valhalla.

18 days.

more fun than my job.

but i get to go to alaska in 2 months.

tracy morgan is serious...

pike.

we did a fly-out from willow to a not so secret lake for some northerns. it was a quick 20 minute flight on calm bluebird day. we got dropped off at the lake and threw a tiny 2 hp motor on our skinny boat. we loaded up, headed to the nearest weed line, and started chucking our froggy-looking topwater lures. within seconds they started smacking it. hook-ups were tough (i did way better after switching over to the fly rod and throwing a white bunny leech) and the fish were mostly hammer handles, but we saw some 4 footers swim by.
maybe another day.
i need my pilot license.

"shit, dude, that's a choker bowski!"

holy hell! now THIS is why i went to alaska!
this group of photos, to me, is pretty much the, um, climax of my trip. so, i'll keep posting, but you'll should just know it don't, no, can't get any better. click here.

this was a pretty sweet morning.

thanks to cam miller for the angles.

berries, the taco bell of the tundra.

more.

good god, i'm so sick of looking at my ugly mug. i'm think i should start pasting megan fox's face on my body?
anyway, if you like pescapornographia and can tolerate some more of my grill, here's some more shots from the middle of the week on the ktok. click here.

chilly mornings.

mornings were damn cold.
it didn't help that kevin usually left tent door open at 4am. yeah, kevin, i just called you out. i suppose this was the trade-off since he brought enough whiskey for the entire camp/village. anyway, the tents were pretty warm except when we were too drunk to figure out how to re-light the pilot.
getting up every morning was pretty easy knowing that hot breakfast was waiting and that our waders and boots were in the drying tent.
oh yeah, and we could hear fish slapping around in the river within earshot.

AK 09.

on the way to bethel.

WHAT A TRIP!
AKWest is quite a place.
definitely the best part is that it's far away from anything.
no, the best part are the crazy, aggressive salmon smashing flies on the surface.
no, the best part are the beautiful rainbows.
no, the best part are the tireless, killer guides.
no, the best part are the other random fishermen each completing their journey to fish mecca.
nope, the best part are the "choker bowski's", hands down.

the approach.

so, i've got quite a few pictures. and for the 5 or 6 of you out there that are hanging on the edge of your couches or cubicles, i will be utilizing a few different methods to show them off. i hope to keep the jabbering to a minimum and let the photos do the talking.
here are a few from the first couple of days or so on the wonderful kanektok and then also some en route to this wonderful place.
check out the first flickr set. click on the slideshow for the easiest viewing.
also, check out the very awesome, cam miller. this guy's the fish pic guru. he spends the week jetting around the river making everybody look like way better fishermen then we really are. the week's end slide show and disc full of sweet pics is a great little bonus that i wasn't expecting. cam speeds around with his million dollar camera tucked into his chest waders. and it's not unusual to see him unloading a giant step ladder onto the gravel bar to get that sweet angle. or to have him dunk his head under the icy water to get a cool look at something swimming.
alright, on to some photos:

officially a long way from home.

dolly.

the first morning. (photo credit cameron miller)

wow. (photo credit cameron miller)

silver bullet. (photo credit cameron miller)

meat. (photo credit cameron miller)

hey all.

i'm back. 21 days in AK. much to tell. and show. however, i'm off to the great plains for a family shin-dig. i'll do my best to get through some of my 400+ photos in the next few days. that being said, i'm doing nothing but finally watching some sweet, sweet football tonight. cheers.

10 days...

no rain, no rainbows.

thank you, william shatner. you truly are my spirit animal.

happy birthday america.

t-minus 60-ish days until...

1. i sleep in my waders.
2. bows on mice.
3. pollywogs.
4. not being at work.
5. the river i've been dreaming about for 2 years.

zzzz.

big bird: "you wanna stay over this morning? we're down four nurses."
cookie monster: "i don't wanna, but i will."
big bird: "i'll make sure you have easy kids."
cookie monster: "so easy that i can just sleep in an empty patient room until i have to be back in 8 hours?"
big bird: "no. so does that mean you won't stay?"
cookie monster: "no. i'll stay. i have to pay for alaska in a couple months."

AK boys.

fellas,
cheers. good times. thanks for the hook up. it was wonderful to learn that not everyone on the kenai flips and just grunts when you say good morning as they float by. it was gettin' to a point in spots where i felt i was carrying a sidearm because of these guys, not the bears:

jay, you spot fish like an osprey.
d, you have more fish karma than aquaman.

deep creek campground.

fishing is better than hiking.

against better judgement we hiked. it rained. it blew. i'm still not dry. and the wounds to my confidence as an outdoorsman aren't yet fully healed. the russian lakes trail, while majestic and beautiful, can take a juicy bite outta my hairy ass. the plan was to hike in 9 miles to aspen flats cabin for one night. take our time the next day for the next 3 miles to the upper russian cabin attempting to fish a bit behind all the sockeye. i knew there would be much bushwacking to get to the river from the trail. i knew the devil's club would be six feet high. i knew the weather would be fickle. i knew we'd be dancing with bears. i did my best to prepare lora of these facts. she said she was game.
having an adult bear stand up on the trail only fifteen yards ahead of you...downwind, while making a ton of racket, with no where to go because of the thick brush is somewhat concerning. and knowing how long is long enough for the bear to have left the area so we could keep on tramping thru isn't a decision i loved making.
simply put, we were out of shape...something else i was already aware of.
the chips were stacked against us before we even thought about getting motivated to fish.
the cabins were great. the newly remodeled upper russian cabin was amazing. kudos to the forest service. we chopped wood. napped. chopped more wood. watched the wind blow. had some black bear cubs dine on salmon off the front porch near the beach. it was peaceful and relaxing.
fishing was more difficult than i had imagined. the forest service provided row boat was useless due to the wind, although i attempted. this made my arms as useless as my already dead legs. i tried to fish the riverbank, but i admit, the bears had me spooked. they were darting in and out of the river like ghosts. and my visibility was crap. hearing cubs whining and screaming out off in the distance made it tough to concentrate on spotting rainbows amongst the millions of reds.
so the plan was one night at aspen, three at upper russian, back for one night at aspen, then back to the car. well, we gave it two nights at upper russian and said enough. i was craving a cheeseburger. lora was dying for a shower. we both needed a chiropractor. the decision was made to kill it back to the car from upper russian. 12 miles. it was crazy. but i wanted to get back to some water i could fish. oh and it was pouring rain. oh and we were cranky. oh and those fucking bears...especially the brown ones...they weren't scared of anything.
somewhere between the lakes, we shit our pants. i was hollerin' the entire hike. every ten yards it seemed, but probably not. lora had a dinner bell. we were, surprisingly, making great time. then out of nowhere...what sounded like the entire roster of the chicago bears came barrelling thru the woods. it actually was only a black bear, but it was right next to us. and it climbed a tree right after one of my shouts, so i didn't know what the hell was going on. lora said in a surprisingly calm tone, "bear." i said, "shit.", thinking a cub in a tree this close to us equals bad, bad news. i spun around and got lora behind me. a few seconds later it belly-flopped out of the tree and ran off screaming. we both laughed nervously. i tried to convince myself that it was only an adult with no cubs...definitely not an upset, protective mama. we trampled on thru the mess, i believe with a bit more pep in our step.
we got back to the car. collapsed. napped. got some lunch at gwin's. found a comfy cabin with a hot shower. and slept two days.
lessons learned.

early august.

only a few days left here in AK. here's some more images from earlier this month. these lazy, photo-only posts will end once i'm bored to death at work again later this week.