Alaska is not all sunshine, rainbows and wildlife.  At times the wildlife hides. There are a lot of potholes and frost heaves on Alaska roads. And there are even more mosquitoes than potholes.  If we had caught even one fish last weekend this post might have a different title.

When C found out at 9:30 on Saturday that he wouldn’t have to work on Sunday we decided to go in search of sockeye.  Unfortunately the nearest fishable sockeye runs are over 5 hours drive (each way).  I was OK with that as we had a good chance of seeing wildlife along the Denali Highway and C does most of the driving.  

We dodged potholes for hours then fished the raging Gulkana in a couple spots without seeing fish & only seeing 2 fishermen.   Advice sent us another hour south to the Klutina River where a dozen people were fishing and had stories of some people catching a fish or 2.  “The sockeye are there but the conditions are challenging.”  We paid $30 for a campsite on the Klutina & fished until late night, but no luck.  Sockeye salmon are different from the silver salmon we usually fish for so we have a learning curve too.

The rivers were just as high on Sunday but we fished anyway at the beginning of our 6 hour drive back home.  We went home with an empty cooler, a dirty truck and trailer,  and weary of potholes and mosquitoes.  All weekend every quick hop out of the truck meant killing at least a dozen whining insects when we got back in.

And with all those miles including out & back on the Denali Highway we only saw one moose and a few squirrels!  This next weekend C has more time off (assuming the Alaska fire season continues to be slow) and hopefully we will have some fish in the freezer.