Walt Disney and Marlin Perkins

are responsible for my early wildlife education.  Marlin was usually safe in a knotty pine paneled room while Jim was out there wrestling alligators.  Well, sometimes Marlin got of the jeep during some episodes of Wild Kingdom.  As for Disney - the cartoons were always my favorite but I think I liked the animal shows better than the movies or whatever show was the flavor-of-the-week.

I'm pretty sure that those two shows were also my initial education about how salmon swim upstream and bears hang out in the streams to eat the salmon.  My recollection is that it was fall in the shows and the bears were eating the salmon to fatten up for the winter.  For years I have had images in my mind of bears eating berries and honey all summer long just waiting for the day in fall when the leaves start to turn yellow and that first intrepid salmon of the season tries to sneak past the hungry bear to get upstream to spawn before it dies.

Presented with this history, maybe it will help to understand why I am so blown away with what I have learned.  And I have been learning a lot.  First off, salmon fishing is HUGE business.  There are the salmon charters, salmon dip nets, salmon dips, salmon smoking and salmon canning. Just to name a few.  And, there are many different types of salmon.  Who knew!!?? Certainly not me!  This is what I have been piecing together, and please realize that my education is in no way complete.  So salmon runs don't happen in the fall.  They start running almost as soon as the weather warms up.  Which, coincidentally is about the same time the bears and the tourists show up.  People don't need fishing poles to catch salmon.  Instead, they take a few days off of work and head out to a river (the Kenai river is a popular destination) and head out with a net about 5 foot in diameter.  They stand out in the river, either wearing waders in the water, or wearing waders in a boat, and hold on to their nets and let the salmon swim right into their nets.  I don't know exactly what the limit is, and actually, it is different depending on the species of salmon, but people were catching something like 25.

These pictures are of the wife of one of Steve's co-workers.  The only other part of the process that seems to be missing from these pics is the part where you hit the fish on the head with a mallet to kill 'em once they come out of the water.  One of the guys I work with said that is his kids job.  He pulls the nets onto the shore and his kids rush over with the mallet and knock the salmon on their little fishy heads.

All of this really came into full swing at the end of July.  That's when the season must have been winding down.  Traffic on the two-lane Seward highway (one of the two roads out of town) was crawling.  But, it must be worth it. My question to everyone that catches that much fish is - what the heck do you do with it?  Their answer explains why I saw a young couple buying all sorts of canning equipment.  I couldn't imagine why they were buying canning equipment, because truthfully, you can only can so much sauerkraut.  It's not like there are fresh tomatoes waiting to be made into sauce.  Tomatoes here only grow in a greenhouse.  But people can their fish.  And moose too, at least according to one guy I met.  But he's a different sort of guy.  Folks here smoke their fish, either have it done commercially, or themselves.  Recipes are guarded and contests are held for the best.  And then it's placed in cans.  I have no idea what it tastes like, but I am hoping someone shares with me.  I did get a little smoked salmon and all I can say is mmmmmmm...mmmmm...mmmmmm!

Fortunately for the fisher folks, they had good weather, and then the clouds and rain rolled in.  It's been raining for about 3 weeks now and temps have dropped into the low 60's.  Last week Jake and I headed to Beluga Point where the winds were blowing at about 70 mph.  I thought we might catch sight of the bore tide, but maybe next time.



That little sign says something about not discharging firearms from this point

 The weather hasn't warmed up yet, but there is a promise of sun for later in the week.  I hope so because family comes up to visit this coming weekend (yahoo!) We will go out and see the sights, but it would be so much nicer to see the sights when the sun is out.

I got a little off-track when I started talking about the salmon fishing.  After the season ebbed, and the rain set in, my co-workers started talking about what a nice summer it HAD been.  Wait, did they say HAD? I was still waiting for summer to arrive and here it was, over all ready.  Somehow I feel deceived by Walt and Marlin.  The salmon and the bears didn't start in the fall.  They start in the beginning of summer, and summer here is over at just about the time my vegetables would be starting to ripen in my garden in Wisconsin.  There is a way to tell when summer is ending, snow on the Chugach mountaintops.



 You can just barely make out the snow.  They have a phrase for it.  Termination dust.  Get it?  Dusting of snow on the mountains is the termination of summer.

Don't worry, my co-workers tell me.  Fall is nice too.  I don't doubt that it is, I just wasn't mentally prepared for fall to start in August.  The northern lights are back.  Recently there was a display at 2 AM.  We are losing almost 6 minutes of daylight every day.  I think we have about 16 hours of daylight now.  And just about the time that I got used to having bright sunlight at 10 PM.

Jake and I went for a bike ride over the weekend.  He is so patient, waiting for me while I pant and pant, trying to just keep going forward without toppling over.  We stopped at the lake by our house.

Jewel Lake

Jake said "this is really a pretty place".  I would have to agree.

Until next time!