More 4th of July fun

I forgot a little about the 4th of July. After fishing we went over to my friend, Blake's, cabin. It is a beautiful cabin in the forest right on the edge of the Kenai River, which is glacial run-off. Molly and I were convinced by the guys to swim across it after they did. I was really scared to do it, but I secretly really wanted to. I was so happy we did it and it was so much fun! I had so much adrenaline going into it and the water was freezing so we swam it pretty fast.

4th of July Weekend!

I had the most memorable 4th of July weekend! A group of six of us (Janel, Stephanie, Cohan, Jason, Chase and myself) went on a little adventure! We left Friday to head down to Ninilchik to go halibut fishing on Saturday. On the way we made some fun stops. First we stopped at Girdwood to go to the Forest Fair. It reminded me a lot of the 24th of July celebration in Monticello except that it was a lot bigger, in the middle of a forest, and I didn't know anyone, and I was surrounded by hippies! I've never seen so much tie-dye and hula-hoops in my life! After Girdwood we stopped in Homer, there is more on that below!

Homer is such a funny little town down on the coast. The whole economy is supported by the fishing industry. We spent a lot of time on the Homer Spit, a really thin Peninsula, where all the boats are docked and there are a lot of little shops and restaurants. We skipped rocks on the beach for about an hour and were interrupted when an eagle swooped down and snatched a duck out of the water with its talons. With the duck in its claws it flew right over our heads about ten feet up and then up to a light post where it plucked all the feathers off the duck and ate it. We all just sat there and watched it until it flew off with the carcas. It was amazing!

We got up super early Saturday morning to go deep sea fishing out of Ninilchik. We chartered with a guy named Frank. When we got to the shore, a tractor backed the boat out onto the water and then pulled us out again when we were done. It was a much smaller charter than the one Cindy and I went on. It was just Frank and the six of us. It was beautiful weather! And the fishing was really quick. We each maxed out with two halibut in about 4 hours! It was so much fun going with friends! After we finished fishing we went back to Frank's place and took pictures, fileted the fish, and vacuum packed the fish! Oh, and I took pictures with the puke green mustang that reminded me of Dad.

If you look really closely you can see a mountain in the distance. That is Mt. Redoubt, the volcano that has been active recently, and it is smoking! Trying to bait my hook.

Janel, Stephanie, and Cohan

Jason, Marilyn, and Chase

Cohan fileting the halibutHalibut are really ugly fish. They have a white side and a brown/spotty side. Also, when a halibut is born they have one eye on each side of their head, but as they mature one of thier eyes migrates to the same side as the other. They swim on the bottom of the ocean on their white side, and so they don't need an eye on that side, so that is why both eyes are on the brown side, looking up.

Some random things......

So here is a picture of a stream that I took the second weekend that I was here. Below is the same stream just five weeks later!

I went to fill up with gas the other day. I avoided hitting the post!

Alaska Hike #7 - O'Malley Peak

This is the most recent and biggest hike I've done here in Alaska! We hiked the Highest peak that you can see in the Chugach bowl by Anchorage. It was a 4000 ft. elevation gain and took us about 3 hours to reach the summit! One thing I learned about myself and hiking: I really shouldn't wear a hat when I start hiking, because once I put it on I can't take it off and my hair coming out of the hat gets all wet from the sweat dripping down my neck. Gross! This is me and my friend, Molly, from Fort Collins, CO.

We were a little late for it, but some guy hiked up the mountain with his snowboard and then snowboarded down the slope into the lake. Crazy! I'm about to climb up this beast! And there is still more after this!

This picture doesn't capture it, but that lake was so so blue! It looks untouched!
This person is not me

We saw four lakes

I made it!View from the top! The clouds here are amazing!

This is the group of handsome men that I got to hike with! Me and 2 other girls, and how many guys? This was at the very end of the hike; and a very nice way to end it!

Winner Trail

This is Winner Trail! A beautiful 5 mile hike about 30 minutes south of Anchorage! It was so lush and green! Li-Sha and me (on the hand-tram, see below)

Janel and me (She is definitely one of my favorites! She's been on a date with Mark Madsen, so she and I had lots to talk about!)

At the end of the hike there is a hand tram that goes across a gorge that is probably 60 feet down. This little cart is on a pulley system and you pull yourself (or you get the big guys to help) across to the other side. It was such a fun hike!

Deep Sea Fishing out of Seward!

Cindy and I went deep sea fishing out Seward last Friday! It was so much fun! We each caught two Halibut, just little ones! Reeling in the fish is super hard. It took both Cindy and I to reel them up. Our captain and crew were really wonderful!

































































There were about 12 people on our boat and so there were quite a few dead fish on the boat. They would just throw them down into the bottom of the boat. Lots of dead smelly fish! On the 3 hour ride back to shore our crew guys, Dan and Bobby filleted them all.
































On our ride out to sea we saw porpoises! They were playing in the wake of the ship! On the way back we saw whales! The scenery on the way in was beautiful! The pictures don't quite capture it all!