we flew into fairbanks at 1:30am and it was still light out. a bit dusky but still totally light.
we relaxed at the hirt homestead and saw the sights in fairbanks including the pipeline.
we drove in the rain to fish camp- it was a beautiful drive that i'm sure would be even better with no rain but still was impressive. fish camp is on the copper river. two families have buses that have been outfitted as rv's, the hirts have a camper or two, there's a shelter for filleting, a fire pit, the fish wheel with super steep walkway, a couple of conex boxes for storage, a latrine, and a bath house under construction... and when it's raining, there is a lot of mud- thank goodness for mud boots!
the fish wheel scoops up salmon who are swimming upsteam to spawn (that means lay eggs), dumps them into the hopper where they wait to be scooped up, thumped on the head, gills cut to drain blood from meat, filleted, marinated in papa hirt's secret soy/sugar-based tub o' stuff, and then smooked... not smoked, not cooked, smooked. takes about 8 hours and is duh-licious!
this is the smooker- a wwII era army field cooker thing that papa hirt picked up at an army surplus store. he's so resourceful!
after a couple days at fish camp (with a dismal take but not a complete skunk), we drove to valdez for a night of camping and a halibut charter.
so the charter was well... let's just say good and bad. the 2.5 hour ride out the prince william sound was gorgeous. the 30 min ride through the tidal swells into the open ocean was hell and pretty much set the tone for my deathly ill day at sea. we caught a few fish but only one (a 35lb halibut) was worth keeping. not so impressive. the one bright spot was a huge school of killer whales with a few babies and a huge bull that had a 5ft dorsal fin. the big dorsal fin came within less than 100 yds from the bow of the boat (where i was laid out trying to not puke but still watch my pole).
after valdez, we spent one more quick night at fish camp and then went on our way to drive the denali highway- amazing. we did a quick overnight hike in to landmark gap which was breathtaking. we saw lots of scat (aka poo-berries) but no animals. we did see some moose and porcupines while driving but thankfully, nothing while we were hiking.
despite the frequent rain, mosquitoes and lack of fish, alaska was stunning. the hirt family were great hosts- can't wait until they open their floor-n-breakfast (aka f-n-b)! more photos are in the AK 2008 album- link is on the right. e
No comments:
Post a Comment