Wednesday July 11 - Exploring Kenai Area

Went for a run this morning before we headed out in our jeep for the day. Our plan was to just explore the area along the coast here. There were the towns of Nikiski, Kenai, and Soldotna.

Big along here is oil drilling off the coast. From our campground, looking out on the bay, we can see about 6 oil platforms way off in the distance. In Kenai, there is a fairly large refinery and services for the oil rigs.

Also very big is the fishing for Salmon. Lots of commercial salmon businesses along the coast. In addition, there is a thing called dip-netting that is allowed up here for residents of Alaska. This is where you have a large fishing net on the end of a pole and you hold it in the water to catch the fish. During this month of July there is a small season for this. For a resident, they can catch a certain amount of fish(25 for an adult) depending on the size of the family. In popular areas, it is a crazy thing to see, with the people in the water in a long line, each with their dip-net in the water trying to catch the fish as they swim by. The idea is that they fill their freezers with what they catch. We saw it on a weekday afternoon and it was fairly busy. Weekends it is supposed to be nuts. Apparently there is a lot of conflict with the commercial fisherman and these dip-netters as they compete for the fish. Seen this first hand, as a big commercial boat (50 ft) was trying to maneuver itself to block the dip-netters. Weird scene. You got men, women and teens, all out there with the dip-net. It took a bit of muscle to handle these things.

There is a lot of Russian influence in the area, as this was first settled by them way back in the day. Names all of a Russian hint.

Weather today started cloudy and windy, then it cleared up with a bright sun that warmed things up. When we went to the first dip-netting place (we went to 2), it was along the ocean and the beach was freezing. Low 50's and very windy. I don't know how these people did the dip-netting thing, as they were in the water with their waders, but they had to be getting wet. The second place we went, we came upon by accident, it was a lot warmer.