Since fishing season is over for this year, at least for me, and hunting is too cold now, I have been looking for something to do. And then, a friend of mine called me and asked if I would like to go shoot some trap at a local gun club with he and a group of men from his church. Having nothing else to do and having shot trap in the past I thought, why not! Now back in olden days, say the mid 70's I used to shoot a lot of trap and skeet but what with a business to run and a partnership that had just been dissolved I had to do both the selling and the building and so ran out of time to shoot. As it happens I had a great time and have decided to take it up again. This of course meant I had to buy the necessities, mainly a new shotgun, I hated to do it of cours, but you know, there are just some things you have to do. After aquiring said new shotgun, I called a friend and suggested we go to the gun club and shoot a round and that would give an opportunity to try out my new aquisition. My friend Steve suggested we go to the club he belonged to and so we did. Now this was Wednesday and we were going to go on Saturday so I looked up the club on the internet to see what they have to offer, as I am looking at different clubs to join. I found that the day we were going to the club happened to be the same day that Cory Cogdell, the young lady who won the Bronze Medal in, Womens Trap, at the 2008 Olympics was going to be there for a meet and greet. It also is the club that she learned to shoot at as she lives nearby in Eagle River. So on saturday we went to the club and after waiting for about 30 minutes we had the chance to talk with her. She is currently 22 years old and her story is quite interesting. She is a very outgoing and self confident person for 22 and I assume that is one of the reasons she has been so successful. As she tells her story it goes like this: Her father retired when she was 12 and they lived on a fixed income with no money to spare. She had hunted and fished with her father all of her life and was used to shooting but she had never fired a shotgun until she was 14. At 16 she shot her first round of trap at the Birchwood Shooting Range, which is where we were, and fell in love with it. She went back to the gun club the next weekend and got a job which is where she got the money she paid for her shooting with She continued to shoot over the next four years and as the manager of th club tells it, she came in to him and told him she wanted to learn to shoot International Trap. International trap is different from what is generally shot in the U.S. In general the clay birds are faster and fly at higher and wider angles than American trap. The manager was like most people who would hear a 20 year old tell them that they wanted to learn so she could participate in the 2012 Olyjmpics. Mostly it's - yeah, sure.. She then sold two guns that she owned and bought a used trap gun from a member of the cun club and began learning. Sje managed to compete in local events and was quite sucessful, enough so that she won almost everything she entered. In doing so she was able to compete in some events outside of Alaska and won again. Then at the age of 21 she was offered the chance to compete for a place on the Olympic Shooting team. She said that at the competition there were about 40 women, tyhe youngest was in here late 20's and most were in their 30's and 40's and had been shooting for at least 10 to 12 years. She on the other had had only been shooting for about 14 months. When the competition was complete the first 3 places had been won outright and the last place on the team was tied between 40 women. In order to fill the last position they had a shootoff and for this they used what she called a "puffer" target which is a slightly thicker target that has a dome filled with powder like talcum so that even the slightest nick will provide a streamer of dust. She was the last to shoot and all three ladies in front of her missed their targets and it was her turn. She said that when she shot she thinks that only one of over a 100 shot must have hit the target but that their was a pink streamer coming of the target. That is how she won here place on the Olympic team and she was really surprised as she said she had missed every other on of those puffers in the week of the competition. She then moved to Colorado Springs to the Olymic Training Facility and trained. She competed in Europe and South America with the Olympic team and won 2 events internationally. The Olympics were next and she competed and won the Bronze Medal. This is an amazing feat considering she had only been shooting International trap for less than two years. The lady who won the gold medal was form Finland and the lady who won the silver medal was from Slovakia. As it turns out neither of them had won an international competition be fore the Olympics and they had been shooting for several years. Her original goal had been to prepare for the 2012 Olympics but was very surprised to have been able to compete in 2008. She said she is staying in Eagle River, which is her home, and will return to Colorado Springs in January to continue training and will compete internationally two weeks a month during the summer. She said her goal is to visit all 7 wonders of the world and she has so far seen the Great Wall and Corcavada (the stature of Jesus in Brazil). She is an amazing young women and I told her that the thing that impressed me most about her story was that she found something the liked to do and even at the age of 16, she stuck with it. She had enough desire for the sport that she got a job and paid for it herself and is today very successful because of it. As I told her, she was a rare young person. I've been around enough teenagers, including my own, who change their mind and have a new favorite thing about once a month if that long. I asked her about what she thought why she was so successful and she said: "some natural ability and a lot of desire". Steve asked her about the shotgun she used and if the gun manufacturers supplied her with their guns. She said she had tried several and didn't like them, they just weren't right. The result is that she is shooting the used gun she bought at the club and will continue to used it until it fails. She said when it does she will see if Perazzi would make her a clone of it. All in all an impressive young lady and quite articulate and easy going. Steve and I each had our picture taken with her and I will hang in my office. This is the first person of celebrity status that I have met in a long time who I feel honestly deserves the status. It's nice to know there are still people who are extemely successful and not overly taken with themselves. mistkes aside I think I'm done for today. bob

Well, lets see, moose season started on the 8th of the month and so we left on the 7th so that we would be there with camp set up on opening day. Fall is really underway by this time of year and the mountains with all the birch, cottonwood and aspen in their golds and yellows and then the fireweed with the deep reds are really beautiful. Even in the boreal forest the aspen, blueberries, highbush cranberries, crowberries and salmonberries are turning reds and golds so its pretty too. Anyway on the morning of the 8th we set out in the argo to see if we could find a moose or two. We left the road and went overland about 3 1/2 to 4 miles and parked the argo. It was then time to hoof it. Bob went up one valley and I climed about a 100 yards up a point of land that overlooked 3 other valleys and spent the day with binoculars looking for the elusive, at least for me, moose. Saw none the first day and so back to camp and get ready for the next day. This day, the 9th, our anniversary, (it's still not my fault the state of Alaska picked the moose season dates) we were again in the same general area. Bob walked up a different valley from yesterday and I went back to my favorite hill. After glassing the hills for awhile I decided to try my moose calling technique and see what happended. I gave out with a real long cow call and when I stopped you could hear bull moose rattling their horns in the brush and banging them on trees. I had found a small antler that had been dropped the previous year and rattled and banged the brush and trees in response. I counted 3 bulls, one to my north, one to the east and one to the south. I'd rattle the brush and they would respond, none came to see who was making all that noise, but it was fun to get the response. Bob came by about 4 pm and he had seen a bull a quite a ways off and couldn't get to him before he stepped back into the brush. Once they step into the brush you might as well forget it as you can't see them since they blend in so well and they will just stand there and watch you. I told him about my calling experience and we rattled some more but they were apparently tired of the game and didn't respond. The next morning was Wednesday and we were not anymore successful than the two prior days and we made the decision to go home as the rut was not yet in and the bulls were not to eager to confront a rival. We left and went home on Wednesday afternoon with the intent to come back next week for the last 3 days of the season. When we got home we dried out the tent and gathered up more food and water and left to go back on the following Sunday. The season closed on Wednesday so we decided to take all of our things in the argo and go in about 2 or 2 1/2 miles to an old trappers cabin that sat up on a hill and make our camp there as it would save us a lot of time when we were going and coming from hunting. The terrain is mostly burned over boreal forest from 2006 and swamp. The permafrost melts and refreezes every winter and the ground heaves up into little hillocks about 16 to 24 inches in diameter and they are about 16 inches tall. It's extremely hard to walk throught them and it you tried it with a four wheeler you would never get through as the wheels would fall in between the humps and you would have no traction. The only machine that can travel through them is the 8 wheeled argo as all 8 wheels drive all the time and so you always have at least two or three in contact with the hillocks at any given time. The ride is like being on a bucking horse as the machine not only moves up and down