got everything I need. I even got some nice upgraded sunglasses with dark and light lenses for different light conditions.