Heading North Again

The "Crazy Germans" whose blog can be found at realgoneaway.blogspot.com/.

When you think of what the Captain of a small Alaskan fishing boat would look like, that's what Ron epitomized. Long weathered lines creased his face and a cigar hung half gone from his mouth. He wore bright orange weather-proof overalls, and a pair of boots made for slick decks and rainy days. And he liked to hit large fish with an aluminum baseball bat.

Ron was a fisherman through and through, and he was our Captain for a day when we went halibut fishing. We ended up keeping over 30 pounds of the great beasts, and with Ron's help threw back at least as much. We fished with a couple from Southern California, Rich and Janet, (mechanical and civil engineers respectively) and Doug, a retired professor from the University of Alaska at Anchorage. We traveled 75 miles in, to a chain of islands which have never been inhabited by man and where the only sign of human touch was the wake of our boat. No sandy beaches here, only huge pine trees and rocky cliffs. Coming back in we passed numerous whales and porpoises, as well as a huge cruise boat docked in Whittier. After shipping the fish home (over dry ice) and bidding farewell to our new found friends, we headed back to Anchorage to pack up in order to drive through Denali and find Fairbanks the next day.

Denali takes all day. Sadly, we did not have all day. Nor did we have nice weather! It was rainy, foggy, and extremely overcast throughout the few hours we were able to spend in this huge national park. The entrance fee's were not wholly wasted, seeing as we did get to spot a mother and baby moose. Tour buses being what they were, we didn't get to see them until they were too far away to make any decent pictures. Finally making it to Fairbanks (which has over 90,000 people!) we found a room, and bunked down for the night. Today we are searching for antlers and seeing sights, before heading South again to Anchorage!


Zack