Just doing what Bears do

All season long we've had an ongoing brown bear experience here at the boat launch. We've had the dumpster turned over and many mornings tracks and sign around the gutting tables, I ran two out of the parking lot in the middle of the day about 3 weeks ago. But Sunday night things went to defcon three here at Mile 14. Just as we were getting to sleep Jet-Dog let our her no B.S. bark. I grabbed my spotlight and the gun and just right out the slider I scared off a brown bear, MP saw him pretty good. We went back to our bedroom that faces the river and my fish cleaning station as well as the garbage cans and put the spotlight on. Not one but two 200 to 300 pound brownies were making their way through the garbage, doing what bears do I guess. We watched them for several minutes and then scared them off by beating on the window. Just as we're getting back to bed here they come again, Jet's howling and they're just cresting the hill behind the house so I fly the door open and yell and chase and off they go.....pretty exciting. Here's the scene the next morning.

The next pic is the trail they're making down to the river. These two bears have been around for a month or so now and its occurred to me that they could be intending to hibernate here on the south facing slope along the river.

So every time we walk the dog for the last month or so I carry the shot gun and we talk loud. I got to asking MP what she does on the few times that I'm not around. She says that she sings....I asked her "really, well what do you sing" ? She says she sings BINGO, bee eye nnn gee oh.....so that got me chuckling pretty good. But, I just put MP on the plane for the 48 and its me and Jet-Dog alone here at mile 14, Jet's a pretty smart dog but she doesn't talk so well. So I kinda sense my self singing a bit on the next walk.....bee eye nnnn geee oh.....and bingo was her name oh.

Envison

I don't know if that's really a word or not but I like it. Saturday our new gym with our new gym owners was closed so me and Pepe LaPiere needing some exercise decided to take a long walk through our town and do some serious envisioning.

The first thing we came across was our old house, 174 Redoubt Street. MP ramroded the deal back in 1981 and I never saw the house until we moved in, it was the start of our modest empire. Right next door to us was our friend Barb Jewel who has the most meticulously kept yard in Slowdotna, so there was some adjustment period as she got used to us, parked boats, old cars, loud music and my niece Melanie living in the back yard. But 30 years later we're best friends. The place is now a psychiatrists office so it really hasn't changed that much. That big tree is a genuine Montana Ponderosa Pine. I stood in line in the rain at the 4-H tree sale in 1982 to buy two of them, it was just a sapling and now its an impressive 40 footer and one of a kind on Reboubt Street.

While we were discussing the tree I just happened to look down the street and once again noticed what a view it is. I started envisioning that day in 1986 when I turned on the radio and heard that Mt. Redoubt had erupted. I simply put on my shoes and walked out to the street and looked to the west and yup...that baby was cooking off. So we rushed to the video store for movies, then the liquor store and Safeway for some groceries and then gathered the boys up from school and covered up the cars with tarps. Then we hunkered down for a couple days and a real Alaska adventure. I printed this picture looking east as its just so darn pretty, is there a place in the entire world with an every day view like that?

Just down from our old house we came across this sign Forrest and I got to envisoning a few things. As most of you know we have an interesting Senate race in the makings and they're both in this pic. From what I have figured we have a lawyer who is against all government benefit programs like unemployment yet has taken advantage of all and every one he could find. And, unlike us he pays his property taxes late or whenever he feels like it. Then we have a lawyer who's a sore loser that flunked the bar exam 5 times and who's daddy gave her the job. I don't know, somebody has got to win eh?

But the most envisioning thing about the signs was their location. The property belongs to a friend of mine who's campaign I worked on a few years back to get him elected to the State House. I guess maybe I just don't get it and I suppose he'd tell me that by having every ones sign out it shows he believes in the system but me I gotta be for something, somebody, a cause, the right thing in Jeff's world. It reminded me of a meeting years ago when I was president of the Guide Association. We had some money and were looking to help a candidate with a donation and endorsement hoping that some day it might help us. It was confusing because we didn't know who would win and my friend Randy Berg had the perfect solution...lets wait until they win , then endorse them. Now that's good politics.

So we walked my favorite part of town, the riverwalk and right before we got back to the car we came across this cool vintage motorhome, definitely a local. This isn't any 6 figure diesel pusher, its just one of my neighbors, the seasons over and its just us again...

