Saturday is Moose Day

Every morning I take Keta for a walk to the park- and every Saturday, I walk basically into a moose. Last Saturday, I watched that bull chasing the pee wees (still laughing about that, by the way) but today was a little too close for comfort. So we are walking on the path to the park and this stupid little rat dog is barking and I'm like well the dogs around here are like "Woah, a leaf dropped from the tree, I'm going to bark for 20 minutes about it" so I don't think anything of it. Then all I see is this little girl's face over the fence- her parents were holding her up high enough to see over it and I'm like hmm this is interesting. So then she starts going "Mommy, doggy too." and I'm all like doggy too? Then I look behind the pine tree I'm walking by and 4 feet from us is a moose calf- I'm sure the mother was either standing next to it or in the woods next to me so I'm like oh shit. My heart is beating a million miles a minute (meanwhile, Keta doesn't really even care she sees the moose and looks at me like, uh mom? what do we do?) so we walked real fast- I learned from the pee wees that running isn't the best option- and got away. Meanwhile, I then spent 40 minutes trying to find an alternate way home and got lost so then I had to walk through the moose area again but they weren't there- thank God.

What's Been Goin On?

So I haven't written in a week because really we haven't done anything super interesting. Priorities have been:
1) Research stuff for my thesis so I kind of understand what the hell I'm doing.
2) Duck training Keta- we worked with her at the shooting range and at the park a lot- it's either hit or miss with her she can be fantastic one day and be a total punk the next. Anyways, we are hoping Sunday she will do well- we are going duck hunting. Slight aside: Scott told me this story about a group of guys who were duck hunting (about 30 miles from where we will be hunting) and they were in their blind doing their thang and boom they see a moose come rippin out of the woods, followed by a large grizzly. All of a sudden the grizzly just goes "yup I'm going to eat those duck hunters, screw the moose" and the bear goes shredding into the duck blind! Granted the guys had guns and killed the bear when it was 2 feet from ripping off their faces, but like, I'd die of a heart attack before that happened! Soo I'm a little worried about duck hunting. I'm planning on sitting with my .44 on bear watch the whole time and feeding the dog snacks so she doesn't bark and squirm. I hope Scott can blast some ducks so we can eat and not get eaten.
Anyways thats about all we have been doing- Scott's been working, I've been researching and keeping crazy pants puppy occupied. Sooo Sunday I will hopefully be alive to tell the tale of duck hunting.

Bull Moose v. Pee Wees

Normal things people see at the park: dogs, weird people sunbathing, sports practices- you get the gist. Well, this morning Keta and I were doing our normal walk to the park when we heard some whistles. I was thinking ah shit stupid pee wee football always ruining our running time in the field. But as I turned the corner, I noticed a moose and running children. Yes, a bull moose was chasing the pee wee football team around the field while all the parents were frantic trying to get their kids into dugouts or something to get the moose away from them. Now what might be the problem with that? Well first kids are loud as hell. So the moose isn’t going to charge at the quiet people, it’s going to chase the loud ones- screaming frantic kids. So Keta and I walked past the chaos into another field further away to watch the show. The moose proceeded to run around and chase the kids so one superdad got pissed. He walked right up to the charging moose and naturally the moose started chasing the dude full tilt. I think the man realized he was an idiot so he jumped into a tree and climbed as high as he could up, then jumped over the fence on the other side of the tree to protect him from the moose. Talk about buckwild. Since superdad scared the charging moose away, the pee wees could take a breather and water break. I guess that’s one way to prepare for charging defenders. On another note, I’d like to thank the pee wees because had they not been there, that would have been me and Keta getting chased- that.would.have.sucked.

A Few Epic Events

Silver at Ship Creek

11)      Sunday night Scott and I went to Ship Creek and I caught a coho when a lot of people were not. Boom. Of course, I was drifting into la la land and I got a bite-awesome. I then wanted to catch it so bad that I rolled it through the mud thereby covering myself and the fish with nasty mud.

22)      We then went to Bird Creek on Monday night exploring the outside of Anchorage. Scott and dad caught a ton of pinks (I watched Keta so she would not eat all the dead decaying ones and get the rotten fish pukes-again, yes this has happened before). It was a much more remote spot than Ship Creek so it was very nice and the boys saw sea lions pushing salmon into the river. Keta was so tired she tried to climb in the trunk of the car to go to sleep.

