Pictures of the King from this weekend

Lots of field work going on now in the lab and people from out of town are around.  One of the guys from Virginia Tech (Mike) went out with me to catch some crab for a cook out last night.  We got 7 fairly quickly.  The meal included king salmon, crab, and moose!

23 pound King salmon

I'll add some more pictures soon, but this is what I have for now ...

We got out one night this week with nothing to show for our effort.  Then this morning on the Breadline we hooked up with this 23 lber.  We were out with Hillary's boss for the morning. 

Mount Jumbo skiing and more great weather

Sunday ...
Hillary, Paddy and I headed out from behind the apartment on Sunday morning to ski the main north facing couloir on Mount Jumbo.

Hiking through muskeg on the approach

Our ascent route went into the large basin on the right and followed the large snow gully on the left to gain the ridge.  From there it was a nice skin on the upper mountain to the summit.  The couloir is hidden in the rocks, but it exits on the right side of the large basin.

Skinning up the gully (steeper than it looks)

Hillary skinning on the upper mountain with Gastineau Channel and Mt. Roberts in the background

Hillary and Paddy gaining the true summit

 View of Juneau from the summit

Stephens Passage and Admiralty Island

From the top of the couloir

Even though we waited on the summit for awhile we were too early for this never see the sun aspect at about 11am.  It was a pretty brutal chunky hardpack descent until we hit the sunny lower slopes.  A great day in the mountains though.  Plus you can't beat finishing 30 seconds from where you live.

After skiing we went to see the litter of puppies that are now 2 weeks old and just starting to open their eyes.

Starting to look like dogs

 

Starting to choose favorites

Trying not to crush him

Monday into today...

Hillary went off to Ketchikan in the morning for an onboard overnight cruise ship job.  So, as soon as I got out of work I went out on the boat threw in a shrimp pot and salmon fished for a couple hours.  I anchored up just before dark, around 10p, and went to sleep.  I woke up around 4a, a little while after first light and fished again in the morning while Hillary's ship passed by me in Stephens Passage.  No Kings, about 15 shrimp, a lot of upclose humpback whales and seals and I still made it to work before 9a!  Hillary worked a full day after her overnight adventure and 4am sampling.

Camping and some fish

Friday ... for work I hiked 5 miles up Lemon Creek to one of our stream stations to install a remote sensor and an autosampler.  It was a great day for a hike.  On the way out I saw a medium sized black bear that was foraging on the trail.  I watched it from about 30 yards while it was eating, looking away from my direction.  After about 10 seconds it turned around, looked at me, and then bolted away.

Sampler and other equipment to carry for the hike

On friday after work we packed up the boat and left from North Douglas, heading toward Howard point.  It was very calm for the 20 mile or so run.

Sunset from our beach in Howard Bay

We made it to our camp site a bit before dark.  We made a nice fire and ate some hot dogs and dough boys.  Around 10:30 it finally got dark.  We decided to sleep on the boat and it worked out great.  Although we did have to deal with barking sea lions and gasps from humpback whales.

Today ... we woke up around 7a to a seal peeping out of the water next to the boat.  The weather was phenomenal!  Blue skies warm and calm seas.  At 9a we got our first King salmon of the season.  It was just barely the legal limit of 28 inches and weighed in just under 8 pounds.  I reeled him in while Hillary masterfully netted it.

8 pound King

After trolling for a long while longer we decided to try a little bit of bottom fishing on a large reef in the area.  We started in about 250 ft of water and drifted up into 130 ft.  A soon as Hillary got her line down 250 ft she had a big hit!  Now began the battle of reeling in a tugging fish from hundreds of feet down.  When it became visible she says, "Ahh, what is this?!" 

8 pound Yelloweye rockfish (Alaska Snapper)

The rockfish caught at that depth need to be kept because they will not survive after being released.  They have swim bladders and eye sockets that expand too much from the pressure change.  No worries, they are good eating anyways. 

I wanted a picture with this cool fish too!

We trolled a bit more after the Yelloweye catch, no more Kings, then headed back (about an hour and 15 min ride) to North Douglas, getting back around 430p.

 Big boat in front of big glaciers

Back home with our catch

Alaskan Brewery Locals Day

Tuesday ... I went out to troll for Kings right after work while Hillary went for a run.  At the end of her run I picked her up on a rock beach with the boat where a change of clothes and some snacks were waiting.  I was trolling in the Outer Point area with a bunch of other people, but again no salmon yet.  Short sleeves with no shoes it was so warm trolling!  We arrived back home a bit after 9p.

Wednesday ... after work Hillary's boss, David, told us about a locals party that the Alaskan Brewery throws every year down near the tram dock by the water.  So we went down right after work and enjoyed some free beer, hot dogs, hamburgers, and even a live band outside.  We have has some great weather lately.

Today ... I woke about just before 5a this morning to go out to Peterson Creek to try my luck with the sparse Steelhead that spawn in the creek.  There are a couple really small runs on the road system ... catch and release only.  I saw two surface, but couldn't get anything to bite.  Tonight we are going for a run!

 Lower Peterson Creek

King Salmon derby starts

Juneau has a King Salmon derby for the month of May every year.  Top prize is about $8,000 in cash and prizes.  We didn't enter yet, and may not ... we're more concerned about just catching some of them rather than winning prizes.  It has brought out a lot of boats!
We were on the water a bit the last two days, well it was just me early this morning for a few hours.  I caught a 3 lb halibut and a couple cod.  While none of them were huge I kept them for a fresh dinner.

A couple dinners

In the afternoon we went for a trail run from the Mendenhall Glacier up east glacier trail to nugget creek.  Fried Halibut for dinner.  Oh yeah, before running we went to see a litter of one week old black labs!  We will choose one in about 5 weeks to be our own.

The pups

 Hillary posing with some random blind deaf dog

 Me doing the same ..