Breaking Camp

When it comes to fishing on the Kenai River I'm like a bad house guest, the first to arrive and the last to leave. But I've never been to a party that didn't end so finally this weekend it was time to put the boat away, another season wrapped. Nate and I had talked about doing one last trip on Saturday but it was just way to in climate, raining and blowing at 25 or so. In fact its rained so much you can see on the USGS measuring device that the rivers jumped up several feet and is the color of a strong latte. So Saturday it was time to start putting things to bed. We did take time to help out at the Friends of the Library picnic. MP's on the Board and helping push the drive for a library expansion. Here's a pic of her cooking hot dogs with our mayor. Our friend Dick Hahn was instrumental in getting this effort going before he and Loretta moved to the 48 and I think he'd be happy to know I'd give the bond question a 3 to 1 chance in Tuesdays election. Thanks Hahny.

So today the three of us got busy. MP harvested all the last of her veggies and put the green house away and then went after the leaves with a vengeance. I spent 3 hours winterizing the boat. The Minnow IV is my bread and butter so theres no shortcuts when it comes to taking care of her. First I fill the tank all the way to the top and add my fuel conditioner. Then I run it in the river long enough to make sure that's its worked into the engine and all the fuel lines. Then its back up the hill to flush the cooling system with sweet water and change oil and lower unit fluid. I grease all the zerts and put all the gear away. Then I tow it back down to the upper launch and park it in a stern down attitude, the road will snow in soon and she'll be safe and secure until next May when we'll just do it all again. Duck soup. All the time I'm doing this Jet-Dog's job is watching the truck and following me of course. She loves that truck.

The next pic I had to print big, its gorgeous if you ask me. MP says she specializes in Miniature veggies, kind of like how some people are into HO scale trains I guess.

As you know, I have probably the only palm tree on the Kenai River as part of my fish cleaning station by the house. As we were working we spotted this hole and its apparent something is living in our Palm Tree. I couldn't be happier and kind of surprised that MP didn't know what it could be. She says maybe a nuthatcher bird, maybe a squirrel, maybe a woodpecker, who knows? If any of you know just what kind of critter would inhabit a dead Palm tree give me a holler, I need to know.

Getting done with a season is always a bitter-sweet deal. Its like graduating from high school in that you feel free but in a day or so you ask yourself "what now"? Like most of America we're not doing as good as we used to but we made it and will get along just fine for another year. I'm learning not to take anything for granted, we had a great year, laughed alot, worked alot, slept a little and loved each other and our lives. Thank all of you for being a part of Mile 14 in the year 2010......

Never say 'woo' in a horse race

MP says that my obsession with the gym is plain and simple vanity. But I kind of figure that in my quest to become a really good person that a healthy self image and overall good health are a big part of my goals. Remember a great american named Mohamed Ali once said " it ain't bragging if you can do it". So I started on my high protein diet this week and I'm committed to getting my body fat to that difficult 12% athletic goal. I'm starting at an even 200 pounds and my body fat after a summer sitting in the boat all summer is about 19%. I should weigh in at 185 by Christmas.
This picture of me was taken right when we got to Mexico last December, my body fat was at 13% and I'd been working real hard. Not bad for a 57 year old guy eh? So here's my routine if you're wondering and what I've learned about achieving lean body mass....

1. Cardio. I do 25 to 45 minutes of cardio every day. I judge my routine by how much I sweat and 3 times a week I go hard at it and break one of those high school football practice sweats. The other days I do a lower intensity fat burn for a longer duration.

2. Diet. No junk. 200 to 250 grams of protein a day, this is done with supplements as you just can't eat that much lean meat. I use creatine which helps the recovery process. The diet is basically the 'Body For Life' model. A typical day is like this.....protein shake on the way to the gym @ 7:30. Three or four eggs whites and a glass of skim milk at 9:00. Then a carbmaster (like yogurt) whey protein snack at 10:30. Lunch at 12:30 is a lean piece of meat and an entire can of spinach or green beans. At 3:00 pm a protein shake and a banana. For supper at 6:30 I'll have a chicken breast some veggies and a salad with no dressing just a spray of Salad Spritzers made by WishBone. Every day I take a B Complex, a fish oil pill, a calcium tab and a small dose aspirin. If my joints began to ache I use Glucosamine and Shark cartilage. I drink 3 quarts of water a day.

3. Lifting. I've learned that lifting is important but also is the rest and recovery stage. When I first started in the gym I was over doing it and kind of spinning my wheels. So I lift every other day and exercise 2 body groups at a time. I do chest and back together, then shoulders and arms and then legs and AB's. During each session I lift to failure on every exercise just once. If you you're adding weight then you're adding muscle.