Silvers at the Russian River

3

Beautiful sockeyes!

Doubles

Caught by hand- impressive!

)       Yesterday we went to the Kenai Peninsula for the first time. First off let me say- absolutely incredibly beautiful. On the drive there and back we saw grizzlies and beluga whales and some mountain goats! There were glaciers everywhere in the mountains. So we were obviously going fishing for silvers- we wanted to go to Coopers Landing where the Kenai River and the Russian River meet. When we got there though, it was such a rip off you had to pay to park then pay to take the stupid water ferry across the Kenai to get to the Russian. And there were a ton of people there. So we decided to look around some more and found the Russian River campground. They said we could park in the campground and walk down to the river. The campground trail to the river is so well maintained- they have these really nice planks and stairs to walk down (opposed to the bear trails and mud paths we had been using).When we got to the river it was just awesome- red HUGE sockeye everywhere with silvers, rainbow trout, and dolly vardens mixed in. Oh and a grizzly bear just fishing upsteam with us. Keta was having a ball just jumping on the fish trying to catch them- it was awesome. So the zone was fly fishing only with only light tackle. I, as we all know, can’t fly fish for shit but I had to make it work to fish there. Meanwhile other people just completely didn’t follow the regs- irritating! We were wishing the wardens would come down to the stream- people were using spinning rods, baitcasters and super heavy weights and much bigger hooks than regulated. Considering that we were actually following the regs, we did pretty well. We each caught a ton of big red sockeye- I wish I had money to pay to mount one they are incredible. All the big males were about 12 pounds and had massive hook jaws. I also managed to run like a bear and grab a jack sockeye by hand- how pro is that (I was so proud).  There were friggin MASSIVE rainbows in the stream but it was hard to get to them through the sockeye- none of us succeeded. Then Scott and dad caught some big silvers and we headed home. It was just an awesome day- I want to go back every day! Oh, and my waders suck. Aside from the tread ripping off the shoes from the mud, they now leak through the shoes- I was soaked. Redington, you suck ass.

Back Up, We Have a Couch

So we have been unpacking for the past few days and the house looked good except that ya know we had no furniture (looked like my apartment in RI on the day of the tragic earthworm incident). Sooo we obviously got some yesterday and it made my day. We decided to go tag saleing [like,everyone around here has a tag sale] but everyone was overcharging. I was like oh, how much is this dresser? Uhh $225. $225! For your stupid dresser!? Hell no. So we went thrift shopping [what what] which now I know the meaning of “pop some tags” because you take the tags off the heavy furniture to buy them. Anyways, we now have a home and it makes me so happy. Keta is very fond of the couch. So last night around 9:30pm Keta woke up from her nap and we went for a walk around the lake. There was a double rainbow over the mountains (seriously, I never have my camera when I need it) but we were getting poured on. We were watching this yellow lab do super long fetches for a buoy for duck training and I think our small pup got a little annoyed with our gawking over the other dog. She started going nuts on the leash so we let her off and she went nuts in the water fetching for a long time, it was pretty awesome except ya know when she didn’t want to anymore so her blue fetching toy was stuck in the lake (dad caught it fishing with a spinner). When we got home, dad and Scott raged about the people at the fishing spot. Apparently, the same players are at Ship Creek everyday [and you better believe they have names for them]. There is the “high plains drifter”- apparently this dude wears a Clint Eastwood hat and he just drifts and snags everything. Issue? Snagging salmon in many areas in Alaska is illegal. Why? You know how easy it would be to catch them! There would be none left. So this dude just snags away and leaves with his limit. How rude. Meanwhile, Scott and my dad snagged quite a few by accident but they immediately released them. Then there’s “Coon Skin Cap Black Dude” [this is in contrast to all the white dudes wearing coon skin caps, because there are quite a few] but apparently this guy circles everyone and goes “ya catchin’ fish?” and like, the second you get a bite he’s behind you asking if you’re catching fish. Then he swoops in and steals your spot. So I’ve been staying home the past couple morning while the boys fish to keep the dog busy because if that guy swooped in on my spot while I was catching a fish, I’d first ream him a new one, then grab him by his coon hat and throw his ass in the river. The men are much more patient than me. I don’t mess. But they caught 2 more fish for the freezer yesterday! It is slowly filling with salmon- one of them had a huge gash in its back from either a seal or eagle or something- it was a pretty big gash. But I am going out fishing today- I have named the fishing “plunking”. It is technically called bottom bouncing, but I like my name better. Plunking involves having a  heavy weight on your line and a hook with some hot pink fuzz and all you do is cast it forward (plunk in the water) and let it drift for a little while (like, 10-15 seconds) then just swing it back around and plunk again. This is what has been working at Ship Creek for the fish (very different from any fishing I have ever done). And EVERYONE is doing it. So at the river you hear seagulls and plunk. More to come later- we are learning a new fishing spot today a little more into the woods and in bear territory.

