Alaska, The Last Frontier
Great Alaska Adventure Lodge
The Great Alaska Adventure Lodge on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula offers world class fishing, adventure and hospitality.
The Fishing
After a late night of adventure at the local pub, I did get out for a fishing trip down the Kenai River early one morning. Not much of a fisherman, I went along as an observer and watched with awe as my experienced boat-mates pulled in salmon after salmon. Our guide seemed to know every good hole on the Kenai, and everyone nabbed their limit within a few hours. Fortunately for those of us who stayed out too late, we were back napping on the deck of the lodge before noon. Today we were going for silver salmon, but Great Alaska Adventure Lodge also has itineraries for ocean fishing, fly fishing, king salmon, rainbows, trout and halibut. And the halibut are HUGE; we saw one that looked as big as a barn door!
Bear Camp
Situated at the foot of Mount Iliamna, a stunning 10,000-foot volcano at the edge of 2.5 million acre Lake Clark National Park, the Great Alaska Bear Camp is an opportunity to view and photograph bears of all shapes, sizes and temperaments as they hunt, fish and fight in their natural habitat.
Getting to Bear Camp is an adventure in itself. The flightseeing trip to Bear Camp over Cook Inlet affords a spectacular view of ice blue glaciers, rugged mountains and the vast green expanse of the Alaskan wilderness. This is a true bush flight and is not for the faint of heart! Landing strip, what's that? Our pilot set us down with practiced skill on a sloped gravel beach just feet from the waters edge.
Thanks to the hard work of the guides, the camp itself is fairly luxurious, despite its distance from any real civilization. As with everything at Great Alaska, you'll eat well and be cared for as an honored guest.
The guides at bear camp have some great stories to tell. My favorite being that of Jude, an orphan bear cub who struggled all summer to survive amongst the grumpy males and protective mothers that share the basin. Being that most bear cubs travel and forage with their mothers for 2 - 2.5 years before gaining the strength and knowledge needed to survive on their own, it was quite a wonder when in the late spring of 1998, a scraggly year-old cub made his way to the feasting grounds at Chinitna Bay. Still too clumsy to catch his own meals, Jude managed to survive by stealing fish scraps from the older bears and racing away to quickly devour them. As the days grew long and then short again, everyone watched with growing admiration as young Jude ran up and down the bay stealing fish and evading the powerful swipes of cagey bears, like Greyface and Mean Old Harriet.
Surprisingly, Jude survived the summer but all the running proved costly: Jude expended so much energy that when the the bears began to make their way back inland for their winter hibernation, he was still a scrawny, scraggly cub with seemingly no hope to survive the long Alaskan winter. Such is life in the wilderness -- merciless and harsh. It was truly a joyous moment for the veteran Bear Camp guides when a skinny but healthy Jude appeared in camp the following spring. Knowing his story, I too experienced joy watching a fat, healthy Jude with his shining coat of tawny fur frolic in the water and laze in the sun.
Ketchum Air:
Ketchum Air offers custom charters, fishing, hunting and flightseeing to match any expectation. Do you want to fish from a chair and drink beer? No problem! Ketchum Air will set you up with a houseboat on Prince William Sound. Looking for something a bit more rugged? Then try one of Ketchums' 40 outpost cabins scattered throughout Alaska's backcountry.
The fishing can be unbelievable. During spawning runs, some of these rivers and lakes seem to have more fish than water!
One "must do" is the three hour flightseeing tour over Denali National Park and Mt. McKinley. Your pilot will narrate a wealth of information on geology and history as you explore the absolutely unbelievable scenery. It's quite a treat to spot a family of moose from the air, then land the floatplane in a remote lake to catch a closer look.
The Ketchum crew really puts forth the extra effort to find out what it is that you want and then deliver it. One warning, though: Beware the coffee, these folks like it strong!
Phillips 26 Glacier Cruise
Climb aboard the Klondike Express for a three hour tour. Unlike the poor folks on Gilligans Island, you're guaranteed a speedy return thanks to the 38 knot cruising speed of the Express. Designed especially for Prince William Sound, this graceful catamaran offers a smooth ride and a chance to see most of the glorious scenery and wildlife that is to be found. The scenery includes 26 different glaciers, some huge monsters towering some three hundred feet above the water.
The wildlife is as varied as the glaciers. We saw soaring bald eagles, seals, sea otters "warming" themselves upon blocks of ice, porpoises, Dall sheep and even an Orca (Killer Whale). Glacial calving, where a large chunk of the ice fractures and falls into the sound is also fairly common. It's an incredible sight to see a chunk of ice the size of a house crack, tumble and crash into the sea. Even more impressive is the sound -- it reverberates like a thunder clap, yet is sharp as the crack of a whip.
"Alaska will be good for your soul"
Dave "Big Fat Skinny" Vittengruber. (Great Alaska guide, friend and harp player extraordinare!)
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