4th of July cabin trip

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Just a few pics of what we were up to this last weekend. There were 5 adults and 4 kids along on this trip, unfortunately my honey had to work and couldn't go.

I'm teaching my buddy Lee how to run the river in his boat, so he accompanied me whenever I made a run anywhere... there's a learning curve involved in knowing where to steer your boat so you don't end up high-n-dry on a gravel bar in the middle of the river that was covered by an inch of water. It's very hard on boats & jet units, not to mention a major effort to get your boat back into deeper water that usually involves several hours of back breaking work.

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The girls came up the next day, so I went down to the boat launch in Talkeetna and waited for them. We spotted this knucklehead walking on top of the railroad bridge, and while he was doing it a train went past... I can only imagine how much that bridge swayed and somehow the idiot didn't fall off. I hated watching because I was sure he was going to fall and kill himself, but he made it back down.

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My brother Jim. Put a few beers down him and he turns into a lumberjack... grabs the wheeler and the chainsaw and goes to work.

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This is Frost, Sharon's German Shepard, waiting for me to throw a stick for her. She's a great dog and is hell on wheels when it comes to chasing off bears. But she's getting old now, and her hips are really slowing her down... I have to lift her into the truck and into the boat these days.

My buddy Lee in the background fishing.

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Our 4th of July crew fishing. The King Salmon weren't thick up here through the canyon yet, but they're close.

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The river follows the left bank there, and right around that corner is Class IV whitewater that we run through to get here. It's pretty cool listening to the water roar down below, and even more cool scaring the hell out of new people that haven't been in a riverboat running next to standing 15' waves, getting bounced around, hearing the engine roar and occasionally cavitate, while the water spray off the bow rains down. It's kind of like a roller coaster and I like hearing the screams... but my passengers almost always are ready to do it again - it's a lot of fun.

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Lee with a nice little Dolly.

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My brother Jim and his daughter Madison. She's a hell of a fisherman and outperforms everyone on every trip... fish swim past other lures to get to hers. A very nice Dolly Varden she caught here.

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Madison's first King Salmon. This is a small Jack, which means it returned to spawn after only 1 year instead of waiting for the typical 4 years, so it's much smaller in size.

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Lee pulling in logs with the 4 wheeler, while Tanner and Madison get the sauna ready.

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There's a couple of reasons why we're logging like this. Firewood, of course, but more importantly we're clearing out dead cottonwood trees that need to come down back behind the cabin, because we're getting ready to build a couple more cabins back behind the main cabin. We're making trails around the property, and by dragging the logs behind the ATVs it quickly makes a nice smooth trail.

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This trail is only about 2 hours old.

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Back behind the cabin about 100 yards, the site of one of the new cabins.

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...and the other site where my brother Jim wants to build his. This is typical foliage for the area, and you can see how easily a bear can get within a few feet of you without you even knowing he's there... that's why dogs are an important part of being safe, along with having plenty of firepower should you run across a rogue bear.

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Fireworks were banned this year due to very dry conditions, so all the fireworks stands were closed.

So, we went with explosives instead! This 2-pound Tannerite was impressive... when it exploded, it felt like someone hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer. Anyone else played with Tannerite? I'm actually kind of surprised that normal people can buy these without restrictions with the nanny state we have going these days.

Anyway, you shoot this with a high-speed rifle and it explodes. I have a video of it going off, but it doesn't do it justice.