Monson 2023 Grand AK adventure ending ramblings

 The Monson's and the White's have now seen more of Alaska than most Alaskan's have! ;)  The common bumper sticker of "Adventure begins where plans end" has been something that stuck in my head to reflect some of what we enjoyed and could do without on this trip.  But....Not all adventure is enjoyable! :-)

in fact a lot of the adventure that we did plan was some of the best, and even those plans a lot of times had to be revised, so there's plenty of mix here.  I would also say that spending a large tour and guided events budget was key to enjoying great things at each destination.  those events were certainly well planned by companies and us.  And Im still working to forget the non=planned "Adventure" of replacing the trailer axle trice, 3 new tires/wheels, and our trouble selling the Armada....

Some Erik Alaska trip reflections and lessons, after sleep, and a few beers:

We can mark the 1300+ mile Alcan drive off of our bucket list.... and never need to drive it again!  There was about a 15hr driving stretch before Whitehorse w just 1 tire and 1 parts store, and 90% of the time no cell service for any help!  My axle hurts just thinking about it ;)

As cool as the story is, I think this is the last time we sell everything and fly home.  hard to get people to commit to buying early, and last minute sales are high risk and stress. You can't bring high dollar stuff or the cash sale would be a problem, so your stuff might breakdown.  it is pretty cool though 😎

I sure plan to return to Alaska, but I feel it's too impractical of a place to live for myself at even half of the year.  Alaska is really an Island state and just doesn't know it :-)  access and resources are way harder to get than the lower 48, shipping and prices are inflated on everything, and good towns are still very spread apart.  probably a great place to work, and I love visiting and fishing there!

A mix of DIY fun and paid guides and tours remains my favorite way to enjoy a vacation and a good use of our time and money.  I'm proud that we diy our high adventure canoe trip, Valdez glacier lake trip, and much of our fishing!

Lilly and I love RV travel doing some of our own cooking, and adventures. Needed adv gear storage, a portable boat, and groceries are all supported very well by a travel trailer + truck combo system.  Boondocking is ok if its 1 night or you have a great trailer shower.

Trailers! This will be my last hybrid travel trailer with a pop out just due to the extra setup and noise.  I also see no reason not to go 25 to 30 ft, for easier organization and amenities. I also confirmed RV Trailers are all fairly fragile long term and need to be covered in storage. they also get worse with every several thousand miles.

 Axles!  Single axles get towed, yet doubles can limp along by removing a wheel.  I only want double axle trailers from now on, and the trailer should be the width of the tires so the frame is lined up, and nothing can catch a wheel.  Carry an extra set of bearings, cap, and grease, maybe a Hub too.  Get them re-greased every 2 years. 

Accomplishing at least one thing on vacation that you weren't sure was possible is very rewarding when it all comes together.  It's why people climb mountains and run marathons on their vacations.  it can feel pretty devastating otherwise, but I still believe it's worth the effort , planning and risk to do high adventure.

Our favorite vac-a towns in Alaska in order: Homer, Valdez, Seward, Talkeetna, Kenai/Soldotna, Sterling, Wassilla, Anchorage 

A two week vacation after travel is probably perfect or you can stretch it to three.  at a certain point you should just take two vacations :-)

Met lots of tough motorcyclist! - When I start to think we've had some big challenges on this road trip, I just need to talk to some guys like Adrian here and his other two buddies.  they have a month long trip too and they've driven from Baja Mexico and then will go back down to Seattle before they fly home. 8k so far on bikes and camping!  you need some great people in Alaska, and that's its own adventure!

Good lead on a future return luxury AK fishing trip?

Sat I got the rundown from a great couple from Florida named Bill and Wendy on aq pretty expensive but luxury 7 day AK resort.  he told me that this is his fourth year using Tikchik Lodge for a week of wonderful fishing and staying at. the lodge is a all meals provided base camp and then you take float planes from there for day trips each day for any kind of river fishing from steelhead to Dolly garden to salmon runs. 

  he said the guys that he goes with have tried every other Fly-in place and they don't bother since this is their favorite.  he also said that the first half of August was his best fishing time so that's why he repeated it this year :-)  Also said to book 1 or 2 yrs ahead.

https://www.tikchiklodge.com/

Final mileage on longest Monson road trip, probably ever, around 7000! MN is only about 3hrs out of the way Shane ;)  Our Map and major destinations:

July 27th - glacier view and boondocking

 Glacier view is not much but a great staging area for taking in views and the Matanuska Glacier Trek, as we thoroughly enjoyed.  it's not even really an Alaskan city!

