Anchor Point (APN 6/11/2008) It was rudely brought to my attention that I have not posted in a few days! However, I thank you for the birthday wishes.

Early spring has arrived in Anchor Point and the busy time of the year. Being campground hosts at HITW has become a full time job, like about twenty hours a day on the weekends, but so much fun. Week days, have been trying to get some landscaping and summer preparations made. Getting there but it seems to be going slow between the rain showers.
Mama Moose in the picture wandered around Moose Meadows for several days and it is evident that she decided it was a safe place to bring new life into the world. She brought baby out a few days ago for us to review. She has decided it is safe and remains with us. I have heard Bull Moose in the rut, I have heard Cow Moose grunting, but the first night she visited us she finally wandered off so I assumed it was safe to let the dogs out. They got about half way across the lawn when I heard a "growl" that would make the hair on your neck rise. The dogs heard it as well and immediately returned to the sanctuary of the deck. Never did see her, but she let out three more growls from the alder patch before I finally got the dogs and myself into the house. It sounded more like a bear than a moose.

This past Saturday morning, six of us from camp went fishing together at the Picnic Hole. At 4:00 a.m., we arrived at the Picnic Hole just in time to see a young Brown Bear crossing the river below us. (First Brown Bear I have seen on the lower river in my 50 years on the river) Then we noticed a Mama Moose with two calves, she went downstream to the edge of the bluff where the river makes a 90 degree turn into the Dudas Hole. Not wanting to climb the bluff with her babies or go into the river, she put the babies on the edge of the bank and then got in front of them facing upstream at the bear. She was ready to stand her ground. Being a young bear, he did the smart thing upon reaching the bank and headed up river away from the moose. The two fishermen on that side of the river did not seem to concerned that a bear was walking behind them. I would have loved to see them go swimming to get to our side of the river.

I have been traveling a lot, I have been to Anchorage (ANC) a good number of times, been to Denver (DEN) several times, Chicago (ORD) a few times, Minneapolis - St Paul, Minnesota (MSP), Columbus, Ohio (CMH), Omaha, Nebraska (OMA) and Lincoln, Nebraska (LNK). I visited all of these fair cities over the span of 16 hours and came to one solid conclusion, if you live in Lincoln, Nebraska you will never get to fly on Alaska Airlines. Even the live person at the help desk for the airline had to agree with me. I am going to apply for a job a the airport as a baggage handler, I know all the city codes now.

There will be a migration to the north in a few days by a herd of Moose. Three Moose will arrive in ANC from DEN at 1332 Wednesday, June 25th and return to the winter habitat on August 7th. The fourth Moose will arrive at ANC from DEN on July 28th and return on the same date as the remaining herd. They will be traveling through Ogalala from Lincoln (LNK) to Denver (DEN) so they will be stopping by to visit Claire Allen.

Brer Bear and I fished this morning, of course I picked up a nice King Salmon, little less than 40 pounds in my Bridge Hole and a couple of nice Steelhead. This King Salmon has a real nice looking head, with blue eyes so I did save it for mounting. Bearman lost a King, fishing is still slow and the run appears to be either real late or real poor. Current fish count as of 6/10 is 2,833 in comparison to 7,758 a year ago on the same date. One more weekend and Wednesday remaining in the season. There is a lot of pressure on the river this year, this past weekend was very, very ugly on the lower river, looked a lot like the Russian River at the height of the commercial Red Salmon fishery.

Got started in removing ten tons of armour rock from all of our flower beds. The only conclusion that I came to was that I was a much better man ten years ago when I planted them than I am today. Either that or those damm rocks grew with all the fertilizer and water we have put on them. Came across several that were dug in as base rocks, finally extracting them, we could not move them. Tried the ole trick of tipping the wheelbarrow on it's side and rolling the rock in, but the rock was to big. My helper then suggested if the snow plow can pull trees and alders, why not rocks? We delivered the four big rocks to the HITW via the snowplow and tow rope with the blade to push them into place upon arrival. By the way, son in law we need a new handicap tow rope, might tow trees but did not hold up under the strain of the rock and skidding it across the gravel parking lot not to mention the asphalt. Also appears, that the Old Sterling Highway from our driveway to the HITW could use a little asphalt patch work, but my rocks did not create all those gouges and broken asphalt. But I did manage to get the bigger rocks pushed into place in front of a couple of summer homes to use as markers for designated parking. I tried to talk my helper into riding the rocks in a similar fashion as we witnessed someone riding the trees, but she is not into surfing. Thank god it rained today, so I can blog! We only have 7.3 tons of rock remaining to be be moved.