Never W/O The Camera Again

Up through Monday, June 30, we had taken our camera on every single outing. On Tues, July 1, we decided that we'd gotten enough picts for a while, and left the camera at home for the first time all summer. Never again...

It was early in the afternoon, (Jake's been going to work early and getting off at 3 P.M.), and it was sunny in the village but sprinkling showers upriver--the kind of day that makes rainbows, when we're really glad there's a canopy on our boat. Because of the time, weather, and the fact everyone else was still at work, we had the river to ourselves; Vance and Leona were the only other people we saw on the river during the entire outing.

I hooked and fought with my first king salmon of the season (woo-hoo!), but lost it close to the boat... got some more king strikes, but we only came home with humpies.

Done with our fishing, cruising back down the river, we saw a large shape in the channel just West of South River. Jake asked me what it was, and I joked, "A whale," thinking that it was probably just the roots or log of a large tree floating down the channel. As we got closer, it turned, and we saw an enormous rack in the water... attached to a moose! We know this is common. After all, we've found several moose and bear tracks along the banks every year. But we've never actually seen a moose fording the river before... we tend to see more around the Anchorage airport from the car or in UNK from a plane. We got to watch it swim all the way across, and DJ got a big surprise as it came out on the other side and became VERY tall. He said, "W-ow." It was a beautiful bull. Hunting season doesn't start until Sept. 1, and only 16 are allowed in our game unit this year... hopefully we'll see another moose when that time comes around too. But this was cool, anyway. Definitely a rarity for people from WA state who don't get a clear view of them in the wild that often. We're going out hiking, boating, or both every day now, and we'll be going out early again today--with the camera! Cross your fingers that we can catch one of the critters we've seen on camera so we can share with you.

Janelle