August 14, 2007

Dear One and All,

So much has happened since my last letter I hardly know where to begin. The last day with the otters found the sun out and wind down, not enough to allow us to go onto the rocks with the tides acting up, but enough for us to get really close and catch some great moments with them.

Then it was evening and time to head for Kodiak and the Ferry and rejoin up with Ken, Cathy, and the boys, Jamey and Cathy Shusta. We did a brief stop off at the Sea Life Center in Kodiak and had a look around with Lee and picked up his mail and got to see the six page article just released in the Fish Alaska Magazine about his marvelous Wilderness Camp and Guiding.

The ride on the Ferry was a lot more fun this time as it was an old Ferry and our “State Rooms” (two bunks, a bench, a sink and a window) were much better than the bigger, newer Ferry’s State Rooms, (two bunks)
The little restaurant was like the entire boat, vintage. This gave our trip a feeling of being in the Sherlock Holmes movie, Escape to Algiers. The kids all loved it especially since they were in a “State Room” with four bunks, a sink and a window.

Everyone was full of stories about their adventures, from Ken’s Katmi National Park, Grizzly Bear photo shoot. “I was on this rock just above the bears. The detail I was getting was great! They were huge and walking right under me.” To Cathy, Brock, Connor, Quinn and Jamey’s fish stories. “A ninety pound Halibut, a twenty three pound King Salmon Momack, No kidding, those fish were that big” To Randy’s “I caught 75 Salmon in less than two hours.” To Cathy Shusta’s hiking story. “The tide pools were amazing, we were seeing these Starfish with like twenty five legs and they were all different colors.” The fun was swirling around my head. What a blessing!

Next day we were back at Homer and moving the coach out to the “Spit” This is the finger that sticks out into the ocean on the South East end of Homer. It’s sand and rocks and shanties, and campers, and tenters, and folks fishing from boats, or the shore or folks walking around looking in the shops or eating in the numerous fish shacks. It’s really a fun and interesting spot and certainly not like any I have ever seen before. We had a campfire on the beach with Ken and Cathy and the boys and ate hot dogs and some mores and drank lots of soft drinks and watched the boys play around the water while the tide was coming in and making small waves. It was windy and cold. But, we were so glad the whitecaps on the ocean were then and not the day before while we were all on our return trip.

Next day was Randy and I leaving before 7:00 am for a meeting with Rick Ernst the Moose biologist for the Kenai Refuge, and Ken bringing Cathy, and the boys and Jamey and Cathy Shusta back up to Anchorage in the Coach to catch their planes for home.

Rick was incredible! He was in the midst of a study on how the traffic is affecting the moose population on his refuge and he took his day off to spend with us because he couldn’t do it any other way with his study going on. Spend it with us he did. He did a highly informative interview and then took us on a loop road through a portion of the refuge that was an excellent example of what the Kenai contains. The weather was perfect and the footage and photography along with his narration were some of the best we have gotten on the trip. We happily followed him as far as he would let us, and suddenly he was gone and we were racing against time to make Anchorage before Jamey left Alaska.

We were driving up to the Millennium Hotel parking lot just as they were getting into the shuttle to head for the airport. So I jumped in the shuttle with them while Randy followed behind in the jeep. We were able to have some quality time together before Jamey got on the plane with Cathy and the boys. I watched as they all gaily headed for the check in, Ken in the lead with Cathy bringing up the rear making sure all the boys were in tow. Brock helping Jamey with his biggest bag as any big brother would, and I realized that for Jamey this trip not only gave him his first taste of Alaska but, gave him new very special friendships that will last his lifetime. Here we also parted ways with Cathy Shusta as she continues on her journey to California to pick up her grand children and take them to Hawaii. What a wonderful time that will be.

The next two days in Anchorage were typical but, stuff had to get done. Ken dropped by to pick up film and cd’s full of photos to take back with him and we gave him a ride back to the Millennium where he tried to help me with my wifi but, there was too much wrong. It took a computer Geek at Best Buy (I think I told everyone about this) two tries. It was hard to say goodbye to Ken this time knowing we would not see him until we got home. He as been such a champion on this trip, what a guy! But, that night Randy took me to see the Bourne Ultimatum to cheer me up. It was great fun, but odd to be watching a movie after all the unusual places we have been and things we have done here. It seemed almost other worldly.

Early the next morning, after filling up both vehicles, we were headed out of town with my ears ringing and head spinning from the city noise hammering at my head relentlessly for forty eight hours. We were on our way back to the Kenai to spend some time. We got as far as Hope. Found a little campground called the Dacha, run by a nice Russian woman and bedded down for the night. The next morning found us up and exploring this area. Here was Resurrection Creek and the Salmon were running, here was Six Mile River with the three canyon run and here was a tiny old mining town that was busted before it ever boomed and it all spelled lots for Randy to do while I got some desperately needed rest and enjoyed the most beautiful campground we have experienced (The Chugiak State Park) and actually fly fished a great river, (Resurrection) and caught a bunch of fish, (Salmon) and slept twenty four hours straight.

