The Last Frontier

November 21, 2018 By Tom Burnett

We made so many memories during our #30daysinalaska adventure. We visited and fished four different regions of the state, with Anchorage being our “home base” where we usually spent a day or two before heading off to our next stop.

Our first lodge experience was at Intricate Bay Lodge (IBL) on Lake Illiamna. This area is part of the Bristol Bay area of Alaska which includes many different rivers and lakes. Our week at IBL was an amazing first trek during our time in Alaska and included fishing 5 different rivers…. Copper, Alagnak, Gibraltar, Battle and Moraine Creek. We experienced fly out fishing in sea planes guided by our pilot and his plane “T-Bird and the Dirty Girl”. While we had many highlights along our trip to this region, which also includes Katmai National Park, one of our favorites was our “Guide Talk” with the guides of IBL.

After flying back into Anchorage, we ventured up toward Denali National Park, home of the tallest peak in the US. We were very lucky to actually get to see Denali right before we dropped into the little village of Talkeetna, which was the setting for the TV show Northern Exposure. In Talkeetna, we found great food, quirky shops and some awesome music. Nearby, we also found Montana Creek, which was one of the spots we fished without any guide, which is always interesting for two reasons; 1…. we were on our own in serious bear country, and yes, we carried our own bear spray and, 2… we used our own wicked smart fishing skills (chuckles) to find good holding spots for fish… picked our own flies to use… and yes, caught fish, including our first Chum!

Our third week in Alaska found us traveling to the small native village of Quinhagak, then jet boating up the Kanektok River to our tent camp at Alaska West. If I had to pick one river that was simply “lights out” awesome fishing of all of the TU Top 100 Trout Streams, it would be the Kanektok. We had a blast exploring this river from where it flowed into the Bering Sea all the way up to where Togiak Wilderness Area begins. We fished the main channel and the braids targeting species from salmon (Silvers, Chum, Pinks, Kings and Sockeye), to Rainbow Trout, Dolly Varden and Grayling. While the scenery in the area was breath-taking, it was the fishing that was the big draw. We held our largest “Guide Talk” on the last evening in camp that turned out to be a hoot.

Our last week in Alaska was on the Kenai Peninsula where we were joined by fishing buddy James Kelley. Guides from both Alaska Troutfitters and Mystic Waters Fly Fishing showed us the Kenai, Russian and Quartz Creek. Wading the Russian and Quartz, watching for bears and picking off rainbows and dollies along the way was just exhilarating. The Kenai was just so impressive with its size and color which is caused by the glacial silt in the water. The pictures you see in our “The Last Frontier” video aren’t doctored in any way…. the river is truly that color of blue!

We hope you enjoy this “highlight” video of our time in Alaska. We had to pick just a few favorite photos, otherwise the video would be a full length movie! Enjoy…. and….

Ramble On

Alaska, Lagniappe

The “Alaska Experience”

November 12, 2018 By Tom Burnett

At almost every turn in Alaska, whenever something happened, we were greeted by the phrase “It’s a part of the ‘Alaska Experience’”. I cannot tell you how many times we heard that phrase… from guides, to airline employees, to fly shop owners, to merchants, to restaurant servers and more. I think it’s part of the lexicon for Alaskans to remind you that you’re definitely NOT in the lower 48 anymore.

While I will be writing much more later, I wanted to share just a few of the “happenings” which cause this phrase to be uttered. You’ll note that I’ve included one picture to this gallery post to depict each of these “happenings” that coincide with each of the sections below.

Rain & Wind

When we arrived in Anchorage, it was sunny and 72 with no wind. When we left Anchorage for Intricate Bay Lodge, the clouds had formed and were a harbinger of things to come. At dinner the first night, our host shared how the past week at the lodge, the temps were in the upper 60’s and 70’s with sun and no wind. As it turned out for OUR week at IBL and in the Katmai NP area, we had temps in the low-mid 50’s with winds in the sustained 20-30 mph range …. gusts exceeding 40mph… and rain regularly pelting us. We had one sunny (but windy) day in the Katmai area. When we went to fish the Kanektok with Alaska West, we had a similar experience, albeit with less wind, but similar rain… and yes, one day of sun!