Our experience touring with Mica guides was excellent and might even be Lilly or Luke's favorite adventure.  I was just super glad we booked it because there was little else we could do in glacier view besides taking the views and attempt some of the local hikes which were pretty much too strenuous for these Texans :-) Grand view RV park was a pretty good place to lay our heads and stage up as well.

After one night in glacier view we were to head west and head north up for Denali.  to experience some of the outer areas we stopped in Wassilla and avoided Anchorage.  It looks like a fairly normal place for people that want the advantages and flights out of Anchorage, but to not live there in that big city.  one of the Wassilla locals told me so!

  I convinced the family to try boondocking again at Wassilla Walmart and I'm glad we did it.  the RV parks there were pretty crowded and had people partying at the local city park after 10.   This Walmart camping was a very pleasant experience compared to our crazy 2017 Amarillo Walmart boondock where the employees played kickball and the sprinklers went off on us around 5:00 a.m. :-) 

Of also note is that we tried to eat our way through our 19 lb of Valdez pink salmon. we found this to be fairly impossible with three eaters but before we realized that, we had grilled salmon, salmon tacos, salmon patty burgers, and even chicken salad salmon wraps.  All very delicious! 

finally we went back to freezing our salmon from spot to spot so we could take about 10 lb home :-)

July 30th end -Talkeetna, Denali, then Anch to sell it all!

 As we moved North to Talkeetna, we were very optimistic to enjoy this quirky and cool City that people stop at before they're in Denali Park, and to see our first views of Denali mountain at 20K plus elevation!

We pretty much filled all of our time there starting with a 6hr train ride out to Hurricane and back.  Hurricane is not in fact a small City or cool place as we were thinking but a very high cool bridge. we did like the trip but IMO this seemed like a train going to nowhere in reality.  there were people who camped and river fished before hurricane bridge and that's what I would choose to do on a return train trip. it overall was enjoyable, it was also there 100th yr railroad anniversary💯, but still felt like a tourist experience.

the next morning we took a rare chance to sleep in, and then browsed around the cool Talkeetna shops until we had some good fish and chips for lunch. after that we did my favorite part of our vacation, which was a Denali flight tour for 2 hours with K2 aviation! 

  the clouds burned off and we had a clear view of Denali and a great day for a flight! one of several things where it was just better than we deserved that day :-)

we had a cool tour of the Birch syrup place, some cool cabins in town, and Lilly became so tired of Luke and my antics that we drove her to drinking :-)

next on the trip was Denali national Park where we have a bus tour booked but you can only go into mile 43 because a landslide took out the whole road after that and it will probably be a couple years still before they can build a bridge and repair it. we definitely would have liked to have seen more animals, but I'm still glad we came up and enjoyed some hiking and Denali park.  we all agreed the best part of Denali was seeing the sled dogs and petting them! :-)

finally we came back to Anchorage Friday and we have to sell everything or donate it or throw it away so that we can all fly home Sunday night.  holy crow ...will we be able to pull it all off?

I have been frantically making ad changes and answering messages on Facebook and unfortunately dealing with a lot of non serious AK tire kickers... Anchorage has turned out to be a tougher place to sell our camper and Armada SUV then we experienced in 2017, but we have finally prevailed!

  We managed to get our decently high asking prices for both SUV and trailer, but I do admit it feels like jusy by the skin of our teeth... with only one day to spare!  the trailer was pretty easy with three people that wanted it but the 2wd SUV was not.  they have both been trusty traveling companions of ours for years and they will be missed. but I know they will have a great second life in Alaska now :-)

We are now melancholy, but triumphant as we take our shuttle from our final Anchorage hotel to fly home via Delta. we have reduced our belongings down to just three check bags and the same number of backpacks. we're traveling light now :-). we enjoyed our slow Anchorage day sleeping in and spending a lot of great time at the Anchorage museum and gallery, before a restaurant dinner out.

 there was so much to overcome both at the beginning, and the end of this crazy good month-long Alaska journey and vacation. 