Low tide- huge difference!

2 silvers caught Saturday

5 caught today!

Gash- gillnet wound, eagle, seal? Who knows

Yummyy

Our cluttered but coming along living room [and couch]

Our First Full Day In Alaska Was...

I will let you figure this out for yourself after this story. So we decide for our first full day, aside from getting a bunch of crap unpacked and doing some shopping, that we NEEDED to go fishing. We heard that the salmon were running in this place called Ship Creek (or River or whatever the hell the thing is). It comes through Anchorage from Cook Inlet making it tidal (where we fish). So we decided hey the whole gang will go and we will see how it is. Well we drive 15 minutes and there we are. We could see spent dead humpies floating in the water and strewn along the bank and there were tons of fishermen there. So we all put our waders on and headed down with Keta. Now this is the first problem. Dog loves water, dog hates leash. Conclusion- the dog was shreddin for the water. Now this wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for the mud. We were there during low tide and hell the mud was frickin horrible. But we got down to the river and figured okay all is fine. Keta was hopping around scaring salmon upstream and just having a ball. But after a while we learned that ya know she probably isn’t going to be able to stay here (she also likes chasing lures- didn’t really want to pull a treble hook out of the dog’s face). So Scott headed off upstream with the dog and my dad and I headed downstream to where everyone was fishing (and catching fish too!). So we fished and fished and fished and fished and caught jack.shit. So being the nice girlfriend I am I thought hey Scott would probably be able to catch some fish because he is from Alaska so has a better chance so I set off upsteam to find him. Problem? Yes, of course. I decided that instead of walking up the river through all the people fishing, I would walk alone on the bank. So I go trucking off through the mud. It was horrible like my feet kept getting stuck so I just told myself just walk fast and you won’t get stuck and you can go uphill and get out of the shit and it will be fine. Well did that work out? Of course not. I got frickin so stuck in the mud. I was flailing like a dead whale (and so it comes up again) hip deep in mud like, quick sand mud. Little did I know that my dad and Scott were doing the same thing. Now here’s the shitty part. People were all around me. I’m rolling in this stinky tidal decroded dead rotten salmon infested mud like so stuck I think I’m going to just die there and people are laughing at me (granted, I’d probably do the same if it wasn’t me stuck in the mud but then I think I’d like throw a rope). 15 minutes passed and I still could not get out. I was trying to not move because I only got stuck more. I devised a plan- if I wasn’t out of that mud in 5 minutes I would tear all my clothes off, and slide out ass naked like a penguin (literally I was to this point of thought). Maybe this has happened to women there and that’s why no one helped me. We all panic and say hey this would be easier naked and then the old crusty fishermen get a free show. Anyways, after using my beautiful rod and reel to hoist me out of the mud trap, I got out. Well, I got out but I was missing a few items. I pulled so hard to get out of that mud that I tore the tread square off the bottom of my boots. Like, gone completely. So I’m pissed because I just got waders with boots and the boots are done, unless I want to slide around all over the place and walk through the water in my socks- not gunna work. So that’s awfully nice. Someone is going to go to that spot someday and be like uhh there must be a dead body here because they are boot treads.  So in conclusion, I rolled out of the mud and walk of shamed it past all the fishermen and women back to the car where I just layed by the rotten smelling dumpster waiting for Scott. I have always wanted to do a Tough Mudder, like it was one of my goals. Well, I think I lived one. I seriously felt like I was going to die out there. So Scott comes back in just shorts and stuff and I’m like where the hell are your waders? Turns out he got stuck too. Keta goes running up the bank, Scott falls in the mud and gets stuck just like me. He had to tear off his waders boots etc. to get the hell out of it then mud slide up the bank. Keta just sat there like uhh whaddya doin daddy? Then my dad got stuck too. Now Frank the tank, when he sees fish, he’s gunna catch them. He saw a huge school of salmon at the mouth of the river. No one was there so he was like priimmmeee I’m gunna shred down there and catch some. Problem? Mud. Got totally stuck. When we all got our dead animal bodies out of the mud someone told my dad- haven’t you read the newspapers? People get so stuck they need to call the fire department to pull them out with the ropes. That was about to be us seriously. So we went there the next day, no longer complete sourdoughs (we were called this- it’s the Alaskan word for basically newcomer idiots who have no goddamn idea what the hell they are doing). Scott caught 2 keeper silvers and a couple pinks. My dad caught a small jack silver but that’s it. We still had salmon for dinner (YUMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and have 2 dinners in the freezer so it’s a success I guess. So- how was our first day in Alaska? I’d say a complete friggin disaster but sort of hilarious nonetheless. Aside from looking like an ass and being a swamp animal, I got a good laugh out of it and saw some beautiful fish (and learned to never ever walk through the stupid mud again).

