Anchorage
I headed down to Anchorage from Denali on the Yukon Alaskan shuttle. It wasn't a bad ride, I had already experienced it going the other direction. It gave me some time to reflect on my time in Alaska, plan the rest of the trip, and think about life questions I had. Nine hours on a bus gives plenty of time to think about all those things. I made it to Anchorage and headed to the hostel I usually stay at in Anchorage. They were full, so I headed to the Backpackers hostel in downtown Anchorage. I had been warned about this hostel and assumed it would not be very comfortable based on the description I had heard. When I finally got to my room I realized there was a guy that had been staying there for almost two months. This is always a bad thing in a hostel because it usually means that the person can't afford an apartment that requires a lease and that they may be low class people. The guy had dirty clothes stacked everywhere. I only stayed in the room one night and was changed to another one the following day. At this point I decided that I had raised my standard for where I was willing to stay. While I was in Europe something like this would not have bothered me that much. I guess I am getting soft or maybe just clean.
The following day I had plans to meet up with a friend I met at a Young Life camp eight years earlier and hadn't seen since. Her
name is Jami, she lives in Anchorage with her husband Jason who is an Army officer and deployed in Afganistan. Before I was able to meet up with Jami I went over to the farmers market in downtown Anchorage. The market was huge, probably the biggest I had ever seen. Once I started going through the market I realized it is a tourist trap and that they barely sell any food, I enjoyed it though. There were a lot of interesting shops that made hand forged knives with antler handles, wolf pelts, and Alaskan pottery. It all seemed like things I would put in my house, but since I don't have a house I decided not to buy anything.
Jami met up with me right outside the market. I jumped into her brown Jeep Grand Cherokee with my hiking pack, fishing rods, and backpack. I don't know if she expected me to have so much stuff, but she didn't seem to mind. Jami and I had plans to go over the the Anchorage Air Show at Elmendorf Air Force base. The air show is only every two years, so this was a very special event to be able to go to. We met up with Jami's friend Laurie, who's husband is also deployed in Afganistan. As we were driving up to the show sitting in traffic an F-22 started flying over. The capabilities of the aircraft were amazing. It would be three hundred feet in the air at a forty five degree angle practically sitting still. I guess it had its engines running so that the plane would not change elevation and the forty five degree angle allowed it to move slowly
laterally through the air. Once we were parked and got over to where the airstrip was a C-17, an USAF cargo plane, started flying. It was a large plane, but was able to do a lot of maneuvering for such its size. The C-17 was not what I was excited about; the Blue Angles were next and there were six of them. The large blue and yellow, University of Michigan colors, F-16s took off in opposite directions passing each other. When they were in the air they started doing their tricks. One plane would come from the left and the other from the right. The one on the left would be flying upside down and the one on the right right-side up. They would pass each other at four hundred miles per hour, eight hundred relative to each other, with only a three foot gap!!! At the end of the show all six airplanes grouped together. They formed a flying V and did a few circles around the crowd. Right before they landed they came directly at the crowd and when only a few hundred yards away they split apart into a form that looked like massive Forth of July firework.
Following the air show Jami, Laurie, and I went over to Jami's house to cook salmon Jami's brothers had caught just a few weeks ago. A few of Jami's other friends came over to the house, all were Army wives, so I was the different one. They were all very inclusive and friendly to me. Jami put a great salmon rub on the fish. It turned out to be a great dinner with the salmon, asparagus, rice, and french bread.
The following day I went out on my own around Anchorage. I was searching for the library, since I wanted to look at a book on log homes and caribou hunting, I was interested in learning about the Alaskan life. I ended up never finding the library, but a car show along my route, a great park, an Alaskan train, and a funny man that gave Texas a hard time. I was walking up along 10th street just a few blocks from downtown and there was a park that was one block wide and probably at least ten blocks long. I headed up 10th street looking for the library and saw what looked like a giant fair, it was actually a classic car show. I got to go around and see old corvettes, customized Chrysler 300's, and classic pick up trucks. I was most interested in the pick up trucks since, I would like to own one at some
point. I took a few pictures of the trucks I liked. The pictures were not for the memory of the experience, but for record of the kind of classic truck I would like to buy in the future. I left the car show and was over by the farmers market. I was looking for a vinyl sticker for my car in the shape of Alaska. I saw a booth that had a lot of shirts and bumper stickers. They didn't have what I wanted, but the guy working there asked me for my hand. I trusted him and gave it to him. He formed my hand into the shape of Alaska. Then he pulled out a sticker in the shape of Texas and placed it in the center of my hand. He said, "Alaska is a lot bigger than Texas". I think this man's humor would have offended a lot of my friends that went to Texas A&M, but I thought it was hilarious. Eventually as I was walking around I passed over the railroad and a train started coming. Alaska has beautiful trains; the site of them implies they are the most powerful machines in the world with an elegance about them. I had experienced plenty for the day and decided to turn in and head back to the hostel and rest up, since I was heading to Soldotna the next morning.