  I am so thankful and feel blessed to be able to have experienced it with Luke and Lilly!

selfie of our Delta flight home and thankfully we are not on the Alcan HW again! :-)

9 Anchorage

The morning after we left Seward, we drove into Anchorage to wrap up the trip.  We picked up a rental car at the Anchorage airport, checked into an AirBnB, then turned in the Tioga motorhome.  

Once we'd completed all that, we had several hours to kill, so we cruised over to a movie theater and watched the very sobering Sound of Freedom movie which was all the rage.  We're not big moviegoers, but I'm glad we saw this one.  It was a blatant reminder of mans sinful nature.  The movie, if you're not familiar, is the true story of one man and his passion to combat the crime of human sex trafficking.  This was a hard watch, but I'm glad we got to see it with the kids so we could talk about it afterwards.  Shame on the USA for being among the biggest demand for this horrible crime. Just go see the movie, and process it for yourself.  Nuff said. 

That evening, we returned to the Mooses Tooth for malted beverage and the best pizza I know of. We again had a Chicken Rockefeller and we also had an All American Pizza.  While I highly recommend both, the chicken rockefeller was the clear standout.  

The next morning, we hit the airport, and American Airlines got us home on time uneventfully. 

On arrival at home, I re-organized the deep freeze to make room for about 120# of halibut, salmon and ling cod.  Fitting it all in an organized manner wasn't easy, but did get done.  First world problems, for sure.  If you need fish...... I have some. :)

Here's the kicker...... I dont know how many more vacations our family of 4 will take together, but I suspect the answer may be zero. I think the best hope is a skiing vacation between college semesters. Next summer, Travis will be working an engineering internship, and Amanda needs to knock out 7-10 hours of college credit to stay on pace to graduate from engineering school in 3 years, which is her objective. 

Objectives - yes, there's the word. We all have objectives, and they are just about to diverge.  Next year, Amandas objective will be further education, Travis objective will be preparing for post-college years (work), and what will mine/Deannas be?  Our objective is nearing completion - raising our own "cubs" and making them ready for the trials of life.  I'm happy to say that we're all on target to hit those objectives. 

8. Seward

Our drive to Seward included a stop at Russian River Falls.  There is a nice campground on the side of the road near where the Russian River ties into the Kenai.  If you hike "up" the Russian River for about a mile and a half, there is a section of falls that is particularly hard for the sockeye (reds) to pass.  So...... lots of fish stack up at this location, which draws both bears and tourists. Fishing and bear wrestling are not allowed in that section of river. Both families hiked into the area. We saw lots of salmon, more tourists, and reportedly missed a momma black bear and her three cubs by just a few hours. 

Then, we finished road tripping down to Seward and pitched camp at Millers Landing.  Erik and Lilly had a nice shady spot near the bathrooms.  Shane and Deanna were bayside in the motorhome.  We talked to some locals on setup and it sounded like the reds were "in" in Resurrection Bay.  Locals had been snagging them and doing pretty well. In fact, they were reportedly so "in" that the governor had issued an "emergency order" doubling the daily limit per fisherman from 6 fish to 12 fish.  Cool. 

The next morning found us on the east side of the bay near a shipping channel flinging large weighted treble hooks, learning to "snag" for reds.  There were a couple other fishermen in the area, but not too many.  In fairly short order, our group had caught 9 fish - a mix of pinks and reds (also called humpies and sockeye).   

Of course, we ate salmon again that night. 

Just for the record, I think it's really cool when a couple eagles watch me fish.  They are an incredible encouragement...... see..... eagles are professional fishermen.  Erik and I are just hobby fishermen.  If eagles are there, fish probably are too. 

   

We fished the same areas the next two days and continued to catch fish, but never did as well as that first morning.  We moved around a couple times to try different areas, but didn't turn up very different results.  One spot seemed really encouraging because right before we got to the waters edge, we encountered a big pile of fresh bear poop, but we didn't do well there.  Maybe the bear didn't either, cause we didn't meet him. 