I can still hear Chase at IBL and Cole at Alaska West telling us… “It’s a part of the ‘Alaska Experience!’” Mind you, Chase said it when we were landing at “Pothole” near Moraine Creek in a rainstorm with a ceiling of maybe 200’ for T-Bird to land the Dirty Girl… repeated it as we carried the rafts, coolers, paddles, etc… up and down the ridge to our put in spot…. and then as he fought those sustained 30 mph winds with 40+mph gusts for 7 hours.

Cole used the phrase when we arrived at Quinhagak along the Kanektok River in a rainstorm without our rain gear as we were about to embark on a 30 minute jet boat ride upriver to our Alaska West tent camp. We were wearing trash bags as rain gear on our legs, covering ourselves as best we could, which leads me to the next “Alaska Experience” topic.

Picture 1 Note: We’d just finished a day long raft trip on Moraine Creek in crazy harsh winds and rain. The knees you see just sticking up are our guides who were exhausted from fighting the wind. Barb is the one all covered up in the bottom of the picture trying to avoid the weather. We waited like this for about 30 minutes before “T-Bird and the Dirty Girl” arrived to pick us up and fly us back to the lodge.

Luggage Issues

You see, we HAD actually packed our rain gear, right on top of our luggage, expecting to get it at the terminal in Quinhagak when we landed. Our plan was to put it on in the terminal before boarding the jet boats for the trip upriver. Great plan…. right?

As it turned out, right after we boarded the Ravn Airlines “Nanook” in Anchorage for our flight to Bethel (an intermediate stop on the way to Quinhagak…. more on this another time), a ground crew member came aboard and informed us that several bags had been “bumped” from the flight due to weight restrictions, but that they’d be on the very next flight to Bethel. When we arrived in Bethel, after a long delay there due to “Rain and Wind” (see above), we found out that both Barb and I had been the “lucky losers” and our bags had been pulled in Anchorage. No worries however, they were coming on the very next flight to Bethel, then onto Quinhagak.

I’ll spare you in this version of our “Alaska Experience”, and just say that our bags DID make it on the next flight from Anchorage to Bethel, but the airport in Quinhagak was closed due to…. you know what…. “Rain and Wind”. We didn’t see our bags, with our rain gear right on top, until noon the next day. Our “note to self” for our next trip to Alaska was…. in addition to carrying on all your medications, passports, toiletries and such in our carry on luggage, pack full rain gear as well.

Picture 2 Note: The two “big” bags in the top 1/2 of the picture are the ones that got “bumped” from the flight. The bottom 1/2 of the picture shows the bus and trailer that is holding all the bags that DID make it on time to Quinhagak… as well as the rain that was coming down at the time.

Travel

First of all, just getting to Alaska isn’t the easiest of things to do…. but once there, the REAL fun begins. Alaska is known as the “Air Crossroads of the World” due to the number of flights that occur daily, including all the sea plane flights. Since there are only a few roads in Alaska, most travel is done via plane. Each small village, many of which are native Alaskan villages, has an airport. If you look at the Ravn Airlines map, you’ll see just how many destinations there are in Alaska. Ravn operates 10 “hubs” for flights to all the villages it serves. Even more so, this doesn’t take into account all the private float planes stationed around the 3197 “officially named” lakes (and 3 million+) lakes that dot the landscape of Alaska.

So…. the “Alaska Experience” of course includes jets, prop planes of assorted sizes and for sure, float planes including our fav, the “Dirty Girl”. In addition to planes, there are also rafts, drift boats, jet boats and a bit larger boats for tooling around the waters of the state. We were even introduced to a new aviation moniker…. IFR flying. When the ceiling is incredibly low, you go IFR…. I Follow River! We came to think of it as an amusement ride, banking left and right as you parallel the river below, only about a few hundred feet up.

I have to say, the jet boat rides were an adventure as well, with that same amusement ride feel to them. We traversed some landscape that you wouldn’t have imagined navigating by just looking at it.

Picture 3 Note: Just a few of our transportation adventures during our “Alaska Experience”.

Wildlife

Yes…. there is wildlife in Alaska… lots and lots of it. At times, we would have to remind ourselves of where we were to remember what we might encounter. While in Anchorage, we really weren’t TOO worried about bears, but definitely had to watch out for moose. When we were on the rivers in Alaska, we most definitely had to watch out for bears. Amazingly, we did… kind of…. get used to seeing them around us. We were always aware and looking around regularly, but really weren’t too afraid when we saw one for two reasons. One… the bears had ample supplies of food with all the salmon in the rivers, and two, our guides had both bear spray and carried hand guns, just in case. Our only “sketchy” times were those in which we ventured out to the rivers on our own, without guides. Needless to say, we always had bear spray and we made LOTS of noise along the way. We still saw bears each time we went out, but really never felt too threatened. We also encountered moose and more eagles than you could count. We came to appreciate all of these wildlife encounters as a part of the “Alaska Experience”.

