Jul 24, 2011 - Fishing and relaxing

On Friday, I did a little fishing near the campground and down the river a ways. Other than that we relaxed - a real slow day. On Saturday I hiked the mile or so down the Copper River with a couple of guys I met here to fish for sockeyes. We fished for several hours without catching a fish. We hiked back to camp to rest up for our salmon charter that afternoon. I broke down and paid for another salmon charter, this time on the Klutina River, the river that runs by our campground. This trip would be in a rubber raft rather than the jet boat....

Jul 21, 2011 - Move to Copper Center - 19 July entry

We moved from Valdez to Copper Center on Tuesday. We hung around the campground and met a couple of guys from Cleveland and Kalamazoo, Michigan. We planned on 3 days here mostly fishing but it turns out the second red (sockeye) salmon run is late and sockeye fishing is poor. King fishing is good, though, if you want to pay the charter fee. I scheduled a charter for Thursday afternoon.

Jul 21, 2011 - King Salmon Fishing

Today I went on a salmon charter on the Copper River. The Copper is about a mile below our campground on the Klutina River. I went on the charter with the two guys from the midwest (Michigan and Ohio) that I met the day we got here. They went on a king charter on the Klutina the day we arrived and filled their limit there. The limit (as I understand it - they have some really complex regulations here and an army of Fish and Game officers to enforce them) is one fish per day and one fish per year per river with a yearly limit of 4 kings....

Jul 25, 2010 - The Road To "just Don't Know Yet

This morning we head out to,just haven't made a decision yet. All I know is we have to be in Denali on the first and Skagway on the the 13 of Aug. So I will fill you in later. Well we ended up only going 50 miles back to Russian river Camp. I wanted to try my luck fishing for salmon with the bears. So we took a hike down along the river to check out what was happening. Lots of people fishing and some were catching. Now to catch a salmon you have to float the hook into it's mouth. I guess it is just a lot of luck. Tomorrow morning I will...

Jul 14, 2010 - Great Camp And Our Own Private Beach

Camping at Quarts Creek Camp was really my favorite place to camp. Most of the sites on the water are reserve sites and this time of the year are hard to get. Well jack of all trades and MASTER of campsites got us the only none reserve site on the water. Bev got us #4 site right on the water with our own beach. We stayed here for four days and had a great time. The weather was good and the kayaking was even better. The Kenai Lake was just an awesome color and Lex even had a good time swimming. That dog hit that 40 degree water and you would...

Jul 13, 2010 - Russian River Fishing & Bears

Camping in the Russian River camp was an interesting place. It's more of a fish camp due to all the fishing on the river. they say at busy times you might have to wait along time to get in and when you do you can only stay three days. They have boardwalks along the river and every 50 feet they have steps going to the water. As we watched people fish they would have to move from one side of the river to the other. This was to avoid the bears. One guy caught a fish and just then here comes a bear. He got to the side of the river bed and kept...

Jul 5, 2010 - Glenn Highway

Ok, so staying on the lake with the float planes wasn't such a good idea. Noisy little buggers flying quite late and early. But we survived. Walked downtown Anchorage for the morning. Nice place to spend some time. However men, be aware of the Alaska Mint and keep your women away from there!!!!! I bought a ring for Karen for our 10th anniversary (read: Karen found a very expensive ring, smiled at me and then had me sign on the bottom line). But it will be a nice reminder of our trip up north. Then we hiked Thompson Falls before heading...

Aug 2, 2008 - Off to Copper Center

Awoke to more fog. Wandered the beach at low tide, though beach is not the right term for this. A lot of rocks and very small mussels. Did find half dozen lures that people lost. They should catch some Minnesota fish I think. Pulled out of Valdez about 10 in a drizzle. We were bummed cause going over Thompson Pass is gorgeous from what we remember and we didn’t see anything on the way in. We were in the proverbial pea soup fog at the top but then as we descended just a little it brightened up and in a mile we could see small patches of...

Jul 22, 2008 - Copper Center July Run in full

Tue, 7-22 Came down with something last night, strip throat, I guess, my throat is so sore I can’t swallow. It’s so bad it has me flat on my back in bed. Haven’t been up for 3 days. Finally went to the clinic on Thursday for some medications. Didn’t seem to help much still not able to swallow or eat anything. Went back on Sat. and they finally gave me a shot. That helped get me on the way to recovery. Bad thing about being sick these last few days, the fish are here and I’m unable to get to the river. I’ve missed 7 days of fishing when...

Jul 16, 2008 - Valdez to Copper Center

Today was moving day. We moved to Copper Center. Stu made a fishing reservation for King Salmon. Woke up to rain and had very low clouds all day. It finally cleared some after we arrived in Copper Center. The first picture shows the fishermen on the bank at the Copper Center campground. They were fishing for sockeye (red) salmon. Since we didn't have any tackle we were spectators

Jul 9, 2008 - Copper Center, AK

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Having exhausted the offerings of Anchorage yesterday, we bade farewell to Elmendorf AFB after a brief stop at their very large BX / Commisary for two big cardboard boxes, which I plan to tape to the front of the trailer in Tok. The Glenn Highway through Palmer along the Matanuska River is another spectacular drive, finally passing the Matanuska Glacier (namesake of one of our ferries). But our reward was (only) several miles of following the pilot car through one-lane construction. We did stop to stuff towels to...

Jul 3, 2008 - Worthington Glacier and Copper Center

The weather was clear on the 3rd so we decided to drive to Thompson Pass and see Worthington Glacier. Although we would pass them the next day on the way to Valdez it would be more difficult with the trailers. The Worthington Glacier is in an Alaska State Park with a parking lot, interpretive signs and a gift shop. Although the glacier is easily reached on foot, we didn't hike the quarter mile or so to the foot of the glacier. However, there is a deposit of large rocks between the parking lot and the glacier that got most of my attention....