It is hard to believe that it’s already the end of June! Lush green has covered the islands, though some of this winters heavy snows still fill crevices and nooks on the mountain tops. We have had an incredible start to our summer, beginning in late April with the various construction projects we undertook, and first guests Arriving this year May 25. As usual it has been a wonderful few months, especially now that we are in the ‘swing of things’ and the dust is settling from the spring projects.
Fishing has been good; we have already broken the 200lb barrier on halibut, and have a good season underway with nice collection of fish over 75lbs. A lot of nice chunky ‘Chicken’ halibut this year, as well, which in all honesty, are the best to keep and eat. The new hydraulics system on the Gemini is a huge help in targeting and catching crab, so as always, cracking freshly caught and cooked Tanner crab on the beach with a cold beer from the Kegerator is popular while I clean the day’s catch. Sockeyes in the river were a huge success again, with some truly great days catching these fish. There are still some around, which is nice, though we typically switch over to King Salmon and Halibut by now. King Salmon fishing is less encouraging, we have had very limited success targeting these guys and reports from around the island are dismal. South Central Alaska is suffering more than we are; with the Susitna and Little Susitna river drainages closed to king salmon fishing. These are major fresh water systems that feed into the Mat-Su Valley North of Anchorage, Alaska, and are the center of King Salmon sport fishing in that area. Nobody knows where are kings are.
Kayakers and Hikers continue to have a great time–of course this is almost a gimme given our location the country surrounding us; it remains beautiful and full of astounding detail. Low tides reveal various kinds and colors of starfish, while high tides expose water falls and coves previously dry. The Sea Otter and especially Bald Eagle viewing has been out of this world this spring, with Eagles swooping right down to the beach and catching fish scraps while we watch and clean fish.
Bear viewing has also been wonderful; but is also nearly a gimme, with the flexibility and speed of an airplane while we look for the animals, then land and move in to experience them in their natural environment. Our guests participated in a fly out bear view 3 days ago and said they were so close they could hear the bears munching on grass. Also, perhaps a highlight of that specific bear view, a large boar was observed courting a sow. A second boar moved in on the action, and the first chased the other off with a huge ROAR and display of bear muscles and power.
We invested in two different ‘hat cams’ this year, a Contour and Go-Pro, as well as a new HD video cam. We have captured some wonderful images so far that I look forward to editing when I have time, which will likely be this winter. In the meanwhile, we are encouraging guests to upload their pictures to our Scrapbook; you can now do that from home as I failed to do so last summer. If you visited us last year, please feel free to upload your pics from that trip as well!
