The Alaska Trip

What a trip! That's what I keep hearin'....and from the looks of the pictures, it was quite a trip. Hopefully the few that I chose to post will give you a glimpse of how beautiful the sights were and how much fun they had.

Their catch was awesome. I think we've got enough fish to eat for at least a year. Rod brought home 200 pounds of halibut, salmon, and ling cod. And lots and lots of memories of great time spent with family and friends in a most pristine place. Some basic info: Temps were in the 50's. Most of their fishing days were overcast, misting rain and just"down-right cold". They fished for 4 days, 8-10 hour days. Their last day in Seward, a few of them hiked the Exit Glacier and I included some pix below.

They stayed at the Windsong Lodge in Seward. Big log cabin, crackling fire to keep you warm...I've put my name in the hat for the next trip. :-)

On Board.

Here's 4 of our guys:
Doug, Rod, Poppie, and Mike

The brown blobs up on the rock are sea lions. Apparently the guys also watched several whales too but the pics don't do them justice so I haven't posted them.

Here's a sampling of Rod's catch of silver salmon:

and a sampling of Poppie's catch- halibut:

The whole crew displaying the catch for the day.

Here's a note for my coffee lovin' friends: Rod said very near to where the above picture was taken was a little coffee shop ON THE DOCK. CoHoJoe's. His choice off the menu: "Sludge" --it's "house coffee with a shot of espresso and vanilla flavoring". Now that's the kind of fishin' I have in mind.

The last day they were there, Rod, Doug and Mike decided to hike the Exit Glacier. The trail is a 7 + mile hike up the mountain, much of it in snow, and at the top is a spectacular view of the Harding Ice Field. Here is one website if you want to read up on the treasure: http://www.nps.gov/kefj/planyourvisit/exit-glacier.htm

This is a pic of the sign depicting the trail.

A bear on the trail:

Rod & Doug takin' a break on the hike.

Apparently they got hot with all that hiking and wouldn't ya know it, it would be my Roddy who shed his clothes......

At the top of the mountain is this shelter for hikers that need a reprieve from the weather. I wished Rod had taken pics of the inside but he described it well....guest book to sign-in, blankets, snow shovel, and some other basics to survive if you were stuck in inclimate weather. It sounded like something from the movie "Cold Mountain".

Taking it all in. This is the Ice Field atop the mountain:

The boys started the hike in the afternoon and came down off the mountain about 11:30 p.m. so it was just getting dark when they finished. Hence the dark picture...here are Mike and Rod proud to be done. What you can't tell by the picture is that they are wet from the waist down because apparently they decided to slide down the ice as they came down the mountain. Yes, slide on their bottoms.

We made Rod a little keepsake to look at while he was gone and far away from us. We hid it in his luggage so he'd find it during the trip. I included a picture of it here: