Alaska and California Holiday

[jwb300]

Four days in Anchorage or South Central Alaska....hmmm...in August....

Go to a small antique store at 1001 W 4th Avenue down town. Its crowded with "stuff". Huge old gun collection including weapons owned by Teddy Roosevelt. This would take at most two hours to tour the entire store contents, unless you find something that captures your interest. Their entrance door is odd as there is no sign, but pretend to walk into the coffee shop and then take a sharp left into the antique store.

Do you want to see glaciers? You have a few options: day cruise out of Whittier or Seward, short cruise at Portage lake, or hike Exit glacier in Seward. Day cruises may have weather issues that keep the boats in a bay and all you get to see are birds and seals.

Do you want to hike? They have several books on hiking around Anchorage and Cook Inlet, but for a fun day hike Winner Creek out of Girdwood is hard to beat. Hand tram across the falls is pretty cool. Go all the way to the top and look into the 20 Mile river valley. Might see mountain goats to the north. In August be prepared to hike in the dark on the way back down.

Fishing options since you can't take it home would be to hit the upper Kenai in Cooper landing with a day of guided trout and dolly fishing. Different fishing after Lake Creek float. Most take out at one of two landings before the Kenai canyon so you can get a full day of drift boat or raft based fishing in. In August the silvers will be in the lower Kenai so you can find a guide to do a half day on the lower river in Soldotna or near the mouth in Kenai. Will have a good chance to hook up with a 30 inch rainbow as well then.

If you don't want to do any more guided fishing then you should be able to find some room in the parking areas of the Russian River camp ground and bank/wade fish for dead dying reds, some silvers, PhD level snob rainbows and swatt bears off your back side. Hike up to the falls on the trail above the river or along the bank down low. Lots of bears and lots of people if the red season is still open.

Bear viewing flights. Depending on how things went on your Lake Creek Float you may not be wanting to see any more bears, but there should be some folks in Kenai/Soldotna that will fly you across the Inlet and provide a skiff for cruising a river that gets packed with bears feeding on salmon. August may be too late for the most dense action, don't know.

On the way to the Kenai you should take the side road to Hope and check out the little museum there for AK goldrush history.

And yes Anchorage now has two more representatives of American's consumerism. Bass Pro and Cabelas. Lots a interesting mounts, but neither of those stores have the Chadwick ram hanging on their walls. You will have to go to Mountain View sports to see that.

Wow thanks heaps for all the info Ray. I have added Mountain View to the list!

Can you fish anywhere along the rivers or only at designated spots? Can I do this myself (with a fishing licence) or do you need a guide?

A 30 inch rainbow is massive - that would be incredible.

Thanks again

James

 

[boom]

Oh my bad. There are so many things with different meanings in the US. Classic example - thongs... That has a whole different meaning to here

Haha.

 

[Ray]

Wow thanks heaps for all the info Ray. I have added Mountain View to the list!

Can you fish anywhere along the rivers or only at designated spots? Can I do this myself (with a fishing licence) or do you need a guide?

A 30 inch rainbow is massive - that would be incredible.

Thanks again

James

At most of our flowing waters there are limited access points adjacent to a road, but for most rivers you can fish the entire length. High use rivers like the Russian and the Kenai have serious bank erosion issues due to the thousands of users and there are sections that are off limits to bank fishing. You will have to be in a boat or wading in the water. Sometimes that water is one step from knee deep to 10feet deep. Enforcement of the bank tresspass depends on the mood of the Trooper or Kenai Park Ranger. The Russian is wadable except for a few holes that are over your head, but you can walk around them on gravel bars. The Kenai is really only wadable in the winter and then only in certain sections between pools. There is a good map online and in the regulation books showing access points and were bank fishing is allowed. It changes some years due to erosion control or bank stablization projects.

With your float trip and the extra days you will probably have to buy a one year license or two short term licenses. I don't keep up on that. And that is all you need to fish up here. The guide can provide a boat to get away from the bank and between access points.

Here is a link to the Kenai fishing regulations. They are the most complicated regulations we have up here due to the pressure on the resource.

Here is the link to the regulations for the whole south central area

Another option for something you can't do down under is to hike up to Cresent Lake and fly fish for grayling. You can access it from both ends, but the outlet creek end near Quartz creek is probably the easier and more scenic route. You could see dall sheep rams on the hills around the lake as it is a very restricted drawing hunt. If you are there after August 10 expect to encounter at least one hunter in there hiking in. There are public cabins that you can rent for an overnight.
http://www.reserveamerica.com/camping/crescent-lake-cabin/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=71825&useOLMaps=N

Here is a link to a local guy's photo albums from all the trips he has made over the years. He documents many of his hiking trips including one to Cresent Lake. He has a lake creek float trip on there too. Kenai, etc. A good resource overall.

One fishing tip that you need to be aware of. Trout Unlimited proposed the banning of all felt soled wading boots a few years ago to help prevent invasive species. So you will need wading boots that are sticky rubber and studded or just sticky rubber. In August the Russian is a slime ball due to alge growth with the warm water and dead salmon. Kind of dangerous to wear anything other than studded felt, but we can't and studded sticky rubber is OK as long as you choose where you walk.

 

[jwb300]

Thanks Ray for all the info. I will print off the regulations before I go. I don't want to break the law there but I reckon it would be easy to make a mistake. They are pretty tightly regulated but I guess with all the tourists there will be plenty of people doing the wrong thing.

Good tip on the type of waders - we plan on getting the waders in Anchorage as there aren't really any places to buy waders here. Will make sure they are not felt!

Cheers,
James

 

[choovhntr]

I'm another one who lives in the bay and would be more than happy to give you some ideas for your trip out here. If your into baseball, I highly recommend a giants game if they are playing at home those days. If you don't want to spend three hours at the game and want to see the stadium, they have an area that you can walk by in the outfield and it doesn't cost anything. You'll only see a few pitches but it's an option. Also if you plan on going to Alcatraz, book a month or two early. Tickets are sold out weeks in advance, especially that time of year. Send me a PM when it gets closer and I'll look up events that will be going on in the Bay Area during your stay.
-Clayton

 

[jwb300]

Thanks Clayton - Appreciate your help. I've never seen a baseball game and can't say that I've ever watched a baseball game either. In fact I don't think I've ever seen a proper baseball field. That might be worth doing for something different.

Cheers,
James