May 28, 2009

I had a four day weekend and the weather continues to be better than all of last summer. Darkness has left us again, confirmed by a couple of cold nights in a tent that had me waking at all hours and finding no need to hit the light button on my watch to read the time.

We biked one day last week with a friend. It was a different style of biking, pushing hard for five miles on the coastal trail and turning around for another five mile sprint back to the car. It was good exercise and quite a bit of fun learning the handling of my new road bike on the twisty trail.

My every other Friday was spent, well, spending. I was getting organized for our first weekend camping trip. I started at a camera store and walked out with a spare battery for my newer camera. Next stop was Sportsman’s Warehouse where I was sidetracked by their clothing department for a few minutes and quickly tried on and selected a couple pairs of quick drying pants for backcountry use. I spent some time in the fishing department and left with just a few fly leaders and some jigs. I finished in the camping department where I found a fiberglass portable kitchen box that looked intriguing and was clearance priced. I debated whether to get it, but it turned out to be a space saver by fitting the stove and all of our kitchen needs in a single box that is about the same size box that we used for everything but the stove. It is a good organizing tool with drawers and slots. The only drawback is that it is a bit heavy when fully loaded.

After spending this small fortune, I went to my favorite camera store and finally broke down and purchased a camera bag that I had looked at several times over the last few months. It is a more professional bag than anything I have and quite a bit bigger. I wanted something that fit behind the seat in the car, held all my gear in a single container, and allowed easy access from inside the car. I think it is a unique bag for that purpose and fits my needs pretty well. I am still tinkering with the configuration of the Velcro padded dividers to create the right size openings for all my gear. I am always willing to spend money on stuff that helps me organize and live more efficiently.

After my spending spree, I got most of the gear organized which left only a little for us to finish after Kris got home. This allowed us to get a decent start on Saturday. We headed north to an area that we have discussed exploring every time we drove through. We had targeted kayaking on a lake that has looked inviting since we drove by on the last leg of our big move four years ago. Before getting there, we took a side trip down a dirt road to another lake that we heard about. We arrived at the lake a couple miles back and it looked inviting. We decided to unload the kayaks since we had already driven back there.

The lake was a nice size for an afternoon, big enough that it took some time to paddle around the perimeter and small enough to keep the intimidation factor reasonably in check. We headed into the wind to the outlet end to start. I saw some fish along one shore and let the wind drift me along the shore line for a couple of passes. I caught a nice grayling right away and decided to try the fly rod. I quickly hooked a nice rainbow and followed it up with another grayling. I wasn’t keeping anything, although they were all nice size fish and tempting.

We explored the outlet stream a short distance back. We had to scooch over an obstruction of sticks to get back to a pool created by a large beaver dam. Grayling were feeding in the pool along the dam. I quickly caught a few. They were also feeding extensively along the obstruction so I grounded my kayak there and fished a bit on the way out, catching several nice grayling on my light fly rod. The sun angle was right to allow easy viewing of the numerous fish chasing and cruising in the clear water.

As we headed back out into the lake, the wind was blowing pretty strong. Good planning had us heading downwind for most of the second half of the trip and we were really moving along with the wind and waves. It took a little effort to keep the boat straight, but it took little effort to move at a fast pace. We quickly arrived at the inlet end that was more swamp than stream. We had to cut across the wind on this end of the lake which also put us crossways with the waves. The kayaks were quite stable. It was a little scary, but only as we were uncertain of the limits of our boats. We didn’t seem to be anywhere near approaching those limits. To finish our perimeter trip, we had to head a few hundred yards up wind. It was hard work and we both got a little spray in the face.

As we paddled into the wind, I noticed a flat bottomed boat with three guys. The cover was off their outboard. Two of the guys had paddles and briefly paddled the boat, but quickly gave up. I moved off shore closer to them in case they needed some help. They noticed me, but didn’t attempt to flag me. They weren’t in any real trouble as they could reasonably walk back from the downwind end of the lake. Of course, there wasn’t much I could do from a kayak. We arrived at the boat launch and loaded the boats back onto the car. I kept an eye on the troubled boaters and the wind had moved them all the way to the far end. The paddles started going again and I couldn’t imagine them making much progress against that wind with their higher profile and less efficient paddles. As we finished up, I noticed a motor boat heading toward the ramp. I met them and suggested that they might be able to help those guys. They thought it sounded like a good thing to do so they headed out immediately to rescue the stranded boaters. I did my good deed for the day.

