Friday, July 22: Marriage (Day One)

It is midnight of marriage (day one).  My new husband is missing and has been missing for a number of hours.  At least the missing husband is not alone.  He is also accompanied by the missing father, the missing father-in-law, the missing brother and last but certainly not least, the missing friend/wedding officiant/fishing guide.  But let’s start at the beginning… 

This morning, Mike and I awoke & enjoyed a fantastic breakfast at the Tern Lake Inn.  As with the wedding dinner, the breakfast menu was splendid yet simple: orange/cranberry scones, spinach & eggs, and a Thai lime watermelon blueberry fruit salad.  Over breakfast, our marriage was blessed by two visiting couples from Israel.  According to the couples, the blessing was especially meaningful considering their homeland’s direct line to God.  Good point.  After breakfast, we drove the short distance back to the Wild Rose Chalet, where fishing preparations were in full swing. 

After a somewhat slow start, we finally committed to the day and packed up some picnic lunches to go.  The girls decided to go on a hike to Crescent Creek & Lake and boys left to go combat fishing for salmon on the Kenai River.  

The Hikers:  Amazingly the trailhead for the Crescent Creek hike was just a few miles away from our lodge.  Initially, the hike was relatively steep (1000 feet in the first mile). Our trail then leveled off into a wildflower-filled meadow.  Enjoying the peak flowers, while keeping our eyes open for bears & other wildlife, we walked past the smaller Carter Lake toward Crescent Lake. True to the Johnson tradition, we made sure to check out all backcountry campsites along the way just in case.  Battling a large population of flies, we stopped for a quick picnic on a rocky beach alongside Crescent Lake.  Midway into our PB & J sandwiches, Gail spotted a large school of fish.  Luckily, Sara had a fishing pole & lures in her backpack (she is now a Keefe after all).  Sandwiches were temporarily forgotten, a lure was tied on, and Sara waded out into the water & began fishing for the “big one.”  We knew we had found a good spot when a few minutes later a float plane landed just in front of us and a few men in waders ventured out into the water.  We all laughed thinking about how these guided men had to fly over 4 ladies who had walked in and were now fishing with their bare feet in order to get to their special spot.  

Despite the almost constant visuals of fish, Sara did not manage to hook any.  After a few minutes, Mary asked if she could try.  Two casts later, Mary was reeling in a huge fish towards shore.  The fish had other plans, however, and it released itself (plus the lure) before Mary could successfully land it.  

Oh well, we reasoned, it wouldn’t do to out-fish the boys, after all.

Later that evening, back at the chalet, the ladies got word of a pair of auto accidents on the Sterling Hwy from the lodge caretaker.  After looking online, we learned that two separate auto incidents in close succession had closed down the only road from where the fishermen currently were on the Kenai River to where we were staying.  Estimates indicated the road would open at 6 a.m. Saturday morning.  It seems like the boys may be in for more of an adventure and have a bit more time to fish then they expected.                  

The Fishermen:        

Well, with the limit of 6 red salmon per person, we had a mission of 30 salmon in the cooler before returning.  The world famous Kenai River was calling so we went to Joe’s secret spot.  He mentioned casually of a hill we had to hike down to reach the river.  We hiked a small trail to hit this “hill” which was loose rock that every step would rain rocks down on the fishermen below us.  We were on all fours with rods in hand in the name of a limit.  We reached the river and started flipping. The idea is to “force feed” the salmon by drifting a fly that is weighted with a barrel weight and snag a fish in the mouth.  If it is hooked elsewhere you must release the fish.  Well, we saw fish on some stringers so we were optimistic.  Two guys nestled in between us and were catching left and right but after an hour we were still fishless.  It was time to climb the hill and try again.
The next spot is called “Bing’s Landing” and is known as combat fishing.  You are about a pole length from the next guy and hope not to get caught by their hooks as they come flying by you.  We wait a little while for a group before us to limit out before we begin.  Within minutes of fishing, we hook a rock and need to retie.  For the next while we have two guys fishing and the rest putting on new hooks and weights.  Joe was the guide and spent hours of just tying lines and netting fish.  After a few hours we did ok having about 12 on the stringer.  We started having more room to fish and our luck picked up.  

Soon, we are in the 20’s and nearing our 30^th fish.  We cleaned the fish on the bank throwing the carcasses back to the stream.  A 5 man limit of fish even cleaned weigh well over 100 pounds.  It was about now that we find out that the road between us and the chalet is closed.  It is nearing 11 pm and we are hungry, wet, and tired.  So, we find a pizza place and dined.  Next stop, restock on all the equipment that we donated to the river so Fred Meyer fit the bill.  Unfortunately they close at midnight and we are close to that time.  We power shop and figure out the plan.  Despite the estimated 6 a.m. road reopening, we decide to try to head back.  To do so, we needed to take a 20+ mile detour on the dust ridden road.  It was a 35 mph road but we maybe topped out at 25 mph a few times at most.  We got through there and found that another 20 miles up the road was completely closed.  It was cars in front of us as far as we could see, most turned off and we followed the norm.  After about 30 minutes of sitting and napping, the road opened and we continued our trip.  We returned to the chalet around 2:30 am smelling of success, fatigue and salmon.  We all quickly showered and retired for the day.