I met the Alaska State Troopers!

And they weren't as nasty as they make them out to be on the TV reality show. The guys I met pulled up in a big vessel looking down on me and asked a few questions. They were wondering about me because they saw my boat moored in a cove up in Tutka Bay. They asked if I had my licenses, but they didn't check.

Well it was as grueling a hunt as I have ever done. Up here, most people have mooring systems for their boats. The tide is tricky and I am learning how to deal with it - but I did a dumb thing and moored my boat in 20 feet of water so that it didn't get beached like it did the day before (PJ and I had to wait for five hours for the tide to come back in so that we could float the boat). Anyway, I swam to shore and had some hypothermia symptoms. This is something that I will NEVER do again. So much so that after hiking to the peak of Grace Mountain, I came back down and temporarily borrowed somebody's boat in order to get back to mine without swimming. It took some ingenuity, but I made it.

The mountain hunt was disappointing, and a bust. After five hours of hiking - and knowing I was in the midst of a ton of bears, I had to make the decision to do the right thing and botch the hunt. It was just too steep and too dangerous.  I wasn't really bear hunting - but more clinging to the mountain for dear life. At one point, I stopped for a break and my sleeping bag got loose and rolled 300 yards down the mountain before it came to rest in an alder thicket. That could have been me. Also, being alone and with no-one really knowing where I was is something I need to think about more. I need to be smarter about this because this country is very unforgiving.

I did more fishing and just caught more Pollock and Gray Cod, with a new species called Irish Lord - an interesting fish, but not very good to eat from what the locals say.  I'm hearing about a few more halibut coming in, but it's still not very good.

Last night I moored my boat at a  fish hatchery after hours, and hiked into a tidal marsh at low tide. I watched the grassy flat for a couple of hours when I saw a bear come out - and the hunt was on. I closed from 800 to 200 yards, and had to cross a fast moving icy river that was about waist deep, but when I emerged to where the bear was - he was gone. So, I hunkered down and watched again for an hour - and once again, the bear emerged another 300 yards down the edge of the rainforest. This time, I had a wash out/ditch that would hide my progress. My boots were full of water and making sucking noises, so I took them off and waded through the ankle-deep muck in my stocking feet. SUPER COLD! At the end of the wash, I belly crawled through the grass, peeked up, and the bear was 75 yards away looking right at me.  He was broadside when I sat up and rested the gun on my knee, and touched off a "chip-shot", but I missed! Two hours of searching yielded nothing. With such an easy shot, I have to believe that my rifle scope was knocked off when I took a bad fall the day before. So, the bear hunt will continue later...

By the time I got back to the boat, it was 1:00 am. Then, and hour ride back to the harbor at Homer. I was exhausted when I pulled in at 2:30 (I'd been out there hunting for two days on about 4-6 hours sleep, and hiked many steep miles). Thankfully, Maria had a room that wasn't booked, so I had a hot shower and a bed for the first time in awhile. I stayed there till noon today!

It was nice to kick back and relax this am. More lawn mowing, trimming, and raking today. I'm getting there on the lawn.  For the first time from up above at the B&B, there were big puffy clouds and fog covering the entire bay. It looked (from our vantage point) like there was a couple hundred feet of lumpy snow covering the ocean - and that took until 3:00 pm to clear. I guess that happens quite a bit. The weather has been unusual - with hot and sunny conditions for over a week.

Maria grilled ribeye steaks, which was a nice treat.  I visited with her clients form Boulder, CO and Pennsylvania while I raked the yard. Everyone loves it here. We took Maria's two Australian Shepherds (Brodie and Blue) for a run at a nearby reservoir, and now it's feeling like time for bed. It's a full house tonight, so it's back to the camper for me.

Not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow, but I am getting the itch to fish again - so we'll see. Maria makes the most amazing Salmon - grilled, smoked, canned - you name it - but it's all delish. She will help me prepare my salmon to bring home - so I need to get busy catching!

I had to chuckle to myself last night when I undressed. My new white underwear were completely black from sliding on my butt down the mountains, and my pants were full of dirt and rocks. Seriously, there were rocks in the bottom of the shower when I was done. Now there's something new...