Now that's the blue print....but alot can go wrong. A few years ago I had tendinitis in my elbows so bad it almost stopped me and lately my back pain has grown into a weird psiatic nerve deal and my right knee is so loose it could just stop working...but half the game is working through the injuries and the everyday pain associated with being close to 60. My friend Charlie says that at his age if he's pain free then he's most likely dead. So wish me luck and I wish good health for all of you.

Transylvania

Its been as foggy here at Mile 14 as an old Dracula movie. An ocean layer moved in about 10 days ago and every day starts with pea soup dense fog, so thick you can't see the other side of the river. But lucky for me I have a few spots real close and we only run a few minutes but I still have a person setting close to me with a dry towel to clean my glasses. I guess its part of being in my fifties that I'm treating the fog with its due respect, I've gone this long without an accident on the river and we're keeping it that way.

This 1st pic of my friend Les Day will attest to the fog, its thick.
Years ago Les was selling 'Phantom Screens' at the home show and we bought one. (its the coolest product, a screen door that just pulls out of the wall, no real door) We got to talking and realized that we were friends right off the bat. As a young guy Les was diagnosed with Prostrate cancer and now he has dedicated himself to Prostate awareness and prevention. He has a lot of heart and he won't be a guy who wonders if he's done any good on his way to the hereafter. He's also pretty good at catching ol slimey.


One day last week I had the chance to get my friend Ben Ellis and our girls out fishing. Of course MP has to do things 'her own way' and Susie is just as independent and as I wasn't working I decided to just let things go and see what happens. The next series of pics is what I learned about how to net a salmon, it seems that the girls can add a flair to it that I've been lacking for years. The first trick is of course to get one on the hook, with MP's moe-joe thats a done deal. Then you let the fish splash around next to the boat for 5 minutes with your thumb locking up the line on the reel. Then I found out that you don't have to dip under the fish like I've done for years. You can also wield the net like a tennis racket and just swat at him from the top and if you miss, no worries, he's been on so long now he's quit flopping around making it soooo much easier. So once he's in the net and aboard its simple, just throw the rod down and hit him a good one with the bat and high fives all around. And thats how I learned thats there more than one way to net a fish. I've actually been thinking that we can add a new element to the excitement on my guided trips by changing things up a bit, we'll see.


I had the opportunity to meet these young guys from Hazen North Dakota. Adam Brayko and his buddies Jeff and Riley came to Kotzebue to hunt caribou and the darn things had not migrated right yet and they got skunked, as you can see that wasn't a problem for silver fishing on the Kenai river. These guys are Border guards and they are as outdoorsy as anybody I ever met. We had a great time. They stayed in a motor home they rented for a fall rate of $125.00 per day .If any of you are looking for a great deal, a quiet time of year and great fishing, its hard to beat the way these guys did it. That catch of theirs, nine silver weighed 115 pounds at the processors, not bad if you're a meat hunter.

Perfecto

As we get older I guess one of the things we learn is that the best of anything is the one that you're doing now so I use that as a qualifier when I say I just finished one of the best weeks of guiding in my 29 year history. Last week found me busy everyday and in the sunshine at that. We've had gorgeous sunny fall weather, it got all the way up to 67 degrees yesterday, wow.

I spent three days with one of the funnest groups I've ever had. I met Greg Smith and his wife a couple years back and this year he brought his four brothers up for their yearly get away. These guys were raised by a single mom and their bonding and accomplishment are impressive. The five brothers are a doctor, pilot, developer, engineer and a decorated soldier. They were raised in Mississippi and are the real deal when it comes to hunting and fishing. For me it was three days of belly laughing, great guys. Here's a pic of Greg, Ron, Randy, Mike and Bob, brothers Smith.

The Smith boys had to take Thursday off to see the Mississippi State football game so I got to fish with some locals, Gary and Maureen Hobe and their friend Rick. These guys are flight traffic controllers here at the Kenai hub. One trip with Gary Hobe did more to motivate me into the gym than a whole summer of fishing, we had licorice, payday bars, 3 inch thick sandwich's and real pop...no sugar free stuff with those guys. Rick caught 3 beautiful silvers, Gary....notta.

