Last week our work included things such as, brushcutting, visitor counts, campsite work, splitting firewood and other maintance jobs around our cabins. Brushcutting is terrible, it takes atleast 2 hours to clear a mile of trail, slow moving isn't my favorite. I also spent a day on the beach doing a visitor count, that made for a relaxing day. The rest of the work kept us pretty busy for the remainder of our working days.
Some highlights of our days off including a short backpacking trip and a half day halibut charter. Me and Morgan set off on tuesday for just a one night trip. We went up and over Grace Ridge, the peak was at about 3800 ft. It was a hard climb and was made even harder because we started at sea level. The forest in the southern part of the park hadn't been effected by the spruce bark beetle so the area looked healthy and beautiful. We made it up in about 3 hours doing about 4.5 miles. We made it to the top around noon, so lunch was had then was followed by a solid nap. We also sat and enjoyed the clear views of the park for a while. We could see from Homer on one side and the icefields on the other side. Our original plan was to camp at the top but with all the daylight left we had left we started the descent. Our trip down was made easier with some boot skiing in the snow. After climbing down back into the forest we eventually made it to the beach. Adjacent to the beach we found an empty yurt. That is where we took shelter for the night after an awesome dinner with some local alaskan wine that I hauled around all day. The next morning we were picked up and eventually made it back to Homer.
We also went on a half day halibut charter this week. That was a great success. The 1.5 hour ride out to the fishing spot was rough and fun. Spray splashed up and over the boat as we all ended up taking shelter inside the cain. A couple people were victims to sea sickness, I wasn't one. Then the fishing began, and the halibut were being reeled in almost immediately. Trying to reel up a 25 pound fish and a 2 pound lead weight 150 feet up from the ocean floor is not an easy job. Also being in a boat filled with 20 anxious anglers lines were tangled all over many times making it even more difficult. I caught 3 and kept the maximum of 2, both were in the 15 to 20 pound range. I was left to hang out for another 30 minutes till everyone caught their limit and we headed back to Homer. It was an awesome time, fishing for halibut in the halibut capital of the world. We all left with good memories and a great amount of meat, I got around 10 to 15 pounds of it. About half I sent south for my parents to enjoy.
We head back into the park tomorrow for a short work period, we'll be back Friday!
-nc
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