Ship Creek filled with migrating pinks [humpies], chum [dog, keta- get it this is why we named our dog Keta], and coho [silvers- dinner.]

Dad fishin.

This shrinks to about 1/10 the size (it's a 27 foot tide-holy crap), hence the muddy hell hole.

Can't get any fresher- silvers for dinner from the morning fishing.

Scott also caught a Christmas tree full of tangled line and lures- about $30 worth of tackle for free.

The House- City Livin'

So we made it through the drive, the flights. Long, horrible boring traveling to finally make it to Alaska. First let me say I love our place. For searching on Craigslist and our landlord being literally the only person who would even consider letting us come without meeting him in person with the dog, it is great. We are on the second floor with a wrap- around porch overlooking Cheney Lake, a lake stocked with TONS of rainbow trout. There is a dirt trail around the lake for walking the dog- Keta seems to love it (and there are geese and ducks everywhere annddd  Keta almost dragged me in after them). Keta has a new boyfriend, not to replace Duke, but she really likes this other dog. He is a black lab and is only a little over a year old. SUPER playful. So lucky for us, Keta gets tired fast and we can unpack. The city of Anchorage itself reminds me a lot of Riverdale Road in West Springfield, MA but like 10 of them. It isn’t like Boston or New York City with skyscrapers and heavy traffic everywhere. It isn’t completely silent where we live since we are still in a residential area, but it is pretty nice. Except for the goddamn grebes. Since we live on the lake, the friggin ducks and birds and eagles are all squaking up a storm all through the night. So the traffic sound isn’t the problem, it’s the birds. I guess it’s Alaska’s version of crickets. The nice thing about Anchorage though is the mountains. I can sit on my deck and look at snow- capped mountains like so vast and tall they make the White Mountains look like anthills. You can fish for Pacific salmon right in the center of the city in Ship Creek- so cool. I haven’t seen any moose yet or bears, but we are heading to the Kenai later this week so hopefully I will see a few! Keta can smell something though. There’s a section of the walking path around the lake that she’s like mom hurry your ass up something scary is around here. That’s about it for where we live- in conclusion, it’s not a cabin in the middle of the woods surrounded by wolves and bears, but it will do!

Mountains along the boys drive.

And this is my dog...

Welcome to Alaska!

About 24 Hours!