but sideways at the same time. Progress is very slow, they say you can walk faster than the argo but you can't outwalk it. The reason to make camp in the woods was to eliminate the two hours each way that it took when we were camping out by my truck.Anyway we set up camp by the cabin and had dinner. Then it was time to inspect the cabin and sed what kind of shape it was in. It had a sod roof and at some time or other the roof leaked enough that the ridgepole rotted out and the roof collapsed. We have decided to go back in next summer and in 3 or 4 days we can put a new roof on it. The rest of the cabin is in good condition and the roof would make it livable again. Now as soon as we get the roof on it it will probably be taked over by the BLM who controls all the land there but who cares, we may get to use for awhile until they find it or someone tells them about it. It's far enought away from roads and so hard to get there that it may take a while for them to find out. Anyway the next morning we get up and head out to my favorite place and set up about a quarter to eight. Bob is with me and while I call he is glassing the valleys. I called a set of two cow calls and waited about 5 minutes and called another set. As I was finishing the second set bob grabbed my arm and pulled me down saying "bull". I didn't see him at first but eventually say the white of his horns moving through the boreal forest. He was walking toward us and stopped about 450 yards away. Bob said to call again so I did and he started to walk toward us again, then stopped. I called again and again he started toward us. When he stopped again I called and he didn't walk toward us, he just stood there and when a I called again he looked like he was going to leave and go back into the trees. Bob said, "you better shoot, if he gets into the trees you won't see him again". I sat behind a tree stump and he was a long way off. finally got comfortable and found him in the scope. I shot and bob said, " you hit him" He just stood there for a few seconds and then started to walk, he went about 25 feet and fell. The best estimate I cal make is that he was about 400 yards away at the time. Bob said, " it's not so hard to hit a barn standing broadside a 400 yards, is it?" All I can say is it looked a lot smaller from where I was. When we got to him he was bigger than I thought, horns were little but he was big. We weren't after horns we were after meat and we got it. It took until 3:30 to get him quartered and back at camp. We hung him high up in the trees to cool out and to keep him away from the grizzly bears who are all over the place. We slept with our bear guns that night and rather lightly too. The next morning we had a good frost and the meat was well cooled so we loaded everything in the argo and left for home. That was tuesday and the following morning we took the meat to the butcher. Without the viscera, head, hide, horns and hooves we had a little over 500 lbs of meat hanging. That, according to the butcher, was a big animal, it means he was somewhere between 900 and a 1,000 lbs. on the hoof. It is more meat that bob and I can eat in a year so we will give some of it to some friends of ours. Thus ends the tale of this years moose hunt. Successful hunt and my first moose. Good trip. bob

We returned to Wasilla on Saturday and spent the next day cutting, vacuum packing and freezing fish. Now not that we didn't have enough salmon, bob and I decided to go back to Valdez on the next Thursday. The fish were just starting to really come in the last two days we were there and we were not quite fished out yet. So Thursday rolls around and we leave my house at 8 a.m. and head for Valdez. We arrive around 3 p.m. and go to the rv park and get a spot for the night. We didn't bring a camper or motor home this time as we were only staying overnight and were going home on Friday. We pitched a tent as quick as we could and went to launch the boat. We didn't spend a lot of time with the tent as you will see, because we launched the boat at 4 p.m., speedy, no! We went to the place in the bay where we had been catching last week and we ended up with our limit by 8 p.m., that's 12 salmon in four hours, not bad. Now I have a freezer full and bob didn't want anymore so I decided to send them to my boys. We got up the next morning at about 6 a.m. and went out for breakfast. After breakfast we went to the tackle shop as we needed to replace some lures that we had lost the day before. Then it was to the processors to drop of the fish from the day before. They cleaned, filleted packed, flash froze and got them ready to ship. It amounted to 78 lbs. of fillets. We then went to the boat launch to get back out on the water. We fished until 2:30 and caught 11 more. One of the fish that bob hooked was really big. We know it was a silver as we saw it roll when it took the lure, it then went straight to the bottom and even though bob worked it for about 20 minutes he couldn't even get it to raise its head off the bottom it just laid there and cruised around a little as if it wasn't a bit concerned about the fact that it was tethered to us. Finally it got the hook loose and that