Day 42 Friday July 14th– Kenai

Friday July 14^th – day 42 – Kenai

Once we finally rolled out of camp at 11am, we headed to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Soldotna.  The guy working the counter gave us maps and encouraged us to do a couple hikes, which is what we wanted to do in the first place. Didn’t see “big” wildlife, but we did encounter a local hoard of mosquitoes that must have been running low on type A- blood, cause they took a couple quarts out of me and the family. We packed VERY poorly, as only one of us brought a mosquito net, and no one packed “OFF” or any equivalent.  So after about 1.5 miles of our ~4 mile hike, we were in a slow jog through the trails, and if I killed one, I killed 200 mosquitoes on the way. This is a mistake I won't repeat soon.  I might sleep with my can of OFF and wear a headnet for insurance….

Then we went over to the Soldotna Visitors Center, where the rod/reel world record king salmon mount is on display, showing off 97# of delicious glory.  That fish was 7 years old, putting on an average of 14#/year. Nearly as much as me in my college years……

World Record King Salmon caught by Les Anderson on May 17, 1985

Then we went on a walk down the Kenai River boardwalk.  A handful of guys were fishing, and Deanna encouraged us to fish a bit, so we did. Shortly after we got started, the ladies decided to go visit the local market.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have Deanna's phone.  Eventually, Travis and I moved down river a bit, and thus got separated from the womenfolk.  Two hours later, we got tired of not catching fish and called them, only to realize they didn’t have a phone, so…….. not everyone was happy about how that went.

Then we came back to camp, had leftovers for dinner and then Dee and I went for a walk to see how the dipnetters were doing.  We took a count and roughly 28% of the dipnetters were female.  Attagirls!  The seagulls are all over the place cleaning up fish parts that us humans don’t eat.  We met a guy from McKinney and got to shoot the breeze with him for a while. 

Mine! Mine! Mine!
After filleting their fish, the dipnetters throw the fish carcasses into the water.
The seagulls have a field day with this.

Travis and I plan to hit the river again tomorrow mid day to fish the outgoing tide on the river. Hope we catch a few!!