A blink of an July

Well July has come and gone in the blink of an eye. I'm not sure if it's our age that makes it happen this way or if it's the intensity of it all. In any case we've ' made our season ' as the commercial guys say and that feels so good now to have a pretty normal July after several ahhhh....unusual ones.  Every year since we bought the launch we make about 70 % of our income in three short weeks of sharing Mile 14 with literally thousands of sockeye and King fishermen, nobody got hurt and a good time was had by all...well except for a rare jerk or Park Ranger.  The the King season ends on July 31st and the red run tapers off and well.....us, the town , the critters and the river itself sighs a big sound of relief....we made it, although feeling a bit like this fisher woman here. Just a little tiiiiired.

Both of our King runs seem to be on the rebound and although there's a few questionable management decisions being made all of us are optimistic for the future.... It's one of my songs, ' Every Storm runs out of Rain' by Gary Allan. But I guess now that the ' period of low abundance' seems to be over I realize even more  just how important all the other parts of the experience of sport fishing are, after all it was those parts that kept me going the last few July's. Just the other morning as I did my prep work at 4:30 I whispered to MP....." isn't this gorgeous  " and I said " who wouldn't get out of bed to see this "....and she said "me".

Even though with an abbreviated King season it still feels like graduating from high school when I do my last trip of the year knowing that now I'm onto my favorite thing, silver fishing. This year my last trip was special. I shared it with the most wonderful friends. Jeff and Beth Fuze I have known for years and Jon and Tracy Hanson are new friends, just great chemistry in the boat and a great day on the Kenai. Rather than a pic of them with the fish hows about one of us all together , you can just tell....we're friends.

This July we caught a lot of fish, big and small, you decide. Some of you might look at this gorgeous King Salmon that Gayle caught and think it's a bit small. Well she's actually 6'2" and 240 pounds and that salmon was a tough one.....but we got it. And it doesn't really matter what size it is, any fish that can put a smile like that on your face is just right. So nice catch Gayle, you guys were great. Her husband Al was a working musician so we had great fellowship....stay  healthy and smiling you guys.

Me and MP are back out for our walks in the early morning and at Centennial Campground I was impressed at seeing the largest most featured and likely most expensive RV I've ever seen... and that's saying a lot. This baby has a Freight liner hauler and has a slide out patio floor as well as an extend out patio roof.  It has a total of 4 slide outs along with the patios. The little car goes in it's own garage and I'd bet we're looking at 250 large bills.

I always say 'everybody has to live'....it's just that some folks live better than others, well, with 'things' at least. Right directly across the road from this guys palace is this other guy who's made his own RV. and ya know, they live in the same neighborhood, catch the same fish, share a ' good morning' and go fishing....same thing but different. Oh....when you add in the tarp house I'll bet he's got more square feet, just no central vac and satellite TV.

We've got lots of birds here at Mile 14 and MP just loves them all, and knows them all. It's why she hasn't let me cut any tree's down for our Volcano view....the bird habitat is just more important. So it's no wonder she ( and I have to say even I ) are a bit affected by watching this Stellar Jay fledgling struggle to learn the way. The whole family has been around the house all summer and this little guy we call 'birdie' ( we once called him stupid but quit when we knew something wasn't right ) sits in the grass and doesn't fly so well. We've  watched him for two months now and MP puts seeds out for him. He's not well groomed like the rest and well....today he disappeared. Here's a pic I took the other night of Birdie and his mom who's trying to encourage him to get up and fly , fly , fly.... It's a tough deal for MP, part of life here at Mile 14 I guess.

It's hard to say who or what go Birdie but I hope it was the natural way and not a neighbors cat. So this morning as we hiked I got a couple hard to get pics of one of the bird worlds predators that could have done it. These Merlin falcons used to be pretty rare here but lately we've been seeing a lot of them. MP knows their voice and habitat and well...they're just cool parts of life at Mile 14. I guess one sign of ageing gracefully with appreciation for all things is when you shop for ultra expensive binoculars to watch our feathered friends with....we like their sounds, we like their mannerisms, we like their looks....