Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: This is the ideal life. ~ Mark Twain
I will add some adventure as well to that quote:)
End of Juneau visit with Dave
Soldotna 6/20-6/27
In this blog entry, I will make it less diary-like! I know I was just going through our days in more of a diary format in the last few entries which is great for remembering the days but quite boring to the outside reader. Kind of like those FB entries where people reported their daily events like going to the dentist.
I have a FB account, we both do, but are not actively on it for that reason and a host of others. Ok, different topic... I am just going to post a bunch of pics and say our time in Juneau with Dave and our time in Soldotna with Matt and Amahra Kalush, Erin and Matt Federer, and their Soldotna extended family was incredible and memorable!
Dave, Stephen, and I took advantage of the great Juneau weather and got on some great hikes including Mt. Roberts and Blackerby Ridge. Interspersed in these hikes were lots of laughter, fun meal sharing, and brewery time at the Hidden Peak Brewery in Auke Bay.
Our visit to Soldotna to "Camp Kalush", as we affectionately call it, was also a blast. We FISHED!! Capital letters are like yelling! Flipping on the Kasilof River and heading out off the peninsula from 3 different spots: off Homer ( where Matt and Amahra have a boat) and then out of Deep Creek and Anchor Point ( Kenai Peninsula) using their buddy, Stu’s boat. The boat trips were for halibut fishing and the flipping was for Sockeye salmon. The salmon run was a bit early and the river counts only 6,000 - yep, sonar gives a fish count for folks to see. Kinda cheating but you still have to get a fish:) But certainly the higher the count the more likely success. The well-known Russian River, north of Soldotna on the way to Anchorage, had much higher fish counts but also elbow-to-elbow humans. No thanks! Our preference is a more peaceful place for a transcendental fish experience:) sounds quite Zen... Instead of Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, how about Zen and the art of Flipping. Definitely Zen-like, possibly tendonitis-causing, but nonetheless, the repetition with your rod in a river flowing the color of aquamarine speckled with hues of aventurine, howlite, and blue apatite ( definitely I googled blue gemstones- ha) and a shoreline lined with spruce and hemlock trees wafting scents in the air can definitely get you closer to Nirvana.
We did not fair so well on the flipping trips but neither did any of the guided folks we saw. One of the women of our crew, Erin Federer, showed us all up with getting a Sockeye each time, and we all came up empty-handed. Despite empty hooks, we all had smiles on our faces and I think our inner selves succumbed to the meditation.
On the other hand, the halibut fishing was INTENSE!! We all scored our 2 easily and then some, throwing back the smaller ones if larger ones were on the line but kept our official 2 pp/limit by the return of the day. We fished in 100-130 ft of water. A bigger fish we learned is not really ideal. Big filets you need to cut down to cook better and can be a hazard to bring on board.
We had glassy water days, music playing, and lots of halibut being brought on board. My forearms were screaming with lactic acid at the end of each day. I actually DID NOT want to reel in another fish because it was exhausting! HA! Amahra fisherwoman extraordinaire, schooled us all on how to clean a halibut and then on the Kalush fish processing procedures. MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY FOLKS! See the video below.
Our daily crew included Matt and Amahra but also Erin and Matt Federer. Previous skydiving friends, who also became medical professionals, just moved to Alaska from New Hampshire and are staying in a camper on the Kalush property. So the daily events were 3 couples sharing breakfast, fishing all day, fish processing, and then group dinners that would then include the Soldotna extended family. We met Stu, Wayne, Terry, and a myriad of other friends of Matt and Amahras'. They have a great crew of friends up there! They are always so generous and thoughtful, so breakfasts and dinners might include a few of these guys or ALL of these guys joining in a meal. Each person’s genuine effort to offer hospitality made all of the events run smoothly and be super FUN! We learned a ton as Stephen, nor I had participated in halibut fishing. or knew how to "flip". Our fish cleaning skills were enhanced by Amahra’s great lessons and sweet encouragement.
We will miss these guys and look forward to future adventures at Camp Kalush!
Also, a big goodbye to Dave Hornung in Juneau! We will cross paths again soon enough, he may even try to join still on our visit to Tracy Arm or Fords Terror anchorage.
You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can’t forget. Those are your ‘friends’. ~ Mark Twain
Gypsy! So I forgot to mention we had a visit with Gypsy, also a friend from DeLand, Florida who now is a school administrator in Anchorage. We stayed the night with her and had dinner and in the morning made our way for the 3-hour drive south to Soldotna.
On one of the dinner nights, Upper left is black cod that had a brown sugar, soy glaze ( My FAV), tanner crabs, halibut cheeks with panko bread crumb and fried, and then some spotted shrimp- HOLY WOW! This was a seafood feast!!!!
Despite my comment about not wanting to catch a bigger fish….well, Erin scored a 100lb fish she reeled in herself with an injured finger. This was the day after we left.
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