Salmon fishing is work!

      Tok, Alaska was a beautiful place to spend Monday night.  Tok is in a level area, but surrounded by mountains.  The views leaving town are impressive. Doug and I stayed in a little cabin along the roadside.  We had our first dehydrated soup meal and frankly it was wonderful.  The soup mix requires water and heat.  A hot bowl of creamy wild rice soup was ready in only about 10 minutes prepared on our Etna portable camp stove.

        Salmon is on the agenda for Tuesday.  We drove down the mountain range toward the Copper river area.  The mountain view after the cabin picture is where I lost my set of keys to the car.  I do not have the time or patience to going looking for that set of keys on that mountain side!   We had stopped for a comfort break at a scenic overlook and well...100 miles later I could not find my keys.  Oh, and my keys open the car...Doug's just drive the car, his keys do not open anything.  So, if anyone sees my keys...they are somewhere by the mountain.
      The river we fished was the Klutina river.  A big thanks to the Alaska Outdoors forum for the fishing advice!  Doug limited out the two days we fished at Klutina River.  I on the other had only managed to catch one fish...the littlest.
    I titled this as "Salmon fishing is work" because I only fished on day one.  Day two I was content to sit along the shore and watch Doug catch his limit again.  Catching fish is a little harder than it looks.  I am way better with the camera!   Here are the pictures of Doug's Red Salmon.  Doug cooked one of our first days catch in butter and season all salt.  We could not eat it all and so we shared with the neighbors.  The neighbors came calling about ten minutes later asking for the recipe.  When we told them what he cooked the salmon in, they could not believe it.  Doug made it simple to have great tasting fish! Doug's fishing skills will be talked about around the campfire, but Doug's cooking skills on the river will be talked about in kitchens all over Alaska.  Doug says this is a stretch, but I don't think so!
     It rained from Glenn Allen all the way to Soldotna!  I did not take any pictures.  Anchorage was just an area we drove through because all the motels were booked up.   We however saw a moose with her twins and scenery which can be best described as breathtaking.  With each curve we would see a new valley or mountain range.  Most the the area we traveled through has mountains from 11, 000 to 18, 000 feet.  The gorges we so steep only a mountain goat would dare traverse this area, yet people have in the past.  These individuals must have had great courage.  I was intimidated just driving by this range in a car and trying to imagine traveling through this area on foot or horseback.  Yikes!
     Last night we had brick-oven baked pizza at the St. Elias Brewing in Soldotna.  This place is a must on any travel plans to Soldotna.  The beer was cold and brewed right on site! The pizza was cooked in a brick oven and the crust was chewy.   A tasty ending to a rainy day!