Devil's Creek

We took a last opportunity to get out before the snow hit and hiked Devil's Creek trail.  About seven miles in we reached our campsite.  The mountains above it were filled with sheep.  Unfortunately, it was a month after the season closed!  I did get several grouse, though.

After setting up camp, we dropped packs and hiked another three miles before turning around and heading back to camp.  We nearly had a critical dinner failure when the stove went out and the Husband couldn't get it to light again.  This was, of course, solved after he read the directions.

There wasn't any snow yet but it was still quite cold.  The ground was mostly frozen.  I was comfortable enough after putting on two of everything - including hats and scarves!  I need a new sleeping bag!

Fabulous Fall

 

This fall, we had the amazing chance to spend a week in the back country with two of our friends.  The Husband had a caribou tag for the Kenai Mountains, so we loaded up our packs and headed out into the middle of nowhere.  The thing about nowhere?  It's beautiful.

 

We spent several days camped near this beaver lake.  During the day we hiked the mountains around.  During the evening we watched the beavers work and play.  And during the night... words cannot encompass the beauty of the stars overhead when you are eighty miles from the nearest gas station and fifteen miles from the nearest road.  I only had a little point and shoot though, so no star pictures.

  

The crowberries were fat and tasty.  We'd scoop up handfuls as we walked.  Meant to bring back a few gallons, but we got distracted.

 

View from the top of the mountain.  We climbed it twice in a day, because as soon as we hit the valley floor, we looked up and saw the 'bou!  Once we got to the top though, they were gone.

 

While we didn't get a 'bou, we did get a bunch of ptarmigan, enough to mostly get rid of the nasty dried meat in our dinners.  This was my bird, cooked in the Bakepacker with a bit of bisquick and herbs for breading.  Delicious!

I'm back!

 

Well, I do apologize for the hiatus!  We have been so incredibly busy here, but now I have a break and would rather update here than clean the house!  So, here are some pictures from the end of summer.  The above is from our trip to Denali.  We saw all of the Big Five, which was exciting.  We also got very up close and personal with a sow and two cubs.  I chose the most adorable to post here!

 

This picture, also taken in Denali, earned me an honorable mention at the State Fair!

 

The Airshow was back in Anchorage.  I'm not a big Airshow fan, but we went and I got some nice pictures.  Also, a delicious chimichanga from a cart.

To finish off the summer, I had some close encounters of the ungulate kind when I went to check on the berries in the back yard.  With all the leaves up, I ended up accidentally getting in-between mama and baby... fortunately, we all survived!

A whale of a time...

Another week, another weekend in Seward!  I really do love that place...

Anyway, this weekend we were down to do a sight-seeing charter with the in-laws.  This is particularly neat because it's the first time I've been able to get out in the bay with my good camera (good camera does NOT go on fishing trips!).  I was very excited, particularly since last weekend we saw humpbacks breaching and even an orca.

The day was rather gray and rainy, which was less than pleasant, but par for the course.  Still, it wasn't so bad.  We had a table inside, and the outside was covered.  We were quickly rewarded, before even getting out of the harbor, by a bald eagle.

A few minutes into the bay we got very close to an otter.  Of course, I've got tons of otter pictures, but could always use more!  And we did get VERY close.  He was adorable, pretty much sleeping as we all stared at him.

As it turned out, the highlight of our trip came early.  We were just passing Fox Island when we sighted a pair of humpbacks.

Then the fun began.

 We were able to witness some really amazing stuff, things that people who've lived here their whole life have never seen.

And I sure wouldn't have wanted to be on the other end of this!

Later on, I got some of my favorites - puffins!  Both horned and crested.

Horned puffins are my favorite, but don't tell the crested puffins.  Shh!

Fishin' is the Mission!

This weekend was the second annual "Fill the Freezer" fishing trip.  See, we like to eat fish.  We like to catch fish.  But we don't like to do much work, so once a year we hire a charter and have them do the hard work.

That, and it's darned hard to catch a halibut without a boat. 

Now, I get very, very excited about this trip.  So excited that when Saturday rolled around I hopped out of bed and pretty much had the car packed by 10 am.  Whereupon the husband felt it necessary to remind me that racing down to Seward Right Now wouldn't make tomorrow morning come any faster.  I admitted this was true and waited most patiently.