Picture 4 Note: The wildlife in Alaska is so spectacular, especially the moose, eagles and of course, the bears.

Fishing

The ultimate reason we came to Alaska was to fish the final 5 rivers of the TU Top 100 book… Kenai, Russian, Copper, Alagnak and Kanektok. That said, we also came for the “Alaska Experience” shared in this post whether we realized it at the time or not. The fishing in Alaska is EPIC to say the least. There are so many species to target…. so many big fish to battle… and so many rivers, creeks and lakes to explore. We had an absolute blast fishing them all and yes, are already plotting our next trip to Alaska in 2020.

Picture 5 Note: On our last day on the Kanektok, our guide put us on 6 different species of fish… this pic captures 4 of them… Chum, Rainbow, Sockeye and Silver (Coho). We also caught grayling and dollies that day.

Guide Talk, Kenai

Mystic Waters

October 7, 2018 By Tom Burnett

When we first saw the Kenai River, we were amazed at the blue color we saw. It was absolutely breathtaking. As for fishing, we found out there are several “sections” we could fish. While we were on the Peninsula, we fished three of them, all in the “Upper” area, fishing from Kenai Lake to Sportsman’s; Sportsman’s to Jim’s Landing; and the amazing section through the Canyon. There were eagles everywhere lining the banks of the river.

Fishing with Stacy Corbin, the founder, owner and head guide for Mystic Rivers Fly Fishing, was a real treat. Stacy was really excited to show us the section through the canyon, so off we went, putting in at Sportsman’s and floating downstream, through the canyon, ending up in Skilak Lake.

We stopped on a small gravel bar in the canyon section for lunch and our “Guide Talk” with Stacy. We had a very special guest along with us who fished behind us as we chatted about fishing the Kenai…. how to fish it…. when to fish it… and what species can be targeted. Stacy knows this river better than anyone and we were really lucky to have fished it with him. We can’t wait to go back to the Kenai Peninsula to fish with Stacy and to chase “Walter” and “Wanda” again. For now, we know you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stacy, as well as some great pictures/videos, including our special guest.

Kenai, Quartz Creek, Russian River

Alaska – Part 4

August 19, 2018 By Tom Burnett

Kenai Peninsula Week

Day 24: Back to Anchorage

While our time at Alaska West had ended, we still had to get back to Anchorage to meet up with fishing buddy James Kelley to start our Kenai Peninsula leg. To do that required the reverse of how we got to Alaska West….. Step 1: boat ride from the tent camp to the native village of Quinhagak. When we got there, the tide was at a crazy high at 14.2 feet up, meaning our guides navigated the jet boats through a scattering of native’s boats, and up a road that was well underwater. It was funny seeing the guides looking at one another, wondering what was the best way to go. But…. we made it out of the boats and after a short walk, we boarded our “school bus” for a short ride to the Quinhagak airport terminal.

What you have to understand about the Quinhagak terminal, is that it’s a small house, with no “security”. We didn’t see any TSA agents, only a native selling trinkets and wolf hides in the “gift shop” area of the small terminal/house. It was raining, of course, as we walked out to our small, 8 passenger single prop plane and took off down the runway with a large “bump” in it. Luckily, the plane had lifted before we hit the bump (we hit it on landing a week earlier).

After a short flight from Quinhagak to Bethel, we located our luggage and fish boxes (yes, we brought out 100 lbs of salmon). We proceeded to “formally” check in at the Bethel terminal, have our bags weighed, lamented how our bags were left behind last time on this leg and waited. Finally, we boarded a Dash 8 and took the 1.5 hour flight to Anchorage…. where we found James waiting for us at baggage claim. We grabbed our rental car and headed to the Kenai Peninsula and the little community of Cooper Landing, right on the Kenai & Russian Rivers.

Barb and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary with James by having dinner at the Kingfisher, a local restaurant and bar located right on the water. After a good meal and lots of story telling, we headed to our cabins for the night.

