wednesdaywalk - Izaak Walton State Recreation Site

5-8-2019

Moose River, Sterling Alaska

I think spring is really here for us now, most of the state parks unlocked their gates on the first of May. We still seem to be having a very low water levels in the rivers, even after all the snow we had this winter. This was a pretty short walk around, I really do not like strong wind and even though it was warm out the winds are still cold. It was to windy to get a nice close up of some newly budding leafs, which is a shame because they did look real nice.

This first view is at the top of the boat ramp, the vest I guess have all been checked and restocked. Alaska loses to many people each year to water accidents so they do try to take preventative measures at public boat facilities by providing life jackets. There is no fee to use them, just put them on and then return them when you are done.

Not all visitors have room in their luggage for a life preserver. This is just one of the measures the State of Alaska takes to help visitors have a safe and fun time.

As mentioned above, water levels are pretty low in the surrounding rivers, hopefully they will start to fill soon. This is a view of Moose River looking upstream under the road overpass.

The boat ramp area was pretty much completely exposed, all but the very last foot was out of the water. It will be interesting to see what happens to the boat launchers if the water levels do not rise. There are some pretty good sized rocks and launching right now would be pretty iffy, but you know boaters that are fisherman, if they want to boat and fish they are going to find a way to do it.

Here is the view looking down stream, not as clear and crisp as looking upstream. Across the river is a fish guide service, he has float planes come in during the fishing season, and unless the water levels rise, he may not be able to offer the fly out trips via the river. A shame too as there is something about taking off from a river that people find enjoyable. With out the water levels up, then it is a trip to one of the lakes for take off.

On the left hand side of the image you can see a set of stairs, these are used by the boaters for loading and off loading of people and gear. This one goes up to the campground area, and by the boat launch area are a couple other sets of stairs. You can see how low the river really is by looking at the rust stained area of the stairs. The water level is normally half way up the stairs.

This is one of the signs that talk about the area and about the fishing regulations for the area. I would like to have been able to upload the non resized image because it is easier to read, but I do not have unlimited data. This is almost readable, just squint and pretend.

2MB file is about the max I am comfortable uploading, I generally try to keep them under 1MB. I did crop out the fish types in the poster. I was asked on one post what kind of fish are available so here is a more readable cropped out segment.

Four kinds of salmon the top fish is the King (Chinook) Salmon. This is the one that everyone wants to catch. It is the largest species in the Pacific salmon. "The Kenai River is known for having some of the largest chinook salmon in the world," The Kenai River Record was set in 1985 - 97-pound, 4-ounce. A lot of fish.

Silver (Coho) Salmon is next on the list, this is the "Fun" fish, this is the one that loves to fight jump and dance on the top of the water when hooked. No one ever forgets their first Silver Catch.

Rounding out the Salmon are the Sockeye (Red) and the Pink (Humpies).

The rivers and stream also have Rainbow trout and some Dolly Varden. Even though the sign doesn't mention it there are some northern pike in some of the lakes. They are for the most part considered invasive in the area. So those are the fish.

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The park service has a lot of signs about staying off the river bank due to erosion. Trees and brush help prevent erosion so as we were driving around the campground area there were a lot of trees cut-down. These were, from the remains on the ground, healthy looking trees. It was not only in the campground that some of the trees were removed but also along the river bank, now making it easier for the campers to walk down to the river via the river bank. Some things just do not make sense. at least the campers now have a river view.

A short walk, but I hope you enjoyed it. We have a lot of nice places in Alaska and here on the peninsula. We just do not have a whole lot of bright sunny days lately. With yesterdays wind, and this mornings rain, we have very little snow left at our home. So things are starting to green up around here.