Yahtzee

I guess the pic below makes it official . And it kinda looks like the new owner has a different vision for the place so I guess that's coooool. You can't blame anybody for wanting to have privacy or do whatever they want with what they own....it's just a sad end to an era that had to come. So many people have so many memories from this special place on the planet earth but ya know what they say...nobody can take that away.

So we signed on the dotted line and I have to tell you it wasn't as hard to do as I thought it might be, Then we went right back to work and then celebrated spiritually with our old friend Loren Stewart.  When we bought the place Nikki apologized for having to leave some stuff, like us the job was overwhelming.  So one of the things we found in the house was this collectors bottle of Jim Beam Whiskey....Loren being Scottish of course was a good single malt guy so I guess he just never got around to opening this beauty. He had it for 20 years and we had it for 25 so we toasted him and Nikki, ourselves and the Kenai River with 45 year old Jim...and ya know there must be something to that ageing deal because even though I never drink whiskey it was pretty darn smooth.

But not all is lost ....if any of you get nostalgic I'd bet ya my old friend Keith would let you visit his place and tell Boat Launch stories for the modest price of a 12 pack of Kokanee. Thank's Keith for offering to keep the place a part of the Kenai.

That Big Eddy Jetty sign I built for Loren in 1983 as part of my use fee. It was crazy. I seemed to lose some customers in that day and my working theory is that when I told people to meet me at Big Eddy Jetty they turned down Big Eddy Road where a 100 guides are headquartered and my customers just disappeared from my calendar.....

I was overwhelmed a a week ago wondering if we'd ever get the basement cleaned out...Well we did and my back feels like it . But I think we're actually ahead of schedule and if it weren't for this covid virus we'd be on easy street. For the Alaska Ferry system they want a 72 hour pre check in negative test and no lab in the state ( which are both State labs ) will guarantee a 72 hour return....mmm.....so, we'll see. We did take a break from packing and road tripped to Kasilof to see how the fishing is going. We happened upon Jacque Kosto the Head Ranger here and had a nice visit about the past and the future of this place. Really nice,  he thanked me for my volunteerism and meant it....AND then we got to  witness a guy hook and land a jumbo which was hooked perfectly in the upper lip and then released it to spawn while showing his son how to handle it, so cool !

So we're feeling good...the other day as I worked up my sweat from hand trucking the basement MP said something to me really important. I was hurting ( sciatica ) and she was finding objects of the past and sometime getting a little emotional and we had country music blaring as we stopped to chat a bit about the stress of moving  she hugged me and said " do realize we haven't had a fight in months ? " ....Love ya baby. So, with that story here's my song of the week.

Hope you return to Blog Mile 14....I'll write as long as you read ! But maybe more sporadically until we land.

Road Trip

So what did Otter and the boys at Delta Tau Chi do when things got a little weird and they were on double secret probation ???? Road Trip !  And that's what me and MPeasy are fixing to do, another grand adventure in the life of retired fish guide #003 and soon to be roving pescador.

Owning Stewart's Landing has just gotten to be overwhelming for us. We have at least 30 or 40 beetle killed trees that need to be taken care of and we've been married to the place for the last 30 years. We've not done anything in the summer but work, work, work,....so, we've sold the place. You know me, I'm a 100 % guy so when we discussed all the options the answers were obvious, we just need a clean break and move on to the next chapter.

This place is absolutely beautiful and people who come here will say " how in the world can you leave that place  ?"  But they only see the splashing salmon and the Bald Eagles circling.  They don't see all the responsibility it takes and dealing with an empty house every winter while we snowbird. So, we're down to 2 homes now, muy bueno.

 So, in true Jethronian fashion just this morning as we talked about the difficulty of traveling through Canada in the Covid era MP mentioned a friend knew somebody who had taken the ferry from Whittier to Bellingham WA. I checked the schedule and it was meant to be...a sailing on the same day we have to leave the house at Mile 14. So on July 6th we'll be on the Kennicott with a guitar and a smile headed for a new life.  Then  as soon as it's safe to travel we'll be getting around looking for the next adventure. For all of you Washington and Oregon people we're going there first so when you see that old white truck in your drive way , don't shoot. MP is so excited to get back to her family in Montana so we're going to give that a good try and if it turns out we feel like we've made a mistake , well that's easy to fix....we'll find another place or even move to Alaska.