Day 25: Quartz Creek Stomping

We met Matt Marchaund at Alaska Troutfitters and headed out to Quartz Creek for the day. Barb and I had fished with Matt on the Russian earlier on our trip and he’d talked about how Quarts Creek was ‘coming into shape’ and might be a great option. After parking at the Crescent Creek campground, we fished our way upstream through several holes, hooking into a fish here and there. It was still early for the Quartz, but, we were encouraged seeing a huge King salmon. At some point eggs would be laid, and some would drift downstream to waiting trout and dolly varden, but not just yet. Still, we found several willing fish to hit our egg beads.

We had lunch, sitting on the bank of the river before heading downstream to fish a few holes. We crossed over Crescent Creek, which was flowing strong, before hitting a couple of really nice spots and hooking into more fish. We’d had a great day fishing with Matt and headed back to our cabins and dinner at Sacketts… pizza!

Day 26: #100… CHECK!

This was the day…. our chance to fish the Kenai River, which would be the 100th river on the TU list we’d been fishing. We met our guide for the day, Simmons Adickes of Mystic Waters Fly Fishing, in front of our cabin and headed off to the Sportsman’s Landing launch. After putting on our life vests, getting our safety instructions, launching and getting our fishing instruction, we started. Within 15 minutes we’d landed (Barb, of course) our first of many Kenai River fish, a feisty rainbow.

We fished through the “Refuge” section with really good success, picking off rainbows and dolly varden with regularity. We’d also seen eagles (bald and juvenile) around every bend in the river. Simmons told us how one bald eagle, Frank, had bombed his boat when we was landing a fish for a client. Frank literally flew down and plucked the fish right from the net, and proceeded to fly away with it. We were laughing so hard as the story continued…. turns out, the fish was still hooked by the angler, so as Frank flew away, the fly line was screaming off the reel of the angler, but, it was 40’ in the air as Frank was taking the fish to his nest. Just like bears always win when it decides it wants your fish, so do bald eagles. Frank got the fish (with a hook still in its mouth) and the angler got his line back, hookless.

We went through the “canyon” section with less fishing success, but it was absolutely gorgeous. The rapids were large (Class III) so we sat a lot as we rode them out, but fished some gravel bars along the way. At the end of the “canyon” section, we emerged into Skilak Lake where Simmons turned on the motor and we started our 6 mile trek across the lake. About 2/3 of the way across, we encountered some big waves caused by a westerly wind which made us a bit nervous, but Simmons navigated us safely across. We even saw a small black bear perched on a ledge along the lake.

When we landed at the boat ramp, and exhaled having successfully crossed the lake, we smiled as we remembered that today, we’d crossed off river 100. While our quest to fish (and land a fish) in each of the TU Top 100 trout stream, we still had more days to fish.

Day 27: DIY

This was our DIY day, with the three of us heading off to fish both Quartz Creek and the Russian River on our own. We started on Quartz Creek by hiking up a trail from the Crescent Creek campground for about 1/2 mile. After bushwhacking our way to the river, we found good spots to drop in and proceeded to fish our way downstream, hole by hole, back to the parking lot.

Barb was on fire, picking up beautiful dolly varden in most every hole, but James had the “hook up” of the day. He hollered at me to come help and when I got there and looked into the water, I saw a huge sockeye salmon fighting James line. Now understand, James had hooked into numerous sockeyes when we fished with Matt a couple of days earlier, and Matt had showed him how to point the rod at them and get the hook out. You really don’t want to fight a sockeye with a 6wt rod you’re using to catch rainbows and dolly varden. However, there was more than met my eye.

When I looked closer, I saw that in reality, James had hooked a nice dolly, and in the process of fighting it, the line had crossed through the mouth of the sockeye, and he was fighting BOTH of the fish. We had a small trout net with us that was of no use in landing the sockeye/dolly combo, so we tried to work it out of the sockeye’s mouth. After a few minutes, the sockeye turned, the line came out and we landed the dolly successfully…. whew!

We grabbed lunch at our cabins as we were heading over to fish the Russian River. We parked at the Grayling lot and headed down to the river. When we reached the banks, looking both up and downstream, there were salmon anglers everywhere. We decided we still had to fish, so, with our trout rods and dry flies at the ready, we began fishing. At that same moment, a black bear decided to grace our fishing spot for a few moments, pausing to notice us, but walking away quickly.

