End of Season

12U - Sassy Sliders 2011







10U - Marlins 2011



Copper River

We headed down to the Copper River on Saturday, July 23 with the Darrow Family. The fishing reports had been poor, but we were pretty sure that there would be decent numbers of fish to fill our coolers. We dip-netted for a couple hours that evening and got 15 fish, a little slow but not bad.

Sunday morning things started picked up and by afternoon we were averaging 20 fish per hour. We ended up with 98 sockeye and 2 king salmon. Not bad for about 10 hours with of dipping! We knew it was time to quit fishing when my last haul landed me on my butt on the bottom of the boat with a king salmon in my lap, a bent dip net handle and a ripped up net.



Bringing in a king salmon

Running back upriver

Fishy Freckles

 

The king salmon that almost got away



Tote with 42 sockeye

 

Time for rest and libations

Sleeping in the Shack & Fishin' Time

Saturday morning we woke up to POURING rain at the house so we debated whether to even head to Delta or not. The potential fun won out over staying in town so off we went. The rain got lighter and lighter as we headed East and once we hit the river it was just cloudy, YAY!

Lynda met up with us at the campground then we headed down to the Shack to unload all our building supplies, futon and overnight “stuff”. After some lunch we did a little fishin’ before Lynda had to head back to Palmer.

After dropping Gramma back at the boat launch we headed back to the Shack to make it bug proof so we could spend the night in it. To do that we installed the fascia boards over the soffits, trimmed around the door, and squirted expandable insulation around all the windows and door; that worked like a charm, we all slept great INSIDE…..Mike and I were especially comfy sleeping on our Craigslist futon-find.

Sunday was a beautiful day, mostly sunny but not too hot. The boys headed upriver to The Spot with some friends from out of town and the fishing was great. They came back down to the Shack for a late lunch and to check out our building progress.

While the boys were out fishing Piper and I got the bunks framed up & we did some trail improvements. We were cutting up plywood when Piper noticed a grouse sitting in a nearby tree, we watched her for a while then we saw another..and another..and another! There were at least three young ones (plus mom) sitting around the yard, one was even up on top on the kids’ swings (look closely at the picture). Pretty cool! They were eating the blueberries around the property….smart birds! We also saw a juvenile gray jay, robin & three toed woodpecker…..I guess all the teen aged birds are getting kicked out of the nest.

 

After lunch Mike took our friends back to the boat launch (with some more fishing along the way); then we got the bunks hung, gear packed, and then we were off to our favorite Delta Drive In for dinner.

A great weekend….

July 4th Weekend on the Teklanika

The weekend was a bit wet and buggy, but we had a good time. We had a beautiful drive up Friday night, and Saturday was pretty nice too. We got several small jobs done that we had been procrastinating, like finishing bits of indoor and outdoor trim, cutting brush around the cabin, cleaning the woodstove chimney, stacking more firewood, etc...

On Friday night we discovered a big brown bear track on the gravel bar just upriver from camp. According the track book it was a larger than average adult bear. Pretty cool! Our trail cam ran out of batteries sometime in the last month, so we didn't have any pictures of the bear itself, although Piper brought out some plaster and was able to make a nice cast of the print.

We have a pair of belted kingfishers nesting in our riverbank too. Every time we were out sitting by the fire they would start flying around and making a bunch of racket. I am sure they were happy to see us leave yesterday!

The mosquitoes were really bad this trip...once we cut some brush and had a campfire going it was more bearable, but all the rain this month definitely helped their hatches! Speaking of rain, it was pretty drizzly all day on Sunday and we had several cloudbursts on Monday, but that resulted in a couple beautiful rainbows right across the river.

The kids have been asking for us to enclose the space under the "moose stand" for a while, so we finally got that done this trip too. We used a bunch of old lumber from the wall tent platform. They especially liked making the "forest graffiti" with leftover paint we had lying around.

Tuesday was beautiful....of course, the day we had to leave. We took a little ride upriver before we left and the fireweed is totally taking over in the burn area....beautiful! We saw a couple moose and a great horned owl on the way back downriver. The owl was sitting in a tree right over the river and it just swiveled its head around as it watched us zip by....neat!

Fireweed in burn area

ALMOST bug proof!

We didn't leave Fairbanks until almost 11am on Saturday, but it was a gorgeous day....sunny and hot. Once we got to the river there was a bit of a breeze on the river that kept things bearable.

That afternoon we got one of the gable ends enclosed, started on the soffits, installed REAL stairs and got our used windows all cleaned up before a big thunderstorm moved through in the evening; lightning and everything. The kids and Tekla holed up in their tent and played cards while Mike and I sat up in the cabin and enjoyed a bottle of wine while watching the sky show.

completed soffit & gable end

Sunday morning started out cloudy and then it started to rain pretty steadily. We worked in raingear for a couple hours, but by 1pm it was clearing and it ended up being a quite pleasant afternoon/ evening. We finished enclosing the gable ends, almost finished the soffits (our Dewalt batteries ran out of juice), installed the last two windows and the door. Piper even helped me plant my irises I hauled out from Totek Lake a couple weeks ago. They should grow great on the DCR!

Inside1

Inside2

We also had some Fairbanks friends show up Sunday afternoon, they were nice enough to lend an extra pair of hands for the windows & door installation....they also took all the kids out for a boat ride & a little fishing....nice!

June 26

We've been having a great time building this month on the DCR, but we are definitely looking forward to the July 4th weekend on the Teklanika!