We are back, after spending a few days in the LA area. This was the first summer in the past twenty one years that I have made a summer drive to LA. I had forgotten, what a beautiful drive it is and as well, I had forgot how bad the traffic is on the Sterling Highway and Seward Highway at the height of the visitor season. However, it was a very pleasant trip and we got so spend some time with the Wolves, Buffalo, and Woodpecker Clan. The big event was that I got to see my youngest daughter evolve into a new year. While at home it was difficult to visit when we first arrived, the noise level was so high, but then I remembered it was nearing her birth date and the noise that I heard was just her biological clock ticking! Upon returning home, I made a quick security tour of the HITWRA, although her clock is ticking, her Beach Daises that she planted last year are now in blossom in time for her birthday.
No sightings of wild game on our little drive, although there were plenty of wild drivers. Just north of Sterling we discovered a lane blockage because some guy tried to launch his 35 foot boat a little prematurely, he was still twenty five miles from Cook Inlet but he got his boat off the trailer and parked in the trees about forty feet off the highway.
If you were expecting some freight to be delivered by Carlile Freight, you may want to check on that. Just a mile south of the Russian River and Kenai River confluence, the traffic was jammed up for miles. A Carlile Truck had hit the ditch, all we could see was one 50' trailer sitting on a low boy that was completely destroyed. Never saw the tractor, but a full work crew with several other Carlile trucks, backhoes, and excavators were burying beams in the barrow ditch, not being able to rubber neck to see what was going on, I can only assume they were building a bridge into the trees where the trucker had park his rig. It was not a pretty scene, by the time we got through that, it was a steady stream of cars going south, bumper to bumper all the way to Soldotna. The north bound lane was just as bad, about six miles long and everyone walking around their vehicles trying to figure out what was going on.
The majority of the southbound traffic was most likely fishermen heading to the Kenai River to fish red salmon as it is normally the peak of the run. Today, they all got a little surprise because as of this Saturday, the daily limit will be reduced to one fish and dip netting has been halted. To date, the Sonar Counter has enumerated 83,000 fish, one year ago on the same date the seasonal count was almost a half million fish so I would say the run is a little weak - but it will pick up. Currently they are shutting down both the commercial and sport fisheries.
In all it was a great trip but as we all know, it is always nice to return to the sanctuary of the little village by the river.