We worked our way upstream, dropping into holes that looked ‘fishy’ whenever we could, but the salmon anglers were still everywhere. I was able to snag a nice dolly tight line nymphing, but the real highlight of the afternoon was still to come.

As we were walking downstream, back to the Grayling parking lot, we encountered anglers talking about a bear. When we got to one of the angler access points, we saw a couple standing there with bear spray out and even a knife at the ready. We walked out onto the small deck they were standing on and proceeded to watch a grizzly, slowly making his way upstream, pausing periodically to take a few bites out of salmon that had been caught and filleted by anglers upstream. The anglers had tossed the remains of their catches in the river and the grizzly was feasting on their discarded salmon. He put on a good show for us for about 15 minutes before heading back into the woods.

Day 28: Mystic Waters

When we began planning our Alaska leg of our River Ramble, we worked with the folks at Yellow Dog Fly Fishing. They’d recommended we contact Stacy at Mystic Waters Fly Fishing for our Kenai river adventures. We met Stacy at 7am and prepared to embark for our second Kenai river trip. First, we had to decide what section to fish…. remember, our Skilak Lake crossing the last time with Simmons had made us think about not fishing the “canyon” section which required the 6 mile lake crossing at the end. After checking the weather conditions for the day and talking with Stacy, the fact he’d been guiding on the Kenai for 20 years, we headed back to fish the “Refuge” and “canyon” sections again…. really great decision.

We hooked into a lot of nice fish early on the trip, but it really got “hot” when we pulled into several back eddies. The rainbows were hiding in the slack current of the eddies still awaiting the big drop of eggs from the king salmon and later the sockeyes. We took turns fishing these spots, and each landed fish when we dropped in. Fun!

At the end of the day, when we got to Skilak Lake, it was so calm and clear. The reflections off the water of the clouds and the rock cliffs surrounding the lake were incredible. We’d had another banner day on the Kenai fishing with Stacy and decided right then, we’d have to come back.

Day 29: Upper Kenai

Our last “fishing” day in Alaska started with packing up and getting ready for the drive back to Anchorage. However, we wanted to fish more, so we set off with Mike of Alaska Troutfitters on a 1/2 day float along the Upper stretch of the Kenai, a stretch we’d not fished. While the calm, slow water at the launch site at Cooper Landing was comforting, the wave fishing we’d be doing later was a challenge that we met head on. Mike said “the Kings make their redds here, so the big trout line up behind them”… and we were fishing for big trout. Go big or go home was our motto.

After fishing for a bit, we pulled into a couple of backwater areas and fished first for trout and next for silvers. James had success at both, hooking into a nice trout as well as a big sockeye. Mike was a great guide and coach for us along the way, but of course, Barb was schooling us both…. most fish, biggest fish, you name it.

When we reached the boat ramp at the end of our float, it was a bit of a bittersweet feeling. This was our last fishing day in Alaska, and the last fishing day of our TU Top 100 River Ramble. It’s been an amazing adventure and the memories will last forever. The stories we have will continue to be told forever as well. So while we were excited for achieving our goal of fishing (and catching a fish in) the TU Top 100 trout streams… we were also somewhat sad it was “over”.

Day 30: Saying “Goodbye”

We said goodbye to James as he headed back to Nashville and then spent one more night in Anchorage. Waking up early, packing everything up, grabbing our 100 lbs of salmon from the hotel freezer and heading to ANC, our last day in Alaska was another day of travel…. But wait, we’d already talked about coming back to Alaska in 2020 to fish during prime time on the Kenai and Russian Rivers… and…. we’ve talked about going back to Maine, and our newly minted state of WeNoCarNoGaEaTen (aka. Western North Carolina, Northern Georgia, Eastern Tennessee), California, Pennsylvania and our home waters around Montana, Idaho and Wyoming…. it seems line our Rambles will be continuing. Alaska simply confirmed our passions to continue our fishing adventures.

Ramble On!

Alaska

30 Days in Alaska

July 17, 2018 By Tom Burnett

When we started out on this three year “River Ramble” to fish the Trout Unlimited’s Guide to America’s Top 100 Trout Streams, we knew we were saving the five rivers in Alaska for last. The other 95 were “easy” in comparison, as we were able to drive to every one of them. Alaska posed a bit of a different problem as you can see from our cover photo for this post. We have to fly, on float planes, to get to several of these last 5 rivers. So on Friday (July 20), instead of firing up the SaraLinda and heading out, we are headed to Bozeman-Yellowstone International Airport and heading north for “30 Days in Alaska”.