was the end of that tale. It's really too bad we didn't boat it as it would definitely have made the board in the salmon derby. The cash prize is 15,000.00 and my half of that would really have been appreciated. Oh well, just another fish tale and one of those that got away stories.. We left about 5:30 p.m. and headed home. We got back to Wasilla about midnight and then spent the next day filleting fish. Bob gave away 3 of the fish and I have the rest of them frozen in the freezer. Well not all of the remainder as I smoked one fillet. The rest of the fillets, 15 of them, will be either smoked or canned. Thus ends the fishing season for this year, well, maybe, Moose season starts the 8th and maybe we will get one more trip in after that. Will let you know about my walk in the woods when I get back. More later. bob

The day we left for the trip to Chitina and Valdez was normal for Alaska this year, it was raining. The drive took about six hours and we stopped at Kenny Landing, a small store, rv park about 122 miles from Valdez and got set up for the night. Naturally it started to rain and it rained hard all night. Made me think I was back in Oregon. Bob Poole and I got up around 4:30 a.m. so we could get to Chitina by 6 a.m. to get in line for the boat to take us dip netting. Chitina is an old mining town and at one time the railroad from Kennicot Mines ran through the area and those old train tracks are the roadbeds for most of the roads in the area. THe Copper River just below Chitina is an area where the locals have subsistence fish wheels. The fish wheel is a device like a waterwheel that has two scoops on the wheel and two paddles and the current turns the wheel. As the scoops dip into the river they scoop up the fish, if there are any, and as the wheel reaches the top the fish falls into a shoot that drops it into a box. The fish wheel fishes all by itself and the owner comes once or twice a day and picks up the fish. Normally the wheel is owned by one to six or seven families and they get their fish that way. A friend of Marijo's has a fish wheel and this year was not a good year. Five families went down and spent the week and expected to bring back two or three hundred fish and ended up with onbly 33. The rivers were so low early in the year that the fish wheels were high and dry. Noow back to the dip net fishing - the boat is $100.00 a person and they take you to the canyon that the Copper River runs through on its way to Prince William Sound. The Copper river is about a 1/2 mile wide for most of the last 100 miles or so and the only narrow place is the canyon a few miles below Chitina where the river is forced into a narrow canyon about 4 miles long and 150 yards wide. The Copper is a big river and let me tell you it is moving when it goes through the canyon. Not only is it moving fast but it is boiling along the sides almost constantly. If you were to fall in that would be the end of you, life jacket or no. They say the life jhacket will eventually bring you up and they can then find the remains if you come up soon enough. The thing about the canyon is that the flow of the river is so fast that you get many eddies and boil ups, at times as much as two feet. Because of all the eddies and boils the current is quite a bit slower along the sides of the river and thats where we fish. The boat takes you down into the canyon and puts you out on a point of canyon that sticks out into the water. The fish come up the sides of the river and rest in the eddies and then make a dash up to the nest eddy. What you do is take your dip net, which is the 10' long variety, and hold it into the current. This is no easy task as you are constantly fighting the current. The Copper is a glacial river so it is full of silt and is the turquoise color and it is opaque enough that when you hold the dipnet just below the surface you can't see it. The fish making a dash out of the eddy run into the net, all you have to do is pull it up and take out the fish. We were on that spot from 7 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m. and managed to get 21 fish. So Bob and I didn't fight over the odd fish, we barbequed it that night. Nothing like fresh Copper River Sockeye on the old barbie. The following day we packed up and took off for Valdez. Arrived in Valdez around 2 p.m., set up camp and went to launch the boat. Didn't catch a thing that day or the next but the following day we started to get into a fresh run of Silver salmon. By the end of the trip I brought home 14 fish ranging from 7 to 15 lbs. All the fish were caught trolling with either herring or a spinner. Bob took a freezer with us and between the 21 red salmon and the 14 silvers we had a freezer full. Most of the people there brought either 1 or 2 freezers and some were staying a month. We ended up with 58 meals of silver salmon and 40 meals of red salmon. Had a great trip and when we got back Bob and I decided to go back the next Thursday as the fish were just starting to come in really well the last two days. Oh yes, we put out shrimp pots and got about 12 dozen of those nice tiger shrimp. It's a sad way to live but we will suffer through. Of all the places that we have been to Valdez is absolutely the prettiest place we have been in Alaska. They call it the Alps of Alaska and on those clear days, which aren't all that often, it is. It is also the terminus of the Alaska Pipeline and you can see the tank farm across the inlet from Valdez. There are tankers there almost every day and even though they are running out of oil in the pipeline, production has dropped a little every year, they still run about 300,000 barrels a day through it. The new gas pipeline should help as there is usually oil associated with the Gas. Enough for now, will fisish this tale next time. bob

