We actually are 30 percenters!

Day 16 August 30

Hit the road early as I really wanted to do the short hike into Three Lakes from the George Parks Highway and maybe see a moose eating in the lake. Pulled in, hopped out and started hiking along thinking about a moose when we realized we were also hiking in prime bear breakfast time. We quickly tired of yelling “hey bear” every few seconds so decided we should challenge ourselves to naming as many things as we could that had “bear” in the word. Came up with some good ones: BearGrylls, Bear Naked Ladies, Bear Claws, Chicago Bears, Smokey the Bear, Yogi the Bear, bearings, overbearing, teddy bear, and then it got a little out there with “bear”ass, child”bearing”, pall”brearers” – it certainly entertained us for the 3 mile hike. Sadly, arrive at the beautiful lake but no moose and thankfully, no bears!

As we drove down Hwy 3 about an hour outside of Denali National Park, I looked over and caught a glimpse of DENALI! The morning clouds had cleared up and she revealed herself. I asked for a photo stop which meant we had to find a turn out, turn around and retrace our steps to figure out where I caught the brief view and hopefully, before the clouds moved back in. Success!! Denali found!

From Denali National Park we cruised along Hwy 3 to Hwy 1 thru Anchorage and onto the Seward Highway to our destination – Cooper Landing. The drive was rather boring and mostly highways. Both of us were taken back at how populated and commercial the highway became around Wasilla and Anchorage. There was even a Fred Meyer and a Mini car dealer right off the highway. The day was rather grey and the photos not very dynamic but we did see a wind surfer out on the very wild water of Cook’s Inlet. Brave soul.

Landed at the Bear’s Den in Cooper’s Landing to enjoy a hot shower, a good meal and be ready for our big day of fishing on the Keani River tomorrow.

Is it better fishing if it’s pouring rain, windy and almost freezing ….inquiring minds want to know!

Day 17, August 31

We awoke to pouring rain and wind. Inquired if today would be a good day to fish – and of course it was – it’s ALASKA….Bundled up with everything I had and stuffed myself in to XL waders and off we went. I cannot lie, my mood was pretty skeptical. Met our guide, CAMERON a native born local, who was full of enthusiasm for the day ahead so we went with that! Jumped into his drift boat as the wind literally pushed us up river. Cameron insisted this was the best place to fish on the Kenai (I should also mention there were about 8 other boats out there at the same time). Pretty soon Ron landed the first DOLLY (yes, that is the fish’s name – and no, it’s not named after Dolly Parton). Pretty soon Ron landed 2,3,4 more fish – yep, I was skunked. We floated around and back through the same sections and eventually, I also got a hit! Felt better that I wasn’t completely skunked even though Ron was bringing in 4 fish to my 1. The river was beautiful when the sun peaked out and our guide was shocked to see snow on the mountain tops…guess winter in Cooper’s Landing starts pretty early but August is a bit extreme.

Slowly made our way downriver fighting the wind as we travelled but thankfully the rain was only a small shower every so often. I was still freezing and wishing I had gloves! We were really blown away the first time we saw a spawning sockeye salmon leap up out of the water – brilliant red colors (and not at all interested in our offerings which mimicked their own eggs!). More Dolly’s as we moved on down river. Suddenly the species changed and we were see King Salmon majestically floating right over our lines but that means the Rainbow were nearby. Our guide explained to us that the Salmon spawn and then die so the Rainbow come in and eat the decaying Salmon and the freshly laid eggs, so if we saw Salmon, good chance there were Rainbow nearby. Feeling a bit chilled and sore from all the casting, I sat down in the boat and was just letting my line hang out in the water……BOOM. No one could believe it but I landed the first Rainbow of our trip and it was almost 24”! For the rest of the trip the Rainbow were biting and we were often each catching a fish at the same time. I was impressed with our guide as he calmly dealt with the boat through rapids, netted one fish, removed the hook and then moved on to take care of the second fish. We both had a great time – and neither of us can remember how many fish we caught as we caught a lot of beautiful fish- Cameron laughed when we were amazed by the size of the Rainbows -and commented “Welcome to Alaska”!