So it's adios, maybe you all felt the vibe from that song last blog entry....So to all my guide friends from the 1980's I want to thank all of you for inviting me into your fraternity, you know I never made varsity in my life until I met you. For all of you fishing guides that used our spot and I know so well, I wish you all the most success and hope for a bright future for all of you, this is a wonderful lifestyle and I'm with you all the way. The people of Soldotna don't need to look far to see how great their community is....just look at the kids, great place to raise children, thank you. And for all of you along the way, my customers / friends we'll be seeing you, leave the light on please.  We love you all.

As for Mile 14....if you'll bare with me I'm going to evolve this into a fishing and learning blog as I explore the new stuff I'm so excited for. If I had to guess I'll bet I go after Montana trout fishing just like I went after Kenai salmon...full speed. While we're packing I'm to busy to blog, we've got a ton of stuff to do...no , 10 tons actually so I'll take a bit of a writing break but will post as much as I can, when I can...and it'll be fun. I'll definitely blog the trip south on the Alaska Marine Highway.  I hope you come along !

My song this week....well, I wanted something relevant so went to the archives and dug out a Jimmy Buffet song. It's a little rough but if you get through the first verse it smooths out a bit.

Ouch....maybe a bit more than rough. oh well...😎

It's a boy

Yep, he left the world at 31 inches and somewhere around 16 or 18 pounds and for me it was one of the most exciting fish of my life.

If you remember last year on her birthday it took MP exactly 3 minutes into the first troll to catch a jumbo which we released. Well this one was the day after her birthday and bit after  a good 10 minutes into our first troll. We were where we always are, under the Cottonwoods above Eagle Rock with not a boat in sight. The bite was classic, the rod doing it's gentle flatfish thumping and it stops for a second and actually goes a bit slack as ol slimey stops the action and then the hook gets him and down it goes, fast and hard. Unlike some ladies MP muscles it out of the rod holder and with one good jerk the fight is on.

As she tires the fish I try to get one of those cool ' in the water shots ' where the fish is bright and glistening in the emerald glacier water but I guess I'm losing a step or so because this is as good as it got.

MP finally says " put that @#$&* camera away and net this fish " so I do and as soon as it's safely in the net the rod goes slack and the line flies  up loose...and the plug is still in the fish. mmmmmm.....a bit of a debate goes on about how that plug connector came to be open. The pescador says the snap was closed when she put the Flatfish on and it must of come open in the fight. Now I've netted just a few fish and have never seen that but hey, there's a first time for every thing.

It was just the right size. We have a new early run management plan that only counts the ' big fish ' which are the best spawners and allows us to keep Kings under 34 inches. Which we did . It's really ritualistic that first King of the year and of course they are the very best eating if you talk with salmon people. Caught commercially over at the Copper River Delta right now that fish is worth a couple hundred bucks, easy. We like to steak the first one and our meal was the boneless butt pieces simply fried in butter. We shared the rest with salmon loving friends and neighbors, the Alaska way.

 Ain't that a great shot ? I had a guy tell me one time as we were gutting fish " your gutting table has a better view than my hot tub "...

My song of the week is a Guy Clark song that was kinda the signature song of my friend Ben Ellis. When ever we played together he would sing this song and about a year ago the weirdest thing happened. Guy Clark who I think is one of the best song writers ever  died and Steve Earll came out with his tribute album ' Guy' and of course this song was on it and I thought I should work on it...well the weirdest thing happened, I realized I already new it and just didn't know. I started with an A chord because Guy usually used the key of A and then the lyrics just rolled off my tongue just from hearing Ben play it so many times years ago. It's the magic of music, the connectivity with the story.

For this one me and the audio dept. here at Mile 14 went down to the office to record it and I think it turned out just fine, maybe the best one I've done actually...

A buddy of mine texted me last night to remind I was a bit behind schedule on my blog posts and I looked and he was right....yikes, the time goes by and we can do better. I'll try to get one out every week because we're going to have an ultra exciting summer and I want to invite you all to share it with us, please don't give up on Mile 14 if you enjoy it....😎