Alaska

My 3rd fishing trip to Alaska started at 3:30am Wednesday morning. This year I will be pounding the Nushagak River for King salmon with my good friend Brad. The weather is predicted to be sunny and mild for most of the trip but as long as it does not snow, I could care less about the weather. Hell, even snow won't stop us from getting on the river.

My trip started with a flight from Boston to Minneapolis. After a brief layover, it was a 5 hour flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage. What was scheduled to be a 4 hour layover turned into a 5 1/2 hour layover...ugh! We finally departed Anchorage around 5:30pm, Alaska time, aboard an 18 seat, twin prop plane that I needed to stoop over in order to walk down the aisle. We arrived in the small town of Dillingham around 7:00pm. From Dillingham I was scheduled to board a float plane to the area where the camp is located but unfortunately, the delay in Anchorage caused me to miss the flight going to the camp. So instead, I hitched a ride into town with a guy in a classic Alaska style pick up truck, lots of rust and virtually no muffler system. In Dillingham I spent the night at the Bristol Bay Inn and at the time of this writing I am awaiting my contact to meet in the lobby.

Today is going to start with a 90 minute boat ride up the river to our camp. Luckily, I just looked out the window and saw the sun so the trip should be quite pleasant.

The image above was shot on the plan trip from Minneapolis to Anchorage. Whenever I see these mountains it means that we are getting close. These mountains are visible for about the last two hours of the flight. I can always count on having a stiff neck by the time I arrive because I just can't stop looking out the window at these gorgeous peaks.

Jim