Soldotna: "Voted the #1 Fishing Hotspot in North America by Field & Stream Magazine in 2004, the Kenai River offers you world class Chinook (King), Sockeye (Red), Coho (Silver) and Pink Salmon fishing, not to mention some of world’s finest trout fishing!" -- VisitSoldotna.com
Early in the morning, 9:00 am I got on a bus from Anchorage down to Soldotna on the Stage Line shuttle. Every once in a while you have to sit next to a smelly person on the bus, it was my turn. The gentleman seemed friendly, but because of the musk and heavy european accent I decided to avoid conversation with him. I think he had been backpacking for a while and may not have had a shower or a toothbrush for at least a few weeks. When we got into Soldotna I started to pay close attention to where everything was located. I was looking for a grocery store, a fishing store, and the Kenai river. When the shuttle dropped me off at my campsite I set up my tent quickly, walked over to the Kenai river just fifty feet away, and then headed over to the fishing store I had located on the way in. The gentleman at that store told me the fishing technique and tackle I should use. After leaving the store I realized I would need fishing waiters, neoprene pants that keep your legs warm when standing in the water. I didn't want to buy a new pair since they would be very expensive so I looked up thrift stores. I headed over to one called Bishop's Attic and found a pair worth at least $150 for $15. I was happy with my purchase and went back to get started fishing as quick as possible.
With my new waiters on I tied on the fly on to my leader. The fly rod I was using I found in the free bin at the hostel in Anchorage, this meant I spent a total of $20 to get fully outfitted to fish in Alaska. It would have cost me at least $200 to have a fishing guide, what a great deal. At the river I walked in the water to about five feet off the shore. I was looking around at the other fishermen trying to pick up tips and tricks that they were using. I felt they knew I was watching them. With in the first hour I had a fish on the line, but my fly broke off so I lost the fish. It was still very exciting. I tied on a new fly and got back in the water. With in a half hour I had another fish on the line. I immediately thought I was going to max out on fish and get to send at least fifty pounds of fish home, but then the leader broke off and I lost the fish. The fly rod I had found had not been set up correctly. I got a little disappointed and decided to give up fishing for the day. The following day I got back out fishing and was in the water for almost ten hours with not even a bite. I honestly thought I was cursed, everyone else around me was catching a ton of fish. In the tenth hour my logic told me I must be doing something wrong, it should have been obvious in the second hour. I added on another lead weight and started fishing again. Boom, within forty five minutes I had a red salmon on the line. It was a fighter and I didn't know if I would be able to get the fish in. It is especially hard to bring in a fish when you don't have a net to catch it. When the fish was with in ten feet I grabbed the end of the line and started bringing the fish near the bank. I pinned it up against the sand and rock bank. The typical way of getting the fish to stop moving is to club it, but I pulled my knife and cut high on its head to sever the spinal cord. The fish stopped moving. I had seen in the Soldotna magazine an article on how to fillet a fish; this was very useful because I had never filleted a fished before. I grabbed my knife sharpener, the magazine, and fish and went to work. I did surprisingly well for being a beginner and having a four inch Buck knife instead of the a fillet knife. The head came off first, the guts came out, one fillet was removed, the other fillet was removed, and finally the ribs were cut out. Dinner was ready to be cooked. I started a camp fire; after the fish had marinated in terriaki sauce for a few minutes I threw the fish on top of the grill. I sat there pulling off pieces of the salmon as they were ready to be eaten. I enjoyed this meal greatly and finished it excited to eat the other fillet the next day when I would be in Homer.
Homer: "A quaint town nestled on the shore of Kachemak Bay offering breathtaking views of glaciers, mountains and wildlife. Homer is known to many as the 'Cosmic Hamlet by the Sea,' but it was made famous in Tom Bodett's tales as 'The End of the Road.'"- HomerAlaska.org
The bus ride from Soldotna was an easy one. I spent time reading and planning the next few days of the trip. I was in Homer with in a few hours with no complaints of the people that were riding the bus with me. I stayed on Homer Spit, a long narrow peninsula off the downtown area. The campground only cost eight dollars a night, so I had some extra money to spend. A man named, Marv, who was camping down the beach from me came over when I arrived and introduced himself to me. He was a very friendly man in his late fifties. He offered to take me into town to get food from the grocery store. This saved me twelve miles of walking, I was very appreciative. When
we got back from the store he offered me some firewood that he didn't think he was going to be able to use by the time he left. I grabbed six logs and headed to my campsite to cook the rest of the same I had caught the previous day. Cooking the salmon I had caught and filleted on a flat rock over a camp fire may have been the most manly thing I have ever done. The salmon was delicious yet again.
The next day I walked into town, about five miles away. I stopped by a job center to ask about engineering job in Alaska, went to a realty company to ask some questions about home prices, and went to the library to get information on log cabins and caribou hunting. I got all the information I wanted from the job center and realty company, but the library had barely any
information on caribou hunting or log cabins. I ended up just reading magazines for a few hours since I was tired from my long walk. By the time I had gotten back near the campsite I was ready to relax and do nothing, but as I was approaching my site I saw an eagle on top of a red theater building. I went over and snapped a few close up pictures. The eagle must have known people were watching him and wanted to do a performance. He started flying around in circles chasing seagulls rights above me. It was a great photo opportunity. He finally landed on a light post just a few yards from where I was and so I took even more pictures. I was so amazed by what was happening I took almost one hundred pictures of the bird!
I rode a bus from Homer and I am now back in Anchorage. I am wrapping up my trip and organizing the last few things I am going to do with my time here. I will probably spend some time in Wasilla, Palmer, and then just submitting resumes since I will have to return to reality soon.
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