A typical weekend

Whenever I used to sit on the couch watching Alaska programs, I always thought, " Wouldn't that be great to do all those fun things up in the 49th State." The idea being if you could just get there, everything was yours for the taking. The reality seems to be a little more, well, 'real' than I expected. Alaska is BIG. Even the road system is big and everything is spread well apart. Fairbanks 2 hours. Anchorage 5 hours. Kenai, 9 hours. Juneau, like 12 hours if you catch the ferry right. Valdez 5 hours. Nothing is close. A 5 hour drive cost about $125 in gas, plus hotel, plus food. A weekend ends up running about $400 for 2 or about $325 for just old lowly me unless I sleep in my car and eat lunch meat. Now throw in an activity like flightseeing, riding the train, fishing charter, dogmushing etc. and that takes a few hundred extra dinero onto the total. Not cheap. Which is why a lot of locals up here have done a lot of these things but even for them its a vacation, not an everyday occurence. I've realized I am now forced to pick and choose my activities carefully and decide what I really want to do each weekend and balance the budget. I'm doing well so far but my adventures are starting to be more run of the mill for awhile. I'm going to pick a couple things I really want to do before the year ends and plug those into the schedule. now I just have to choose.
This last weekend was really no different than most weekends for me in SC in the months preceeding my departure. Saturday, I slept in, worked out a bit in the morning, went to a referee clinic for an upcoming soccer tournament I am involved in, took a nap, worked out again, made dinner, talked to friends on the phone then crashed out. Sunday, I slept in, went to the grocery store, headed to bible study, church service then the normal Sunday potluck (I took italian beef I made Saturday night) then home for another nap, headed into town to look around, get a chocolate malt and then headed home to watch HBO series before showering and turning in for the night. Pretty normal stuff, except for the mountains, moose and sunlight that are a nearly daily occurence. Next weekend is a rugby tournament in Fairbanks followed by a river float on Sunday. Then the following weekend is a Crossfit competition in Fairbanks I've volunteered to help judge. Nothing too crazy, but also nothing too "Alaskan"  for awhile.

Kenai Rugby and Dipnetting Part One

8 July I drove 8 straight hours after work to make it down to Kenai for a weekend of rugby of dipnet fishing. As a non resident I unfortunately cannot dipnet yet. I was interested in seeing the process. Alaskans can scoop up 40 salmon as they are running for their freezers and many do. My coworker Richard lives on the stuff and probably actually saves some money for his household in the process.

I got in a bit after midnight Friday and hung out on the beach for a bit before crashing out in the 4runner. Saturday, Schu joined me for some breakfast at Louies after buying a new air mattress at Walmart. After breakfast we headed back to the beach rounded everyone up and headed to the pitch which was incidently directly behind Louies. Since Kenai is so remote, most of the rugby teams traveled lightly and needed players to make full sides. After a few matches of 10s and a few womens matches, we decided to split up and form 15s teams for a 60 minute match. Back in SC the majority of the matches throughout hte year are 15s so I was excited to get to play where my strengthes lie. The team I was on was a combination of Samoans from the Anchorage T-Birds, Fairbanks and the Mat-Su Maulers. We hung fairly evenly through the first half, making quite a few mistakes that let the Kenai guys stay in the match. However, the second half, we stayed strong, stopped dropping the ball and ran try after try in to win by a healthy margin. It was a lot of fun. The next rugby is in two weeks in Fairbanks and is 15s again, I'm itching to play again.

Saturday night found us at the bar behind Louies, the Backdoor. The Kenai ruggers must not get there too often because when the songs started up iphones came out from the crowd and youtube got a few more videos for the archives. No song went unsung from the usual repertoire, Yogi Bear, I used to work in Chicago, days of the week, S&M man made an appearance and even the dreaded rugby queen but the guy singing it must have been sweet on the lassie he was serenading because he did a 180 with it. Sunday was gray and rainy and the opening of dipnetting on the Kenai. The crowds were out in force. Dipnetting basically consists of waders and a giant net on a handle. You wade out, stick the net in the water and wait for a salmon to swim in. Unfortunately the fish were not running too much yet and the morning looked like it was just standing waist deep in cold water for most. Only a few had beers, I assume the rest were on some sort of hallucinogenic or downer to keep from being bored to death. I shot some pics and a few fish were scooped up but I decided it was time to hit the road since I had the long drive back to Delta from Kenai.

Beach info

drop off road to bottle neck at mouth of the river.

Look at all those folks looking to fill the freezer.

Our enclave of tents

waders and dipnet

square nets

harbor at mouth of Kenai River

Charity cooking over an open fire.

Kenai Rugby and Dipnetting Part Deux

Eggs mixed in bacon grease. Mostly grease. I stuck to a muffin and blueberry pancake.

Waist deep. 55 degree water. Gotta be on drugs!

One of the few salmon that made it into a net while I was watching. The cooler was jumping and rocking after he threw it in there.

This is Swags (sp?) He has a beer in his hand. He's a rugby guy.

The tide was slowly creeping in.

Back in the Alaska Range on the way home.

Same area. On the right is where Arctic man is held each Spring.