June 2009 Archives

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Toward the later part of our trip to Alaska the weather returned to the expected rain and gloom. On one of our last days it started out that way, but by late afternoon things got quite nice so Timber convinced me to see if we could bike the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. I was game for it and off we went! We eventually made our way downtown to find a place that rented bike. When I saw that tandem bikes were an option my mind was made up. How often do you get the chance to ride a tandem bike? So we rented our tandem bike and were on our way. The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail is about 12 miles total, so our round trip bike ride was just about 25 miles. On our way back from Kinkaid park we saw a baby moose on the trail. We also got rained on in our last mile or two which was fun. After we were done we stopped in at the Moose's Tooth for a late evening (10 PM) pizza and beer.

One thing I wanted to do was check out the Musk Ox farm in Palmer. So we drove north of Anchorage to check out Eklutna and hopefully rent kayaks there. Unfortunately it was raining and the kayak rental place was closed, so we kept going north to Palmer. Once we got there we made our way to the Musk Ox Farm and then went on a tour. We got a really great close up view of the Musk Oxen and we took some decent pictures. I definitely recommend checking it out.

On our way back from the Kenai Peninsula we stopped along the way to shoot my brother's AK-47, AR-10, and 45 pistol. It was fun and I think it was a good experience for Timber. Now when the zombies attack we'll at least know how to protect ourselves. :-)

One of the days we spent on the Kenai Peninsula was spent catching and cleaning Razor Clams. We went to a beach just outside of Ninilchik with our clam guns and waders in tow. We were among about a thousand people to go digging for clams that day. The limit was 60 per person per day. It took us about 1.5 hours to dig up our limit for 5 people. After that we went back to Dave's cabin we spent about 6 hours cleaning them. We set up an assembly line and did the cleaning as effectively as possible, but it still took us 6 hours. The good news is that we cleaned and vaccum packed them so they are ready to be cooked without any further work. So if you are going to go get razor clams, make sure you don't get 300 like we did, otherwise you are going to spend all day cleaning them.

While we were staying at Dave's cabin on our fishing and clamming trip we had Moose steaks for dinner one night. Darren was kind enough to bring some of his Moose meat from a Moose that he got last fall on the Yukon River and he made delicious Moose steaks for us to eat. He cooked it over a wood fire in a cast iron skillet. The evening light was starting to fade, and he was very intent and watched the steaks closely to make sure they did not get overcooked. The steaks were tender and juicy and downright good. Thanks again Darren for bringing and cooking the Moose steaks.

In late May Timber and I ventured up to Alaska to visit my family. The first weekend we were there, we went out on Dave's boat in Homer to do some halibut and king salmon fishing. We were successful on our halibut fishing, each of us (Bob, Dave, Darren, Timber, me) all got our limit. But we did not catch any king salmon. All in all it was a fun day out on the water, and it was very nice of Dave to take us out fishing. Thanks Dave!