Bring on some new projects
“Hey, Chuck! I have a project for you” That was the greeting
we got from Ranger Dave on a warm Saturday afternoon. There had been another Host job offered at
another camp that C&J had turned down but this project sounded fun. Dave had brought a Brush cutter for Chuck to
run. There are some areas in the park
that need some trimming and Chuck was excited to have a project. The camp has
not been full and there hasn’t been much to do so doing some yard work sounded
like fun.
Then a couple days later C&J decided they wanted the
drain at the entry to empty. Chuck got
the shovel and awl and they got busy taking the box apart. They found that the
drain to the culvert was blocked so they spent the day getting it to
drain. After a couple days Chuck started
working on finding the culvert where the water should be draining to. He ended
up digging a deep hole before he found the opening to the culvert. Then there was a dash to the Ranger station
to get wood to cover the hole as now there was a danger of someone stepping
into it or someone driving their vehicle into the hole. After they finished
that project they made a list of all the tables in the park that needed to be
replaced. Later the next week, they went
up to the Ranger station and collected replacement boards and got busy
replacing seats and table tops.
But before they did those projects they went to the Rodeo.
The Ninilchik Rodeo was really enjoyable except for the cold and light rain.
They stayed to see the Youth Rodeo which was so enjoyable. The future buckaroos were fun to watch as
some were as young as 6 years old. After
a Caribou hot dog they went home to warm up.
Fourth of July started off with a coffee and doughnut breakfast
at BJ and Dixie’s. DJ is a great cook and everyone enjoyed their morning. It was a minus tide week and so our camp was
full of folks getting their limit of 60 clams a piece. When we returned to our
camp we saw that there were a lot of people cleaning and packing clams. It was a nasty weather day with wind and rain
and Jane was happy she didn’t have to clean clams. Trudy and Phil from Seward stopped by after
they had gotten their clams and left off some smoked salmon and
rhubarb/raspberry jam. Boy, are we
lucky to have such nice campers that share so many tasty foods.
Trudy also told us about a B&B in Seward that could
accommodate us when we headed that way with BJ and Dixie, so now we are excited
to head that way. Seward is the jumping
off place to see the fjords and glaciers from a ship. BJ and Dixie won the toss to be the drivers
and on a cool wet, Tuesday we headed that way.
There were a lot of beautiful sights along the way but since the wind
and rain kept us inside the car we will plan another trip into the back country
at another time. It was raining and cold
when we got to Seward so we went directly to the Sea life Center. We enjoyed seeing the displays and the seals
that were being fed as they were ready to entertain for their dinner. It was about 5:p.m. by the time we left there
so we went directly to Linda Lou’s B&B.
Linda showed us our rooms which were very comfortable and spacious. Earlier we had checked with Major Marine
Tours to set up our tour of the Fjords and found that they were not doing the 7
hour tour because the weather was too bad in the open ocean. They also stated
they wouldn’t be doing that tour until the weather was better. So, we headed to a Restaurant for some chow
and discussed what our next move was. It
was decided that we would visit Lowell Point which is just out of Seward and
then head back to camp. We will check
back with Major Marine Tours and will take the cruise at another time. The next morning, even-though it was raining we headed to Exit glacier where BJ, Dixie, Chuck and Jane hiked to where they could almost touch the glacier ice. 
We are enjoying a bit of nice weather so we
have gone down to the water and walked the beach. We have collected lots of rocks and drift
wood. Chuck even picked up a large
Japanese float which he plans to take home.
It is very hard to walk the beach without picking up rocks and shells so
we don’t go down too often. On the day I got a walking stick and we walked 5 miles. We started at Ninilchik River and walked to
Crooked Creek where BJ and Dixie are Hosts.
We couldn’t get across the Creek so we had to walk all of the way back to
the Ninilchik River. We were pretty
tired because we all kept picking up rocks and sticks. Since the weather was cool and no rain we
really enjoyed the walk. We even saw a
Sea Otter floating off shore. The Inlet was very calm and we could see the
Commercial fisherman net fishing at the mouth of the rivers and creeks. The Salmon have been very few and far between
so there are a lot of restrictions on the fishing. The Ninilchik River is closed to King Salmon
fishing as well and most other rivers and streams. The Pinks are running in the Kenai so
everyone is up there enjoying some combat fishing.
We had an enjoyable visit from a local last night. She came strutting through camp with her
chicks. The Willow Ptarmigan is Alaska’s state bird and this one was so
attractive and protective of her brood.
She stayed close to her chicks and chirped and clucked at them until the
melted back into the high grassed and scrub bushes. We felt lucky to see them.
As of today the weather is starting to get warm and we are
enjoying being outside for longer stretches. That is if there is a wind
otherwise we are sent scrambling back inside because of the mosquitoes. They
seem to like us but we don’t like them! 
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The Cruse and the time spent seeing the Fjords was
wonderful. It was great to hear how the glaciers moaned and growled as they
moved within themselves. The thunderous sounds that came as the glacier pushed
off large chunks of its self was tremendous.
We did not want to move on but there was so much to see during the seven
and a half cruise. The wild life showed
off for us and we felt like we got our monies worth for this delightful tour.
We
had a great meal of Salmon, prime rib and great desserts. 
Captain Vicky did a great job of showing us
the coast and all of the glaciers along the way. Even though it was overcast and cool we
enjoyed the entire trip
You can see more pictures on Picasaweb.google.com/chuckandjane/
