Fishing Reds on the Russian River!

Leaving Anchorage we headed south on Seward Highway, let me tell you, this is one of the windiest road we have been on in a while. If you dare to stop and get out of your vehicle, hang onto your hat!

One of our “must do’s” in this area was to stop at the Double Musky Inn in Girdwood. Not cheap by any means but we decided early on that this was going to be one of our “splurge meals”. We pulled up at 4:05 to a line of people outside the door. Evidently we had timed it right as they opened at 4:30.

I got the crab stuffed halibut while Barb opted for the prime rib. Along with a couple of beers and a crème brulee for desert, we walked out $130 lighter. It was good but I doubt we will be back.

After topping off our fresh water at the Tesorro, we headed down the road about 10 miles and found a nice quiet spot on a dead end road which used to be the old highway.

Next up was Hope Alaska…. Heard of it many times and was looking forward to seeing it. In the end, there was not much to see at all. In fact I don’t think we even took a picture. We did however find some really good boondocking spots out on Palmer Creek/Resurrection Road.

We had heard about “combat fishing” on the Russian River and frankly we wanted nothing to do with it. We did, however, want to fish the Russian River. We arrived at the Russian River Campground outside Sterling and pulled up to the gate. Totally full they said with 11 people on the waiting list. They did however, let us drive through and said we could park for 30 minutes in one of their fishing parking lots to check out the river.

They have two parking lots for fisherman which you can park in for $11/12 hours. The Grayling lot is the last parking down and we found a spot and walked down to the river to check it out. There were fishermen up and down the river but not too bad. We saw one or two people catch a salmon. Then we walked down further and Holy Crap! There were fishermen pretty much elbow to elbow for a ¼ mile! We watched the chaos for about 20 minutes and talked to several fishermen who said this is nothing and that it is much crazier when the salmon are really running!

Well we had to give it a try so we headed back up to the gate, paid our $11 and returned to the parking lot to get ready. Our pass allowed us to stay until midnight and we were hoping to use all of that! After getting the rods and reels ready we headed down to the river and found a nice quiet spot upstream to get a feel for what fishing the river was like. There were a few fishermen in our area but not many. Of the few we did see, it seemed like most of them had pistols attached to their hips. This is a heavily bear populated area and it is nothing to see bears fishing the same stretch of river you are. Luckily for us, nothing like that happened while we were there.

After getting a feel for the river we headed downstream to see what all the crazies were doing. Next thing we knew we were right amongst them! It was not horrible and although you got tangled up with your neighbor once it a while, everyone was friendly and there to have fun. Barb and I each caught a couple, one of which we kept for dinner. Even if you are not a fisherperson, I would recommend the park. They have boardwalks right along the river so you can walk along and watch the fishermen, eagles and perhaps a bear or two.

Barb in one of the lesser crowded areas

 

 

That is only a fraction of the people you see in the background

The next day we were undecided whether we should return to the combat fishing of the Russian or move on. As much as we like fishing we had had enough of the group fishing activities for a few days and moved on to Soldotna. This town was much larger than we expected with almost everything you are looking for (including good Wi-Fi and cell service!) and if they don’t have it, you can find it a few miles down the road at Kenai where they have a Home Depot and Walmart. (Diesel $2.65)

We wanted to see if there were any more relaxed fishing opportunities in this area so we headed to Sportsman’s Warehouse to get the scoop. What ended up happening was we spent $250 on a new fly rod for Barb. She had been using a baitcasting rod the last few days and it was just too heavy for all day fishing. We also found out that the salmon are not running in the area yet but if we wanted to head down to Kasilof a few miles down the road we should find some action.

We wanted to spend a few days in the Soldotna/Kenai area so we put fishing off for a couple days. We spent day 1 doing laundry, walking the boardwalks along the Kenai River and having a brew at the Kenai River Brewing Company. Fred Meyer allows RV camping for 3 days, has a dump station and fresh water. They actually come out and write down license numbers so you don't overstay your welcome. This is a great idea to prevent people from abusing this and setting up their home in their parking lot.

 

I guess he looks a little angry

They even provide fish cleaning stations!

Or Daisy cleaning stations......

 

After a long walk, there is nothing better than a cold brew to cool you down!

Day two we spent 5 miles down the road in Kenai. The Walmart here allows overnight camping as well.

While in Kenai we toured the town, it seems smaller than Soldotna but really spread out. It seems like the town stretched for 5 miles or more. We walked along the beach which was unlike any beach we have walked before. The beaches were sandy but there were no seashells whatsoever, just small rocks along the waters edge. Not sure if this is because this is the Cook Inlet and not actually the ocean or if there is some other reason.

Daisy found a rock to play with

The grates hurt poor Daisy's feet

Saw this on the side of a bar and had to take a picture!

Next up was a stop at the Kassik's Brew Stop outside about 9 miles out of Kenai, This is a very small brewery with some very tasty beers! Barb and I had a flight of all 10 of their beers on tap and for the first time every we liked all of them. We typically don't like dark stout beers but even their darkest beer the Smoked Porter was uniquely good. This is a must stop if you are in the area!

On the way back to Soldotna we were going somewhat close to Alaskan Berries a local winery that offered free tastings so we thought, "Why not!". They have some very interesting wines made out of some unique berries; Gooseberry, Currant, Haskap, Strawberries and Rhubarb to name a few. Even their driest wine was fruity and tasted more like a dessert wine. In the end we decided that we really did not care for fruit wines but we did walk away with some delicious syrup!

 

A few posts ago I mentioned that our son Forrest and his family had hit the road and were now fulltiming and hinted that our daughter Jessica had big news of their own. They were thinking about starting to fulltime this year and get a job as a traveling nurse. With two little ones in tow they decided to hold off on this adventure and bought a mining claim up in Idaho instead! With luck they are going to strike it rich and become our retirement plan!

The claim is in a remote area of Idaho and comes with it's own camping spot.

Shane, Dylan and Kendall looking for nuggets!

Tomorrow we continue our journey to Homer with a stop first in Kasilof to try out Barb's new fly rod and see if we can hook onto a few more salmon!