JUNE 8: WILLOW CREEK; FISHING FOR KING SALMON

Hi there, from overcast Willow Creek, Alaska. Today we went over to the Parks maintenance barn and finished painting some boards for picnic tables. Chris is replacing some rotten boards at the campground. As we came back to camp and got out of the truck, a cow moose and calf crossed our entrance road about 50 yards from our truck. I'll have pictures of it the next time I post. I HAD the camera right in hand. We have missed several super shots just due to not having a camera handy. Now we absolutely have it with us at all times. Chris had a moose watch him fishing for 15 minutes the other day ....and no camera. Here's how our well dressed fisherman looks heading down to the river....It's about 10 pm.
Chris all geared-up, heading to the river for a night’s work trying to catch some King. But, like he says, that’s why they call it “fishing” and not “catching”….cuz he certainly wasn’t “catching”.

Chris made one of his best batches of fish chowder, using pike from Nancy Lake. Invited were Austin, a young trail crew volunteer from Indianapolis, and Josh and his daddy, Brad. They camp here and fish ALL THE TIME. Josh is a total outdoor phenomenon. In these pictures he is telling of his exploits killing two black bear last summer. One with his gun and the other with his 35# bow. And he’s only 11 yrs. old. He wasn’t spinning a tale cuz his daddy was right there. His dad just got out of military after 24 years.

More pics of the dinner....

You can tell that our grocery store is “ahead of the game” with their Christmas decorations…all they have to do is stand up the Christmas trees and plug in the lights and they’re good to go for decorations.

This is the cashier in the grocery store…she was very vocal, too. We came in, got some potatoes and a gallon of milk (for the fish chowder)…and then wondered if she could make change for a $10.00. At that moment a lady ran over from the hardware store and took our money and I didn’t have to find out if these vocal little guard dogs could make change.

This is about 11:30 p.m. Pretty, huh?

This is what midnight looked like on June 6; precisely 20 minutes after sunset. Isn’t this cool? It was very pretty and much lighter than the picture showed.

Chris gave up the fight shortly after midnight. As it turned out nobody else caught anything either. But most of them stayed long into the night. The King Salmon are not running yet. Only a handful have been taken out of here so far. There is some fear that this river might be closed to sport fishing of the King this year because not many returning salmon are passing the counting “wier” down river. (lots by our standards, but not many by fish & game standards).

This is absolutely the funniest book I’ve ever read. The author is well known in and around Anchorage. Chris has read the book and I am ½ way through. Bob Bell has a unique way of writing, describing Alaska as a person who is “out to get” him, as he relates many of his misadventures in the back country dodging bear and plane crashes. I highly recommend this for some light hearted reading that will give you many laughs.

It's supposed to rain for the next couple of days. The sunset tonight will be at 11:40 pm tonight and sunrise tomorrow at 4:20. So cool. The weathermen are as good as back in Indiana....so we just have to wait until tomorrow to see if it is going to rain.

Today we went to the dump station with our borrowed huge RV and met the owners of a new-ish campground very close to us. They just moved here last year from near Petoski, Michigan. She was very nice. Hope we see her again.

That's all for now folks. Until we "connect" again...