Randy’s float down six mile river was one of the greatest adventure of his lifetime to this point. He said he has never been in white water that intense. He was full of stories. “You start off by having to swim the river and prove that you can swim three hundred yards in a white water river, fully dressed in a dry suit (to keep you from getting hypothermia) and a white water life jacket and helmet.” Once Randy did that, he positioned himself to be in the front of the six man raft with a guide in the back. This is a paddle assist raft, where the floaters are much more involved in controlling the raft. This trip was made up of two sections. The first section being two canyons with class three and four rapids; one was a high four going on five. Participants to accomplish that section have a choice of going on to the second section (the third canyon) or not. The float started with four rafts six floaters each. Half of the people who started chose not to continue into the third canyon, leaving two rafts. The third canyon had incredibly sheer walls, waterfall deep drops, and huge hydraulics with names like, Corkscrew, Stair Step and Suck Hole. After the first class five which was at Stair Step Randy’s guide decided they were good enough to surf the hydraulics. (Facing the raft upstream and riding the back wash into the falling water.) “This was a thrilling experience, the danger was in getting too close to the falling water as it could suck us in”. This is exactly what happened to Randy. It sucked him in, drew him under the raft and spit him out the back. His left foot got stuck in the stirrup on the front end and he was violently jerked over upside down in the water and held there until he could break himself loose. The guide said it was one of the most violent occurrences of being jerked out he had seen that year. Of course he was dumbfounded to look back and see Randy grinning at him from behind the raft. The next few runs were a series of class fives. It was incredible white water but as a team they were working well together, but, twice they lost two people and pulled them back in. The man next to Randy was knocked out of the raft during this run as well. The next Canyon was Corkscrew. This funnels you between two massive boulders and over a six foot waterfall straight down into another boulder. Going through the waterfall they were thrown violently to the left and literally corkscrewed down. Loosing everyone in the process except for the guide, (nasty) They were all carried down through the next Canyon and series of rapids as they were trying to get back into the raft.

Later that evening at dinner with Randy’s guide Ron, he told us he had made a mistake at Corkscrew and hit the boulder to the right instead of the left causing them to corkscrew down. He is the top guide of the professional guides for this company and will go from here to South America to guide class five floating there. He seldom makes mistakes. But, it must be remembered that they all do. The river changes all the time. Six mile creek, a five hour over all float, is considered the premier road accessible white water rafting in Alaska.

Randy loves the risk. He loves the excitement. He loves the beauty that can only be seen from the river’s point of view in these dangerously narrow canyons.

Then it was time for Seward and the Alaska Sea Life Center for some close ups of Horned and Tufted Puffins, along with underwater diving shots as well, Sweeeet! I got some great underwater shots of a beautiful spotted seal, but it never got out of the water as it was a hot day. Needless to say we were glad we went,

Yesterday we went back to the Wildlife Conservation Center I visited in the rain with Barton and Sarah Jennings a few weeks ago and we were able to get some wonderful up close footage and photos of Brown Bears and Grizzlies, in natural habitat due to the fact that they are kept in an eighteen acre compound with a large pond for swimming and rough woods just like in the wild.

Today we are at the Russian River Campground and Randy went up the river to look for Grizzlies while I went over to the Dena’ina Indian Center across the street from the campground and interviewed the two young native people who are working there this summer. This center and trail have been created through a cooperative between the Dena’ina Tribe and the Department of the Interior to protect the rivers edge in this section along the road. An educational center has been built and a boardwalk put along the river and fishing is not allowed on the road side of the river, so fishing is only accessible by boat. This protects the waterfront, the fish and the fishermen as this is also the deep side of the river. Here for the first time I was able to interview native people and bring their point of view into the picture. I must say that I have to give credit for this breakthrough to a special woman I met at the campground today. Her name was Dee Morris and she is here with her husband, sons, and grandchildren. I met them as I was walking Giclee. When she asked me where I was going from there, I gave her a brief explanation of my work and my plight with native people here in Alaska and she immediately gathered me into a circle with her husband to have a serious talk with God about this. I was so taken by her sincere good heart! I found her irresistible. I invited her to come with me and she happily agreed. So I was accompanied by my new “stage manager”; a short, slim, woman in her seventies with close cropped light gray hair wearing a bright turquoise tweety bird sweatshirt and eyes that snapped with a humor that matched her attire. With her help this is was ground breaking day and I hope the beginning of a new trend as I continue on this amazing trip.

Randy returned to camp with stories of bears; a Black Bear and a Grizzly Sow with a cub. He met them on the river while he was fishing and exploring. The Black Bear he first saw about a hundred yards up river and in spite of his saying “Yo Bear”, he just kept coming and then Randy realized he couldn’t hear him above the river so he just kept talking to the bear and finally moved his arms to get his attention. Then the bear stopped and looked at him and crossed over to the other side and went on his way. The Sow and her cub were a similar experience, except she came from down river. Again, she did not hear him until she was pretty close, not more than twenty yards away. When she did see him she immediately began to cross the river and try to coax her young cub to follow her. That was not easy and by the time she got her baby to the other side they were no more than thirty feet away. But, she clearly understood through Randy’s behavior that he was not a threat; as he back up as much has he possibly could with a high bank behind him. So she simply walked on by. Not long after this, three guys with one little digital camera came barging up the river trying to catch up to this Sow and her Cub. Randy warned them away, but they did not listen so he followed them for a short distance and warned them away again, fearing that they would trap her with her Cub between them and two fishermen Randy knew were up river. While he was talking with them out of the corner of his eye he saw her move into the woods about a hundred yards up the river. So he knew that the situation had been relieved. He got some great shots with his little camera and we are in the process of figuring out how to get both of us up there tomorrow for some more bear opportunities and back in time for our interview with the Polar Bear Biologists in Anchorage. Now it is raining, so we will have to see what the weather will let us do. Randy is asleep in the back, resting after such a long and strenuous hike and I am writing to all of you while cooking some new potatoes on the stove for our steak dinner we were going to grill, but it looks like I will be pan grilling on the stove inside now.

What at time these last few days have been, we have seen so much and done so much. Now as we begin to wind down Alaska we are making lists of what we need to accomplish before we leave the state. It looks like we will be headed for Tok soon and then Haines and then we will be leaving Alaska and headed for the Great North West. It’s so good to have Randy here. He is having such a marvelous time and we have fallen so easily into the tried and true methods of travel we have perfected over years of our shared experiences.