The smelt finally ran!

The smelt finally ran on Friday, although while we were at work so we missed the beginning.  I had worked out a deal with a friend, that I'd just buy a little bit from her for my Grandpa, but she ended up going in a different direction on the river so I thought I was out of luck.  But then on Saturday, a friend of ours asked us if we wanted to go fishing; he happened to have a net, so we jumped on the chance.  We got two 5-gallon buckets in less than 45 minutes. (Jeff says I have to include that it's in large part to his part of the dipping because he filled one of the buckets halfway in only two dips)

 Look at him go!

 Half of our catch

 Then the barge came through so I thought I'd get a few pictures.  I don't think I've ever been at the river when the barge went any way on the river!

Alaska zoo

The Alaska Zoo is pretty nice; it's like walking through a forest and occasionally coming across an animal's holding area.  The unfortunate part is that the day was warmer than it'd been in awhile so the animals were all lounging around instead of moving, so we actually couldn't even see probably half of them.

Oh yeah, Jeff says Hi!!!

Trip to Alyeska resort

We went to Anchorage for 5 days.  While we were there, we went to the Alyeska resort where they have a tram to the top of the mountain. It was a little nerve-wracking because you get to the top of the mountain in about 5 minutes!  Not to mention it's not good for motion sickness and fear of heights.  But we got some great pictures of the trip up the mountain, and of the Cook Inlet!

 This is from the resort at THE BOTTOM of the hill.  See that tiny building on top of the mountain?  That's were the tram goes.

 Ahhh, the tram!!!  I was so nervous getting on this thing, but Jeff was perfectly fine.  They had a problem last year with a tram in a bad windstorm,  that caused it to swing and hit the tower.  The poor people on it were stuck for 5 hours, so you can understand my concern.  Here's a quick link so you can see why I was nervous.  http://skitheworld.com/2013/01/alyeska-tram-accident/

 Annnddd we're off!

 There's Cook Inlet

 Jeff enjoying the view from the top

 Here's the resort where the tram started from

One last view of the inlet

Kuskokwim is soo close to break-up!

Jeff and I have the week of, and have been going down to the river the last couple of days to check out its progress.  Ice is moving in small and bigger pieces, but the tripod has not been tripped yet!  I'm hoping it'll wait until the time we chose so we'll win the raffle!

We were so close, but we ended up being off by about 2 hours!!!  Wow!

The river: May 24, 2013

I'm going to go get some pictures of the river. Be right back!

Ok so this is the river tonight:

 It's definitely looking more broken up.  The break-up is just above Upper Kalskag on the river. I looked at a map and guess maybe 50+ miles? No idea because the river is so curvy, but we've probably got a few more days.  We're looking at much warmer weather coming up this week.  It's supposed to be 59 degrees tomorrow and into the 60's next week so that will definitely speed things up!  It's crazy to think that it snowed less than two weeks ago!

 Here are some ducks on our lake!

 It's almost all the way thawed.  I'm enjoying the view, but I'm guessing the mosquitoes are going to be a nightmare!

Current state of the river

At this point, the river is looking pretty slushy. As of last weekend people were still driving on it on their snow machines.  I think they're crazy, but I hope they know better than I do.  One of my friends drove on the river a couple of weeks ago to go fishing and they had to wear life jackets just in case they hit a wet spot.  That's the point where I'd be thinking no.  I wasn't really even willing to drive on the ice road unless it was frozen pretty solid!

 Look at all those holes!

 Must have broken down.  Crappy spot to have to get to, although it was gone by the next night.

 The tripod!  Jeff and I bought tickets for the raffle for river break-up.  We chose a bunch of dates and times, including the 26th and the 28th.  That's only two and four days away; maybe we'll win!

 The water is rising quite a bit.  Right now, it's probably about 8 feet below this wall, but by the time the river breaks up, it'll be a foot or two below the wall.  Some parts of bethel (the low parts) tend to flood around that time of year, so I think it's pretty expected.