My old friend Ben Ellis was in town so I actually got to go fishing on Saturday. And yep, I've still got it. I caught 3 silvers in an hour and Ben caught 2, we had a double on to finish out our morning. Ben is about as interesting a guy as you'll ever meet. He came to town about 15 years ago to run the Kenai River Sportfishing Association. Before we had ever met both of us had heard that the other was a musician and we've been playing music together ever sense. I told Ben the other day that he's like a snake, he can shed his skin and start fresh easier than anybody I've ever met. He's been a college professor, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal as well as the Anchorage Times, he's been the director of the Sportfish group as well as the Executive Director of Wally Hickels Institute of the North and now he's selling Real Estate in Beach Haven New Jersey. He's been in love, he's been out of love. He's had his heart broke and healed. He's married to wonderful gal named Suzie and living on a 48 footer in the harbor. I'm impressed.

So me and MP have fresh fish, what a treat. I took this picture here to show you the fruits of our labor here at Mile 14 as we enjoy and all Alaska supper. I barbied the salmon and MP made garden fresh peas and potatoes and sliced some of our own red and yellow tomatoes. The bottle of Zinfandel was just for show, we actually had a bottle of Estancia Chardonnay that Chrisco left for us last week. mmmmm man was it all good.

Right before super we get a call from our neighbor Judy Swarner. She's been clearing out her shed and has a nice roto tiller to give MP. So MP goes up on the 4-wheeler to get it and comes back about as happy as I've ever seen her. The mad mower has a new machine. I kind of see a conflict coming here next spring. I'm not sure we have enough lawn for both a tilling and mowing fascination. mmmmm, we'll see.

So its sunny and warm, we're eating fresh salmon , MP's got a new toy and football season has started. Could it get any better? Yup, my friend Nate Morton arrives to fish on Sunday with his wife Mary and grandsons Lucas and Cory. We enjoy the sun together on Saturday night and then Sunday morning finds us anchored in the same spot where Ben and I greased em the morning before. Its foggy and quiet and guess what??? no fish. Yikes. But Nates not concerned and we spend a couple hours on one of our favorite things, analysing Alaska politics. But as much as I enjoy visiting with Nate fishin is the mission afterall and mid morning I take the boat to a place I've been saving. We run out the Kwikfish lures because those guys are so deadly they ought to be illegal and walla, Lucas has a fish on. Then Cory has a fish on. Then Mary has a fish on. Then Lucas has another fish on. Then Cory has another fish on. Then Cory and Lucas have fish on at the same time. And then Nate has....NOTTA, sorry Nate I gotta tell the truth. Skunked.

Wonderful week here at Mile 14, thats all I can say.

Its Labor Day

Yesterday dawned bright and sunny, maybe the best day of the year. By noon MP had already washed all the windows and mowed the lawn and I figured if I didn't get her away from the house she might decide to repaint again...obviously she was missing the holiday intent. So I decide we'd jump in the Suby and drive Skilak Loop and get pics of the fall foliage for the blog.

Skilak loop is part of the old highway to Anchorage and used to be a mecca for road hunters like me. But because the federal government owns 90% of the state and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a ' multi-use' policy, its now a wildlife viewing area. So we stop and get some gas and of course a couple ice cream cones, after all I'm still fishing and my fall diet and training doesn't start until fishing is done. That cone was flat good, albeit a bit messy and sticky. We're a good 5 miles into the loop and we haven't seen a single wildlife and it looks like we're a bit early for the yellow fall look of the Aspen and Birch Forrest.

We came across this clear-cut and we got to wondering just what that was all about, why would the government slash up this beautiful place? New moose browse? Fire control?....mmmmmm. Well I think its because the viewing deal wasn't going so good, just to many darn trees in the way for good wildlife viewing. Now that makes perfect sense to a guy from the Washington D.C. office and certainly we have enough trees in Alaska that executing a few for a multi-use approach to land management is a reasonable solution.

But as we drove along the real reasons for such poor wildlife viewing became apparent. How in the world are you going to sneak up on the wily moose with your car ker-bang a chang-n off all these potholes, they can hear you coming for miles. I don't know how MP knew it but I had to agree, these aren't new potholes, as she said..." they're seasoned". I guess they just should have picked a road grader over a chainsaw, simple mistake.

So now we're 10 miles into the loop and still no wildlife, I'm beginning to think that maybe we're doing something wrong when we come across this sign. What a relief, we're doing everything right. We're staying on the road-bed, we're not loud and we haven't chased a single thing. But with views like this next picture who needs wildlife eh? This is looking west towards the mountains from Skilak overview, the trees have a hint of yellow and you can see all the way across the Cook Inlet to the snow covered volcanoes a hundred miles away. Gorgeous is all I can say.