We’ve been advised by all the places we’re staying in Alaska to bring the usual…. rods/reels, waders/boots, polarized sunglasses, fav fishing hat, comfy clothes and necessary meds/toiletries. Additionally, we were told to bring…. a mosquito net for our heads, 95% DEET bug spray and, of course, we’ll have bear spray with us. While our guides will likely be packing heat, we’ll definitely be packing bear spray.

As we’ve been planning our trip, we got out the maps to see just exactly where we’re going. Alaska is our largest state in land mass and our most sparsely populated. As you can see from the map (pic 1 above), it’s bordered by two Canadian provinces to the east (British Columbia & The Yukon), the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the south, and to the west, it shares a maritime border in the Bering Sea with Russia. Remote seems an appropriate description. But it’s also the home of our highest peak, Denali, and some of the most breathtaking scenery and wildlife on the planet. While it’s definitely a fishing destination of anglers around the world, “It’s Not About the Fish” applies here as well.

We’re really breaking up our time in Alaska into 4 segments (pic 2 above), each with its own unique character. After a short stop in Anchorage, we’re off to Intricate Bay on Lake Illiamna for a week of fishing in which we’ll check off two of the five rivers, the Alagnak and the Copper. But just to get to fish these two rivers, it requires a “normal” plane ride from Anchorage to Illiamna airport followed by a float plane (pic 3) to get to our lodge at Intricate Bay. Fishing the Copper River will be easy as the lodge is located near where the Copper flows into Lake Illiamna. The Alagnak is more of a challenge… aka… a float plane once again to get there. You’ll also notice on the picture, Katmai National Park and Preserve (Brooks Falls in particular, see pic 4), which we’ve been told is a “must see”, along with yet another float plane trip to get there. You can see why the SaraLinda just wasn’t an option.

Segment two is all about sightseeing (along with a little fishing of course) along the road between Cooper Landing and Denali National Park and Preserve. After we get back from the Katmai/Lake Illiamna area, we’re back to Anchorage, then driving down to Cooper Landing to fish the Russian River (one of the Alaska 5) and do some sightseeing in Seward. Then it’s back through Anchorage and up to Talkeetna, which began as an Alaska Railroad town. It’s also a “basecamp” area for exploring Denail and fishing a creek that was recommended to us, Montana Creek. Yes, we’re definitely fishing MORE than just the five TU Top 100 trout streams in AK. Then we’re off to Denali National Park and Preserve for a full day of sightseeing. We’re keeping our fingers crossed the weather will be good and we can actually SEE the mountaintop. After Denail, it’s back to Anchorage for…..

…. Segment three, which requires a flight from Anchorage to the small town of Bethel, another flight to the even smaller native village of Quinhagak and finally, a 30 minute boat ride up the Kanektok River to our next basecamp at Alaska West (pic 5). So far, we’ll have been staying in a room, with four solid walls, but not at Alaska West. Here, we are staying in “tents”, with floors, but basically canvas stretched over a frame that has two single beds inside, a lantern and that’s about it. The bathrooms are “out houses” strategically located around the tent sites. There is a dining tent, a drying tent (for waders/boots), a lounge tent and a shower tent. You can see why they call it a “Tent Camp”… LOL. This is truly an Alaska bush experience, at least as “bush” as we’re willing to try. However, the camp is located directly on the Kanektok River which means, no float planes, just getting into jet boats and moving to various sections of the Kanektok, which is the only river we’ll fish this week.

Segment four begins when we boat/fly back from Alaska West to Anchorage. We’ll meet up at the airport with dear friend James Kelley who is coming to Alaska to fish with us for a week on the Kenai Peninsula. Once we grab our gear from baggage claim, we’re headed back to Cooper Landing to fish the Russian and Kenai Rivers, both on the TU Top 100 list. We’ll be floating through the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge fishing the Kenai and hiking along the Russian River. We’re staying in Cooper Landing in cabins along the Kenai River and enjoying all the “fishing, food, friends and fun” we can.

After this segment, we head back to Anchorage to catch flights back to Bozeman (Nashville in James case). Our “30 Days in Alaska” will have been complete. However, along the way, we plan to “Blog” on our River Ramble site and/or update our Instagram feed every day (well, at least every day where we have internet access). We hope you’ll follow along with us on our journey to Alaska.