As we headed back down the road to our campground, we passed the lake that we had intended to kayak and it was pretty crowded at the access point with several boats with larger engines. The lake is pretty big so it wasn’t crowded or waked up, but we thought we had made the right choice.

The wind was howling in the high country as we attempted to set up our tent for the first time of the season. We struggled to remember our routine while attempting to establish a high wind routine. At one point the tent started flying away. We quickly corralled it, but it put some stress on the poles, putting a slight permanent bend in one of the flexible poles that forms the top of the tent. Once we got the tent together and put in a few stakes, it was as immovable as a high quality tent should be.

On Sunday, we headed up the Caribou Creek valley from the highway. We had some trouble finding the trail as it was not exactly along the creek. As we scouted the edge of the creek in its rocky gorge, we came upon a clump of fur. As we climbed around we found a larger pile of the same fur. Given the amount of fur, we could only guess at caribou. We wondered what transpired so close to the highway and when.

We headed up the trail and soon found more evidence of predators in the area, more clumps of various furs, a few piles of feathers, some bones. We nicknamed it the trail of death.

We saw a little wildlife, a few hares, a couple moose, a large screeching bird that was probably a hawk of some type, and a female Barrow’s Goldeneye. The hares still had big white fuzzy feet and I commented how I would like to get a picture of them. Kris reminded me of that statement when we found one of their feet sitting in a bush along the trail of death. I didn’t take a picture of it, nor the second one we found a bit later. I guess the feet don’t taste so good.

The trail eventually got overgrown. The trail goes through to a complete trail system, but we were on a lesser used end that is difficult for ATVs to navigate. Apparently no one has busted through in years. I was tired of ducking under branches and squeezing through tight spaces. I suggested climbing higher as we were near treeline. We climbed a short distance and found a scenic spot for lunch. After lunch, I suggested climbing a ridgeline. From above, we had a great view of the valley. Rather than dropping back to the trail, we decided to navigate back at a higher elevation. We could see a few potential challenges, but most of it appeared pretty open.

Our first decision point was at a stretch of dense brush that emanated a startling snort (moose???) while we stood contemplating our choices. We selected a high line and followed moose trails through to our goal, navigating by the peaks around us. We also had two GPS units going so it was abundantly clear where we were. We kept progressing, watching the distance between us and the trail slowly diminish on our GPS screens.

As we approached a final ridge separating us from the trail, I noticed a small lake. We followed the well trampled moose trail to the edge of the lake. Kris took a break to read in the bright sunshine while I snuck around the perimeter of the lake attempting to get pictures of the goldeneye swimming on the lake. When she dove, I moved quickly forward, stopping when I sensed her emergence likely. I followed her from one end of the lake to another, but never really approached closely.

We found our way back to the trail, although the brush got pretty dense as our elevation dropped. We were glad to have moose trails, even though they seem to wander a bit. I guess that is what happens when you select your next step based on what looks tastiest.

On our way back to the campground, we took a side trip a couple miles down a dirt road to some lakes in a broad high elevation valley that has captivated me every time I have driven by. The wide valley is tucked between the massive Chugach and the rugged Talkeetna mountains. The road passed close to two of the lakes. We passed a group of ATVers fishing from the shore line of Knob Lake and they were all admiring a large rainbow. We decided to make this our Monday plan with the kayaks.

We packed up on Monday morning. We headed back to the lake situated 3000 feet above see level. We were disappointed to find the wind blowing hard across the lake, but at least we were launching on the downwind side of the lake guaranteeing us an easy return at the end of our adventure. The wind didn’t turn out to be too bad. We explored the full perimeter. The scenery was spectacular. The numerous ducks were interesting. We had the whole lake to ourselves.

I fished along the way but had no luck until I returned to near where we launched. I was casting the channels along the swampy grasses at the inlet of the lake while the wind drifted me up one of the wider channels. I was surprised when my line started rapidly peeling off my ultra light spinning reel. I looked down and instantly regretted not having reloaded my reel. After cutting off numerous tangles caused by twisted line, the reel was looking pretty thin and rapidly getting thinner. Then a large rainbow leaped clear of the water. Then it ran at me and I reeled as fast as I could. I looked down in the clear water below as the beautiful fish shook its head at me. Then it ran under my boat and leaped on the other side only a few feet away, giving me and my camera gear a good splash. This final jump worked for the fish as my spinner came free. It was an exhilarating encounter.

We found a nice spot along the shore to eat lunch before calling it a weekend.