Re-Entry

When our spacecraft return from orbit they go through a communications blackout during part of the re entry process. It has something to do with the ozone layer and it's effects on man made objects...and well, I guess that's been me, I've been in a bit of  a communications blackout as I re enter life at Mile 14 Kenai River  Alaska. As cool as this place is , living right on the river  with Eagles out the window and ...well...just about anything unfortunately can become routine. So when I get home I take a special weekend to just stay home and absorb this place , look for the good and steady myself for what MP calls ' human consumption'. As you know , I'm far from anti social. In fact I love people and learning from them and visiting new places through them sharing their lives with me. Lots of that in Mazatlan and not so so much at Mile 14 in April 2015. So....I'll get adjusted just fine, it just takes a day or two.

We never get tired of the flight down from Anchorage. None of this ' flight 247 will be loading at gate C4'....nope. Our friends at Grant aviation have the pilot walk into the terminal and ask...." everybody ready " ?  On this flight we had a female pilot named Kirsten. Wow, what an All Alaskan Gal. She laughed all the way, she loaded the plane, she took our pics, she helped unload a semi blind guy so gingerly and the landing in Kenai....well we never felt it hit the ground. Here's a few pics of us and Kirsten.

When you jump up over Turnagin Arm at 2500 feet the place we live is stunning. Here's a pic of Point Possesion where  Captain Cook anchored for two days as a scribe copied his journal which was buried along with some coins and trinkets to authenticate it in case he never returned from the challenges of navigating Cook Inlet which he said was the most treacherous of all the places he sailed in the world. He had lost his best anchor north or today's Homer at Anchor Point and tenaciously fished for it which saved the Resolution during many groundings in upper Cook Inlet. Turnagin Arm was named just for that, he 'turned again' when it was apparent it was not the fabled Northwest Passage he was in search of.

Today Cook Inlet is sailed daily by modern transports and tankers. Onshore we have wilderness roads that traverse the first oil strikes in Alaska and Offshore we have upwards of a dozen drill rig platforms. On the east side is the community of Tyonek, accessible only by plane or boat and off to the left the community of Nikiski....But at 2500 feet you realise just how small mankind's footprint is and how here in this part of Alaska we humans still have a chance to ' do it right' .

We arrived at Mile 14 on Friday and the river was frozen. It was pretty darn quiet here and unusually warm. Well,  we slept like babies in the coolness of Alaska on that huge California King bed  that in itself was almost enough to get home for but we woke up to this...a running river.  I don't where they come from and how they know but instantly the river is full of birds. Ducks, Seagulls, Eagles and my favorite, Jay birds.

So I guess just like those ducks across the river from me I'm gonna hang out and wait for something good to float by, we need it and I'm  thinking it's on it's way. I know this river pretty good. Unlike the smart guys at ADF+G I learned it through life, through doing, through seeing, hearing and being a part of it.  So here's my prediction for all you local King salmon hounds...the early run will rebound nicely this year, just like last year....we'll go fishing so lets all just take a little bit better personal care of it this next go around eh?