Thing 2 has been interested in kayaking for several years now. I bought him a starter kayak about 4 years ago I think. We don’t often use it but every once in a while a kayaking opportunity arises and we must go!
We’ve been kayaking to Cain’s Head out of Seward, across Kachemak Bay out of Homer and on Arc Lake and Stormy Lake. Once again we had the opportunity to kayak to Cain’s Head with IDEA for our beginning the year field trip.
We booked a cabin for the night before at Miller’s Landing. It’s a quaint little Alaska campground. It started out as a family homestead and the campsites are named after people. There’s a Wes and a Janet among others. I don’t recommend “Matt” as he’s a muddy mess with lots of tree roots!
Our cabin was a “tree” cabin, Alder, and sleeps 4. Me, my teens and one extra: Thing 2’s buddy, since it was his birthday trip and all. Trips like this are always the best because our friends are with us.
Staying over the night before is important, a 7:30am roll call on the beach with a two and half hour drive before isn’t very fun! So overnight it was.
We managed to get to the beach on time and started out paddling at 8 am.
The weather wasn’t awful but it wasn’t stellar either. Overcast and light to moderate rain all day. We had a brief moment of partly cloudy skies then the rain returned. But we managed to stay mostly dry with good rain gear. There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.~ old Norwegian saying.
Five miles out to the North Beach access. A nice uneventful paddle. Lots of birds and jumping silvers. We saw a jellyfish waiting to make our landing.
Then a two mile hike up to Fort McGilvray. An altitude gain of 650′, a “moderate” hike on the difficulty scale.
We saw so many berries on our way up. Thing 1 was taking photos every other step. Moss, mushrooms, flowers, berries, her boyfriend, me…. Trees and rocks and … Everything.
We made it to the top and a quick walk through the Fort and then lunch break. Thing 2 discovered that he forgot to pack his lunch in so we all shared a bit of our lunches to help him out.
While eating lunch he spotted a porcupine up in the top of a tree above us. Strange creatures porcupines. Stellar Jays we’re fussing at us the whole time. We were in their space.
Then we started our descent. The trip back is always quicker. Too quick to pick all the berries I saw. I hate walking past berries and not picking them.
Safe to say that we’re all pretty tired at this point. Five miles kayaking, 4 miles hiking. Now another 5 miles back. Oy vey
All the muscles fussed at us on the way back. Even those we didn’t know we had. But by 3:03 pm we were back on the beach at Miller’s Landing.
These children decided they deserved ice cream after their efforts. We headed into Seward for ice cream and coffee for the Moms. There were still some congratulatory posters and banners up for Lydia Jacoby which was cool to experience.
Looking forward to the next kayaking adventure! But maybe not so far next time? Maybe.
#aklife
#kayaking
The dinning hall.
Fishing was restricted again this year, we could only fish one tide a day. (Due to lowered king salmon returns.) This allowed for a slower pace but it significantly reduced our overall catch. None of us limited out. Most of us got enough to get us through the year, we hope. You never know year to year how much you’re going to actually go through. Some years we eat way more salmon than others. It definitely is a staple in our diet.
And then there’s the card and board games. I found “Joe Name It” at the thrift store this year and it was a lot of laughs. 
Hmmm…. 
Arts & crafts time. They made jelly fish.
Then there’s the friends who come to visit and bring their little puppers. 
And not so little puppers. Burt still has that puppy demeanor even tho he’s as big as a horse.
Once in a while there’s even time for laying down on the job. It’s a hard life Mr. Jimmy! 
There’s always time for good food though. We do eat well at fish camp. Mo is the “Kitchen Queen”.
These enchiladas were amazeballs.
Dessert even. Oy I ate too much.
Dean does a damned fine job of grilling. He usually works all day then comes down to the beach at night. He can sure cook up some delicious food even after working a full day.
This year was a bit overcast and drizzling so the camp stove was a must. We enjoyed its warmth under our dry canopy.
This old fire pit of Niki’s sure has been handy. One bent leg gets propped up in a rock. And a salvaged oven rack with two pieces of rebar makes a nice cooking surface. Hey, we’re Alaskans, we make do.
The kids are always up for a wienie roast. Which is good for when camp isn’t set up and we have no kitchen. 
Putting the nets away for the night. We pull them, stretch them out and flag repairs, Jane takes the time to carefully mend each one, then we gather and store the nets up beach. Get up the next day and start over again.
Here’s to having a warm, dry kitchen out of the wind. L’chaim!
And that’s a wrap. Another year in the books. Smoked salmon and plain jarred salmon adorn our pantry shelves. Life is good.
Alaska on my mind... 