THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 44, & 45 June 29, 30, 2009 Russian River to Anchorage, AK

It was an early morning for me as I tried my hand at Salmon Fishing once again. I got up at 5:00 am, had coffee and headed down to the ferry to cross the river. I fished for about 2 hours and actually got 4 on my line and couldn't get any of them in. If I loosened the tention they just ran away and if I tightened it they simply broke the line. I talked with a couple of old pros and they told me that my line was too light. I had 25 lb. test on and I needed at least 40 lb. to fish in this conjested area as you do not have room to play them. However it was still fun.

I headed by to the camper, had something to eat and we headed down the road to the Russian River Campsite and hoped to get a parking spot. We wanted to hike up to the Russian River Falls and watch the salmon jumping.



The Salmon were jammed in at the bottom of the falls waiting to get a chance at the falls. We watched them trying to get up and it was a difficult task. There was a fish ladder that Parks and Wildlife opened when there got to be too many pooled together. You could not fish right at the bottom of the falls but had to be 600 yards downstream.

















It was about a 3 mile hike one way and going in was mostly uphill. The good part was that the mosquitos were not that bad as Kathy only had to pull her bug hat once. We reached the end of the trail and watched the falls and the fishermen for awhile and then headed back.



On the way we saw a mother Ptarmigan and her chicks and were able to get a couple of shots.




Kathy also said I needed to take pictures of something other than landscape and animals. So here are some Alaskan Flowers.








Wild Geranium












Alaskan Wild Rose








When we got back to the parking lot we changed clothes and headed for Anchorage. The drive from the cutoff of the Sterling Highway and the Seward highway north into Anchorage is just as stunning as the drive down. I would hope that if I lived here I would never get complacent and take this rugged beauty for granted.

We arrived in Anchorage and had plans to take the truck in for an oil change and front end alignment and then head east towards Glenallen. Well you know what happens when you make plans. It turns out I needed a little more work on the front end that I thought and they couldn't get it done until the next day. A thousand dollars later the shimmy has gone out of the front end. So we stayed two nights in Anchorage and left as soon as the truck was ready on the 1st of July.