Once we finally got on the road our trip started out auspiciously.  Not two minutes from home a juvie bald eagle swooped down in front of our car and killed a mouse!  I tried to get a picture, but he wanted some privacy for his meal.  We got into town with no troubles other than the drizzle we hoped would clear up for the next day.

I think I woke up every hour that night to check the clock and see if it was time to get up yet.  At 5 am I hopped out of bed and made sure everything was ready.  We checked in at 6 am to find that our neighbors were all there for fishing too!  Quite a coincidence, but we ended up being on a different boat.  Our was also the last boat to leave, but by 7 am we were cruising on out of the harbor, where we were met by a sea lion chowing down on a salmon.  Clearly, a good sign!

It took about 2.5 hours to get out to the halibut grounds - I manfully endured the open ocean with the help of some Dramamine (yes, I do get seasick, but not embarrassingly so!).  I expected the halibut fishing to be similar to last year - some waiting, only one fish hooked at a time.  That was not the case.  As soon as a hook hit the bottom, a halibut latched on to it.  As a result, everyone on the boat limited out in less than an hour, but they were all smaller 'but and never a good chance for pictures since you were constantly reeling one in!

The Husband's 'but.  He got the biggest one of the day from our boat, a whopping 20 lbs.  Last year we were reeling in ones twice the size!  But dinner-plate 'but is good eating.

My 'but.

After we limited out, we packed up and headed back into the bay about an hour to reach the salmon grounds.  The coho (silvers) were running, with the occasional humpy and rare chinook.  The salmon are a lot more challenging than the halibut.  They'll slip off the hook if you give them an inch.  In fact, The Husband got a bite first thing, but it gave him the slip.

After I had reeled in my first one, the cries of "whale" started coming.  Off the back of the boat were some humpbacks and boy were they having fun.  I actually stopped fishing for a minute or two to watch as they repeatedly fluked and breached, just like you always see on TV.  But this was real life!  Fishing and whale watching combined!

By the end, I'd gotten 5 cohos (the limit is six).  The only fish that got off my hook was a little humpy that I didn't really want anyway.  I did have a few bites that I missed the set on - if I hadn't made that mistake, I'd've limited out!  Husband came home with two, and also would have limited if he hadn't lost a couple and missed a few sets.  We still did good though!  Only one other couple did better, both of them limiting out.

Last year when we headed home, our boat broke down.  I must be a bad luck charm or something, because as we were getting ready to head home, another boat broke down and our Captain decided to break the rules and tow it in.  That cut our speed in third, and it took several hours longer to make it home.  But on the way we saw a killer whale!  Just a dorsal fin, but still cool.

Due to the delay I didn't get to take care of the fish quite the way I wanted.  No time to pull out pinbones or anything, since we were beat.  But it was still an amazing, fantastic day and we have plenty of fish for the next year!

"Pixies, mepps and spinning glow
Coho Fly is the way to go.
Fishin' is the mission and I'm on my way
Going to find a big one to make my day!
Sockeye, pink
Coho, king
Dog salmon running mean!"
- Kevin Downie

Kenai Wildlife!

We started our day by heading down to the Wildlife Conservation Center near Portage.  There was this adorable baby musk ox there, and the bears were more active than I'd ever seen!

Nom nom!  Tasty bone!  Just as soon as I put my camera down, he threw the bone into the air - it was pretty neat!

As soon as we reached Seward, we headed down towards Caine's Head in search of sea otters.  We found no less than half a dozen, plus a seal that I didn't get any photos of.

Mommy and baby... even though baby is almost as big as mommy!  I really want this same picture, but when baby is just a little fluffball.

Not one, not two, but three otters!  They are so cute playing together!

Bye bye!

And here's a juvie bald eagle.  He took his dinner out onto the gravel bar so as not to be disturbed... except by that seagull lurking around behind him!

BBA #25 - Pizza Napoletana

Pardon the smooshed appearance!

This pizza dough was absolutely fantastic!  The only trouble I had is that I found it very difficult to shape.  It tended to tear, I'm not sure why.

I made two different pizzas.  The first looked a lot better, since I used plenty of cornmeal to slide it onto the baking stone - unfortunately, I used so much cornmeal that I sent black smoke billowing throughout the house.  Between that and how good it tasted, I didn't get any photos of the first pizza.  This second one I tried to avoid the whole burning-thing, and used too little cornmeal instead, resulting in this smooshy look.  I must practice!