MH Alaska 2008: Cooper Landing

Thursday morning found us heading east to Cooper Landing and a little combat fishing for Red Salmon. We got the Winnebago settled in at the Kenai Princess RV Park, donned our fishing togs and headed for the Russian River Ferry. This ferry charges $9.00 per person ($4.50 for us Golden Age Passport holders) plus a parking fee of $10.25 for the privilege of riding the ferry which is powered by the current of the Kenai River.

Russian River Ferry

Once across the river it was necessary to find a slot among the fisherman lining the bank and start hurling your lure into the river.

Combat Fishing

The hours of effort are worth the minutes of excitement when you hook a fish and definitely worth it when you taste the delicious barbecued fillets. We have more than enough fish to sustain us for the rest of our adventure.

Don with our Dinner Salmon

Brother Don with a Limit of Salmon

The signs all around the area don't let you forget that you are in Grizzly Bear country. They have very strict rules about where you leave your stuff and where you clean your salmon. In fact they have a number of cleaning stations sitting right in the river and the salmon remains are thrown into the river to keep them away from the bear.

Don at Fish Cleaning Station

We hit a speed bump on our adventure highway Friday evening when I begin feeling faint before dinner. I decided to lay down for a bit and when I got up I only made it a few steps before fainting. This qualified me for an interesting ride in the Landing Volunteer Ambulance to the Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna. After a series of tests it was determined that I had a bleeding peptic ulcer. This qualified me to spend two nights in the hospital. I wanted to experience Alaska to the fullest but his was a bit too much.

I was dismissed from the hospital at 10:30 Sunday morning, with some meds a few prescriptions, and we went back to Cooper Landing, packed up the motorhome and headed for Anchorage.