Friday, June 25, 2010

Moxy Fishing

Kisaralik River-Amazing!

Headed up to the mountains. Very beautiful day, unusual for most of our trips. The kids are very excited about the views of the mountains in the distance. These are the same mountains that we have pictured below.
Moxy is very into chopping wood. In this picture, as he's 'practicing' he almost smacks Greg right in the head.

Moose watching us from the river bank. We were able to stare at each other for what seemed like a couple of minutes before it headed into the bushes.
Leaving Spein Mountain behind. We think this is the other side of Spein. Last year we could not get around Spein because of the low waters. Right now, and maybe this year overall the water is higher, so places that we ate gravel last year were very kind to us this year.
Just amazing, I felt like crying. Greg felt like fishing.



Big rapids, BIG ROCKS. I haven't seen rocks like this in a while. To be avoided but easy to spot.
We are looking at Golden Gate Falls, we think. We are still hoping we made it past Golden Gate and we are really looking at the Lower Falls. Very inviting to go through these falls, as what must be on the other side?
The scenery at our campsite was just fantastic.
bear tracks.
little side stream on the other side of our camp. Greg caught an 18 inch rainbow here, along with graylings.
Trying to put the kids to bed during the longest daylight period of the year is EXTREMELY tough. It feels like 7:00 in this picture, even though it is around midnight.
The kids climbed some trees for the first time and loved it!

Moxy fishing. He can actually throw his lure out there, reel it in, and do this for hours.
Dolly Varden? We are not sure.
Fishing in the bigger water.

Tundra hike. Went to check out the scenery and for Greg to test out 2 different types of .45 Colt. We climbed the hillside behind our camping area. The bugs were really bad, and for the first time, the kids wanted there bug nets on. There was some amazing views up here.


Wolf Track. And the next day we got to see our first wolf! Beautiful gray and white. It was about 40 feet away on the bank across the stream when we were fishing. We looked up and it was just there, staring at us. As soon as Greg said, "Michele look at the wolf" it turned and ran away. Huge, fast, and quiet.
Tundra hike. Bear spray in Greg's hand, and revolver in the holster.

eagle flying away from us.

Headed back to Bethel. Very nice night. The water was still and it actually did NOT rain on us for once! Good ending to a really cool adventure.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

"Elmo" Mountain


We were trying to get to Elbow Mountain on the Kwethluk River but stopped just an hour short. This is the first time that we got to this group of mountains, and Elbow Mountain is just beyond. I felt like we could hike there . Moxy started calling Elbow Mountain at one point "Elmo Mountain." He really loves Elmo. When we went to bed this night a mother moose and two calves came out of the water and were right in front of our tent. Even with us making a big comotion , they did not move from us very quickly. They seemed curious about what we were eating because they went over and smelled our kitchen.On Memorial day there was fire up here that burned for a little more than a week . The fire burned right down to the river, and burned the mountain pictured below. The black charred tundra contrasted with the tundra really nicely. Most of this trip the kids went from putting on rain gear to stripping the rain gear off. Moxy would protest the worse to put his rain gear on. Man he is independent.





Moxy 's expression is so telling of what he is thinking. He wants to be fishing with his pole. Greg tied an old Bass lure that looks like a fish (a jitterbug) to his pole and took off the hook. So every time we cast his lure , and he starts reeling the fish in and says "look mom, look dad, I caught one." And then almost everytime Ruby replies, "No that 's not a real fish." And Moxy ignores her. Greg caught a few rainbow. Greg and the kids cooked the fish below and ate it. Moxy loved it, but Ruby wasn't hungry at this moment.



Friday, June 4, 2010

Kasigluk River


This is a rainbow that Greg caught. I thought he caught a salmon because of the the size. We were all screaming about this fish. This was the second time that he caught a fish of this size. The first one "got away". We are not sure how much this fish weighed or how big, but our guess is that is was HUGE.

Ruby using her princess fishing pole. Very serious after she saw the fish in the river.
Moxy fishing with daddy while Ruby and I eat at the boat.


Our first campsite. We stopped here because there was lightening striking near us earlier in the evening. This was a great spot as we were near a couple of ponds and the birds were amazing.

The kids were playing with moose poop building a garden out of the poop. This is not really a bad idea, as moose must have a lot of flower seeds in their poop.

Ruby having a moment on her potty.