North to Alaska 2010

Soldotna

After looking one last time for the grizzly bear at Hidden Creek, we hooked up and took off for Soldotna which turns out to be only 43 miles away.

First town we passed through was Sterling - population 5,123. This is the a sports fishermen and canoists place to be. Fishing on the Kenai and canoeing on the Moose and Swanson Rivers. Of course with population of over 5,000 there are many tourist places, restaurants and stores along the highway. Too busy for us.

Next up is Soldotna - population 3,983. On the western Kenai Peninsula, the city stretches over a mile southwest along the Sterling Highway and northwest along the Kenai Spur Highway. Soldotna gets very busy during fishing season and there are several outfitters and guides in the area. We were parked in a gravel lot near the Soldotna airport. A gentleman who owned the property had wanted to put in a campground and the city told him he couldn't - so he told the city he would just let people park there for free. That was when the property was right across from the airport. He and his wife CeCe decided to build another house in a different location on the property and sell part of the property where their old house sits to the airport as the airport wanted to straighten out the road. In the meantime, the man had his friend come in, build a huge gravel parking area with a run way where his friend and he could fly their planes in and out from. Unfortunately, this kind gentleman died last spring and his wife has been left with the property. CeCe was kind enough this year to allow people to stay there for as long they wanted rent free. Whether this will remain as a place for campers to continue staying is up in the air.

At the end of the runway is the fish and game building with a walkway - several, in fact - that go down the bank to the Kenai River. There is a nice cleaning station and places that make the river accessible to fishermen and women. Sockeye salmon were running - what the locals call "Reds" and they were expecting CoHo or what they refer to as "Silvers" to come in right behind them. In fact, while we were there, they were catching some of both kinds. Every day we would see several people either coming back with their limit of up to 6 salmon, and more going down to the fishing area to try their luck. John went fishing every day, but Ken had no desire to fish but he did enjoy watching and talking to everyone. We were even lucky to have a couple of people share their catch with us. Some of you will recognize the guy on the right. That is Ken's brother John enjoying the fishing.

The day we arrived in Soldotna, we were told that a young man, 41, had lost his life in the river. He lost his balance, went down, came up once and they found him 2 days later. One of the women in our area also lost her balance, but she was fortunate that the guys around here were quick to grab her as she went floating past. She made the statement to Ken when she was retelling the incident, that she was 80 years old and she didn't think she would fish anymore. This is a treacherous river, the area where you stand to fish is not very wide and it drops off abruptly and the water is fast. I enjoyed watching them fish, but this is not a sport I want to participate in. I'm not even sure I would get in a boat on the Kenai River.

On this property were also moose and bear. We took several rides after the sun went down to see the moose along the road. Usually we would see a female and calf in the field right next to the parking area and several down the road. One evening we were coming back from town and one of the campers stopped us to say that a grizzly was chasing the female and her calf just down from where we were parked. So, we drove through the entire area but didn't see either the bear or the moose.

These people that come to the Kenai peninsula to salmon fish are serious about it. The people that were camped around us had various ways of preserving their catch. Some would take their fish to a processor to have it smoked, and either vacuumed packed or flash frozen and most of the time they would ship it back to their homes. Some others that were more industrious brought their canning equipment and freezers with them and processed their catch themselves. These people were not all in big rigs either. Some of them were in truck campers, some in small motor homes and others in small trailers. They usually towed a good size utility trailer behind them and that is where they set up their processing. One couple filled up two small freezers then canned the rest with a pressure cooker. They told us they had canned 10 dozen pints and still had more jars to fill. While there, just about everyone that was fishing and catching salmon was eating it everyday, too. Now I like salmon, but not everyday. Once or twice a month is enough for me and Ken said he is still deciding if he really likes salmon or not. Good thing we weren't fishing!!

We will be doing some day trips around the area and plan on leaving here in a couple of weeks.

Here are a couple of pictures of some mushrooms we spotted on one of our walks.