Fishing the Russian

Wow we are behind. We have been very busy over the past month and have not had time to do a blog post. And since we were busy doing fun things around the state we have much to write about...so stay tuned!

On June 15th the Russian River (#61 on the list) opened to salmon fishing so that weekend we went down to try our hand on this popular fishing river. The river is very shallow, so you walk through the river with waders looking for fish. You can actually see the Red's (sockeye salmon - one of the best eating salmon) swimming upstream and they do not chase any lures. However, they swim with their mouth open and you try to pull the hook across their path in front of them and hook the fish in their mouth. It is a very interesting and different way to fish.


Unfortunately, it was too early for the first run and we saw no fish the entire time we were down there. However, we did see the other thing the Russian is famous for - bears!

There were two cubs up in a tree and the mother was across the river fishing. We stopped to take a picture, but didn't stay long enough to attract the attention of the mother.

Since there were no fish we left around lunch time to hike the Skilak Lookout Trail (#52).


It is a hike up one of the hill sides along the Skilak Lake (where we camped earlier this summer). The lake is 10 miles long and is very gorgeous. You can see the Kenai River flowing into the lake on the left and a glacier flowing into the lake towards the back right. The Kenai River continues towards the ocean flowing out the other side of the lake.

We had driven to the trail head with some of our friends and when we got back to their car it wouldn't start! Luckily a lady we had passed on the trail came out shortly after we did and offered to give us a ride. She was a Swiss police detective named Chantalle who was traveling Alaska by herself in an RV for a month. She gets lots of vacation time each year and has done similar trips to Australia, South Africa, and many other places. We repaid her by giving her a real American S'more (her first, and first marshmallow)!

The next day we drove to the towns of Kenai (#48) and Soldotna (#106). They are towns near the mouth of the Kenai River popular for fishing and hiking. We explored, saw a mother moose feeding her young, and more importantly got parts for their car!

After this long weekend we made the drive home and got ready for the next weekend's travels!

Steven