A Fish Story

I went out fishing to the Penny River on Tuesday, to try and catch what would be my first salmon of the season. Everyone else I hang out with had to work, so I went off by myself.

Here is the story:

1. See the fish



Here we see the Humpies or Pink Salmon swiming up stream. It is kind of cool to watch them swim. With there hump, the look like small sharks coming up the river.


More fish joining in. Once I saw them, I knew I had to catch them.

When the fish are running to spawn, they don't normally feed. To get them to bit the lure, you have to bug them, pester them and generally piss them off until they get mad enough to bit at the lure. It took about an hour and a half, but I am good at pestering things so...







2. Catch the fish


Here is the one I finally caught! He (the females do not have the hump) got pissed off enought that when he did bit the lure, there was no letting go!

These fish normally get between 2-4 lbs on the river I was fishing. This one ended up weighing in at 5 lbs.








Because I was out fishing alone, I had to go back to the office to have my picture taken with my fish.














3. Eat the fish

I also caught Dolly Varden trout with the salmon. The Dollies sit behind the spawning salmon and when the eggs are laided, they eat the eggs. At this point in time, the dollies are really agressive and easy to catch. This the the cooked up dolly.

We also cooked the salmon on the grill. As soon as I opened the tinfoil, I knew it was not going to be good eating. The fish had a strange smell and a really bad taste.

Point to remember, do not eat salmon when they are at the end of their spawn cycle....




Eating the Dolly.






4. Drink beer and tell fish stories!

Kicking back on the back porch, drinking beer, full of fish, in the sun at 10:30 at night!

What a day off!

Biking to Pilgrim Hotsprings

On Saturday June 30th a few of us rode our bikes 61 miles on dirt road to Pilgrim Hotsprings. The first 3 miles were on paved road but we did climb out of town. It took 7 hours of riding, with a lot of stops to see the wild life, drink from the natural spring, do pushups every 10 miles and to just enjoy being out of town. Total ride distance 61 miles; Elevation gain 3200 feet; started at sea level; total off road miles: 58; total trail miles, 11. Noone fell off, noone left behind.



Start of the ride. The day was nice and cool, overcast.
















Doing pushups ever 10 miles to make sure we kept the upper body in shape as we went.


















Salmon Lake. They just painted the sign.
















The final crew! This is the sign up to the hotsprings. The final 11 miles were off road on trail. Although we were tired, this was the best part of the ride.

Random Animal Pictures

Just saw the reindeer crossing the road. They do get in really close...





Crossing the road














The reindeer herd.

















The grelying fish we keep catching. The water is SO clear...

Midnight Sun Fest and Polar Bear Swim

On June 21st, the summer solstice, the town has a parade, mock bank robbery, and polar bear swim in the Bering Sea. The parade has all of 10 vehicles in it but it was fun to watch the kids get candy.





Starting banner for the parade....















The main section. There was no marching band, no horses and no midnight sun queen... Just a bunch of town people walking down the middle of the street, throwing candy for the kids.










The bank robbery is done in front of Wells Fargo Bank and is done old west style.








The girls running out of the bar, telling everyone the "bad guys" are in town.











The "bad guys". All dressed up with people lining the streets.
















Holding up the guys from the bank.

















The sharp shooters on the roof.














The polar bear swim had about 300 people show up. There was a bonfire on the beach so you could warm up after the swim. I stayed in the longest and went in the most number of times. Water temp 43 degrees, Air temp 43 degrees…

The polar bear crew! From left to right: me, Peter, Mee, Chuck's wife, Thomas, Johnathan.

The crown enters the water. When the gun goes off, we all run for the water. It felt like the start of an open water swim.

As you can see, I am the last one in the water...

Me and Mee coming out.... At least we are still smiling...

Peter adn myself coming out of the water for the 3rd time....


















Warming up by the fire after.

I can finally say I have been in the water in AK and Antarctica. Now all I have to do is get into the water above the artic circle.... I feel a trip coming on :)

Pilgrim Hot springs

About 2 weeks ago, I got out of town into the tundra for the first time. We finally had some time off work, so a few of the nurses and myself went 60 miles north of town for a day of fishing and playing on the tundra. It was an over cast day in Nome, but the sun was shining over the pass!

This is a view of the tundra. All the white is actually tundra cotton, a type of flower that is in bloom right now. Looking over this, I felt like I was in Nebraska or something.














The Musk OX heard. There are a TON of musk ox in the area. These were on the road and running from the car.













When spooked, musk ox form a circle to protect their young. The start snorting and pawing at the ground and charge. Luckily for us, they lose interest quite quickly and run away.









This is Pilgrim Hot springs. At one time, in the early 1900's the area was used as an orphanage during the flu out break. There are a few small out buildings where the kids stayed still standing. The tracker is still used to help keep the grass under control.

The view from the actual spring. There are actual trees in this area. (there are none in Nome)











The hot spring. It was about 115 degrees. The tub is about 6 feet deep and you end up treading water when you go in. Also there mosquitoes are so bad, you have to be underwater or covered with bug dope to spend much time out here, but the view is amazing!


Standing on the tub.

Nurse Allen and myself at the springs.

Inside the church at the ranch. This painting was done in 1920 by a 12 year old boy.

Tundra cotton. The whole tundra was covered in it. It makes it look like it is still covered in snow.

The actual cotton.

frolicking on the tundra.....

Yellow tundra flowers.

Laying in the tundra cotton.

Salmon Lake Trip

I took Thursday off of work and Sarah and I drove 35 miles up the road to Salmon Lake. The hope was to do some fishing, but the lake was frozen, so we just enjoyed the tundra in all of it’s new summer colors.




The actual road. There are 3 roads leading out of Nome.




Me driving Peter's truck. He was on vacation and loaned me the truck for the day.

This is the river out side of Salmon Lake. It was a cloudy, rainy day.

The actual lake. As you can see, there is still ice in the midde. There was not enough unfrozen area to try to fish.

Sarah and I. Sarah is one of the nurses.

Sarah feeling the same way as I about getting out of town.

It has only been in the last week that the tundra is starting to green up. We have had rain for a week so all the plants are taking advantage and trying to bloom.

All the new flowers are in bloom.

Me and my new fishing boots. Up here I had to buy insutlated ones to keep from freezing. I also have to wear wool sox and put warmers in the toes if I plan to stay in the water very long.

Sarah holding MY fish. They were only biting with the fly rod. This is a Greyling. They live to be about 30 years old and there is a limit on how many of the bigger fish you can have. This is they only state where I have lived that you have to throw a fish back because it is too big. (anything over 18 inches goes back)

The greyling in the water. These are fun fish to catch, they really put up a good fight.

Notice the large dorsal fin. This is how you know what type you caught.

One more of the fish, out of the water.

At the end of the day, I caught 3 total fish. As is normal for me, I also filled my boots with water, came home totally soaked but had a beer and a great time!