So people have been making a trend of asking me, um, why the hell are you going to Alaska? Don't you have a good life here? So here is my answer. Uh, hell yeah I have a good life here. I have the most fantastic family I could ever hope for and they are always going to support me whether I'm in their backyard or in a grizzly bears back yard. My true friends will stick around and stay in touch whether I'm here or gone either (heck half of them don't live anywhere near me anyways!). But for me personally, here is not enough. There has always been a part of me just dying for more adventure. Granted, New England is great, but Alaska is like adventure on crack. Plus duh the salmon in Alaska! There is nothing even remotely close to that here. When am I coming back? I don't know. I wish I did so I could at least say "Hey I'll be home for Christmas" but I can't! I have to take this chance and ride it out and see how it goes "You only get one chance in life to leave your mark upon it, so when the pony he comes riding by you better sit your sweet ass on it". So I fly out Wednesday morning at 7:55am and I will be arriving in Alaska at 6:55pm. Concerns? Yeah, Scott and I forgot a trash can. Where are we going to throw our trash when we get there? Oh and do I have blinds or curtains? Like cuz this girl cannot sleep with people like creepin' and ESPECIALLY when Keta sees a moose and starts barooo'ing in the middle of the night. That would be a good impression for the neighbors: oh hey, yeah sorry my dog is barking at 4am, I forgot a trashcan and blinds, but everything will be alright tomorrow I swear! Also, I am dying just watching my credit card bill go up and up and up from Scott and dad driving up there I'm like oh youch that was an expensive fill up, okay that was too, okay it's time to get there and stop buying gas already. 45 fill ups later, there goes my bank account (and pay for next month, and the next one, and the next one... woof). Now how am I going to afford my trashcan and blinds? Scott and I will have to be those weird people that use skinned animals and curtains. Like okay we will hang the beaver over the bathroom window, okay this is a good spot for 5 fox, okay we will put the other 5 fox and an otter here. Sadly, this is probably normal. Gotta find a roadkill moose, skin the bugger, and use that as a curtain. That would cover like 3 windows. Today I went to this place called the Umbrella Factory in RI with my mom and sister an I saw a guinea hen and was like wow I should go pluck that things feathers off so we can make earrings with them. I think my boyfriend has totally destroyed any normal thought process that I ever had (then again, did I ever have normal thought processes? Probably not). Anyways, the next time I should write on this will be in an airport or Alaska. The most adorable thing- my mom wants to keep Keta's dog bowls because she misses her- and she's grown into quite the vacuum and her baby bowls are not big enough- that dog drinks a gallon of water in a sitting. Anyways that's it for now. Here's a picture of the 2 best friends that anyone could have that I broke up by moving I feel so bad. Duke is seriously sad and I'm sure Keta is too :(

Babies are bored in the boat.

Snacks? Please

There's No Turning Back, Keep Your Eyes on the Track

Hiked over 4500' in Mt Rainier National Park!

Beautiful and epic Mt. Rainier!

Fishing on the Smith River!

Holy Redwood stump!

California Coast

Me and my babygirl

Our family.

In 4 days, I will be on a plane to start a new life. Like, completely new life. Am I excited? Hell yeah! But I'm also about every other emotion you can be too: nervous, stressed, happy, sad, [you get the picture]. So since I last blogged, Scott and I accomplished quite a bit. April 20th we got a puppy, the love of my life! We didn't know what we were doing with ourselves, so we decided we would probably stay in New England until at least October to save money. We figured since it took me about 3 months to find a good rescue dog for my sister, it would take us the same. On April 13 we applied for a black lab, and on April 14th we were accepted to get Keta. Talk about a stressful week to get ready for her but she is such a wonderful amazing dog. So we got her, moved out of Rhode Island then took a 10 day trip from Seattle to San Francisco to celebrate our friends wedding. It was a ton of fun (and we managed to live 10 days on a road trip and not kill each other). We went hiking in Mt. Rainier National Park (BEAUTIFUL!), whale watching and camping on the Oregon Coast, sightseeing near Portland Oregon (we even saw Mumford & Sons in concert- so amazing!), fishing in Jedediah Smith Redwoods National Park (we didn't catch a thing but it was so beautiful), fishing on the Eel River in Northern California (I caught a chinook and Scott didn't- nah nah), camping in Point Reyes National Seashore, and then we celebrated our friends wedding in Oakland. It was great. But I missed my puppy obviously-10 days without Keta was torture. So before we went on our trip to Seattle-California, Scott found this position online. He was like "Umm I don't know if you are interested in this but it's worth looking into". I applied and was accepted (somehow). We are moving to Anchorage, Alaska. I will be going to the University of Alaska Anchorage as a Graduate Research Assistant studying sockeye salmon and paleoclimatology. Since I was accepted in June, Scott found a job working for Alaska Fish & Game as a Firearms Instructor (in Anchorage, only 6 miles from where I will be going to school). We found an apartment on a lake (fishingggg) and will be seeing it for the first time this Wednesday. Woah. So really all that's left to say is let the adventure begin- I will keep everyone posted on any excitement we have (really I'm sure there will be plenty!). Scott and my dad made it to Madison, WI so far and I will be flying there on August 14- I can't wait to see them at the airport! Then we have 1 week to enjoy the fishing and fun in Alaska with my dad before he flies home and we start work and school!