Birchfield Airstrip, Anchorage
Birchwood airstrip, Anchorage. The largest small-plane airstrip in the world.
5000' Above Cook Inlet
Chilaska Lodge on Pedro Mtn, Pedro Bay
Dad (right) and Brad (left)
Here we are, minutes after our arrival at Chilaska Lodge
View from the Dock #3
View from Dock #4
Looking Down on Chilaska Lodge
Main lodge at Chilaska, where guests dine & guides sleep. Foreground is a supply shed. A guest cabin roof is just visible to the left of the lodge
Ugly Flies (Caught Big Salmon)
The pink one, second to bottom on the right, was the best fly for king salmon.
Wilderness River
I thought this was the river we were flying into to, but our river was still fifty miles away to the northwest.
Transport to Tundra
We had to haul this pile of gear 1.25 miles across the tundra. Glad the float plane got us in, though.
The View at Landing
This was the view in the other direction. Just flat open ground as far as the eye could see.
Bluff over the River
The second island down was a great campsite, and the location where I landed the second of my two biggest kings.
Campsite #1
Deep purple. The colors were spectacular.
Dad's Got One
Look how far out that line is angled from the rod. These salmon could really run.
Snow on Hillside
Another one on! Several patches of snow came (like the one on the hillside in the background) came right to the water.
Into the Backing
Look at the angle of the line coming off the rod! That fish was about a mile upstream.
Chum Salmon
We caught so many of these salmon we got sick fo them. The first few dozen were lots of fun, though.
Matt's First Alaska 'Bow
My first decent Alaskan Rainbow, caught on my L.L.Bean 5-weight travel rod.
Favorite Campsite
The second night campsite, and the spot where I caught my first 40+lb king. Took me from two corners above camp to one corner below.
Life on the River #2
Here the river had so many channels it became quite shallow, so we walked a few dozen yards. Of course I fished as I went...
Looking Back from the Bow
This was my view for several hours a day. Brad steered the raft, I fished from the front, and Dad fished from the back.
Beauty Evening
A common view on this trip.
Matt's Best Sockeye
We Kept One Salmon
All catch-and-release with barbless hooks for trout, but we did keep this one delicious sockeye which provided several meals.
Which Way do we Go?
One of dozens of forks in the river. We took the left channel (the channel less traveled by?) and that probably made some difference.
Roping Upstream
One of the forks brought us to a dead end, where the river plunged under deaddrift. It took a couple hours to rope back upstream.
Distant Mountain Target
We were headed past those distant hills to our pickup location.
Narrow Passage
A few times, the river got quite narrow. We didn't really want to turn one of the corners and find a bear midstream.
Grizzly #2
I never got a picture of the first bear we saw, which was a big blond monster. This slightly smaller bear gave us a good close-up.
Big Shy Boy
Just after I snapped this and put my camera away, the bear waded back out into the river and caught a salmon.