Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

On this trip, Spencer introduced Nana and I to geocaching. He uses an app on his mother's phone that uses the GPS function to locate the cache and then allows him to log the find.

This one was a few miles from where we were camping at Ninilchik. They come in all shapes and sizes. This one was a "medium." In theory, the larger caches should be easier to find.

Caches are intended to be waterproof, and always contain a log for the finder to sign (in addition to logging them with the app or online at www.geocaching.com. Many of them also contain "swag" or small trade items - you can take something and leave something else.

Spencer is getting pretty good at spotting likely hiding places. I'm still trying to figure out how to get closer to the location...

The nano-caches are super small. Once I figured out that they are generally magnetic, it was easier to find these 1/2" x 3/4" containers. This one was stuck to the steel strap in the corner under the top railing.

Turns out, his mom's IPhone has a much better GPS than my Android. Mine would be bouncing 30 feet one direction, then another. Hers would smoothly decrement until you were within a foot of the target. Even then, they were hard to find!

In the very first cache that I found by myself, there was a traveler. These have serial numbers on them. The intention is that the finder will take this from this cache and move it to somewhere else, logging the move online. This one started in Antigua, then went to Michigan, and then Alaska. Who knows where it will go next. Maybe Arizona or Colorado.

I really enjoyed the hunt, but I'm going to have to get a GPS that works better than the one on my phone!

Gone Fishing

Jeff said that if I'd come help install the solar setup on his trailer that he would take me fishing. That promise found me standing in the rain at 5 a.m. on May 23rd as we waited to board the Arctic Expedition at the Deep Creek tractor launch. BTW, my one day fishing license with salmon stamp cost about the same as Jeff's resident annual fishing license with salmon stamp.

I'm sure glad I had pictures of the tractor launch process from a couple years ago because it's next to impossible to get pictures from the boat. This picture of another boat is the last picture of the day after we were back on the beach.

We were on the water before the sun rose, which is pretty hard to do this time of year in Alaska. The boat was configured for six clients. We shared the trip with three gals from the Palmer/Wasilla area. They've done the same trip several years running.

We were doing a combo trip, fishing for halibut and king salmon. We trolled unsuccessfully for salmon for about an hour before moving to the middle of the Cook Inlet for halibut. This was the tool of the trade for halibut fishing.

A big bucket of halibut bait! We barely made a dent in it.

Spencer was the second person to catch a halibut. With the two pound sinker plus the fish on the hook, it took a bunch of grinding to get the fish to the surface.

Here's the happy fisherman with his first catch of the day. The limit is two halibut per day, and one needs to be under 29 inches in length. Since Spencer is a resident under age 16, he doesn't need a license but he does need to keep an official record of his catch.

Turns out, our guide for the day was a nephew of a high school classmate. Small world!

After we all limited on halibut, our youngest member caught some zzzzs as we transitioned back to the area where we would troll for salmon again.

It seems like it was less than 10 minutes before Spencer landed this beautiful King salmon. With that catch, he was limited out for the day.

I was amazed when about 10 minutes later, I landed this one, using the same rig that Spencer used. I've never fished for anything, but my grandfather used to fish for salmon, so this was a real kick to catch a King on my first attempt.

It wasn't much longer when Jeff landed one as well. All three of us limited on both species. We spent the next couple hours in the cabin staying out of the rain while the gals continued to trolling for what became very elusive salmon.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game met the boat to take samples of each of the kings. They're watching the health of the fishery very closely.

Here's the three gals with their halibut to the left. A dental tech, a nurse, and a teacher - all good friends and serious about their fishing. They'll be back!

While the gals didn't land any salmon, one of them caught the largest halibut of the day, on light-weight salmon gear, but had to throw it back since we'd all already limited on halibut.

In spite of the rain, we had a wonderful, and amazingly successful, day. I'll help install a basic solar system in exchange for a fishing trip any day!

Sometimes a View

We headed for the Kenai for additional solar testing - at least that was the excuse. We got the view site (no reservations) at Ninilchik View - one of the Ninilchik River State Recreation Area campgrounds. We could usually see the base of the mountains on the far side of the Cook Inlet, but the vast majority of the five days there the skies were overcast.

As we walked around the campground, we could see across the river to the Russian Orthodox Church in the village of Ninilchik. I visited there a couple years ago when we were in Alaska with our Scamp.

There was a really nice set of stairs from the campground down to the beach and the mouth of the river. The weekend we were there was opening weekend of the King Salmon season on the river. This year they were only open for 3 weekends for Kings on the rivers with the season a bit more liberal out on the Inlet.

There were lots of buildings in Ninilchik that were showing signs of neglect.

Even the buildings on the main street didn't show much activity.

The seafood processing facilities were closed up, except where the windows were missing. It looked like they hadn't been used for years.

We had front row seats at our site to watch the eagles flying back and forth, watching for fish.

And one morning, the clouds cleared enough to see the top of Mt. Redoubt on the other side of the inlet.

Even though we had four days of overcast with some rain, we were able to make enough power to sustain the batteries for five days of normal use plus four hours of TV to watch the Indianapolis 500. We could have gone yet another overcast day if needed. Not bad!