Our last night in Seward was our last night together as a group.  We had a big salmon dinner, enjoyed the last of the wine, hugged and parted ways.   About 10 minutes later, we all got a text alert advising that an earthquake had happenned offshore somewhere and there was a TSUNAMI WARNING.  This caused quite a stir in camp, among Texans in particular.  We know how to deal with hail (move car) and tornadoes (drink beer in front yard), but not tsunamis.  Locals told us it wasn't a big deal, but Shane loaded up the motorhome and headed inland.  Thank goodness, the locals were right and no damage occurred. We boondocked that night along the road, and that was the one time it actually "looked" dark-ish - about 12:30am.  It wasn't really dark, but getting on it. 

7. Soldotna

After leaving Homer, we headed east back towards Anchorage, stopping at Soldotna.  Our RV park was on the south side of the Kenai, and it turns out (According to the fish counting data- I'm not making this up) about 2/3 of the fish follow the northern bank when headed up the river. 

We were kinda between runs of sockeye salmon on Kenai, because the early run is in June, and the second run is in late July. We were there in early/mid July, and while there were reds in the river.... . there weren't tons of them.  They were coming in better numbers on the Kasilov River, but on review, fishing there was very crowded, and catch rates weren't stellar.  

The ladies had a decent time walking around town in Soldotna, looking for treasures.  

The men and Amanda took turns "flossing" for reds on the south bank of the Kenai, next to camp.  A couple brief hookups occurred, but no fish met the knife by our hand.  We did get to watch 20-25 fishermen on the opposite bank catch fish, but they weren't hammering them, either. 

Alas..... onward to Seward. 

6. Homer

I must apologize to all three blog followers, for leaving you with the Anchorage cliffhanger.  Truth is, once the kids landed, we just had too much fun. 

We left Anchorage in the Motorhome (Tioga), which drives like a bus, and had similar fuel economy (7.8MPG) the morning of the 8th, bound for Homer. 

On the way, we stopped at Girdwood, which was having their annual Forest Fest https://girdwoodforestfair.com/

it was a ton of fun.  lots of homemade stuff, and 3000calorie plates of food available to anyone with the coin.  I spent my coin with kids operating independent lemonade distributorships. 

then we headed to Homer, arriving about 5pm.  we hit visited the charter boat places to verify fishing plans for the next day, had dinner, and got to bed early. 

Next morning, the 9th, we all rousted early and got over to the boats for a day of big fishin.  Shanes family fished with North Country Halibut Charters.  Eriks family fished with Alaska Coastal Marine. Our captain warned us the ride might be "bumpy" (Mrs. Mack called this foreshadowing in my English class, circa 1991). 

We spent about 90 minutes racing other boats out to the targeted fishing grounds.  While Erik + crew started in on the halibut, we got started trolling for salmon.  Fortunately for us, this "cove" was protected from the winds and tide waves coming in, so it was a pleasant boat ride.  In short order, we were catching a mix of pinks and king salmon. The limit on kings is now 1 fish per license per day, and most of us caught a good king.  We kept all the pinks we could, plus a couple rockfish and had a large time doing it. :)

Once we had plenty of salmon, we moved on to the "big halibut" grounds.  The ride to the halibut area was way bumpier than anything before, and in short order, bellies became unhappy.  On arrival to the halibut area, we started dropping lines to a depth of about 300' using three POUND weights.  that's correct, three pounds.  Just checking bait was a major task retrieving 350' of line, and a 3# weight in "bumpy" water is a pretty good fight, even if it isn't a fish.  Still, we pretty quickly had about 7 halibut in the cooler, including all our "overs".  The fishing regs limit you to two halibut per day, and only one of those can be over 28".  

After that spot had filled our "overs", we moved back towards Homer to the "chicken" area - where most boats will fill their limits of halibut under 28", which is just what we did.  Once our halibut limit had been reached, it was time for the 75 minute boat ride back to the harbor where bellies could once again stabilize. Other than the hurling, it had been a great day of fishing. 

When we got to harbor, we got to catch up with Erik and Lilly. Their boat had not focused as much on salmon, but had really hammerred big halibut.  Their family of 4 boated a 20, 40, 60 and a 90# halibut.  Our big 'buts- all good fish, mind you.... -  were only ~12-13# by comparison.  Lilly caught the 90# fish, and it was so big that their deck hand shot it with a 410 shotgun before bringing it in the water so they wouldnt lose it.  Anytime you catch a fish so big that it has to be shot..... is a good day.  :)

The next couple days in Homer, we spent time fishing the lagoon, which is a manmade huge bathtub that fills and drains with the tidal flows.  The hatchery releases baby salmon in the lagoon every fall, so when they approach end of life, they return to this same area and end up getting caught by local fishermen. Pretty cool!  We caught pinks, silvers, and some kings in the lagoon + surrounding area. 