Actually the tale of August started the end of July when we drove to Hope with the camper to try it out after it had been in the shop for some minor repairs. Hope is a small community on the western side of Turnagin Arm. It started out as a mining town around the turn of the century and after the mining died out it just sort of stayed. It is only reached by boat or by driving 100 miles from Anchorage. It is classified as quaint as there are very few town buildings that are new and most are original to some degree. It is a beautiful place and the big draw there every July and August is the humpey fishing, humpy is the pink salmon and gets its name from the definitive hump the males get as they get closer to spawning. The pink salmon is what you see canned in the stores and is very mild, generally it is either canned or smoked as being so mild it wil take flavors easily. They are small around 3 or 4 pounds on average and maybe up to 5 pounds. I caught several and released all but one which we broiled and it was ok but not much taste. The experience of camping with the camper was good, at least Marijo said she thought she could handle it on a longer term basis. Good thing because we will be doing a couple of longer trips.
Having just checked my notes I see that I seem to have forgotten to tell you abouit July, age I guess, but whats a month or so. Anyway on the 13th of July we left for Ninilchik wiht Bob and Noma Poole and some of his family for a halibut fishing trip and maybe some dipnetting on the Kenai River. We fished on the 14th and only caugnt a couple, one of which I caught that weighed 17 lbs. on ultra-light tackle, it took 40 minutes with 10 lb line. We fished againg the following day and did better and Bob ended up with about 60 pounds of halibut for his freezer. We already had ours so didn't want anymore. We then left for the city of Kenai and launched the boat at the mouth of the Kenai River and spent about an hour dipping for Kenai Red salmon (sockeye). They were pretty big fish, running around 8 lbs. We only got 5 but for the short period of time we were there it was ok. There are two kinds of dipping done, either from the bank or from a boat. The nets they use on the Kenai are about 5 ft in diameter with handles up to 12 ft long. The bank fishing method is to wade into the river up to you chest and hold the net in the current, which is no easy task, and the fish swimming up river just swim into the net. The other method if to use a boat and hold the net over the side of the boat and drift with the current and the fish swim into it. It is the same method the indians used on the Columbia River at Celilo Falls before The Dalles Dam was built and buried the falls. I remember watching them fish off of 2 x 12 platforms that they built out over the falls, I could never figure out how they built them or stayed on them to fish. I know most people don't consider it sporting and it isn't intended to be, it is classified as a "personal use" fishery like shrimp and some other species. The object is to store food for the winter and it works. The head of household is allowed 25 and 10 for other household members. On the 17th of July Bob and Deb Saline arrived from Harrisbur, Pa. and spent a couple of days with us until their son and family arrived Sunday and then they all went to the Kenai Peninsula for a week. They had rented a cabin for the week and it sounds like they had a great time and the cabin was excellent. They arrived back at our house on Saturday the 26th and stayed with us until we took them to the airport on Sunday the 27th. Their time with us was too short as it always is, we have so much fun together it's never long enough. We missed them before their plane left and still do. On the 24th of July we had our first snow fall, just a dusting on the top of the mountains, seemed to be abouve 5500 ft. It was pretty unusual as we don't usually get the first snow until around the 15th of September. Didn't last long and was gone by the middle of the next day. Just another example of how cold and wet this summer has been. Maybe you have gobal warming but we seem to have Alaska cooling. Now we come to the part about the trip to Hope and so ends July, now we can get on with August. August is the month that I have been waiting for as it is silver salmon fishing season at last. The 7th is the day we leave for Chitina and Valdez, Chitina to dip for Copper River reds (sockeye) and then to Valdez for the silver salmon derby and fill up the freezer. But, we will get to that later - see ya. bob