Following all that fun..... we packed up and migrated to Soldotna.  I'll have to come back later and add more pictures, cause they are on other folks cameras.  

July 21st, Valdez boat trips and our easiest salmon fishing!

 Valdez is a little town with a big excitement, rich history, and gorgeous views all around.

We have seen big waterfalls, huge mountains, the Columbia glacier on a tour, and floated among ice formations.  I should definitely mention that the pink salmon are in too! ;)

  Really cant say that we've had even a wasted hour here as we seem to have something to do and everything has worked out better than expected.. which is hard to do when you have such high expectations :-)

   Today as we end our visit, we spent our morning at museums and the afternoon at the Valdez glacier lake doing our own paddle, and Luke finally get use out of the inflatable kayak we have hauled around since Texas   the glacier and ice formations were anong a maze of waterways.  the water was super cold, but the views were spectacular.

  Both nights we did a bunch of salmon fishing, where even Lilly got in on it.  All of us catching our limit, and 38 fish total.   The pinks are IN, and snagging them in there rising schools is the easiest fishing that you can do without being a bear or sea lion! 😂😎

Luke has really become quite an independent fisherman and traveler on this trip and its been great to see him grow in so many ways.  He was just 10 our  last time in AK, so this time he can do it all!

Sadly I would say this is the end of our fishing for this AK trip since we are leaving the coast line tomorrow, but that's probably a good thing since Luke and I have managed to break four rods! 🥺😫 

July 18th, a return from the wilderness. Canoeing high adventure

We just survived our crazy canoeing high adventure I planned out here near Sterling Alaska.   Hoping along a chain of lakes like BSA Northern Tier with 3 people and camping gear all in one boat!   it started off on the wrong foot because when Luke and I tested the fancy borrowed Kevlar canoe it buckled in the middle :-(  Thankfully Alaska canoe and campground saved our slack by renting us an Old Town canoe, adjustable middle seat, map, and whale bag for our journey!  Owner Max was the best.

We went from Canoe lake to Gavia lake over 2 days, one night, after we delayed for pouring rain. We put in about 3.5 miles of portaging, where are you carry all your gear and canoe over dry land.  This was all agreed to be TOO MUCH, and my back muscle voted twice. ;)

   Thankfully we stayed at a perfect island campsite overnight, which made the trip all worth it.  We must have gotten way out there in the wilderness, because luckily we didn't run into a single soul or other boat on our trip.     During our 14mi paddleing and fishing journey, we saw a moose swim cross the lake in front of us,  many Loons swiming and singing close, we caught 5 trout, and the Sunshine came out all day :-)

  Our backs are still sore, we had blissful showers, and we're having much needed pizza and beer now at Magpies pizzaria...   what a grand adventure!

July 13th, a slew of Seward reds, seeing Matt off, and a canoe

 right now I'm driving back to Seward Alaska looking at the giant mountains and lakes with ice on them where the Sun never realy sets.  Today in Seward we caught nine salmon reds by snagging and they put in an executive order doubling everyone's limit in our area :-). it's strange that snagging is legal here, but you can't believe how hard a salmon pulls after being hooked that way!

   I just put Matt back on a plane to home loaded up with 150 lb of Frozen fish!  it's sad to see Matt's trip in, but he had a great time and we finished out with a wonderful morning of catching salmon.   We need to have a halibut fish fry when we get back because luck has defi turned our way.  

I also finally got to make use of the canoe I gave to a Boy Scout troop in Anch a long 6 years ago in case I ever needed a canoe again in Anchorage.  Today is that day!  As a matter of fact I was even able to upgrade to a lightweight Kevlar canoe to use on our canoeing high adventure along a chain of lakes starting with swan lake near Sterling.  While I was in Anchorage I went ahead and made a menu and purchase our food because the canoe trip happens as soon as we leave Seward.  I'm hoping it's another grand Monson adventure,  but in a good way! :-)

we had a great visit of exit glacier our last morning in Seward.  easiest most rewarding I could do in the area IMO